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Well today was the first day that we had, that guaranteed good riding weather. So far this year, since the end of April over 20 inches of rain. Not sure if anyone followed my E restore because it took so long. I took it apart then had a shop fire, then mangled my right hand, then had knee problems and then ripped my left bicep muscle out of the shoulder so the restore took a bit longer than I’d hoped. I’m still not healthy shoulder wise ;but , today I finally got a chance to put “Iota” through some paces. I’ve had him out for several short runs to check for leaks and break in the motor, but nothing of substance relating to the feel for his handling, fuel economy, and aggressiveness.
Today I woke up to sunshine and a rosy forecast, so today was the day. I did the prefight check and hit the road. Despite having a runaway throttle the last time out, I was sure I’d identified the issue but I must say, I was apprehensive in the beginning. If I had another one in traffic I knew I was going down hard.
So I nursed him through traffic and onto an open road and ran fairly conservatively until I was well out of town and open traffic and did a series of aggressive stops and starts and made sure the butterflies were fully open several times and always returned back to idle. Then I was cool with rolling into the twisties to see how he cornered for real. He is certainly not as agile as my sf, but under aggressive circumstances , hauling him through the corners are not an issue. It’s a “riders “, bike. If you’re going to be aggressive and plan your telemetry for it then this is a good bike, if your cruising and something jumped in front of you, then you’re out of luck. I can jump him from side to side, like today I had to dodge some beavers and ground hogs, but they don’t jump like Deer or Elk, although I did miss a skunk that seemed determined to commit suicide.
I found the suspension transmitted the road to the handlebars as well. The air cushion the SF has is far more comforting and doesn’t tire you as quickly as the E, but the E at higher velocities seems to plain out, and come into it’s own around 75 -80 mph. So if you travel at light speed to your destination this might be the better bike, but if you live in a residential area that takes savy to get to the safety of the open road, an SF might be the better choice. It can still hit higher speeds in short order but for sustained high speed travel, the E would always be my choice. It’s almost like it has an extra gear.
I’m running my at factory specs with 45 pilots and getting 34 mpg, I may drop then back to 42.5’s and see if I can get 38-40 under cruising conditions. Cold compression is right at 170. I’m also running him naked. “The bike not me Hamjam!” I have a full Pacifico kit for him with hard bags, but I want to run him for a season so I can get the feel and make the changes in tuning etc. at the drop of a hat rather the unload the crap to do it.
After my first 300 mile ride I find him a noisy, aggressive, suborn MF who only wants to rock and roll. Like a teenage wife to forty something, what seemed like a good idea at the time may kill you in the long run. But for my friends here. Death with a smile!
Today I woke up to sunshine and a rosy forecast, so today was the day. I did the prefight check and hit the road. Despite having a runaway throttle the last time out, I was sure I’d identified the issue but I must say, I was apprehensive in the beginning. If I had another one in traffic I knew I was going down hard.
So I nursed him through traffic and onto an open road and ran fairly conservatively until I was well out of town and open traffic and did a series of aggressive stops and starts and made sure the butterflies were fully open several times and always returned back to idle. Then I was cool with rolling into the twisties to see how he cornered for real. He is certainly not as agile as my sf, but under aggressive circumstances , hauling him through the corners are not an issue. It’s a “riders “, bike. If you’re going to be aggressive and plan your telemetry for it then this is a good bike, if your cruising and something jumped in front of you, then you’re out of luck. I can jump him from side to side, like today I had to dodge some beavers and ground hogs, but they don’t jump like Deer or Elk, although I did miss a skunk that seemed determined to commit suicide.
I found the suspension transmitted the road to the handlebars as well. The air cushion the SF has is far more comforting and doesn’t tire you as quickly as the E, but the E at higher velocities seems to plain out, and come into it’s own around 75 -80 mph. So if you travel at light speed to your destination this might be the better bike, but if you live in a residential area that takes savy to get to the safety of the open road, an SF might be the better choice. It can still hit higher speeds in short order but for sustained high speed travel, the E would always be my choice. It’s almost like it has an extra gear.
I’m running my at factory specs with 45 pilots and getting 34 mpg, I may drop then back to 42.5’s and see if I can get 38-40 under cruising conditions. Cold compression is right at 170. I’m also running him naked. “The bike not me Hamjam!” I have a full Pacifico kit for him with hard bags, but I want to run him for a season so I can get the feel and make the changes in tuning etc. at the drop of a hat rather the unload the crap to do it.
After my first 300 mile ride I find him a noisy, aggressive, suborn MF who only wants to rock and roll. Like a teenage wife to forty something, what seemed like a good idea at the time may kill you in the long run. But for my friends here. Death with a smile!
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