Brought the bike home

Let a little rain stop me? Well… okay, I wasn’t 100% sure that it was a good idea, but I did it anyways. 😉

What are the first impressions?

What a nice ride. Despite the conditions, it was a great ride home to Sooke from Sidney (about 50km). My previous experience has been with sport bikes, which crunch you into a little monkey ball, and this was totally different.

First off, the riding position is perfect. I mean, the seat and everything are in a perfectly neutral position, and at no point was the blood getting cut off or was I discomforted in any way. It’s like riding a couch down the road!

The engine is peppy, without really giving an adrenaline rush. Of course, I didn’t really twist the throttle, but I felt that the acceleration was probably on par with a moderately sporty car. Compared to a 750 four-cylinder, it’s pretty tame, but I’m not really interested in that. It was interesting: at low revs, you could feel each combustion cycle: it’s a biggish single cylinder.

The handling seemed a bit nervous at first, but I think that was just me. Low-speed maneuvers were a bit tricky with the automatic transmission. It’s not like a manual, where you are able to control the play of the clutch. Going around corners was smooth, once I learned to trust the bike a bit more. By the time we were on Sooke Road, it was going pretty well. Knowing the road pretty well helped, despite the darkness and rain.

I didn’t really test the brakes. They worked for the controlled stops I had to do for stop lights and stop signs.

But let’s talk about the extras: the heated handgrips and the electric vest. Oh man. Every Canadian biker should have these puppies. On high, the grips are almost too hot. They kept my hands warm despite the cool temperature and the wetness. The vest is just like you’d imagine: wrap an electric pad around your body and go for a ride. I was perfectly comfortable in admittedly nasty conditions.

The reality, though, was that the conditions weren’t 100% safe. My biggest complaint was vision: we left Sidney at 4:30, and by the time we got to Colwood, it was pretty dark. The raindrops and small amount of fog on my visor made it difficult to see when there was oncoming traffic. The solution was to flip the visor up partway, but it was still only a partially satisfactory solution. Traction would be my second complaint, but I never actually lost traction, it was just a worry.

Tammy (who was following/leading in the car) complained that I wasn’t visible enough. I’ve got a day-glo yellow helmet, but she wanted something reflective on my body for visibility from behind. I guess the next thing we’ll get will be a safety vest. That should fix that.

Now it sits in the garage until I come home from Toronto, and more clement weather visits.