Post by Big Blue on Jun 7, 2019 23:45:14 GMT
Right, so what of that change in motorcycle that not many of you are interested in? Well tyre tribulations aside, it's awesome......
Firstly the bad: tyres. As you my remember on the week of the swap the Ducati suffered a puncture and I found a part-used replacement. The Ducati ran on Pirelli Rosso Corsas, far too soft for the riding I do hence three punctures in the 6 months I had it. So the Rocketship arrives on Metzler K3s. Metzler are a renowned German bike tyre manufacturer owned by ... er .... Pirelli and those K3s are essentially ..... Rosso Corsas. So first week of commuting..... puncture.
My tyre guy, Chris (we're on first name terms now after three or four years) took the tyre off to effect a repair and lo and behold, the tyre sidewalls are fatigued, probably due to low pressure running on a track day followed by total lack of use (the bike is 3 years old and I have added as many miles in one month including a week off as it averaged in each six months before) so the offending screw was more likely a blessing in disguise as I could've been hooning down the A3 when the rear delaminated. After a bit of research I ordered a Metzler M5 rear (the K3 on the front is new and the stickiness is mega confidence-giving) based on grip and longevity. Tyre issue sorted.
So, the good, which is basically the whole bike. I coated it in some ceramic polish the day I got it home as it looks superb so I'll try to keep it like that for a year or two. It has the BMW M-tec exhaust thing where it pops and bangs on overrun and I'm not sure if it sounds cunty or not - probably does but what the hey? As to the riding experience only one word can possibly describe it:
Witchcraft.
How the hell does a 199BHP Superbike that annihilates every other thing on the road manage to be so docile, tractable and even comfortable around London? First day commute I was filtering through traffic with the same confidence I had on the R1 after years of ownership; it's got enough torque to get into 6th gear on the high street and the brakes are both strong and offer feel far beyond any bike I've ever ridden before. As for the handling - sublime.
Road bike tyres (probably cars too but it's a bit less critical) need 100miles to get the manufacturing gel burned off before you push them, so I was gentle but still leaned it over to the "5" mark on the tyre wall (amusing Metzler thing that shows a set of icons going from upright to knee down to demonstrate lean angle by the rider). 5 is the last icon before the elephant (which is the tyre edge).
The bike is that capable that I am never going anywhere near the outer areas of those capabilities EVER. I was browsing some Honda RC30s this week, arguably the most iconic sports bike ever made and currently around £35k for a bike made in 1990 then came to my senses in the realisation that these would feel like a complete piece of shit compared to the Rocketship. For the record I'd still have one.
I'll just reiterate that the engine has 199bhp and add that the bike weighs 201kgs. OK, the R1 was 172kgs and 172bhp, so a marginally better ratio, but it had to have its neck wrung like a farmyard chicken on family lunch day to feel or even be fast. The engine in the Rocketship is phenomenal. New scenery is just dialled up with a brief twist of the throttle, as mentioned it has more torque than a tuned 4 cylinder is entitled to and it's so smooth that you could paint it on the walls as wipe clean paint.
As to equipment: it has active suspension (which explains the ride / handling / feel), cruise control (the weirdest thing I've ever experienced on a motorcycle but it rests your right hand on a motorway) and the nicest dash as it has a huge analogue rev counter and everything else is on a TFT screen. The funniest item on the dash is a "lean angle" recorder in the "race" mode, showing you how far you're leaning at that moment and recording the biggest angle of lean each ride. No I don't use it as a challenge..... honest
So all in all this thing is here to stay. The 2019 model is just in the showrooms for test riding this month and I looked one over today (I was in Vines of Guildford for the annual service that the sales guy threw in as the bike was a month off the scheduled date when I picked it up) and it has an all-TFT dash, different fairing and lights, different seat unit and not much else so I'll be hanging on to this one until those ones are three years old. These things are so nice I reckon I might be in some kind of BMW locked-in syndrome for the next bike. I'll be 54 by then but I see myself on sports bikes until the end of my days
So .... er ..... this is positive review if you hadn't noticed. Love this thing.
Firstly the bad: tyres. As you my remember on the week of the swap the Ducati suffered a puncture and I found a part-used replacement. The Ducati ran on Pirelli Rosso Corsas, far too soft for the riding I do hence three punctures in the 6 months I had it. So the Rocketship arrives on Metzler K3s. Metzler are a renowned German bike tyre manufacturer owned by ... er .... Pirelli and those K3s are essentially ..... Rosso Corsas. So first week of commuting..... puncture.
My tyre guy, Chris (we're on first name terms now after three or four years) took the tyre off to effect a repair and lo and behold, the tyre sidewalls are fatigued, probably due to low pressure running on a track day followed by total lack of use (the bike is 3 years old and I have added as many miles in one month including a week off as it averaged in each six months before) so the offending screw was more likely a blessing in disguise as I could've been hooning down the A3 when the rear delaminated. After a bit of research I ordered a Metzler M5 rear (the K3 on the front is new and the stickiness is mega confidence-giving) based on grip and longevity. Tyre issue sorted.
So, the good, which is basically the whole bike. I coated it in some ceramic polish the day I got it home as it looks superb so I'll try to keep it like that for a year or two. It has the BMW M-tec exhaust thing where it pops and bangs on overrun and I'm not sure if it sounds cunty or not - probably does but what the hey? As to the riding experience only one word can possibly describe it:
Witchcraft.
How the hell does a 199BHP Superbike that annihilates every other thing on the road manage to be so docile, tractable and even comfortable around London? First day commute I was filtering through traffic with the same confidence I had on the R1 after years of ownership; it's got enough torque to get into 6th gear on the high street and the brakes are both strong and offer feel far beyond any bike I've ever ridden before. As for the handling - sublime.
Road bike tyres (probably cars too but it's a bit less critical) need 100miles to get the manufacturing gel burned off before you push them, so I was gentle but still leaned it over to the "5" mark on the tyre wall (amusing Metzler thing that shows a set of icons going from upright to knee down to demonstrate lean angle by the rider). 5 is the last icon before the elephant (which is the tyre edge).
The bike is that capable that I am never going anywhere near the outer areas of those capabilities EVER. I was browsing some Honda RC30s this week, arguably the most iconic sports bike ever made and currently around £35k for a bike made in 1990 then came to my senses in the realisation that these would feel like a complete piece of shit compared to the Rocketship. For the record I'd still have one.
I'll just reiterate that the engine has 199bhp and add that the bike weighs 201kgs. OK, the R1 was 172kgs and 172bhp, so a marginally better ratio, but it had to have its neck wrung like a farmyard chicken on family lunch day to feel or even be fast. The engine in the Rocketship is phenomenal. New scenery is just dialled up with a brief twist of the throttle, as mentioned it has more torque than a tuned 4 cylinder is entitled to and it's so smooth that you could paint it on the walls as wipe clean paint.
As to equipment: it has active suspension (which explains the ride / handling / feel), cruise control (the weirdest thing I've ever experienced on a motorcycle but it rests your right hand on a motorway) and the nicest dash as it has a huge analogue rev counter and everything else is on a TFT screen. The funniest item on the dash is a "lean angle" recorder in the "race" mode, showing you how far you're leaning at that moment and recording the biggest angle of lean each ride. No I don't use it as a challenge..... honest
So all in all this thing is here to stay. The 2019 model is just in the showrooms for test riding this month and I looked one over today (I was in Vines of Guildford for the annual service that the sales guy threw in as the bike was a month off the scheduled date when I picked it up) and it has an all-TFT dash, different fairing and lights, different seat unit and not much else so I'll be hanging on to this one until those ones are three years old. These things are so nice I reckon I might be in some kind of BMW locked-in syndrome for the next bike. I'll be 54 by then but I see myself on sports bikes until the end of my days
So .... er ..... this is positive review if you hadn't noticed. Love this thing.
