japanviking
Registered user
Could not resist any longer. Sold my 2006 GS and picked up a new LC on Friday.
Went on a long ride on Saturday...Impressions below.
After picking the bike up on Friday evening I went out and put around 100kms on it, I like to break my bikes in with a lot of acceleration and engine braking, kept both engine speed and power under about 75% for the first ride.
Yesterday I went for a long ride in the fantastic mountain twisties around here and added another 650km's to the odo. Dropped the bike off for the forst service this morning with the mileage at 750kms.
Very happy with the bike so far.
When first heading out yesterday I noticed how light the steering felt. I was a bit worried the it would become unstable when ridden at a higher pace on the bumpy corners.
As the pace picked up the bike felt really solid in the turns. No problems when hitting bumps even with higher speeds and lean angles.
When I test rode a bike around town I found the Dynamic mode to be to twitchy, just as they tried to make the bike feel faster by moving the throttle action to the first degrees of throttle movement.
When riding the bike on nicer roads at speed it just works, felt really good together with the firmer suspension setting.
Dynamic ESA,
I never had much faith in the electronic suspension thing. Had ESA on a 2008 GS and hated it. On that bike they just made the cheap crappy suspension adjustable on the fly, it was still cheap and crappy though.
I have a full Öhlins setup on my 2006 GS that I have been very happy with. Was disappointed that all bikes here in Japan came with the Dynamic ESA.
But
The new ESA is nothing like the old, it really works! I did need to put the preload on rider+luggage to handle my 110kg's of Swedish flab.
Played around with different modes and found the Dynamic mode to work best for aggressive riding in the twisties and the Road setting with the suspension set to soft worked well on the highway to filter out the road vibrations.
When ridden fast the suspension feels just like a high quality well setup set of aftermrket shocks. Everything is kept under control and didn't give me any surprises. When the bike isn't moving it the damping feels very soft when jumping on the seat.
On the old bike I sometimes had issues with hard braking into bumpy hairpins. The front wheel ABS would be triggered and the brakes would be released for a split second.
This is not the case on the new GS. I think the newer generation ABS together with the suspension keep everything better under control. Even on rippled roads I could brake hard enough to have the tires chirping front and rear without feeling any intervention from the ABS.
Now I only worry about the longevity of this complex system.
Screen is a big improvement compared to the old GS.
Glossy screen cover over the display is annoying in sunny weather.
Navi IV covers half of the tacho. Looks like it would be possible to move it up and out of the way a bit since there is some space left between the screen and navi.
No issues with instability. I imagine some of the roads I rode yesterday would provoke any tendencies to become unstable. Between the hairpins I rode over a few dips and damaged areas big enough to send me flying without issues.
Went on a long ride on Saturday...Impressions below.
After picking the bike up on Friday evening I went out and put around 100kms on it, I like to break my bikes in with a lot of acceleration and engine braking, kept both engine speed and power under about 75% for the first ride.
Yesterday I went for a long ride in the fantastic mountain twisties around here and added another 650km's to the odo. Dropped the bike off for the forst service this morning with the mileage at 750kms.
Very happy with the bike so far.
When first heading out yesterday I noticed how light the steering felt. I was a bit worried the it would become unstable when ridden at a higher pace on the bumpy corners.
As the pace picked up the bike felt really solid in the turns. No problems when hitting bumps even with higher speeds and lean angles.
When I test rode a bike around town I found the Dynamic mode to be to twitchy, just as they tried to make the bike feel faster by moving the throttle action to the first degrees of throttle movement.
When riding the bike on nicer roads at speed it just works, felt really good together with the firmer suspension setting.
Dynamic ESA,
I never had much faith in the electronic suspension thing. Had ESA on a 2008 GS and hated it. On that bike they just made the cheap crappy suspension adjustable on the fly, it was still cheap and crappy though.
I have a full Öhlins setup on my 2006 GS that I have been very happy with. Was disappointed that all bikes here in Japan came with the Dynamic ESA.
But
The new ESA is nothing like the old, it really works! I did need to put the preload on rider+luggage to handle my 110kg's of Swedish flab.
Played around with different modes and found the Dynamic mode to work best for aggressive riding in the twisties and the Road setting with the suspension set to soft worked well on the highway to filter out the road vibrations.
When ridden fast the suspension feels just like a high quality well setup set of aftermrket shocks. Everything is kept under control and didn't give me any surprises. When the bike isn't moving it the damping feels very soft when jumping on the seat.
On the old bike I sometimes had issues with hard braking into bumpy hairpins. The front wheel ABS would be triggered and the brakes would be released for a split second.
This is not the case on the new GS. I think the newer generation ABS together with the suspension keep everything better under control. Even on rippled roads I could brake hard enough to have the tires chirping front and rear without feeling any intervention from the ABS.
Now I only worry about the longevity of this complex system.
Screen is a big improvement compared to the old GS.
Glossy screen cover over the display is annoying in sunny weather.
Navi IV covers half of the tacho. Looks like it would be possible to move it up and out of the way a bit since there is some space left between the screen and navi.
No issues with instability. I imagine some of the roads I rode yesterday would provoke any tendencies to become unstable. Between the hairpins I rode over a few dips and damaged areas big enough to send me flying without issues.
