My bike is 10 years old this year, has almost 41k miles on the clock, 33k of which are mine. Its taken me around the UK, over to Germany, and all the way to Italy and Slovenia in the time I've owned it. It's had only one niggle (that being a lightly leaking seal in the final drive unit, which I've had replaced twice) but apart from that, it's been a true warrior, through 2 winters and 3 summers. In short, I've loved owning it.
I'm about to get a promotion at work, so with the increase in wonga, I thought about upgrading to an 11 plate 1200GSA from my local dealership. So I took it for a test ride last Saturday, and made some observations....
Naturally it's lighter, more modern, comes with bells and whistles such as adjustable suspension and ABS (mine is non ABS). And of course doesn't come with winter salt scars on the forks and engine (mine does
) And something I would like to do to my own GSA is make the throttle lighter instead of Massey Ferguson heavy!!!
So when I got back to the dealership, and jumped on mine to go home, I was fully expecting it to feel slightly alien and old/outdated, especially with acceleration pickup. But here's the thing: I didn't feel a massive difference! My GSA has the Y-Piece in place of the Cat, which of course really makes a difference from standard.....so the pickup on mine really didn't feel much worse than the 1200.
And despite the newer bike being quite big, it still felt a slightly "lesser" bike than my 1150GSA, the "road presence" was better on mine.
And then there's the money side of things....the 1200 was sitting at £11500....without panniers or top box. So all things considered.....would it be worth swapping my bike for the 1200? If I'm lusting for the latest technology, that would have a sway in things, but the bond I have with my own bike is more than that.
My point to this thread (sorry it took so long to get here!) is has anyone else suffered the same indecision, and what was their own experiences and outcomes? I have a feeling a will keep mine, unless someone else can persuade me with a good argument!!!
I'm about to get a promotion at work, so with the increase in wonga, I thought about upgrading to an 11 plate 1200GSA from my local dealership. So I took it for a test ride last Saturday, and made some observations....
Naturally it's lighter, more modern, comes with bells and whistles such as adjustable suspension and ABS (mine is non ABS). And of course doesn't come with winter salt scars on the forks and engine (mine does
) And something I would like to do to my own GSA is make the throttle lighter instead of Massey Ferguson heavy!!!So when I got back to the dealership, and jumped on mine to go home, I was fully expecting it to feel slightly alien and old/outdated, especially with acceleration pickup. But here's the thing: I didn't feel a massive difference! My GSA has the Y-Piece in place of the Cat, which of course really makes a difference from standard.....so the pickup on mine really didn't feel much worse than the 1200.
And despite the newer bike being quite big, it still felt a slightly "lesser" bike than my 1150GSA, the "road presence" was better on mine.
And then there's the money side of things....the 1200 was sitting at £11500....without panniers or top box. So all things considered.....would it be worth swapping my bike for the 1200? If I'm lusting for the latest technology, that would have a sway in things, but the bond I have with my own bike is more than that.
My point to this thread (sorry it took so long to get here!) is has anyone else suffered the same indecision, and what was their own experiences and outcomes? I have a feeling a will keep mine, unless someone else can persuade me with a good argument!!!
