possible newbie

[blueboyxyz]

hi ya all

i currently own a zzr1400 09 model, reworked forks ohlins rear, custom seat, on wednesday i got back from a 10 day tour of austrian tyrol, lake garda tour.

great holiday but the 550 mile ride home nearly killed me, i'm 6"3 110 kg with dodgy knees and right shoulder, i've never been in such pain from riding a bike anyway thursday afternoon i take a 2010 gsa 1200 out for a test ride and i've got to say it was a bit of a revalation and i really enjoyed it , so much so i'm thinking of buying it.

a few questions i've got are as the bike is quite large at the front what's the stabillity like with strong cross winds , will it hold a line or does it get blown about a lot.

also when touring and i need to do some miles will it comfortably sit at 90 ish mph 2 up with luggage.

apart from that i really enjoyed it having never ridden a shaft drive, the size of it isn't a problem and i can get 2 feet on the ground no problem.

havent told the misses yet but i really don't need 200 mph performance , who does what i mean is the pace of the bike and it's road prescence and handling really suited my style of riding.

also what supprised me was the gearbox i'd always thought they were a bit agricultural , but no it was super slick now my kwak is really bad 1st gear big clunk 1st - 2nd big clunk 3rd- 2nd even bigger clunk , too much power everywhere did the stelvio pass on it last week and it was a nightmare scoots were doing me everywhere.

anyway gonna have a word with the misses the weekend and see what we can do


martin

 

[Mightytharg]

I've just swapped from an 07 K12GT to a new R12GSA.

So made the transition from 4 cylinders and 150something bhp to 2 cylinders and 110.

All my riding these days is one up only.

While I'm impressed with the GSA theres no way it has the easy smooth pull past motorway speeds that a big four does. As you pile on the mph it can also lose out on mpg too.

Something like my old GT or even a R12RT could be considered a better, smoother and more economical option at 90-odd mph than a GSA is. If the natural gait of my GSA is in the 70-90mph range then my GT was more like 90-120mph.

I'd say it moves around differently to my GT in cross winds - not really any worse, just feels different and certainly wouldn't say I've had any problems.

Make sure you get a long enough test ride and try the GSA at the kind of speeds you want to travel at - better let the missus try out the pillion too just to be on the safe side.

For me the GSA was the right choice, it's helping me recalibrate my brain and ride at more sensible speeds than I was, while still having loads of fun. The GSA is fun and involving all the way up to legal speeds where my old bike was only really starting to become fun after legality had been left far behind.

 

[Deleted account 240901001]

hi ya all

i currently own a zzr1400 09 model, reworked forks ohlins rear, custom seat, on wednesday i got back from a 10 day tour of austrian tyrol, lake garda tour.

great holiday but the 550 mile ride home nearly killed me, i'm 6"3 110 kg with dodgy knees and right shoulder, i've never been in such pain from riding a bike anyway thursday afternoon i take a 2010 gsa 1200 n

Funny old world isn't it..I've got a '10 GSA and just got hold of a ZZR1400..I'm 6'3" and "around" 115 Kg and just come back from a 300 mile round trip...and found it more comfortable than the GS...
Horses for courses really.... Loaded bimbling around all over Europe..GS every time...quick/fast blast down, travelling light.. to South of France..I'll be on the ZZR...

 

[blueboyxyz]

Funny old world isn't it..I've got a '10 GSA and just got hold of a ZZR1400..I'm 6'3" and "around" 115 Kg and just come back from a 300 mile round trip...and found it more comfortable than the GS...
Horses for courses really.... Loaded bimbling around all over Europe..GS every time...quick/fast blast down, travelling light.. to South of France..I'll be on the ZZR...

do you need any bits for the zzr ??

 

[Rasher]

Hello Again Ninja Biker, funny finding you here

How you getting on, especially with front end, I know how planted an MCT's ZZR is and my biggest fear is vague front end syndrome.

Just put my 1400 on E-Bay and booked myself another test ride, had same feeling on 600 mile last day returning from the Alps, found Stelvio OK, Splugen was damn hard work and at least with the Stelvio we got to have a snowball fight at the top

 

[blueboyxyz]

Rather



The bad penny has arrived , have you made your mind up yet



Martin

 

[Rasher]

Hi mate,

This FD thing is really bothering me, I have a 3 hour ride arranged for tomorrow, but as I will be buying an 07 / 08 and even then at the top of my budget the thought of a immediate £1000 bill is quite worrying, especially as it seems pretty common.

Still got to like the bike enough, but despite not liking the ride enough last ime out I am strangely drawn to the damn thing, the Triumph did everything very well and from the first test ride most things better.

I was hoping these things would be regarded as bulletproof, the Tiger is cheap and almost disposable by comparison, if it is more reliable as well then the GS dream is dead.

Triumph only let down by suspension and pillion seat really, and they are easy to fix, just after the £3k thrown at the ZZR I am not too keen on spending money I know I will never get back if I sell.

Will let you know how tomorrow goes

 

[blueboyxyz]

rasher

the way i look at it is this, ok you've read about some problems and as we all know you only hear about the bad ones as we know about the zzr, but if you look at the actual bikes sold world wide i'm sure the gs has out sold most other bikes many times over so you are going to see more faults, thats my thinking anyway,

i cant see every bike having the same problem there is no way any manufacturer could get away with it

martin

 

[dizzyrascal]

ZZR1400

Hi

Have you considered an older GS, I have an 1100 and a ZZR best of both worlds. I have test ridden the GS 1200 and imo it is different but not better. Having now completed 40,000 miles on my GS over the last four years with no problems I believe the older models are better built or if not I have been very lucky. Another plus for the older models are that they are easy to service, if I had paid to have he bike serviced by a BMW during the 40,000 miles I would have paid for the bike again !!

 

[Rasher]

I find service costs reasonable, assuming the do all the required work, my biggest fear with dealers is they change the oil, kick your tyres and rob you of £200.

Don't want an older bike, I reckon everything was better made 10 years ago, anything from the late 80's through to mid 90's was probably as good as it got, engineering had got better and engineers still had sway on component spec.

The onslaught of no-nothing managers straight from their private education at Cambridge combined with the recent rise of chinese companies happy to build cheap rubbish that the bean counters love....

Then again the Titanic may still be afloat if someone did not shave a few perecent of the cost of the rivetts, probably a 0.000001% saving on the cost of the vessel that pretty much condemned it to the bottom of the sea.

I work in IT consulatancy and if I had £1 for every time a customer cut corners I predicted would end in disaster, that did end in a disaster that cost far more than the saving then I would have more than enoguh cash to buy a loaded GS.

Anyway I still want a new(ish) model.

 

[blueboyxyz]

rasher

Anyway I still want a new(ish) model.


so you still want eh


martin