Booked some test rides at Allan Jefferies last Friday, thought I would investigate what the new twin cam engine was like so booked rides on twin cam GS Adventure, twin cam GS and just for the hell of it a K1300R as a "power trip"
The weather last Friday could have been better for it as we got a couple of good soakings on the way down, Dan, my son-in law and myself travelled down to Jefferies from just outside of Darlington, about a 55 mile trip.
For the morning ride, I was on the GS and Dan took the ADV, I'd worked a route out going out through Otley, Dacre, Pateley Bridge, Grassington, Rylstone, and back through Ilkley, about an 80 mile circuit.
First impressions of the GS were very good, the new twin cam engine certainly sounds the part, quite "Rorty" when the power valve opens and it did seem to have quite a torque advantage over the normal 1200 engine, once we got out past Otley heading towards Dacre on the B6451, I could give the GS a bit more gas and the bike absolutely flew
, very impressed with the power delivery of the twin cam, seeming to have ample amounts of grunt right where you need it.
Handling wise it was pretty much on the ball as well, you could feel the difference scrolling through the ESA settings on the suspension and I finally settled on the "NORM" setting which gave just enough compliance to soak up the bumps and yet still deliver pretty controlled cornering.
We stopped briefly on the road past pateley Bridge to swap bikes for a few miles and I now had the Adventure, compared to the standard GS its weight was quite apparant in that you couldn't flick it around in corners quite as easily and it seemed to "blunt" the engines performance, in fact when I got off it I checked to make sure it was fitted with the twin cam engine and not the standard 1200,.. nope T/C it was, but to be honest I found it ponderous in comparison to the standard T/C GS.
After lunch I took out the K1300R and Dan was now on the std T/C GS, the K1300R looks a long low beast of a bike, so we set off back around the same route, all the press blurb rates this bike as the fastest naked bike there is at the moment and it looked very promising on the way out through the built up areas around Otley, once clear of them you could give the bike its head and I was surprised that it wasn't more powerful below 7k revs and that Dan on the std t/c GS was staying with it comfortably, only on some clear stretches of road could you get it past 7k and it seemed like then the "afterburners" kicked in
and I could pull a gap on the GS, the big K1300 engine seemed to explode with power after 7k revs, but to be honest, the power delivery wasn't the easiest thing to control almost feeling like it was stacked too high in the rev range.
Coming up to a series of bends and the GS had bridged the gap and was back with me again, the extra power of the K1300 was no advantage here.
Once again we swapped bikes, with the same result, it seemed that unless you could get a decent stretch of road to use the peak power of the K1300, the GS was more than a match for it, we both agreed that we had each been faster on the GS, over the same stretch of road, the extra head height and visibility the GS gave meant you could leave your breaking into corners later, you could see around them better to plan where to apex and get back on the power.
The power delivery of the GS seemed a lot better suited to this real world type of riding as well, as soon as you nailed the throttle you got a nice satisfying gob of torque to shove you down the road, just the ticket !!
Back at Jefferies we summed up the back to back testing, Dan had been most keen on the Adventure before we actually tested them, but at the end of the day we both agreed that the favorite bike of the day had been the t/c GS, it seemed measurably faster than the ADV and more than capable of living with a K1300R and indeed on that stretch of road we both thought we could travel faster on the GS.
The only very slight critiscism I could level at the GS is that at a constant speed on a dual carriageway past Ilkley with the power valve of the exhaust open I though it was just a touch too loud for my liking, I could imagine if you had a bit of inevitable motorway slog to do, the drone may get on your nerves a bit, but it was no biggie.
This is only my 2p's worth of the bikes we tried that day, I'm sure other people will have vastly varying opinions on each bike
Big thanks to Jefferies for the use of the test rides, it was very, very enlightening trying all the bikes back to back in such a short space of time and we were slightly surprised that we both picked the GS as our favorite bike of the day, the only question now is...how are my shares doing???
The weather last Friday could have been better for it as we got a couple of good soakings on the way down, Dan, my son-in law and myself travelled down to Jefferies from just outside of Darlington, about a 55 mile trip.
For the morning ride, I was on the GS and Dan took the ADV, I'd worked a route out going out through Otley, Dacre, Pateley Bridge, Grassington, Rylstone, and back through Ilkley, about an 80 mile circuit.
First impressions of the GS were very good, the new twin cam engine certainly sounds the part, quite "Rorty" when the power valve opens and it did seem to have quite a torque advantage over the normal 1200 engine, once we got out past Otley heading towards Dacre on the B6451, I could give the GS a bit more gas and the bike absolutely flew
, very impressed with the power delivery of the twin cam, seeming to have ample amounts of grunt right where you need it.Handling wise it was pretty much on the ball as well, you could feel the difference scrolling through the ESA settings on the suspension and I finally settled on the "NORM" setting which gave just enough compliance to soak up the bumps and yet still deliver pretty controlled cornering.
We stopped briefly on the road past pateley Bridge to swap bikes for a few miles and I now had the Adventure, compared to the standard GS its weight was quite apparant in that you couldn't flick it around in corners quite as easily and it seemed to "blunt" the engines performance, in fact when I got off it I checked to make sure it was fitted with the twin cam engine and not the standard 1200,.. nope T/C it was, but to be honest I found it ponderous in comparison to the standard T/C GS.
After lunch I took out the K1300R and Dan was now on the std T/C GS, the K1300R looks a long low beast of a bike, so we set off back around the same route, all the press blurb rates this bike as the fastest naked bike there is at the moment and it looked very promising on the way out through the built up areas around Otley, once clear of them you could give the bike its head and I was surprised that it wasn't more powerful below 7k revs and that Dan on the std t/c GS was staying with it comfortably, only on some clear stretches of road could you get it past 7k and it seemed like then the "afterburners" kicked in
and I could pull a gap on the GS, the big K1300 engine seemed to explode with power after 7k revs, but to be honest, the power delivery wasn't the easiest thing to control almost feeling like it was stacked too high in the rev range.Coming up to a series of bends and the GS had bridged the gap and was back with me again, the extra power of the K1300 was no advantage here.
Once again we swapped bikes, with the same result, it seemed that unless you could get a decent stretch of road to use the peak power of the K1300, the GS was more than a match for it, we both agreed that we had each been faster on the GS, over the same stretch of road, the extra head height and visibility the GS gave meant you could leave your breaking into corners later, you could see around them better to plan where to apex and get back on the power.
The power delivery of the GS seemed a lot better suited to this real world type of riding as well, as soon as you nailed the throttle you got a nice satisfying gob of torque to shove you down the road, just the ticket !!
Back at Jefferies we summed up the back to back testing, Dan had been most keen on the Adventure before we actually tested them, but at the end of the day we both agreed that the favorite bike of the day had been the t/c GS, it seemed measurably faster than the ADV and more than capable of living with a K1300R and indeed on that stretch of road we both thought we could travel faster on the GS.
The only very slight critiscism I could level at the GS is that at a constant speed on a dual carriageway past Ilkley with the power valve of the exhaust open I though it was just a touch too loud for my liking, I could imagine if you had a bit of inevitable motorway slog to do, the drone may get on your nerves a bit, but it was no biggie.
This is only my 2p's worth of the bikes we tried that day, I'm sure other people will have vastly varying opinions on each bike
Big thanks to Jefferies for the use of the test rides, it was very, very enlightening trying all the bikes back to back in such a short space of time and we were slightly surprised that we both picked the GS as our favorite bike of the day, the only question now is...how are my shares doing???
Whatever the reason, the regular GS wins hands down in handling and quickness. The only thing I liked better about the GSA was the wind protection afforded by its larger screen. The one on the GS is marginal, and produces much more wind noise and buffeting - definitely not ideal for long hours at motorway speeds. Fortunately its a problem that can be easily cured. Both the GS and GSA come with crap stock seats unsuitable for long jaunts, but that too can be fixed if you're willing to spend the money. Compared to the '09 GS, which I tested the previous week, the new DOHC motor makes a very noticeable difference - much more than dyno printouts lead us to believe. According to the dynamometer, the DOHC engine only makes 5 hp more on top, and actually loses 3 hp to the '09 motor on the bottom, but my impression was that the new motor pulled much harder throughout the entire rev range without any noticeable holes in the power curve. The difference was significant enough in my view to spend the money on the 2010 model that could be saved by buying discounted leftover '09 models. As always, YMMV.
ready for it's sale.
