Like most new bikes I have owned the Gear lever was about a foot too high, I guessed they set it so someone with massive feet and huge boots can always get there foot under it, I lowered mine a "notch" and it is now almost as slick as any other gearbox I have used - and far slicker than the Super Tenere, which was a noticeable improvement over my 2008 GS (and I thought that was perfectly acceptable)
I dunno why the menu is confusing you, you scroll up / down to the item you want and then press the set button to adjust - I assume it must also take you hours to change the TV Channel on a modern TV or Sky Box?
The Favourites make it even easier by allowing you to put all the things you commonly adjust in one place, and the reality is once you stop fucking around for the sake of fucking around you do not alter the settings much - I think this is one of the issues fo test rides, people spend the entire ride fucking around with this kind of thing rather than getting a feel for the bike. This will soon become second nature (probably on any bike on the market)
Never ridden the SA or had a bike with cruise, will probably upgrade to the "Standard" 2017 model at some point to gain this, again I am sure whatever system it is you would get used to, and how often do you change the cruise, I think the whole point of it is for times when your not going to be doing anything other than maintaining a constant speed for ages, such as long motorway blasts across France, if you found you desperately needed it on a 2 hour test drive I would suggest you re-think the test route.
Remember you are buying a motorbike first and foremost, not a new smart phone, the fun is in using the same controls that have been on motorcycles for 100 years and still work the same way, buying an under-powered, slow and boring machine just because you like the menu screen seems like an own goal to me.
Same with this "messing around with a chain", I said I would never buy another chain driven bike, the effort to splodge some oil on every 500 or so miles and to check the adjustment every 1,000 or so miles does not play on my mind. At 4k it has not needed adjustment yet, and can now wait for the dealer service when it is a year old.
Chains are better than ever, the Mrs TDM 900 has done 28k and the chain is still OK (it does have a wheel, sorry I mean Scot Oiler fitted) the lubes are also better than yesteryear, it does tend to chuck some crap on the rear rim, but it is worth the trade off to me for the 50kg weight saving and 25+ BHP advantage the KTM has over the BMW / Yamaha offerings. If your clocking up huge mileages maybe the shaft is a big win, but for under 10,000 miles a year I cannot see it being that much - and a failed / worn chain is £100, you need to get about 300,000 miles from your BMW shaft drive for the same cost per mile.
If you are unsure I would ask for a longer test ride and get the gear lever set properly, maybe also wait for the 2017 Adventure models, you might find you also like the lesser weight, more is not always better.
I suppose there is also the Ducati MTS range, they look awesome, but I could not afford the servicing costs and fear the reliability, although mainly based around mates who had them in the late 90's when they just fell apart on the ride home from the dealers.
I dunno why the menu is confusing you, you scroll up / down to the item you want and then press the set button to adjust - I assume it must also take you hours to change the TV Channel on a modern TV or Sky Box?
The Favourites make it even easier by allowing you to put all the things you commonly adjust in one place, and the reality is once you stop fucking around for the sake of fucking around you do not alter the settings much - I think this is one of the issues fo test rides, people spend the entire ride fucking around with this kind of thing rather than getting a feel for the bike. This will soon become second nature (probably on any bike on the market)
Never ridden the SA or had a bike with cruise, will probably upgrade to the "Standard" 2017 model at some point to gain this, again I am sure whatever system it is you would get used to, and how often do you change the cruise, I think the whole point of it is for times when your not going to be doing anything other than maintaining a constant speed for ages, such as long motorway blasts across France, if you found you desperately needed it on a 2 hour test drive I would suggest you re-think the test route.
Remember you are buying a motorbike first and foremost, not a new smart phone, the fun is in using the same controls that have been on motorcycles for 100 years and still work the same way, buying an under-powered, slow and boring machine just because you like the menu screen seems like an own goal to me.
Same with this "messing around with a chain", I said I would never buy another chain driven bike, the effort to splodge some oil on every 500 or so miles and to check the adjustment every 1,000 or so miles does not play on my mind. At 4k it has not needed adjustment yet, and can now wait for the dealer service when it is a year old.
Chains are better than ever, the Mrs TDM 900 has done 28k and the chain is still OK (it does have a wheel, sorry I mean Scot Oiler fitted) the lubes are also better than yesteryear, it does tend to chuck some crap on the rear rim, but it is worth the trade off to me for the 50kg weight saving and 25+ BHP advantage the KTM has over the BMW / Yamaha offerings. If your clocking up huge mileages maybe the shaft is a big win, but for under 10,000 miles a year I cannot see it being that much - and a failed / worn chain is £100, you need to get about 300,000 miles from your BMW shaft drive for the same cost per mile.
If you are unsure I would ask for a longer test ride and get the gear lever set properly, maybe also wait for the 2017 Adventure models, you might find you also like the lesser weight, more is not always better.
I suppose there is also the Ducati MTS range, they look awesome, but I could not afford the servicing costs and fear the reliability, although mainly based around mates who had them in the late 90's when they just fell apart on the ride home from the dealers.
