But would a 170mph bike work hard at 130? No .... it would eat that up all day and not even break sweat.
Ha ha ...
I just spotted this so .... sigh .... here's my tuppence worth to the whole conversation ....
Firstly .... I say again (bang on and on about it) .... go and test ride different bikes!! There are a few peeps on here ranting how their GS is the best bike ever down a road - even a back b road ... and that nothing will ever touch it.
The GS is a great bike, especially down a bumpy back road. Yes ... it is ... Great bike.
But .... you think there aren't other brilliant bikes out there? You want a race down that back B road ?? I'll race yer ... I'll probably be on a 690 SMC or something like that and sorry .... I'll whup yer arse!!
A road? You want a race on one of those? yer think yer GS is going to keep up with a Blade or a Gixxer or an R1 ?
Aprillia Mille ??
Some of you GS blokes have maybe never owned serious sports bikes?? Or at least not ridden them recently? Or you have, but you're not at ease on them and at one with them ?? I have given Engineer a hard time about this before! You may think your GS is fahking fast (as Rossi once said on a live interview), but trust me, compared to 2018 sports bikes it's not! You won't see any GS's at the TT !!!
Secondly, I say .... yeah, I'm a sucker for big BHP. Some have commented that small bikes that you have to work hard are better fun (my Heyday in my early twenties was RGV250's, RSV 250's ... ) and yes I agree with that completely. But for me, the beauty of big BHP is lazy power which I quite like. My RT at work? That gets regularly thrashed. Regular throttle stop and wait for the engine to catch up. The peepes who manage the fleet would argue 'why do you need a vehicle that does 160 ... 170. 130 is plenty fast enough isn't it ..?' And we say ... 'Because at 130 its working fucking hard and is stressed!. I Did an urgent forensic dispatch / evidence run the other day to liverpool. Kent to Liverpool and back!! Did the RT work hard all the way up? You bet it did! .... and then you lot want to buy them afterwards ...
Back to reality and the real world of within the law (ish), and the same basic rule applies. Big BHP bikes work very comfortably and yes, you may not use all that power, but it also means your bike doesn't ever break sweat. Do I ever hit the throttle stop on my 1290S and wait for the engine to catch up ? Not often ... and thats probably because I don't want to trash my rear tyre more than anything else. Do I want more BHP? yeah Id have more! Of course!
The other regular comment here is that on the road (junctions, oncoming, traffic, islands hatching etc etc) you can only go so fast and that is one bike going to get away from another (1290S V GS ??). And the reality is that with that sort of match then no ... there's really not much in it. A long straight might see one getting away from another by a few yards but other than that they're going to be pretty level pegged. But you start pitching my RT against an R1 ... forget it! Doesn't matter how skilled you are, you'd have to put a flipping muppet on the R1 to keep up with it! So if you're writing "I, on my 1150 GS can keep up with my mates on their Blades ... ' then your mates don't know how to ride a bike!
I'd welcome more BHP on the GS ...
