What a cracking bike!
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-cX3Gr3n/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-cX3Gr3n/0/016fe8a1/M/2018-KTM-790-Duke-12-1-M.jpg" alt=""></a>
After years of big CC bikes, this has turned out to be so refreshing!
Sometimes we get suckered into buying a bike that we like the look of (marketing!) and then we try and make it fit around the riding that we do. We don't always think, 'What riding do I actually do, and what bike would suit that really well?'.
Our circumstances change as we go through life, and for me personally, I'm not doing much in the way of long distance tours two up like I used to.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/Corsica/i-bfBsgst/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/Corsica/i-bfBsgst/1/4dd52084/L/003-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
What am I doing mostly? A days teaching, and a three hour hoon with the boys. So do I still need a big 1290? Do I still enjoy a big 1290? What are the things that I miss that the 1290 can't give me?
Sometimes you forget what you're missing! I was very happy with my 1190 and 1290, rarely hit the throttle stop they had so much power, and didn't really think about its weight, or its long geometry. I took its weight and slowish steering for granted - I 'forgot' that it was a big bike to hustle about quickly on the back lanes and just ..... got on with it.
Then I jumped on one of these!
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-t562MTB/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-t562MTB/0/1303af4e/M/fullsizeoutput_99e-M.jpg" alt=""></a>
When you spend years with one particular genre of bike, there are things you forget. Like quick steering - lightening quick! Haul the bike about? Push it? Pull it? Wrestle it? Not on this! You just turn your head and look and the bike is following. Its ability to turn is .... unconscious. Do I need to 'set it up' for a turn, that to a degree you did with 230+kgs? Nope - don't even think about it. This baby is on rails!
At 170kgs it feels like riding a pushbike strapped to an engine. Gone is the 230kgs+ physics lesson in momentum, or the 19" or 21" physics lesson in gyroscopics. Gone is 'holding the bike' (with hands). You 'hold' this bike with your knees in the sculptured tank, and your hands and elbows are now Freeeeeeeee! I have never felt so 'liberated' on a bike in terms of handling.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-2FQxQsX/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-2FQxQsX/0/757113ae/L/85c90c05-8e82-46f3-bd38-05f8764acb91-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
courtesy of Andres!
The bike is pretty much naked, bar a tiny aftermarket flyscreen. Do I miss a great big fairing? No! I am no longer detached from the environment, there isn't a tonne of plastic between me and the tarmac, its all part of the involvement, the connectivity, the feel, the 'me and my machine'!. I don't get cold, I don't get any head buffeting, and now speed, feels like speed! Its that refreshing thing again.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-9VdC9gH/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-9VdC9gH/0/7b536f55/L/IMG_5868-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
The motor is a delight. Sounds like a V twin, and feels like a V twin but it just builds and builds and doesn't run out of puff at the top. Light and crisp.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-fz978gj/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-fz978gj/0/834244db/L/IMG_6111-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
I could wax lyrical about the crisp gearbox, the seamless quick shifter, the slipper clutch ... it is an absolute gem to ride.
Why? Why is it a gem to ride?
Cue my favourite riding phrase 'modulation'.
Today I have been out for a quick hoon with my regular riding buddies in filthy, wet, slimey back roads. Is there no better feeling than pitching yourself against challenging elements, and despite them, putting in a cracking ride that is precise and accurate, it flows and it has great pace? Is there anything better than that bubble of concentration that is just you and your bike at pace, perfectly synchronised? In total control?
What do you need to achieve that? Liberation! Freedom to see, to feel, to touch. Freedom from the mechanics of riding, so you can put a bike within a square inch of road that you identified 200 metres earlier. Freedom to have Wrefords favourite 'unconscious competent' style, where it just .... happens. Mental freedom where the physical process of going from full gas in fifth, to gathering it all up in slippy slimey, for a third gear double bend just happens. A machine where the individual elements of throttle, brakes, gears, slipper clutch ... all modulate together in a seamless action, one feeding into the next, and then the next. Fat Boy Slim mixing tracks and we don't notice the change.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-qtXRXfW/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-qtXRXfW/0/a51bf907/L/IMG_6164-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
I have absolutely rediscovered my biking mojo, some of it is because its such a good bike to ride, and some of it is because the bike is the right bike for what I do.
Very happy!
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-qw6qC3T/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-qw6qC3T/0/06f863da/L/IMG_5882-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-cX3Gr3n/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-cX3Gr3n/0/016fe8a1/M/2018-KTM-790-Duke-12-1-M.jpg" alt=""></a>
After years of big CC bikes, this has turned out to be so refreshing!
Sometimes we get suckered into buying a bike that we like the look of (marketing!) and then we try and make it fit around the riding that we do. We don't always think, 'What riding do I actually do, and what bike would suit that really well?'.
Our circumstances change as we go through life, and for me personally, I'm not doing much in the way of long distance tours two up like I used to.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/Corsica/i-bfBsgst/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/Corsica/i-bfBsgst/1/4dd52084/L/003-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
What am I doing mostly? A days teaching, and a three hour hoon with the boys. So do I still need a big 1290? Do I still enjoy a big 1290? What are the things that I miss that the 1290 can't give me?
Sometimes you forget what you're missing! I was very happy with my 1190 and 1290, rarely hit the throttle stop they had so much power, and didn't really think about its weight, or its long geometry. I took its weight and slowish steering for granted - I 'forgot' that it was a big bike to hustle about quickly on the back lanes and just ..... got on with it.
Then I jumped on one of these!
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-t562MTB/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-t562MTB/0/1303af4e/M/fullsizeoutput_99e-M.jpg" alt=""></a>
When you spend years with one particular genre of bike, there are things you forget. Like quick steering - lightening quick! Haul the bike about? Push it? Pull it? Wrestle it? Not on this! You just turn your head and look and the bike is following. Its ability to turn is .... unconscious. Do I need to 'set it up' for a turn, that to a degree you did with 230+kgs? Nope - don't even think about it. This baby is on rails!
At 170kgs it feels like riding a pushbike strapped to an engine. Gone is the 230kgs+ physics lesson in momentum, or the 19" or 21" physics lesson in gyroscopics. Gone is 'holding the bike' (with hands). You 'hold' this bike with your knees in the sculptured tank, and your hands and elbows are now Freeeeeeeee! I have never felt so 'liberated' on a bike in terms of handling.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-2FQxQsX/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-2FQxQsX/0/757113ae/L/85c90c05-8e82-46f3-bd38-05f8764acb91-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
courtesy of Andres!
The bike is pretty much naked, bar a tiny aftermarket flyscreen. Do I miss a great big fairing? No! I am no longer detached from the environment, there isn't a tonne of plastic between me and the tarmac, its all part of the involvement, the connectivity, the feel, the 'me and my machine'!. I don't get cold, I don't get any head buffeting, and now speed, feels like speed! Its that refreshing thing again.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-9VdC9gH/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-9VdC9gH/0/7b536f55/L/IMG_5868-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
The motor is a delight. Sounds like a V twin, and feels like a V twin but it just builds and builds and doesn't run out of puff at the top. Light and crisp.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-fz978gj/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-fz978gj/0/834244db/L/IMG_6111-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
I could wax lyrical about the crisp gearbox, the seamless quick shifter, the slipper clutch ... it is an absolute gem to ride.
Why? Why is it a gem to ride?
Cue my favourite riding phrase 'modulation'.
Today I have been out for a quick hoon with my regular riding buddies in filthy, wet, slimey back roads. Is there no better feeling than pitching yourself against challenging elements, and despite them, putting in a cracking ride that is precise and accurate, it flows and it has great pace? Is there anything better than that bubble of concentration that is just you and your bike at pace, perfectly synchronised? In total control?
What do you need to achieve that? Liberation! Freedom to see, to feel, to touch. Freedom from the mechanics of riding, so you can put a bike within a square inch of road that you identified 200 metres earlier. Freedom to have Wrefords favourite 'unconscious competent' style, where it just .... happens. Mental freedom where the physical process of going from full gas in fifth, to gathering it all up in slippy slimey, for a third gear double bend just happens. A machine where the individual elements of throttle, brakes, gears, slipper clutch ... all modulate together in a seamless action, one feeding into the next, and then the next. Fat Boy Slim mixing tracks and we don't notice the change.
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-qtXRXfW/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-qtXRXfW/0/a51bf907/L/IMG_6164-L.jpg" alt=""></a>
I have absolutely rediscovered my biking mojo, some of it is because its such a good bike to ride, and some of it is because the bike is the right bike for what I do.
Very happy!
<a href="https://gileslamb.smugmug.com/790/i-qw6qC3T/A"><img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/790/i-qw6qC3T/0/06f863da/L/IMG_5882-L.jpg" alt=""></a>