Thanks for the kind and welcoming words guys. Al that sounds like you wanted a serious track toy, and i would love to see what these bad boys can do on the track for myself one day, as from the hours of YouTube clips i watched before taking the plunge, they are truly epic. Plus Shakey Byrne can really make them dance, i can only dream what that must feel like.
Greeny i agree Snowdonia is a truely special place, and now firmly has a permanent place in my heart. I am hoping the Scottish trip will be just as fulfilling, and yeah Bury St Edmunds is only half an hour up the road so we could arrange something, for when the better weather gets here on a Sunday morning or something
I picked the bike up yesterday and promptly named him Warrior. I had to take it steady on the way back to Cambridge as the roads had only just dried out, and he is currently shod with some brand new rubber. I did however open him up on a couple of occasions in 2nd and 3rd, when i found a suitable bit of bendy road between the A1 and St Ives. Man this thing is in another league to anything else i have ever previously ridden, and being geared the way it is you can just flick between 2nd and 3rd gear on the twisty stuff, and cover a hell of a lot of distance in a really short space of time, if you know what i mean
Once you have these bikes above 8 or 9,000 rpm i am sure time slows down, and these bikes come alive. Accessing the bikes power reserves is effortless, once you have them in the right gear. From reading a shed load of reviews too before buying, the one thing that quite a few of the reviewers marked these bikes down on was that you had to treat them like a 600 as the real power is in the top half of the rev range, and not from the off. I kind of like this characteristic, as it makes the bike truly useable on a day to day basis, and not have to worry about it biting you when you least expect it.
I did use the Triumph and Gixxer as my daily commuters, and i am planning on using Warrior in this way also. I am only on the bike for about 5 - 10 mins between home and work, but from the ride in this morning, the bike got up to temp before i arrived at work, and was truly a pleasure flicking between lanes on the ride in, oh and the mini traffic light GP that i may have had with an idiot in a transit van this morning
I am really looking forward in getting to know Warrior well over the next few months, and if i can do it with some other like minded people in the process then happy days. If anyone else lives in the Cambridge area, then get in touch and we can set something up.
Andy