Less expensive then a decent DAC.
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I had an 89 LT1200. Boy oh boy I loved that bike!
(Deals Gap)
Waving at the camera mid turn.
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Nice, I made that run too. Fav was a stretch on the Blue Ridge Parkway we me and my buddy hit NO CARS in front of us for two hours in that May of 2008. Tons of twisties… Lots of bugs…lol… need to scrape the windscreen after those runs.
That bike and the power kickstand always was a kick the first time people saw it.
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On a day like that, on a road like that, the right gear and maybe some heated grips. Glorious!
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I finally waved the white flag and put some Bark Busters on for winter. I don’t love the look, but I do love the warmer hands. Thank God for heated grips!!
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Love that color
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My guess is Kawasaki Mean Streak
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It certainly does appear to be that, but with very definite customizations.
Looks like a Suzuki Boulevard to me.
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Yeah. I think you’re right.
Highs in the 30s (F) for the foreseeable future. Sigh.
Yeah, judging by that taillight configuration and the exhausts, a much better fit than the Kawasaki.
Changed over to the MOTO Guzzi Roadster V100S MANDELLO from my 31 year old BMW R100RT pure ANALOG bike. I’ve had the MANDELLO since end of August and have 5,000 miles on it. This bike eats miles out in the country. Probably 100 miles Interstate is all. The rest are Northern Ohio farm country. Open, pretty and vast.
The bike is as good as they say it is. Complaints are a little. Tighter set to peg than my 66 year old legs like for too long, I moved the bars up and back and inch with the ROX risers (too much motocross makes leaning over painful too soon). Stock fairing windscreen is too small for hours in the saddle. It could use some cubbies for gloves and things but removing the junk up front aggravates that. The BMW R100RT barn door fairing had cubbies. Still, there is no decent under-seat storage and that’s kind of odd for a “touring” bike, yes? 52 MPG gets the 4.5 gallon tank the same 180 mile plus 50 mile reserve range as the BMW (43 MPG). I added the engine guards and center stand. The windshield is a BIONDI ultra tour. The fairing+windscreen works far better than the size would suggest and fixes the comfort complaint on the smaller stock screen. It’s fine unless you exact a barn door type and sized still air space. That’s not this bike’s purpose. I may order the GIVI touring screen to try, it seems to have more off to the side. Worse case I’ll have one when the current one wears out.
I would never order the stock suspension after having the Ohlins. This stuff works! I use it all the time. TOUR on the country roads and ROAD in town. I never use the SPORT or RAIN (yet). I did change the throttle map to SPORT in the TOUR settings as this feels more like a carburetor, faster and less of a dead spot in the fly by wire system off the stop. This has ample power for anything I’ll ever do on a public road. 52 MPG all day. The handling is rock solid. No hinge in the middle anymore. No shaft drive pinion climb. It does have some drive-line take-up from engine braking to throttle if you hammer it. Transmission is same, same as the BMW. Firm and positive shifts. This bike does CLUNK into first, but the rest are a click. The quick shifter I don’t use. It works fine 3rd to 6th up or down. I just like the feel shifting it myself.
The brakes. Let me tell you about the brakes. Hell, I didn’t have brakes on the R100RT! These Brempo’s are intense. Anti-Lock seems to cut in right when the bikes emergency rear flashers turn on to warn those behind you of the full stop mode and start to flash. Both turn signal indicators in the dash flash to let you know you’re getting crazy. As hard as it is braking this seems reasonable for anyone behind you to be aware of. A car can easily rear-end you with the power these brakes have.
Some wanted gold wheels (me too) but you know, now that I have the black wheels I like them. The brakes make that awful black dust and it doesn’t show so bad on the semi-glossy black wheels. So no strike no foul on the black wheels. I like them now that I’ve had the bike awhile. The bike has plenty of light color to offset the wheels so it isn’t a blacked out look.
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Great report!
Getting in 5000 miles in a few months of backroads is a nice pace and no complaints that can’t be tweaked is welcome news.
Are there any good highway peg options or would the position be awkward?
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Allan,
There is a foot-peg lowering set that brings both the brake / shifter and pegs down the same one-inch amount so that relationship stays the same. Now what are called highway pegs, not so sure about that. You’d need a spot to mount them out front a bit. You could mount them down off the engine guards. But as far as “available” I haven’t seen them.
I did get a new helmet, those in the know will see the KBC and say, that’s like 15 years old! I tried the AGV K5 S in a XS and S and both were too tight front-to back and sloppy side to side. A medium may fix the front to back but makes the side to side worse. The medium oval head shape isn’t really my head’s shape. I’ve just suffered ill fitting helmets for like ever. Now there is a solution…ARAI.
I have a long oval head, so I went with an ARAI Signet-X model in Diamond White for visibility. I don’t see the color in the helmet! They make all three head shapes, round, medium oval and log oval. I bought it from the service Pavilion as that’s where ARAI said to go. $75.00 custom fitting and that goes to a helmet when you buy one. These guys really make sure it fits with the inner liner design and thicknesses as well. I’ve never had a helmet that fits so this will be interesting. It’s on the way and I’ll let you know. I wish I had a standard medium oval head with so much more to chose from.
See that black leather jacket? Yep, the one that is 49 years old! It still fits with a sweatshirt underneath. You can see it peaking out the back and keeps the cold air off my neck. It was 48 degrees when I took off and 62 on the way back that trip. I still stopped at DQ for a blizzard.
The Service Pavilion
44 South Kinzer Avenue
New Holland, PA 17557
610-960-2245 Mobile Office
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