For one day only . . . no rain, Sun out, warm.
Took the bike to show to Elliot - chance to put up a piccie
not in our back yard.
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Elliot has BMW R100/7 and an NSU Quickly in his garage. He
loved the Interceptor of course.
110 mile round trip so a few more riding observations. The strong engine braking is something you notice, shutting the throttle is almost like light braking, riding gently along country A roads and occasional villages, you
really can ride on just throttle and gears. No need to brake for 30 and 20 mph limits.
But that lack of flywheel means you need a careful touch on the throttle in traffic and around towns to avoid jerkiness. The bike doesn't suffer from snatchiness people often mention with EFI, but I tend to be gentle with the throttle, it's how I ride esp in urban areas. I guess if you were a touch clumsier, it might get jerky.
The suspension is fine on smooth roads, as I said earlier. It's not OEM, the rear shocks are unmarked, might be Hagon? have an adjuster at the bottom for spring preload and a little adjuster wheel at the top, must be rebound damping. On bumpier roads - you really notice on country roads that run past or through a wooded plantation, the roots push the road surface up giving short, steep bumps - the suspension feels 'choppy'. Best word I can think of. If set up is too soft a bike wallows & pogos over bumps, but I associate choppiness and jolts with too firm. Thought at first it must be the shocks set too firm, which then means should I adjust spring or rebound? But on the way home was thinking I could feel jolts through me wrists, so maybe the forks are too stiff? Well, I don't know how the emulators work so I'll probably start with the easiest and see what adjustment the rear springs offer.
Speedo must be a bit optimistic. Those village speed limits, 20 in the Borders, 30 in Northumberland, are 'enforced' by speed signs that tell you your measured speed in real time as you approach - TV sized screen reads 28 in green with a green smiley face. Or alternatively back in Scotland reads 28MPH flashing red SLOW DOWN!. Either way, gives you a chance to see what the speedo sez. Not fully calibrate - the speed signs are not thought to be totally accurate and probably vary anyhow. But when the sign was giving me 29THANK YOU the speedo was showing, ooh, 33-34ish. Speedo and tacho both nicely laid out analogue dials.
Front brake is very sharp. Certainly haven't been worrying the ABS, not while I'm riding about a lot less than usual pace getting to know the bike. But even so offers more stopping than Miss November or even Polly at a fraction of the effort. I'll need to be careful . . .
That's the longest run we've done. Starting to get a bit uncomfortable, more between the shoulders than me bum. So seat not too bad, maybe riding position not quite right? Feels like it ought to be a good stance, the pegs feel significantly further back than on an XS650. You sit up to grip the wide braced bars. But as said starts to hurt between the shoulders after a while.
Rewarding to open the loudness control, and not just to hear the peashooters. Mostly, I've been using about 4,000 which shows 62mph on the speedo. Possibly optimistic. Sixth is not an overdrive, the ratios are close, changing 5th to 6th only drops about 200 revs. But today took a few opportunities to ask for a
little bit more, going up a rise or passing a lorry. Give the bike a few revs and a bit of stick and sure feels like there's more go than the W800.
Filled that shiny tank for the 2nd time today. Just over 70mpg - fink that's 56 to your puny American gallon?
Lot of flooded roads today so the Interceptor was plastered as probably never before. Well, I had to wash it, didn't I?
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