I went to the vintage bike show held at the Gilmore Car Museum just north east of Kalamazoo MI today. Grand Rapids BMW and Life Cycle Triumph, Ducati, KTM were offering test rides. I bought my 08 Street Triple from Life Cycle last year and love it. Here is a review for each bike I rode today for approximately one mile, in the order I rode them.
2009 Triumph Speed Triple: Great bike, more comfort than my Street and noticeably more power. Doesn't seem to rev up as fast as the 675 and is less agile.
2009 Ducati Monster 1100: Nice handling, you seem to sit fairly close to the handlebars. Wasn't very impressed with the power but a very fun bike.
2009 Ducati Superbike 848: Handling was decent, when you turn the bars to lock your hands get pinched in the fairing, very disappointed. Total design error. power was OK, but not very impressive for $13,995.
2009 BMW K1300S: By far I was impressed by this bike the most. After riding my Street 100 miles to get there, my rear was remembering every mile, until I sat on this. It was like riding a cloud, I was amazed at the comfort. Had more than enough power. I went to pull a wheelie (I know, a dumb thing to do on a demo) and it came up about four inches and traction control kicked in!!! It dropped the front end immediately. Very fast and nimble for a 560 lb bike. If I had money falling out of my sore rear, I would buy this bike.
2009 Triumph Street Triple R: I know, you ask "why would you demo the same bike you have" and I would answer "because I am in love, it's like your beautiful wife having a twin sister (with better brakes and suspension) that lets you sneak into her bed every now and then"
. I could definitely tell a difference in the suspension and would love to convert my bike with the "R" forks and mono shock. I didn't get on the brakes hard enough to have an opinion. The gel seat was great, I wanted to just swap it out for mine
. It also had the Arrow 3-1 installed and sounded great, but after scraping my right peg while chasing a couple bikes around a hairpin, I think the exhaust would have scraped also.
2010 Triumph Thunderbird: No, I didn't ride it, they where not offering it as a demo. I did here it run and it is very unique. I like the bike a lot and my uncle has been drooling since he heard it was being made. So I rubbed it in his face that he didn't get to see it
.
Well that's it, needless to say I am one of the happiest guys on earth. I haven't been able to wipe the grin off my face all day. Many thanks to the guys at Life Cycle Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids BMW.
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