Short ride today. After only 40 miles yesterday evening in the cold rain, I mounted up today with the sun shining and temps in the mid '50s. My intention is to break this one in properly much like I did my RT engine. In this vein, I'm not. I'm sure I'm taking it too easy. This engine wants to run, but on these short, wear-in rides, I just don't need for it to.
So I headed out to the Natchez Trace. The first 15 to 20 miles are very nice with some hills, lots of curves and a 40MPH speed limit. So I started out keeping it around 60, which was real sweet on my RT. The GT doesn't disappoint. While I was quite confident on the RT, sometimes running that stretch as quickly as 75, I kept things tame though I never got below 60, I did see 70 in many of the turns. Handling it really sweet and mind you, this was a very relaxed ride. I wasn't in any hurry. Once I get used to this machine, I'm sure it will still out do me as well as my RT. Bottom line, the GT with ESA seems to handle a bit better than my RT did with Ohlins on it.
The torque with the GT engine is really quite unbelievable. But most of you already know this. The engine just doesn't need the RPMs to make it moove. The RT seemed to have a torque hole between 3000 and 3500 RPM though in the twisties, 5000 to the redline was common. The GT may end up being frightening in that range as there is just so much power! Again, I'm using the break-in period to wear in the rings as well as to learn how to operate this beast.
My ass remembers. The seat on the GT is marginally better than the torture rack that came stock on my RT. The stock seat on the RT only lasted 750 miles before I replaced it with a Sargent. The improvement was miraculous though I wore out the Sargent in 20,000 miles. The Rick Meyer was the best seat yet. I kept it selling the RT with the Sargent. The pain in my rump, while less than the RT's stocker wasn't quite as bad but it was the same pain. I only rode about 130 miles today! If this was a road trip somewhere, I'd be dying! A new seat is in order here, as soon as I get some more verdicts from those of you who've already made the jump to a new seat.
So now I've 168 miles on the GT. What an awesome motorcycle this is! I'm really liking this machine. If anybody reads this who is still sitting on the fence, go test ride one. Just do it!
So I headed out to the Natchez Trace. The first 15 to 20 miles are very nice with some hills, lots of curves and a 40MPH speed limit. So I started out keeping it around 60, which was real sweet on my RT. The GT doesn't disappoint. While I was quite confident on the RT, sometimes running that stretch as quickly as 75, I kept things tame though I never got below 60, I did see 70 in many of the turns. Handling it really sweet and mind you, this was a very relaxed ride. I wasn't in any hurry. Once I get used to this machine, I'm sure it will still out do me as well as my RT. Bottom line, the GT with ESA seems to handle a bit better than my RT did with Ohlins on it.
The torque with the GT engine is really quite unbelievable. But most of you already know this. The engine just doesn't need the RPMs to make it moove. The RT seemed to have a torque hole between 3000 and 3500 RPM though in the twisties, 5000 to the redline was common. The GT may end up being frightening in that range as there is just so much power! Again, I'm using the break-in period to wear in the rings as well as to learn how to operate this beast.
My ass remembers. The seat on the GT is marginally better than the torture rack that came stock on my RT. The stock seat on the RT only lasted 750 miles before I replaced it with a Sargent. The improvement was miraculous though I wore out the Sargent in 20,000 miles. The Rick Meyer was the best seat yet. I kept it selling the RT with the Sargent. The pain in my rump, while less than the RT's stocker wasn't quite as bad but it was the same pain. I only rode about 130 miles today! If this was a road trip somewhere, I'd be dying! A new seat is in order here, as soon as I get some more verdicts from those of you who've already made the jump to a new seat.
So now I've 168 miles on the GT. What an awesome motorcycle this is! I'm really liking this machine. If anybody reads this who is still sitting on the fence, go test ride one. Just do it!