RE: New owner in London - 2

Zitat von Aussie Import im Beitrag #14

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Vote 1 for X-heads.
A couple of hours ago, a driver in a commercial truck, saw his opportunity to get a "centre of the street" car park in Lonsdale St, about 1/2 a block from my work. He was in the left (kerb-side) lane, and he decided to turn sharply across the right lane.

I was in the right lane.
<snip>
Without the X-heads, I am sure the left head would have been damaged.

I will see how I go at work today, and take a couple of Panadol.

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Ouch, hope you're doing ok by now!

X-heads now fitted. My plan is to never need them, but we all know how those plans can sometimes go awry... fingers crossed and eyes always peeled!

Having had the bike long enough to have found an hour or two here and there for a few unhurried acclimatisation rides, in addition to a bit of regular commuting duty, I'm delighted with it. More than I can express, if I'm being honest.. it must be love.

Casting an eye over what I wrote in my first thread on here, my first complaint was that I was not entirely comfortable with low speed agility. Mostly, what I'd found myself doing was running wide in low speed corners, feeling that I just couldn't turn it properly. My second concern related to longer gearing. Turns out that these two are related. Being used to shorter gearing, I was used to taking ~20mph turns in 2nd, and being able to get on a positive throttle as I tipped in to drive through the corner. With the RS, 2nd gear is just too tall.. so I'd float in, and not feel I could get on the gas as I turned in. For whatever reason, I've never felt entirely comfortable tipping into a corner on a positive throttle in 1st gear so had unconsciously programmed myself to never do that. Revisiting some of the bends and roundabouts I'd felt unhappy on, I just bit the bullet and took them all in a gear lower than I would usually.. and, hey presto... it felt fabulous. Finding some other, slightly faster roads, the same principle applied where I'd been used to using 3rd gear.

Perhaps this sounds a bit n00b.. it kinda feels it, but I'm pleased that after 20 years of riding, and several hundred thousand miles, I'm still taking the lessons when they present themselves.

In other BMW-n00b related news, I washed it after the first full week of commuting on the salt encrusted UK roads.. I am NEVER going back to chain drive! (unless I can afford a team of dedicated motorcycle maintenance staff ;) )

Zitat von v8guy im Beitrag #16

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I am NEVER going back to chain drive! (unless I can afford a team of dedicated motorcycle maintenance staff ;) )

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Ah, the beautiful sight of growing wisdom.

The X-heads are good, but other cover options have replaceable inserts. That's nice in the case of minor drops.