Well, it's home, all tucked up in the garage and although we had to take a few twists and turns, I spent a good couple of hours in the saddle on it this afternoon and we managed not to get rained on!
It had 3 miles on it when I picked it up, it's now up to just about 100 so I haven't managed to explore all of it's features and capabilities but, ( suprise suprise ) - guess what- I fucking love it with a passion already
As you might expect, it sounds and rides just like a 790 , but a really really fit one engine wise, that's also had time and money spent fettling and setting it up
I'm fecked and have other calls on my time this evening, so more will follow over the next couple of weeks as I get some more miles on it, but immediate stand-out bits for me are
- Very much stronger mid-range than the 790, and loves to wheelie even more than that did- I predict this is gonna be THE wheelie bike to rival an MT10
- Very very smooth and well-sorted fuelling, in all (road, sport and track) engine modes, even at low-speed constant throttle, definitely better than my 790 was
- Haven't measured or looked at any settings, but front end suspension felt lovely, rear less so- very firm, although bizarrely I thought seemed to get better the harder I rode it and the rougher the roads were
- Significantly higher and harder (rock hard) seat than the 790- this will have to change I think
That's it for the moment- the carbon front guard bar end mirror, case protectors (and possibly the Wings can from my old 790 as although I like the sound of std, still hate the looks) will go on over the next week or two, I'll also be getting an Evotech rad guard for it when they make it ( 890 rad is bigger than 790 so my 790 one doesn't fit), and I'll also run it down to Gav @ MSG racing , just down the road from me here to see how the Wings can affects the power, if at all, compared to standard, just as i always meant to do that on my 790 but never got around to it.
Apart from that, it's just get a few miles on it over next few weeks so I can get it in for the first service before it's first trackday which is gonna be Brands on Aug 13th- should be a nice track for it I reckon- all we need is for [mention]Couchy[/mention] to bring his latest purchase along and we could have a nice little RTTL non-sportsbike parallel twin shoot out- what do you reckon old boy?
or at the very least an afternoon jaunt leaving the BYV at mine for an hour or two ?
One day KTM will just make a finished bike....maybe
) optional extras- £350 each or £655 for the pair , but Premier have done me a deal on that to make it slightly less unpalatable
