Just back from 2 weeks in Tuscany, Italy with my family. Not a big fan of long days on the beach so rented a SD in Florence for 2 days. The bike was stock...except dual sport tyres Actually wasn't to worried about the Pirelli Scorpion rear tyre...but the front Korean tyre was shit with rubbish grip.
Anyway, nice chance to compare the stock bike to my SDR with slip on, power commander and slipper clutch (07SDR so same motor).
I had almost forgot how bad the fuelling is on stock bike. Hopeless in town jumping like a kangaroo and not nice when getting on the throttle when leaning in a corner. But maybe worst I think, is when just trying to maintain the speed through long curves and it is on/off/on/off. So PCIII is definitely worth the money not even considering the power gain. So much smoother (and stronger) in the bottom range.
Also the power was noticably lower, but this is probably also down to my larger rear sprocket. Not that the power on stock is a problem on the road
The Tuscan roads (at least the ones i rode) is VERY twisty with quite a few hairpins. Locked the rear tyre a lot of times so did miss the slipper clutch. This might partly be down to me getting a bit lazy with that downshifts since the slipper clutch smoothes things out. But I still would say that slipper clutch is an advantage also on the road, at least if you need to do a lot of down shifts.
Not sure what to say about the handling (due to different geometry on SD and SDR) as I cannot say how much the dual sport tyres affected this. But for some reason it almost felt easier to turn into corners. Maybe I need to look at the steering damper and try to reduce the damping?
Also burnt myself on the stock exhaust They stay hot for hours And the stock break/clutch levers look like shit, buy MH shorty levers
Except for that everything felt like normal (not surprisingly). The Tuscan roads are good fun, just stay on the yellow roads on the Michelin maps. The smaller white roads often had very bad surface and the red main roads had too much traffic. If ever in the area, the SR222 road between running through the Chianti arae is excellent, good surface, nice curves, nice scenery and charming villages. And surely some excellent wine castles if you have time to stop
Anyway, nice chance to compare the stock bike to my SDR with slip on, power commander and slipper clutch (07SDR so same motor).
I had almost forgot how bad the fuelling is on stock bike. Hopeless in town jumping like a kangaroo and not nice when getting on the throttle when leaning in a corner. But maybe worst I think, is when just trying to maintain the speed through long curves and it is on/off/on/off. So PCIII is definitely worth the money not even considering the power gain. So much smoother (and stronger) in the bottom range.
Also the power was noticably lower, but this is probably also down to my larger rear sprocket. Not that the power on stock is a problem on the road
The Tuscan roads (at least the ones i rode) is VERY twisty with quite a few hairpins. Locked the rear tyre a lot of times so did miss the slipper clutch. This might partly be down to me getting a bit lazy with that downshifts since the slipper clutch smoothes things out. But I still would say that slipper clutch is an advantage also on the road, at least if you need to do a lot of down shifts.
Not sure what to say about the handling (due to different geometry on SD and SDR) as I cannot say how much the dual sport tyres affected this. But for some reason it almost felt easier to turn into corners. Maybe I need to look at the steering damper and try to reduce the damping?
Also burnt myself on the stock exhaust They stay hot for hours And the stock break/clutch levers look like shit, buy MH shorty levers
Except for that everything felt like normal (not surprisingly). The Tuscan roads are good fun, just stay on the yellow roads on the Michelin maps. The smaller white roads often had very bad surface and the red main roads had too much traffic. If ever in the area, the SR222 road between running through the Chianti arae is excellent, good surface, nice curves, nice scenery and charming villages. And surely some excellent wine castles if you have time to stop