The seat is flat and fairly comfortable and the ergo's are pretty good too. It's a healthy reach to the wide-ish bars and if you're a little short in the walking and running department, a somewhat unhealthy reach to the floor. One particularly nice feature about the seat though, is the fact that your twig and berries don't get mashed into the new lower and reshaped tank. You can sit back a little, still have control and not be sliding back into the tank. One astonishing thing I noticed with this bike is that if my balls are cool calm and collected, so am I. (Snigger.)

Clutch feel is good, albeit with a funky pulsating feeling every then and now from the vacuum assist slipper clutch. Another nice feature too, is the adjustable gearshift and rear brake levers. Both hand levers too are adjustable for span and the switchgear is Japanese good, except for one strange thing. The horn button is where the turn signal switch normally is and vice verse. You don't want to know how may times I tooted when I wanted to turn and looked like I was turning when I wanted to toot, oh how we laughed. No biggie, I suppose.

Ok, so it's time to stop talking about balls, boats, beans and other bits and go ride this steed. Got to do some adjustments first though (on the bike not me.)

On taking the bike to the lavishly equipped 2WF.com service area, my first intention was suspension tweaking. I decided to raise the forks up one line, which was about 5mm. There seemed to be no problems with ground clearance and I had the oh-so-sexy Ohlins steering damper set on minimum, so a couple of clicks there, would stop any gatecrashing to the tea party that I was planning. I also backed off the compression a tad on the overly (seemingly) hard front suspension. After adding proper amounts of air into the tires, I went off in search of some curvaceous roads with two victims in mind, namely a 2001 RC51 and a 2001 Ducati 996. More tea Vicar?*

My immediate impression of this "new" set-up was what a wonderful transformation. The bike now steers a little closer to the way I wanted. It's clipping apexes instead of missing them and is now running a little plusher to boot, giving the tires an easier time too. I thoroughly recommend raising the forks to any future or present owners of this bike, actually... I insist you do it immediately. There seems to be no downside and If I'd had more time I'd like to have moved it a tad more just to see if I can further better the steering without upsetting the stability.

The main concern now with the Mille R, was the way it ran wide on faster sweepers. If I upped the speed, I upped the potential to run wide. What gives? I say to nobody in particular. I am a true and loyal lover of Ohlins and I knew the faults could be cured, so a need to fiddle more represented itself. After consulting a couple of racer buddies I ended up winding the rear preload up one complete turn, of which equates to about 3 millimeters. I also gave it a couple more clicks of rear compression damping to cater for my pasta filled 200lb arse and finally I also gave it a "whiff" less rebound to prevent that said rear "packing" down on bumpy roads.