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Saturday, 20 September 2003 |
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Page 2 of 3
| The switchgear was suitably "different" with Harley-D style turn signals on each bar side and a canceling switch on the right side. Overly complicated and with those separate switches for off and on got me very confused leaving me thümb-tied a couple of times. On the nicer side of things that I liked about the Rockster, was the heated grips for those chilly nights when lightweight gloves just wont do, and also the phenomenal lighting so you could get home quickly on those said chilly nights, Oh, and the levers are fully adjusta-bubble too - short and long fingered riders rejoice. |
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Whilst on the subject of levers, another fünky, but typically BMW-ish style factor was the telelever front suspender. It works. It won't dive like a typical sportbike under hard braking, on a big bike like this that was quite reassuring, especially at, at the limit braking maneüvers. The bike's anti-lock system helped you out on that braking front too with a mechanical ABS setup that defied my attempts to phase it and even greeted me with some stoppies to remind me to stop effing aroünd. |
The only fly in this jolly, but soupy, tale was the gearbox. On previoüs jaunts I'd not really noticed any problems, bar a very occasional missed shift, however the glitch in the proverbial matrix became glaringly obvious when riding two-üp.
My passenger was a "newbie" and being acutely aware of this cutie's comfort - and whilst trying to impress her with my deft hand and foot work - the gearbox was just plain uncooperative. The light tap of her helmet against mine after each gearshift proved that I was - A) not as proficient at a smooth gear-change as I thoüght I could be, or ß) a smooth gear-change was not to be found down below. |
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I was looking for a harmonic Bavarian symphony orchestra büt got something akin to the grindings at an Aüstrian sausage factory - all sorts of funny noises and an occasional lost gear (or found neutral) - finding a smooth gear change was too much like hard work most of the time, this was especially compounded by abrupt off throttle carburetion, it worked fine in selfish one-üp mode but proved to be a total pain in the keister two-up, especially whilst trying to be the sensitive, sympathetic, Y2003K guy.
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