Time for a change?
February 17th, 2010
Been contemplating the future of my Buell 1125r over the past couple of weeks. I feel its time to move it on to a new home whilst the brand is still attracting some interest. This has left me wondering what to go for next…
Ive been thinking about a Triumph Street Triple but having sat on one with my son as pillion I reckon its going to be a bit tight for a day trip. I also have concerns about the amount of rear wheel spray when the weathers bad. My old City X had spray issues and it was a total pain for me. Sooo, today I went down to see the chaps at Haywards of Cambridge. They are my local Guzzi garage where I purchased a 2007 1200 Sport from a while ago. I know them well and trust their spannering. They have a couple of Stelvio’s going at the moment. The one of interest to me is an x press bike. Its got a couple of marks on it but it seems to ride OK.
Son and I took a 20 mile or so ride out on it this morning. The space the Stelvio offers over the Buell is lovely. It allowed my Son to sit back a bit and relax whilst we hammered around the local country lanes. The sound track the exhaust offered was pretty fruity and very different from the Buell and my old 1200 Sport. The step in performance around the 5000rpm mark was pretty addictive. It allows you to potter around at low revs without the bike running away from you and then when required it’ll hitch up its skirt and take off. Motorway cruising was good although I needed to lower the screen right down to its lowest setting to stop the wind buffeting my helmet around. The weather was crappy but we managed to cruise at 70 and still chat to each other through our bluetooth helmets.
Getting back on to the Buell felt very strange. The engine obviously has a lot more grunt low down but comfort does not come close to the Stelvio… I know they are completely different bikes and one would expect an adventure tourer to be relaxing to ride.
The bike on offer comes with panniers. Its a 2008 bike so is one year older than the Buell but its only done 3000 miles and will have a full service before delivery to me….
We’ll have to see what the coming days brings… No decisions made just yet.
