| #30  27-Sep-2004, 22:20 | ||||
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| I have no option with the stumpy legs, they came as standard. Having said that, I had a go on Sparkin's 888 Strada on Sunday, and I found it awesome. Subjectively, it felt as responsive and tight as the more modern bikes. It certainly didn't feel ten years old. The brakes were fabulous, they feed in with a really slinky feel, you can almost feel exactly what the discs are doing, but when you squeeze them on they have real 'stand it on it's nose' power - mind you, they are uprated Brembo billet calipers with cast iron discs on Sparkin's bike. It was much more pokey at the top end than my two valver, I saw 145mph, without any trouble, half way down the straight on the BHC regions private test track (I backed off then, but it was still pulling hard). But, I also loved the grunt low down and the roar from the airbox from about 3.5-6K I didn't give it major beans round the twisty bits, because it was somebody elses bike, it was new to me with unfamiliar handling, it was on it's last outing before a winter fettle, I'm only insured third party on other peoples bikes and I couldn't afford a repair bill if I'd have dropped it. Having said that, after riding it for about 4-5 miles on roads that I know well, I did feel comfortable enough to get out of the saddle, hang off and give it some berries on the exit. That's where the fit of the bike really helped. I ride with the little gap between the ball of my foot and my toes on the pegs, and found it really easy to just press my toes down on the outside peg and lock my knee into the tank cutout, lock myself into the bike and hang off. The flipside to that is that it was a bugger to change gear and get my foot back into position on the pegs. Nothing that a bit of rear set/gearchange positioning/getting used to it couldn't sort out. If I had one of course, which I don't...'cos I've got no spare money for bikes this year, or 2005   |
Jools
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