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- Apr 11, 2013
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I spent this morning test riding a SF V4S my impressions ....after 2 hours on it mainly on a particularly favourite bit of road well away from the boys in blue.
First things first 208 BHP is not to be sniffed at or taken lightly but more of that later
The bike itself is small but oddly a taller seat height than my Pikes peak. It is very light at 199Kg fully fuelled and it feels it
Riding position is a little bit canted forward very simmilar to the KTM SDR quite comfy the pegs are nicely positioned for someone like me at 5' 8" any taller it might be a bit cramped.
The dealer had it set in street mode at medium power and trickling out of Grantham that was plenty. very civilized in town beautifully fueled and so very easy to ride.
I kept it in that mode for the first 10 mile run and tbh its plenty powerful enough at that. The suspension is just sublime so compliant and yet so very planted
Turned around for the run back on the same road and felt brave enough to put it into sport mode and full power
Lets get back to that 208BHP ..
It is hard to ignore when you twist the throttle in fact you have to sort of recalibrate your brain as the Horizon is not as far away as one first thought.
It revs to 14k but, trust me on this, 12 is enough . it howls and screams like a moto Gp bike and the numbers on the speedo look positively worrying before you even get to 3rd gear ...
So run 3 i thought i would just have a nice potter along no silly stuff just smooth and steady, smooth is ok it just wafts along on a big dollop of torque, slow it isnt !
|Corners that i would have ridden on the multi and thought i had done well at this thing is just laughing and wondering why there wasn't at least another 40MPH !
The front is so confidence inspiring it tracks wonderfully - pick a line any line it takes it in its stride think about a corner and you are already round it ..
The brakes are stylema and wow what a difference to the M50 - so powerfull it rearranges your face when you pull on them with more than one finger.
I was worried about it having no wind protection but the seating and slightly forwards position turn that into a none worry, it wasnt even a problem at a steady 80 on a big dual carriageway so it would be easy to tour on ( for me it would anyway) It is also very comfortable.
It seems that this bikes sole purpose is to go from point A to point B as fast as possible with as little fuss as possible
Fun does not even begin to sum up this bike IMO it is superb, it is fabulous it is exquisite !
Oh and to add
It is also incredibly clever with the counter rotating crank and the twin puls firing it really does feel like a twin than a 4
ANd it cuts the rear 2 cylinders off at sloow speeds or standstill which sounds and feels a bit odd at first ...
First things first 208 BHP is not to be sniffed at or taken lightly but more of that later
The bike itself is small but oddly a taller seat height than my Pikes peak. It is very light at 199Kg fully fuelled and it feels it
Riding position is a little bit canted forward very simmilar to the KTM SDR quite comfy the pegs are nicely positioned for someone like me at 5' 8" any taller it might be a bit cramped.
The dealer had it set in street mode at medium power and trickling out of Grantham that was plenty. very civilized in town beautifully fueled and so very easy to ride.
I kept it in that mode for the first 10 mile run and tbh its plenty powerful enough at that. The suspension is just sublime so compliant and yet so very planted
Turned around for the run back on the same road and felt brave enough to put it into sport mode and full power
Lets get back to that 208BHP ..
It is hard to ignore when you twist the throttle in fact you have to sort of recalibrate your brain as the Horizon is not as far away as one first thought.
It revs to 14k but, trust me on this, 12 is enough . it howls and screams like a moto Gp bike and the numbers on the speedo look positively worrying before you even get to 3rd gear ...
So run 3 i thought i would just have a nice potter along no silly stuff just smooth and steady, smooth is ok it just wafts along on a big dollop of torque, slow it isnt !
|Corners that i would have ridden on the multi and thought i had done well at this thing is just laughing and wondering why there wasn't at least another 40MPH !
The front is so confidence inspiring it tracks wonderfully - pick a line any line it takes it in its stride think about a corner and you are already round it ..
The brakes are stylema and wow what a difference to the M50 - so powerfull it rearranges your face when you pull on them with more than one finger.
I was worried about it having no wind protection but the seating and slightly forwards position turn that into a none worry, it wasnt even a problem at a steady 80 on a big dual carriageway so it would be easy to tour on ( for me it would anyway) It is also very comfortable.
It seems that this bikes sole purpose is to go from point A to point B as fast as possible with as little fuss as possible
Fun does not even begin to sum up this bike IMO it is superb, it is fabulous it is exquisite !
Oh and to add
It is also incredibly clever with the counter rotating crank and the twin puls firing it really does feel like a twin than a 4
ANd it cuts the rear 2 cylinders off at sloow speeds or standstill which sounds and feels a bit odd at first ...