First ride, report.

[caratz]

Having made an appointment for Tuesday for the 1000 KM service, I have to do my 1000 KM on Saturday and Sunday. What a terrible punishment.

Today, we left home at 10.30 and headed for Ghent, Oudenaarde and the Flemish Ardennes. The weather was lovely, almost too warm. So the first real kilometers were on a motorway, not too trafficky so I had the opportunity to try some of the doodahs. BC, and front shield. It's true, there is still a fair amount of noise even with the shield in the highest position. I think optimally, one should lower it by two notches from the higheest position. In my case, it seems to give the best results, with the seat in the highest position.

After 80 unventul kilometers, we left the E17 in de Pinte and headed in direction of Oudenaarde, and took the road for Zwalm. From there to Brakel on small lovely twisty roads. Brakel to Geraardsbergen is a pleasure, open sweeping turns, clear views, and a few tricky little bastards of 90° turns. I am afraid I sinned by inadvertance, speeding more then a bit.

I have a question, why does the GT have gears 2 to 5 ? You can do almost everything in 1 and 6. The torque of the beast is unbelievable.

We finally got to Edingen at around 1300 hours after a very lousy experience tanking up. The ground wasn't flat, and I was afraid I won't be able to hold the GT while taking her of center stand. Very uncool.

The bike is extremely heavy to manoeuver. It's also impossible to kick it off the center stand while sitting on it. Pulling it straight from the side stand requires good muscles. Pushing it is BIG sweat.

From Edingen we rode to Soignies, la Louvière, Binche, Charleroi, Philippeville, Agimont, Dinant, where we stopped for a drink.

Once on the move, the bike performs like a ballerina. It's so flickable it's amazing. Steering it, you forget the sheer mass of it. It's finger light, you think and it turns, like on rails. It's immensely comfortable. From Edingen to Dinant, I put the seat in the low position. It was too tight a fit for my knees, and brought no difference in protection from the windshield.
It hurt my knees and my butt.

Before riding away from Dinant, I put the seat back in the high position and immediately felt the difference.

A bit after Dinant, we got caught by a huge cloudburst. This allowed me to see if indeed the bike gives as good a protection as was stated in various tests I read. With the shield in its highest position, about 85 % of the rain passes over or beside you. Amazing. No worries whatsoever.

We hit the E 411 towards Brussels and Antwerp under a pouring rain. Me, I was singing. The friend whom I do most of my riding with owns an R 1200 RT. He asked me on Thursday why I chose the GT. I had told him last year I'd get an RT as well. When I heard the GT was coming, I thought that it was a dream come true. Truth is, the bike is beyond my wildest expectations. It's silky smooth, even though it's still being run in. I can feel that the engine is starting to loosen up a bit. Accelerating on it is like an elastic bend being released. It doesn't have the vibrations of the Boxer, that I love dearly. It gives you a feeling of being cocooned in a shell without a roof.

In short, so far, I love it.

Today's total kilometrage was almost exactly 400. Tomorrow the other 600 will be done.