I had the 600 mile service done last Wednesday, then set off for Edinburgh on Friday morning. of course it was pouring down with rain and the temperature about 4 deg cent. I was accompanied by my mate Dave on his Triumph 1200 Trophy, we had a slight detour into the Pennine hills to visit a motorcycle clothing shop in Darwen, as we drew near I saw cars covered in snow and the hill tops were white, I was beginning to have second thoughts, we had only done about 30 miles and still had another 200 to do.
By the time we arrived at the shop we were cold and my fifteen year old gloves had leaked in water, so forty quid lighter I was the proud owner of a pair of Halversons finest waterproof digit warmers, coupled with the S10's heated grips I began to feel warm and cosey and ready to face the rest of the journey. We travelled north using a mixture of motorway and back country roads, and luckily the further north we went the dryer it got ::012::
The S10 handled the twisty, damp, gravel strewen roads admirably, but dave was struggling a bit with the pace on his Trophy. I was able to set myself a nice brisk pace, at first with the bike on tour mode, but then threw caution to the wind and went to sport mode, what a difference this setting makes. I was still keeping the revs to around 5k with perhaps the odd quick burst to 6k for overtaking. We arrived in Auld Reekie about 4.30pm, we were staying at a pals apartment, and had a cracking good night out on the town.
Saturday was an early start north accompanied by Mike our host on his Moto Guzzi Stelvio, we went past Glen Eagles golf course heading for Crieff, Aberfeldy and Glen Lyon. We had intended to ride over the pass on Ben Lawers but the cloud was heavy on the mountain tops and there looked to be a lot of snow, a farmer confirming that parts of the road were still covered in snow so we carried on past Loch Tay. At this point I noticed my hands were unusually cold, my heated grips had failed
I had a quick look at all the fuses not knowing which one covered the grips, all seemed OK. We got back to Edinburgh about 5pm, I was well pi**ed off with my cold hands.
This morning we left Edinburgh at 10am for our 220 mile trip south to return home, the odometer was showing over 1000mls now, so I started to wind the bike up a lot more. The A701 to Moffat is a fantastic road, plenty of twists and turns, undulating through some fantastic scenery, I was now in my element, the roads were drying out, not much traffic, and the S10 was just lapping it up, I was grinning like a Cheshire cat, I don't know why some people think this bike is slow or underpowered, we were moving at a slick pace, nothing passed us, luckily there were no police patrols or we would have been in serious trouble, and I still haven't taken it past 7k, I was finding changing gear at 6k quick enough, I can't wait to see what it feels like once it's got another couple of thousand miles under it's belt.
Overall I'm very impressed with the S10, I find it comfortable, easy to ride about town, easy to manouver at low speed, it handles fast bumpy back roads really well, and will cruise comfortably at 90mph (conditions and speed limits permitting
) Compared to my previous bike, a Stelvio NTX, I would say the Yam is let down by it's brakes, they do not have the feel and sensitivity like the Guzzi's Brembos, handling on road is as good, but the Guzzi engine has more of an edge to it and sounds better. My only real complaint is the heated grips packing in, I would have expected electrical problems on my Stelvio (had no issues at all), but not on a Yamaha.
So I'm glad I bought the S10, and hope I have as good a time with it as I did the Stelvio.
