J_Scott
07-29-2007, 05:22 PM
We did this ride a little while ago while my bike was getting some service done, however, I only got around to uploading the pics today. Jeremy at John Valk lent me a 2004 Multistrada 1000ds for the weekend. Ugliest bike on the planet? True. However, it's definitely a bike that you'll fall in love with and soon realize that true love is blind.
So we headed out with my girl's parents so they could get a ride in with their new bike, a 2004 BMW F650GS. Not wanting to put too many KM on a demo bike we just did a short 400km round trip, which soon clearly was too short of a ride. Barely 5 minutes from the dealership I started thinking of ways that I could buy this bike. Savannah was comfortable in the back, our luggage was neatly tucked into the hard bags and there was no painful 115 db exhaust barking at me out of every twist of the throttle. Acceleration was smooth and resulted in some unexpected wheelies (in front of the girl's parents no less ;))
After heading out on the ferry we decided to run down some of the twistier bits out towards Port Renfrew. The bike handled like a dream even being fully loaded, the only complaint I had was the center stand really dragged in the corners and slowed me down to the point I really wasn't having too much fun in the tight stuff. However, this annoyance would be easily solved by removing it as they've done with the newer Multi's, as well as increased cornering clearance.
The bike's bags held more than enough for our weekend trip and with an added tailbag would be sufficient for longer getaways. They were also quite easy to pack and went on and off the bike with ease.
While the ride wasn't the longest or providing us with the best roads, the trip was quite the experience just to try out a different bike, which was clearly more suitable for our style of riding.
Basically, it would have been a hell of a lot more fun with more time to explore the island, but it was great to get a taste what this bike is capable of.
So we headed out with my girl's parents so they could get a ride in with their new bike, a 2004 BMW F650GS. Not wanting to put too many KM on a demo bike we just did a short 400km round trip, which soon clearly was too short of a ride. Barely 5 minutes from the dealership I started thinking of ways that I could buy this bike. Savannah was comfortable in the back, our luggage was neatly tucked into the hard bags and there was no painful 115 db exhaust barking at me out of every twist of the throttle. Acceleration was smooth and resulted in some unexpected wheelies (in front of the girl's parents no less ;))
After heading out on the ferry we decided to run down some of the twistier bits out towards Port Renfrew. The bike handled like a dream even being fully loaded, the only complaint I had was the center stand really dragged in the corners and slowed me down to the point I really wasn't having too much fun in the tight stuff. However, this annoyance would be easily solved by removing it as they've done with the newer Multi's, as well as increased cornering clearance.
The bike's bags held more than enough for our weekend trip and with an added tailbag would be sufficient for longer getaways. They were also quite easy to pack and went on and off the bike with ease.
While the ride wasn't the longest or providing us with the best roads, the trip was quite the experience just to try out a different bike, which was clearly more suitable for our style of riding.
Basically, it would have been a hell of a lot more fun with more time to explore the island, but it was great to get a taste what this bike is capable of.