In another life...

Smelling the lupines *

I lived on the Island named for Prince Edward, during a previous life. 

Dennis Motors Ellerslie PEI 

It was not near as pretty then as it is today.

Or... it could be that I have more leisure time and less time spent running a Motorcycle Recreational business and raising kids, and building MX tracks, racing YSR's and running CSC** MC training courses generally.

That was such a different life, I was young, ambitious, full of zest.  I still have those traits but now they are more subdued and I smell the cafe and roses or lupines more often.*

Last Friday I went to Dennis Motors in Ellerslie, to take part in the Yamaha National test ride program.  There were a number of machines I wanted to ride.  Unfortunately the weather was wet and windy for much of the morning and didn't begin to clear off until early afternoon. There were a dedicated group of riders sandwiched between Sean (?) as leader and followed up by Kathy (?) (making sure we were safe and didn't get lost), two of the company's employees.  They had a 23 km course that followed a great mixture of quiet country back lanes and a wee bit of highway 2 for a faster pace.  We rode hill and dale, just enough to give us a pretty good handle on what a machine's capability was like.

The Yamaha van and bikes.

I first rode the R3.

Back in my day, the RD/RZ line of sports machines were great overachievers and the little four stroke twin, although not quite living up to that era... didn't disappoint either.  It's nimble, light and capable of highway speeds.  The seating position is sports standard, easy to adapt to, but not race style with the clip on's under the triple clamp.

I could see myself taking a multi day ride with soft luggage but only after I altered the final drive ratio's some.

The little twin needs an extra tooth or two on the front or 5 less on the rear to make it more versatile, which these smaller bikes that we are being offered today, need. The bike has plenty of "grunt" surprisingly but I was searching for another gear several times.  I saw an indicated 147 kph at one stretch but am quite certain it would pull three figures with taller gearing.  It's not so much the speed factor as it is the comfort level.  Now before you say anything let me add, the engine pulling minimal weight on a windy day, could easily have pulled a taller  gear.  That would have kept the revs down and given the bike a little less buzz. 

The other thing the R3 needs are rear view mirrors that you can actually use.  I quickly got into the habit of pulling in the shoulder I was looking into, to get a glimpse of Kathy riding shot gun.  Would I buy one?  You bet.  I'm somewhat noted as a fond proponent of smaller bikes, after all I have ridden a DT 50 Yamaha throughout the Rocky mountains of B.C. and even Baja, yes, that Baja!

I wish I have had more time to ride them all.

Next up was the MT-07, a bit of a "hooligan" bike really.  Nothing at all like the British twins I lusted after in the 60's but kind of along the same lines.  Although I never lived in Jolly Old nor rode bikes over there, I read a lot of the written literature of leather clad Rockers with their pudding bowls (I did have one of these as my first helmet) pushing the "TON" from one cafe to the other on twisty back lanes.  The 07's engine was a little raspy, certainly gutsy enough and with decent road manners even though it is biased to a price point.  I would immediately alter it's longer ride features by putting on a small chest sized windshield to cut down the fatigue factor.  I would also look at a taller gear for this one as well.  For screwing around on the Island, the shorter gears are more "fun" but in the bigger picture, limiting.

I know it's built for that but I want my bikes to be able to perform across a wider spectrum.  Now for a guy that has 7 motorcycles that are road registered, you may say I'm spoiled but in any case, I look at bikes especially those bikes as having a broader spectrum of capabilities.

On the other hand, unless someone brings out a luggage system, the bike is limited. 

For sheer fun the '07 would rank about 8.9 on the F U N scale.

My third ride was on the "Tracer 900".

Cathy and "Scott" :) on the left. Stop in and say Hi, the Dr sent you!

Unfortunately it was cut short as in my position as the last test rider, I had seen in my rear view mirror the shop's follow up rider (a young woman my own height), tipped over at the T intersection.  I did a very quick 180, but by the time I arrived and put the stand down on the 900, a fisheries (woman) had given Kathy a hand in picking up the bike.

No major damage but again, the bike is tip toe for me and I have been riding twice as long as she has lived :)  It can be a very fine line balancing such a tall bike.

In my short ride on the 900, I can say it too has lots of grunt, is smooth and there is no need to spin up the punchy triple to the red line (but do it anyway, they rip and sound great) For myself I would have to lower the bike but that's the case for most of the bikes I like. 

I wanted to thank Brian and the Dennis Motors team for bringing the van over for us Islanders to try some Yamaha's out.  Good on ya!

DL 650 on rte 12.

 **Canada Safety Council