, named Adolph (dearly departed friend, not the other guy).
Called in sick this morning, took the whole day off and and picked up the new 12R. First cleaned up the garage as best I could and put the vehicles on the street so I could introduce Adolf to his brothers (not named, they're only Hondas).
The slick under the 12R belongs to the MG's diff, not the 12R.
I spent a couple of hours on the bike today, solo, with my boy on the CBX and with my bride on the back. Switching between the 12R and the CBX was educational. The CBX is far more comfortable than the 12R. Stepped seats caused by ass ends stuck up in the air look great, but!!! The 12R will force me to maintain correct posture to keep my rear from catching on fire once I leave town. There will be an Airhawk winging its way west very soon.
The CBX has at least 50 lbs. on the 12R, the 12R felt materially lighter; and a lot higher. The CBX actually felt small compared to the 12R, but the 12R had a much lighter, balanced feel to it. The boy; only 5' 9", found the 12R much easier to ride. And once I got my back straight and stopped fighting the forward slant to the seat, the bike basically disappeared underneath me. I'm really going to enjoy it once its broken in!
I do find the seat to peg distance quite tight; I'm 6'2". The 12R just doesn't compare to the CBX in the legroom department. Hopefully the Airhawk will cure this issue. I had debated about the high seat, but chose not to because I didn't want to be another inch higher from both a CG and a wind blast standpoint. Again, the Airhawk will solve this on the highway and, obviously, it doesn't matter around town.
I've got both the sport windscreen and the tall screen; the sport screen is on back order. I've found that the tall screen stuffs all the air up the base of my helmet which makes for a lot of noise, but the protection is fine (at 4K in sixth at least).
I've got a garage full of Hondas, cars (Acura, daughter has our '90 Accord with 250,000 miles on the clock), bikes (you've seen all but the CBR125R) and a lawnmower. I have always been impressed with both the engineering and the build quality. Unlike the Fiat 124 Spider my bride owned; gorgeous design, reasonable engineering, but made of bubble gum. All of the 12R's factory farkles (if that's not an oxymoron) came with complete manuals and a caution to pass the manuals on to the troglodyte that buys the 12R when I finally sell so he/she can be educated too. I bought a pair of City Pants today while the finishing touches were put on the bike and even they came with a manual.
My bride bought a Z4 at the beginning of May and now with the 12R I have to revise my quality standards. The Z4 is not an si and does not have much in the way of options, but there is a lot of stuff that has been thoroughly thought through and eloquently executed (hopefully all of that electronic wizardry will keep working after the warranty expires). I find that the 12R has been cut from the same cloth. There is a material difference between the Hondas and the BMWs.
I opted for the ESA as I will be spending a fair bit of time with my bride on the back. We have also lived under a penny pinching civic government for the last 30 years so our roads are crap. In the first 100 miles I used all three (compression/rebound, not sure) settings more than once and was pleased with the differences. The two helmets made a difference when my bride was on the back, so that appears to work as well.
I opted for the soft bags for all three cases. I was a bit worried about the capacity that they would absorb and they are bulky, so we'll see on the first trip (Jasper Park Lodge). My bride looked at the left case and said "this'll hold my makeup". We then got into a discussion about 4 days per pair of underwear (sea tested on a recent sailing trip!).
In closing, best sick day I've ever had, even the bride was smiling like a peroxide pussycat when we put him in the barn.
First service is 4 weeks out, I'm going to have to find another hobby to keep the miles down!
To repeat an earlier post: YIPPEE!!! (except for the hobby part)
Doug
) and usually do the "loop" Creston -> Kaslo -> Nelson -> Salmo and back over the Skyway.