Mike Griffith

Well, mine's a red one and as soon as it stops raining for 5 minutes I'll nip out and take a few photos.
During 3 years of running my S2R 1000, I always said it was the best bike I'd ever owned, but the 1100 EVO has now taken over. Its just as brilliant as I expected only more so.
Picked it up from Woods on Friday afternoon and went out early this morning to put a few miles on it. A good run down Nant y Garth and over to Cerrig y Dridion and home just as it started to belt down.
So, here are some of my observations after the first 100 miles;

1. The riding position has changed. On the S2R you were sort of stretched out across the tank in a bit of a cafe racer position. On the new bike your weight is very much more over the front. This makes it much more responsive to steering input. Instead of setting it up for the corners and going smoothly round, you can now flick it and stand it up and change direction. So responsive.
2. Despite the minimal screen, there was no excessive wind blast, at least up to about 85mph (I am running it in). Actually seemed less buffeting than on the old bike.
3. Front and back suspension is certainly not as compliant as the S2R. ie feels a bit solid and can be pretty uncomfortable over bumps. The advantage of this is that it doesn't bounce and wallow in bumpy corners like the old bike did. It steers and handles superbly on smooth tarmac.
4. Front fork compression damping range is 3 turns. It was set on about 2 turns up from full soft when I got it and I have turned this down a bit to 1 turn up from soft. This has made a slight difference over bumps which there are plenty of around here.
5. I've had a look at the rear shock but have not yet worked out what the accessible adjuster does. There does appear to be a second adjuster but that is completely inaccessible.
6. Component quality and standard of the machine is just superb.
7. It makes a fine sound without being excessively loud.

That's all for now.
MikeG