Have I Said How Much I Like This Bike?

Had another great weekend of riding the Versys - back and forth to my job as a motorcycle riding instructor.

On Saturday morning - I am sure glad I adjusted my headlight for maximum distance - I was headed into work in a light rain. As I rounded a blind corner, there was a dead hog lying right smack dab in the middle of my lane. I simply leaned the bike over the other way and swerved right around the dead carcass of a couple of hundred pounds of porker just lying there. It's the start of hunting season, so it might have been a wounded one that made it to the road and died.

There was no drama at all from the bike, just immediate response to what I wanted it to do.

Have I ever mentioned this bike is . . . . .

F U N ! ! !

While I was on break during class, I took the bike out on the training range and found that it will turn very, very tight U-turns, stop very quickly and I can ride just about any exercise on the Versys and make the same kind of tight turns as I can on one of the training bikes. About the only difference is that the Versys sits very nicely, has a whole lot more power and will cruise right along.

Speaking of that, I had a very interesting happening on the way home Sunday afternoon. As I was riding along my favorite road on my commute - a country road that has lots of curves (in a Florida sense) that runs smack dab through the southern end of the Ocala National Forest, state highway 42, I came up behind a group of Harley-Davidsons just putting along at 45 to 50 mph. As they came to the next curve, all I could see was a bunch of brake lights coming on.

That particular curve opens out into an adequately long straightaway and as I ran through the curve, I saw an opportunity to pass the entire group, so I did. No downshift was made, I just rolled the throttle on and the little bike that can simply started to accelerate - actually pretty quickly. Being a bike of pure "Stealth" without any accompanying "Safe Noises of Loud Pipes" the Harley riders could not react and try to close off my pass. I simply passed the entire group in the passing area. At the end of the passing area was another curve, a nice gentle sweeper. I was slightly in exess of the ticketable speed limit on the road, but just pressed the bar and the Versys leaned over and around the curve I went. I slowed back down to the speed I know no LEO would ever write a ticket for and continued by cruising along the curves of the road and having fun.

When I came into one of the agressive areas in the road, I noticed one of the H-D riders had closed on me and I thought he might try a pass to even the score. Well, I just upped the ante a bit and ran the speed up a bit on the Versys - still no where near the handling limit of the bike and rode the curves like Matt Maladin would. After about 4 of them, I noticed the H-D lights had dropped back quite a distance. When I came up to the stop sign, the rider came up alongside me and gave me a military style salute. Then he gave me a thumbs up

and then he said, "Nice riding!"

Yep, the Versys is a lot of fun!

Looking forward to seeing just what this little motor that can will do!