Coming to Australia from Germany in 2008 I only owned scooters - Sachs 150, Kymco Downtown 300i, Honda Forza 300 - mostly for commuting. However, the Downtown was big and comfortable enough for a nice tour down the East coast to the Great Ocean Road and back to Sydney through the Grampians and Snowy Mountains. About four years ago I started renting various bikes for weekend tours - Kawasaki Z750, Ducati Monster 1100, Triumph Street Triple R, Ducati 848, Triumph Daytona, BMW S1000RR, Honda VFR800 and Ducati X Diavel. I started with the Z750 because I had a Kawasaki GPZ500 back in Germany and felt it is a comfortable starting point to get back into it.
This year the decision has been made to trade in the scooter and get a bike. Many years I was looking at the BMW R1200R and have to admit when I saw the RnineT in a magazine ad a few years ago, I thought that might become my bike one day.
Anyway, my bike had to have all the good things of the ones I tried so far:
- Character like the Ducatis
- need for more like the Triumphs
- evil feel and torque of the xDiavel
- touring ability of the VFR800
- purity and nudity
- a shaft drive like the BMWs
I can't remember how, but I saw a GRiSO on some web site, test rode one and fell in love on the first 500 metres. For fair play I also test rode the R1200R and was somewhat disappointed - the boxer lacked character
Budget constraints made me travel to Orange to pick up a Black Devil 2014 GRiSO End of July - we rode back to Sydney over the Blue Mountains at 5ÂșC and it was worth it!!!
Since then I put 3000km on the clock and am still loving it - such a great bike.
Stefan
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