wessie

possibly mentioned that already in this thread - I ride on roads in Wales & the Cotswolds that are surfaced with granite chips rolled into wet tar. I'm pretty sure these were responsible for me deciding to change the rear at 3300 miles.

No fun in that! I'd rather die when on the gas than being T boned by some myopic old gimmer who should have sold the Honda Civic and retired his licence a decade ago.

I think your comment about being light on the bars is correct, as well as my advice of leaning forward during hard acceleration. A mate pulled out of a ride today and my 80 mile loop in the Cotswolds was rather more spirited than usual. If your arms are too rigid then it is easy to get an inadvertent throttle opening, especially in A mode. Today, I kept it in std but had the revs very high, seeing some outrageously naughty speeds but kept away from the rev limiter and all was well. On fast bumpy sweepers you do need to be pretty firm with counter steering but this is no different to most Adv bikes with softish suspension that want to pitch and wallow in bumpy corners. I'm not sure what I have to do to get the last cm of chicken strip to disappear on this Roadsmart 2 - I thought I was going to scrape my elbow on one roundabout in a Super Slick roundabout manoeuvre at one point. Still a cm left...

you must feather the throttle everywhere!

that's a bit like asking 6 accountants to predict economic growth over the next 5 years - you'll get 6 different answers. Puig and some other makers have a laminar lip or deflector that clips on top of the stock screen. This will be just like holding your hand to deflect the airflow. I have found this to work for me. Odd looks but it is effective.

She's quite harsh in her language????Especially when going from a gear to neutral and releasing the clutch, like it's not fully disengaging or something. the gearbox is pretty noisy but no worse than some others I have owned and a great improvement on the TDM850 box I had a decade ago

my UK version of the manual says tyre pressures are 36 front, 42 rear, in pounds per square inch this seems to be universal on sports or sports touring bikes whether of Japanese or European manufacture and is the pressure my local dealer set the tyres too, as did the independent tyre fitter I used recently

Did the gearbox speak to you or just whine a bit?

and whilst I'm at it, here is another useful resource from the FIM & ADAC FIM EUROPE MAPS ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.), the Germany's and Europe's largest automobile club, has launched in conjunction with FIM Europe a series of touring maps specially designed for motorcyclists. These ADAC Motorradtouren maps are not meant to replace highly detailed road maps, but are designed to provide tour suggestions and ideas. The maps can be freely downloaded on this page. http://www.fim-europe.com/index.php/touring/european-maps

UK readers of Ride magazine or their annual touring guide may be aware of this resource already. All routes they feature in the magazine are eventually added to this webpage http://www.ride.co.uk/Routes2/ The routes are given in google maps links and GPX file format compatible with Garmin Mapsource, Basecamp and other programs like Tyre. Areas features include the UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Islands of Europe, top 20 passes, a low cost tour, the Maxxis Challenges, MotoGP circuits. There's an email address if you have difficulty with any of the links. I will ask the mods to make this thread a sticky. If you have queries about any area please start a new thread with the area in the subject line.

keep it in 4th gear and let the induction roar and revs drown out the gearbox. I mostly use 6th gear for high speed cruising on foreign motorways (UK speeds plus 33% as you will only get fined not lose your licence) when the engine noise and wind roar through my helmet vents drown it out.

KTM Guards clear my Powerbronze screen on full lock

without photographic evidence we don't believe you

try some Grip Puppies - I have reviewed them on here, so do a search. They do two things that may help. First, which is why I have them, they increase the diameter of the grips making your hold more relaxed and b) they are an extra insulation against vibrations.

I went for a spin - air flow seems good, no excessive noise or turbulence. Took it up to an indicated 120+ on a few occasions. You lose the largest part of the bar end assembly so less dampening weight. Seems to be a a bit of vibration in the bars above 8000 rpm. Whether this is worse than with the OE handguards I can't remember as I don't spend a lot of time at revs that high. It will need a longer journey to tell whether some bar end weights might be needed.

Same here. Bought from http://www.mandsmotorcycles.co.uk/shop/950-990-adventure-closed-handguards-black

Today, I fitted KTM handguards and went for a ride - they work well, review to follow

see the link posted above to BS Motosport in Germany - they will ship worldwide

Not long if it is anything like a mate's experience. He sold an exhaust from his last bike, a Triumph Tiger on Ebay. The buyer was in the boondocks of California. The parcel left Cheltenham in the UK: Home to Tewkesbury Tewkesbury to Bristol Bristol to East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport to Cincinnati Cincinnati to San Francisco San Francisco to Sacramento Sacramento to Pioneer all inside 34 hours! Hope you get the same service

I appreciate you taking the time to relay your experience and priorities. I don't have the tree sap problem at home as I have a garage. The bike bay in my office car park has tree cover and we get a sticky residue, which I think is honeydew from aphids. It's soluble in rain which suggests it is sugary, so soon goes away. I guess we are at different ends of a spectrum as I would never consider a motorcycle as an investment and rarely clean it - it gets a wash when I decide to clean the chain as part of routine maintenance. As I use an auto-oiler, that has only happened twice in 6000 miles as the total loss lubrication system keeps the chain free of dirt as most of the muck gets attached to the oil and splattered onto the back of the number plate.

Fuel gauge is consistent when you get used to it. I don't like the asymmetric LCD blocks though. Psychologically, you may need to get fuel but unless you bike is different to all others, you have an easy 20 miles on reserve and maybe 40 miles if you push your luck like me (well, not really, I was under test conditions with 4 litres of petrol in a can in my topbox)

I ran 40 miles on reserve and got 17.99 litres in the supposed 18 litre tank. 18 litres is 3.95 imperial gallons or 4.755 US gallons

try adjusting the gear lever - it has been found to be set too low for those who do not have feet the size of the average Japanese test dummy. I suspect you are not pushing the gear lever up enough to trip the device that keeps track of the gear changes and there is a "not sure WTF is going on situation" for the ECU

Ten bucks is peanuts to look right for 4000 miles

just buy the black Yamaha one - they aren't expensive. It's not like you should be using one every week...