It rides pretty well depending on the road surface you're on. On a smooth road, it rides better than most 2 wheel motorcycles. You can definitely feel the "crown" in a road as well as all the lumps and bumps. Roads with troughs worn in them, are a challenge to find the highest points in them to ride upon. Kind of like staying out of the ruts on a dirt bike. The front end damps like a typical motorcycle. The rear however, lets you feel every little irregularity in the pavement.

 

Since there is no lean whatsoever...you take the smoothest visual path through any turn or corner. Hanging your rear end over the seat to the inside of the corner aslo helps rid any feeling of tipping. Would be interesting to see how many lateral "G's" this thing could pull. Lumpy pavement in the corners are a handful and it likes to shake its handlebars when these type of corners are encountered. The handelbar shakes also occur when accelerating out of a turn or at some of the lower speeds. Tire pressure is my suspect at this point. The pressure was very low in the front tire today. I'm sure it could also use a steering damper.

 

This was the last ride for a while though. It ate it's bearings tonight and I manged to limp it home after letting it cool for a few minutes. It was losing power and smoking a good bit. Lot of noise coming from down low. The guy I got it from said he thought it might have a rod bearing going bad in it. Several of them now! Are the bottom ends of these engines weak? If so, is it from oil pump failure or lack of oil flow to the bearings? Considering another engine instead of tearing this one apart if I can locate one.

9/14/2005  Bill