[Applause] welcome to another exciting episode of motorcycle comm TV wait it’s not really TV it’s YouTube uh we’ve got Tom Rodrick lasers on them back from back from the retirement he couldn’t stay away last time we saw Tom he was right well no but he went on the launch for the Yamaha x sr 900 back in 2016 which is a pretty sweet bike it’s a 847 CC triple which made us think it would be a cool thing to test alongside the 2019 monster 1200 s the real excuse for this ride is the de’longhi waited in the NF TR 1200 which is one of the most anticipated bikes of the last couple years I got to ride one in Baja I think back in March but we finally got our hands on bikes to actually ride this time and not on just one but two is when you got the FT R 1200 s model and we have the base version over here 15500 versus $13,500 the S has IMU so it’s got lean sensitive traction control and lean since ninja 300 fairings the braking cornering it’s also got adjustable suspension at both ends and a 4.3 and touch screen TFT which is kind of cool if you’re into that blue phone bluetooth blue hook your telephone up to that and it tells you you know who’s calling and stuff the bass version just has around 1 round instrument like the XS are does is kind of more old-school and kind of more in keeping with the style of the bike I think but if you require the touchscreen you know you’ve got the option that one’s got just it’s got sac suspension as does the S model but it’s not adjustable you’d recognize it by the black fork tubes post the gold ones can you tell us about about the new monster a little bit or should we talk about that later I can talk about it right now let’s talk about it now it’s red as you can see yeah this one is the S model which varies from the base model by $3,000 what you get for the extra $3,000 ro lean suspension different wheels and bigger brakes Stane 1200 cc monstrous honking v-twin beneath that gas tank and beside the frame rails there and yeah that’s the monster 1200 s in a nutshell Tom you have anything to add hi John it’s just nice being back riding motorcycles I don’t own and and of course with what you said yeah if there was one bike I wanted to ride this year that I don’t get to ride you know cuz I don’t do this with a motor yeah full time would be this one absolutely looking forward to ride this FTR because it is a cool bike and alls I’ve done is seen pictures and read about it so far yes we’re gonna turn around the roads up here around Angeles Crest Mount Wilson a little bit Evans you have anything to add to that [Laughter] right on right here we go alright let’s go oh here we are again it’s been it’s been a nice ride all day there’s the part we stare in the Sun and just try to figure out which of these motorcycles wins which one wins Tommy my personal favorite is going to be the least expensive motorcycle here which is the Yamaha $9,500 the bang for buck smiled four mile that thing’s got it you’re gonna say Oh tell me it doesn’t have cruise control and I’m gonna say so what I think that’s the bike to have can I see that we’ve really missed having you around here Evans what’s your favorite motorcycle here well when you get a weasel a little bit and say it’s hard to choose a favorite because they all do their jobs so differently the XS are is the your little puppet part you get it on a super-tight Road and
it is just good it’s about to wet itself it’s so happy it’s fun to toss around it’s lightweight it’s maneuverable I love the engine but then I get on the Ducati and when you get it on the road Rick and really stretch its legs I’m like ooh okay this is the motorcycle I want it’s a sporty spike here it has all of the the sport bike cred it’s got the sportiest riding position I feel the the sporty suspension the sporty is handling get it on like the Angeles Crest with these nice sweeping corners the tight stuff it was pretty fun but it really like places we should get on the gas and that brings me to the FT RS and I really want us to talk about how excited I was when they announced this bike and now that I’m on it I don’t know if I’ve built it up too much or what but it’s not a bad bike it’s I’m just not as excited by one of the neat things I do like about it is the engine has two different characters there’s down low it’s got the grunt of the torque and I found myself in the tighter sections running a gear higher than I thought I would and to sweatin – yeah Chuck its way out of the corners and I really like that but then in the mid-range it sort of gets over IV and doesn’t feel as powerful then you get up in the top in the engine takes off again divided in a couple of different ways but at the same time that’s heavier steering you know which makes sense look at the size of the wheels it’s the heaviest bike here and you feel the weight both accelerating and slowing down so I’m not saying it’s a bad bike I’m just saying it’s it’s not necessarily the bike that I like the most did that answer your question John are you done Troy what’s your favourite bike as a styling exercise which one I like to look at the most the Indians by far I think are the best I’ve seen bikes of the bunch here if I was gonna ride twisty roads I would take the Ducati if I was actually going to buy one with my own money which is very limited it would be the Yamaha because it is the least expensive here but I’m not going to buy any of these bikes so it’s just a matter of which one is the most fun to ride right I don’t know what’s one of my favourite honestly I like things about each of them I love the torque from the Indian I’ve got this character the others don’t have but I like the sportiness of the Ducati and I like takes off and goes so I don’t know it’s it’s a lot of simple question to answer well I was super excited about the FT our you know being on the sidelines as a non-modal journalist any longer definitely excited ride that today food that yeah it’s just it’s a little long it’s a little heavy it’s just not quite up to what I have put in my mind so like you were saying Evans we’re eating alone without these other bikes around again gonna be fine like most motorcycles are but you know it’s got like I always surprised that the foot pigs are actually kind of put back I thought they’re gonna be like right below me like Harley kind of likes to do they’re not as far back as the Ducati here I’ve got a pretty good bend in my knee on this guy so comfort wise I like the comfort of the fpr over this one but I still you know appreciated the seating position on the Yamaha more so John I got the feeling that you didn’t agree with our assessment I didn’t agree with you guys at all number one it’s a street tracker it’s built for going around town and being in an urban environment more than Indian so it’s so cool I actually didn’t think it would work as well in these tight roads as it as it did I was curious about those tires he’s super tight stuff it’s like car states all over the place what I’m saying is it’s the first year American motorcycle it’s her sport bike it’s Indians first sport bike and I expected it would have some serious flaw or one two or three flaws and I don’t find any any flaws in that motorcycle the way the power is delivered the way 2007 zx6r fairings you come off second gear corners and has a big lump of like a 70 pound feet of torque at like 3,000 rpm it has even more download than the monster does and Ducatis had quite quite a bit of time to perfect that thing true and but I wouldn’t call that a sport bike I would call this guy a sport bike well it hangs with that guy no no not really yeah I think I think it does I think so let’s go back again the other American company that made a streetable flat tracker ish model I will not say names to protect the guilty his initials are harley-davidson it was less than an optimal motorcycle look I’ll put it that way no this is a different companies take on a big black biker and it’s badass for a first effort for India we’re a streetable flat tracker this ending is cool it does what it was designed to do but it didn’t knock my socks off exactly I like the bike but of this assemblage of motorcycles here it wouldn’t be my first choice it’ll be your first choice that’s nice wins it’s a heart and a wallet thing the Ducati really really pulls my heartstrings the right way but I get on that Yamaha and think about all the extra money I had save I’ve always loved a monster but I’ve seen it before I’ve seen this movie before and the Indian is so fresh and new I guess they keep turning out the monsters because people keep buying them on I mean it’s kind of hard fine it’s kind of hard when galoot see comes out with the original monster and it looks so good from the start yep you really changed that basic silhouette much you’re gonna get a lashing I mean it’s not ricotta’s fault it’s just you know the monster is an iconic bike what do you do i I think if it’s me I’m gonna buy something a little bit more original but that’s just me if you had to go somewhere these are not really made to be travelling motorcycles much but if you wanted a sport tour here come throw some stuff on the back which which which of these would you would you prefer I don’t know John which one has cruise control oh that’s funny that you brought that up both the Indian the base model which is only 13 5 has built cruise the S model also of course has cruise control so if you found yourself having to go to you know San Francisco or somewhere stuck on the 101 for 3 or 40 miles that baby there the Indian has a couple things that I might want to you know improve upon but look for a first year effort I’m super impressed and the thing is it makes it makes 112 horsepower and it makes about 80 foot pounds of torque and if you look at the torque curve it’s a little bit above
the Ducati at first then it dips below the Ducati then it catches back up to the Ducati all the way to like 80 600 rpm where the Ducati are both making like 112 horsepower and that’s where the Indians done that the Ducati revs on another couple thousand rpm and gets to 132 horsepower so that tells me that Indian may left a little bit in the tank for a future sporty-er version of that and that’s gonna be a super impressive bike – I’m thinking but we’re talking about the potential for an arm model yeah that that would be maybe a sport version of that with 17-inch wheels and then we’ll have to revisit this we free when the XS are just for the wild card I haven’t been on one since the f09 two or three years ago and they never really did quite get the suspension sorted on that where the fueling was better but it was never quite right and on the XS are they got everything dialed I mean this thing loves to go around corners and the fueling is really good too and it makes hundred and two horsepower when I pitched Yamaha on including the XS are in the shootout I said that I wanted to show what people would be giving up with the less expensive bike what they you know what they would have and what they would have to give up when compared to these more expensive bikes and ironically it’s come in and performed really well surprisingly well and hats off to Yamaha I’m really surprised at the XS re I expected it to be like a clothes store and stable and be making excuses while it costs so much less and it’s got that’s displacement really um it’s either first or second in my book right now if any on my movie well if you think about it too you might be giving up cruise control on the Yamaha but you do have adjustable suspension on this $9,500 bike which you don’t have on the $13,500 Indian Plus you can actually get to motorcycle fairings the screws on the top of the suspension to adjust it where on the FTR you’ve got to count almost remove the handlebars so you know there’s that little issue I don’t think I’ve ever seen you adjust any suspension the whole time I’ve known you I pay somebody to do that but um another thing that’s cool about this Yamaha it’s got really excellent fit and finish like brushed aluminum colored tank with clear coat over it and these cool little little deep details all over it it doesn’t look like it doesn’t look look like the cheap bike here not only inspected the so um the FDR wins I think that’s it strap I think we’ll have to go to the scorecard on this one if you liked the video click on like if you don’t like we’ll try harder next time go to motorcycle comm to read the whole story
