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You'll find links to other bikes I've run at the bottom of the page... |
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It is also a fantastic allrounder. I found it as happy two-up touring as it was scratching. A couple of light bulbs went pop on me and one clutch was destroyed by excessive speed and standing quarter testing. But apart from that it rolled on very nicely for more than 20,000 miles in my charge. But be warned. A small spill can mean a big bill. A colleague dropped it while sat astride it (testing a "bike dog" a bit of kit which was meant to make moving your bike around your garage easy). It went straight down and the repair bill was over £300. Later that winter another colleague threw the bike down the road. Well it had been snowing! Still, the damage on that occasion was fairly light. The bike was beautifully put together and given that you can get one used for well under £5000 it's got to be a good buy. I ran it on Bridgestone BT56 tyres from choice, though I tried plenty of others. I found they gave a good mix of reasonable wear and good grip. My Blade made 118bhp at the back wheel, which was at the higher end of what you'd expect from this model. It did in a chain and sprockets at the usual 12,000 mile interval. Don't be afraid of a high mileage Blade. The engine is tough! My wife loved the Blade. At five feet four inches tall she thought the pillion position was perfectly comfortable, thanks, and would be happy to sit up back for 300 miles a day, even with soft panniers all around her. My Blade had an interesting life with stunt rider Eddie Kidd taking it for a spin on a TV show, and Isle of Man TT legend Steve Hislop taking it for a furious lap of the 37-mile circuit. It survived everything MCN's road testers threw at it, too. I guess the best recommendation is that if I had to buy a bike today, it would be a FireBlade. You'll find more on Blades at the Motorcycleworld link below and more of my bikes at other links listed |
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