VOLUME 58 ISSUE 26 JUNE 29, 2021 P109
conditions before I could give it any
endorsement as a great street bike.
Having said that, the suspension is
fully adjustable should you need to
change the damping. A change of
springs would be another consid-
eration, but with this much power,
a stiff analog chassis kind of goes
hand in hand to keep this kind of
brute potency in check.
I like the package as it sits, but
I rest squarely in the club of "if
you're going to need to ride fast,
it's safer to have the very best
performing machine, even if that
makes it less like a Cadillac the
other half of the time."
The seat is perfectly comfy and
possibly a tad higher than one
might expect. The footpegs still
scraped on track, but it's supposed
to be a street bike, after all.
The brakes with Brembo's won-
derful Stylema calipers up front work
well. For track days, I'd probably
swap out the front OEM brake pads
for some more aggressive ones like
the popular but expensive Z04's.
But for daily street and canyon du-
ties the 1200 RS's brakes should be
just fine, and they never faded. The
ABS and linked braking never raised
an eyebrow and the setup was
among the best I've ridden.
The pegs would
still scrape at hard
lean angles for
Mark, but he was
pushing pretty
hard on the track.
Street riding
shouldn't be an
issue.
