 |
| It doesn’t happen often, I’m usually the one taking the photos. A student of mine saw me riding in to school from her school bus. |
I’ve been riding the Concours for over a month now. It came to me with a broken speedo reading 25073 miles. Today it’s 25784 on it – 711 miles so far. With some commuting and longer trips in the mix I’m starting to get a good sense of what the bike is capable of.
My most recent refill took me 175 miles and took just over 20 litres to refill (pardon my half imperial/half metric measurements). It looks like I’m getting about 41mpg out of it, which is quite a surprise considering how often I push the RPMs up (it just sounds so good doing it). I’ve been told you can get up near 50mpg if you don’t wring its neck, which should be doable if I’m on a longer road trip, especially if I’m covering miles at speed on the highway, which I never normally do.
The only time I pushed too hard was winding on the throttle when entering a main road a couple of weeks ago. Being so torquey, the Connie broke loose on the back wheel when I rolled on the thottle. I caught it in time but it was exciting! Hooking up the bike and keeping it upright was surprisingly easy, this Kawasaki is remarkably responsive for how big it is. Easing off the throttle and letting the tire reconnect was enough to get me straightened out and launched up the road right quick. Other than that one bit of excitement the Concours has been an easy bike to live with. It handles two up duty well, swallows the horrible roads around here with much better suspension than the Ninja had, and the engine has only gotten sweeter as I’ve started using it regularly.
With the Connie sorted I’ve been working on the rider too. I started working on my weight in February when I was shocked to learn I was over two hundred and sixty pounds. Most recently I was down to 248lbs, which is a 14lb drop, which isn’t bad considering I’m exercising regularly and have put on some muscle as well. I’m aiming for under 240, but I’m going to keep up the exercise and eating choices and just see where it lands me. The goal is still to eventually head off to racing school and not look like a tool in one piece leathers.