16-04-2011, 07:09 PM
(16-04-2011, 03:32 PM)Retired Wrote: Can you change gear quietly? I never mastered it as I always ended up with a solid clunk. Did you master the gear change David?
The gearbox on mine was really positive and smooth.
I bought it from Alan Jeffries as a 'retirement present' to myself in 1994. It was a 1989 bike with 4,000 dry miles, and like new. I made quite a lot of improvements to it, such as fitting panniers and a top box. It rarely saw the rain and when I sold it in 2008 it had done just 17,000 miles - just under 1,000 a year in the 14 years I owned it, which was the reason it really had to go. I've been so very busy since I retired, that I found few days when I could just go off on a frolic for a day on the moors, with so many other things to do.
Although in motorbiking circles the R80RT tends to be seen as the motorbike equivalent of the Morris Minor, it used to go like the wind, and 0-60MPH was just over 4 seconds. It would purr along all day cruising at 70, and with the tall screen and full faring, had great protection from the wind and rain. During the time that I owned it, I was both a magistrate and chairman of an NHS Ambulance trust. This had a very sobering effect on my driving style, as I neither wished to end up in court nor the back of an ambulance, apart from the fact that I'm too old to have an accident and too young to die! I'm away from home just now, but when I get back tomorrow, I'll try to post a couple of pics of the bike, which was a sort of gunmetal colour.
Happy days!
David
