Well then, first up sorry for the delay in getting these blogs to you, being a bit hectic at Kerrang would be an understatement, but i also had the fun of having some technology mishaps at home, and then to cap it all my housemate decided to take my mobile phone with him on holiday…….to Marbella……when it had all my notes and pictures on for these two bikes…..I wouldn’t mind but the phone came back from Marbella with a better tan than I have!
So what have I been up to the last week?? Well I have been conducting a very interesting experiment!!!
First up, having got everything now sorted, I will hopefully be going back to updating these Diaries in the way I intended, much more regularly, and focusing more on the adventures I have on bikes, and the enjoyment i get from them from just being a few review pieces!
Also my lovely Sponsors at Express Insurance have managed to sort me out not only with a handheld HD camera to film the Diaries, but also a rather cool on board camera for whichever bike I park my ass on, to allow you to actually hear, see and hopefully get a feel of what each bike is like to ride. I will endeavour to start the video Diaries next week having just got all the gear set up, and I cant wait to get cracking!
So with all that excitement out the way, what about the bikes I have been riding for the last couple of weeks?? Well having become accustomed to the grandiose luxury of some rather nice Harleys over the last few months, and having documented at length the way in which they differ from other bikes i.e. it’s more a lifestyle thing, and how they attract so much attention, so I thought it would be good to take one and go head to head with something completely different for a week. So the other day I took delivery of the lovely shiny and very CHIPS looking Harley Davidson Road King AND I also picked up a rather cool looking, entry level Yamaha XJ6 with the idea being, here I would have one bike that's perfect for long cruising comfortable journeys, and one that is what most learners would be looking at for their first bike when they pass their test, and therefore an awesome commuter bike, and compare how they ride on a daily basis……I’m not comparing the bikes against each other as such, more like finding out what they work best for.
First up, what’s the tail of the tape??
Well cost wise the Harley weighs in at a whopping £15,050, which would make a large dent in anyone's wallet, and means it is priced above pretty much all else in terms of bikes, way above say the £12k Triumph Rocket 3, while the XJ6 is a meagre £5,555 otr, or £5,900 for the ABS version I had, and also comes at the moment with 0% finance over 36 months at Streetbike with only a £99 deposit………….now that is cheap!
Engine wise the XJ6 diversion has a retuned version of the Yamaha 600cc unit that is also in the Diversion model, and comes from an old R6 lump, while the Harley has a whopping 1584 twin cam plant at its centre, and both have newly designed frames and tweaked this and that, with the Road King knocking out 65 BHP, and the little Yamaha a whopping 77 BHP.
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