Further to my recent tyre posting I dropped in to Bulldog Triumph this afternoon to ask the guys to order me a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2 tyres. These come highly recommended in sports touring circles so I thought I’d give Bridgestone a miss this time and try something different.

They had them in stock so I headed off on one of the shop bikes to kill a little time…

Boy is this different!

I’ve never ridden a cruiser before and this one was quite interesting. First of all, there’s a choke! (a what?). Then there’s the footpegs; they’re located where you’d normally find the radiator. The bars are w-i-d-e and pulled back.

Overall, not uncomfortable and does inspire a certain “Easy Rider”-type riding style. The bike only had 200 miles on the clock (and only 60bhp in total) so doesn’t encourage spirited riding. No doubt that you could: after 20 miles or so I started to lean it into roundabouts and started having fun.

Here’s the pilot’s view:

The most disappointing part of the entire package is the exhaust note. Those slash-cut silencers look the business but sound dreadful. My lasting impression was that it sounded like a Superdream (remember them?). It went about as well as a Superdream too.

Overall, a bit like the Bonnie that I tried a while back. Nice to cruise around on in the sunshine, but I wouldn’t want to ride one to Scotland.