I was stopped at a servo the other day, pouring 98 bang water into the Kato when a bloke standing by his luxury asked me, “Is it comfortable?”
Initially, I saw an irony, he was dancing about waiting for his kin to return from the pisser so he could leave his precious luxury tin top to strain the beans.
The best I could come up with at the time was… “depends, it’s not bad”.
Comfort is a weird concept on bikes, inherently they are uncomfortable things, compared to say … A bed, a sofa or a 5 Series BMW. Bangin’ along in the wind, dust, rain, heat cold (e. All of the above) on a ride does little to qualify in a snuggly comfy rating scale.
Wrists ache, numb bum sets in and toes turn into pinkycicles, the ringing in yer ears reaches screaming pitch and you verge on a road rage incident as you pass a car whose occupants are passing around the Tim Tams.
As you know, I grew up on a 1974 Italian Sports bike, comfort never entered into it. It was just riding, it was… what it was. Stroof, riding an angle iron horse over corrugations would have been cosier than piloting Mario Ducati on North Queensland roads of the late 70s.
I rode off and the question reverberated around in my empty skull for the next 30 klicks or so. Comfort, comfort… Hmmm, it was 12 degrees ambient temperature, at $1.10 the wind chill factor gets us to a bit over 6 degrees. “No mate, it’s not comfortable… It’s friggin’ cold!”
I have the Duck’s Disease seat on the bike and it ain’t no feather pillow. It does encourage me to keep moving about to maintain circulation however. “No mate, the seat’s a bit hard”.
The riding position is pretty good but it’s not like my recliner at home, my riding gear is the best I can get but it’s not uggies, a pair of trackies and T shirt. “No mate, it’s a bit tiring and heavy to wear”.
The wind roars past my ears despite my earplugs. “No mate, it doesn’t help my tinnitus”.
The suspension is amazing… for a bike, it sticks to the road like poo to a doona but it’s not designed for a refined, magic carpet ride like yer car mate.
My riding buddy and I split off the tar onto bumpy back roads then onto fast flowing gravel. ABS off, traction control to ‘off-road’ setting and we were off! The views across the valleys in the clear crisp air of winter were soul enriching and the joy of the bike wriggling about under power, sublime. When we came to a few rougher bits that allowed me to get a bit looser again any thoughts of comfort had evaporated.
The seat was still hard but I was stood up half the time, it was cold but I could take a rest behind the screen, my hands and feet weren’t too cold, they were busy.
No mate, it’s not comfortable, that’s the point, it’s exhilarating who gives a rats buttocks about comfort. This thing’s a missile!
