Pick Up The Bike And Our Stunt Ride Home With First Impressions
Welcome to the family Xiao Lyu, (pronounced in English
shou luh) in English means Little Donkey.
Following our good lady home from the dealership
she was on her little electric scoota and she was slashing through traffic
aggressively like a stars wars fighter scene so it was fun but a little stressy
as we were 2 up with our cases on (wide-ish) and a new bike that I had ridden
only a coupla hundred meters to the workshop and back prior to this.
Being an “efficient rider” (maybe slightly
aggressive) I bought into her riding style pretty quickly, my mirrors were out
of adjustment so I could see all the flights coming into Kunming but not the
swarm of electric scootas jamming themselves through a ½ scoota space on either
side of us, this was daunting at first because of the pace and flow.
After a few minutes of racing I felt pretty comfy
and just had to look left and right to make sure Houdini wasn’t trying an
unexpected maneuver. We made it home safely and in one piece so a major hurdle
past and happy to have Xiao Lyu at home so we can adjust the mirrors, set up
the navigation etc.
We are fitting radiator protection mesh (about $8
kiwi) as Xiao Lyu does not come with anything and a front and rear camera
system hopefully to avoid any dispute should something ugly happen, insurance
fraud from “deliberate accidents” for money is rife here so a good idea to
record it.
First
Impressions, having only ridden a short distance around 25 km we didn’t get to
“quietly” look, learn and listen but comfort wise she is excellent so far.
The ergos I
set it up roughly for me before leaving the shop so some fine tuning with
levers and bar position will be done, this will come with some riding time
under the belt.
The power
delivery is very smooth with no vibration and the wee 450 I believe will be an
absolute pleasure for our travels, it is no power pack but is more than adequate
and very easy to ride even tho she is still as tight as a dutchman having to
pay for something. The factory tires despite looking like Pirelli STR’s which
are reasonably quiet are very noisy but I am not bothered by this, how they
stick to the road is important so time will tell.
Our riding
space on the seats seems very good, we positioned the rear case quite
specifically so Ellen can rest against it given it has comfy back rests.
The footpeg
to seat ratio is fine for both of us, some taller riders remove the rubber
inserts on the rider pegs for more room but being longitudinally challenged I
don’t think I will need to, again time will tell, Ellens ergos are fine.
The 6 inch
colour TFT dash is readable in any light and auto dims when you go through a
dark spot like a tunnel or under an overpass and even the switchgear is
backlit…although I hope not to ever see this as it would mean we are riding at
night which we do not do.
That is it
for now, waiting on the weather to play ball so we can poke some miles on her
and see Yunnan Province.
A small vid for the way home.
