Gilera GP800 - First Impressions

Here it is at last, my GP800. It's everything I want in a bike. There was a time that I thought that the BMW R1100RS was "it" - and I even thought the Harley-Davidson XL1200S Sportster Sport was "it" once. But know I know for sure, the Gilera GP800 is "it" - the best all round bike (Jeremy Clarkson voice) - "in the world".

Now I've only had this half a day so I'll post more after I've commuted in London on it - and on Monday I'm taking the trip to my office in Kent to see how it does on a longer run.

Downsides so far - apart from the limited underseat storage caused by the fact that being powered by an 839cc V-twin means that over 400cc of that is pointing straight up between your legs.

Only two:

The mirrors aren't particularly well positioned - although small, the size isn't the problem - it's just that my elbows take up a fair bit of the rearward view.

The other one is my favourite gripe about Piaggio - a speedo that does not properly display MPH. For now I've got small strips of tape marking the important speeds but long term (and one way or another), I'm going to get a proper MPH speedo for the GP.