Some of the time I work in Ashford, Kent and this involves a round trip of 185 miles using the M25, Dartford Crossing, A2/M2 and M20. The trip yestrerday provided an excellent test of the GP800 as well as starting to rack up running in miles.
At 05:20, the temperature was barely above freezing and the bike fired up first time and settled into a slightly lumpy tickover without a problem. The first few bars of the temperature guage came up quite quickly and the engine settled down to its sweet burble within a mile or so.
I am aiming to keep the revs between 5,000 and 6,000 for the first 500 miles or so and it soon became apparent that this equates to "normal motorway speeds" of 80ish mph.
The GP800 is unmoved by blustery winds, lane markings or the blast when passing trucks and is supremely comfortable. The mirrors are not a problem if you tuck your elbows in when glancing and the only issues (and I make no apologies for banging on about this) is the b****y
speedometer. It is appalling that someone at VOSA passed this bike through Type Approval in the UK. The MPH readings are completely unusable and this is simply not acceptable on a six and a half grand bike. It's not as if Piaggio are some kind of niche manufaturer, they are the number three seller of bikes in the UK. Other Piaggio products (which all have KMH biased speedos) manage at least a degree of legibility in the MPH markings. I have tippex "blobs" at the salient speeds (thanks JT) but this is not really a proper solution to the problem. In this speed camera encrusted land of ours, this bike needs a properly legible speedo.
OK, rant over. The real bonus of the GP800 is it's "range to tank" - at least 200 miles. I filled up the moment the light came on at 190 odd miles - I calculate that I could go a further 28 miles until completely empty. This is a major plus point for the bike (easily enough to outweigh the speedo issue). My first tank went through at about 54MPG which is brilliant for a bike of this size and performance. Filling the tank requires care through the narrow filler - the first half of the tank fills quickly then your dribbling for the next 7 or 8 litres which does take time - but that's a small price to pay for that kind of range.
The weather on the way back was variable winds and very short sharp showers but (like most scooters) weather protection was significantly better than most bikes.
It's big, comfy, economical and fast - all in all, another big "tick in the box" for the GP800
At 05:20, the temperature was barely above freezing and the bike fired up first time and settled into a slightly lumpy tickover without a problem. The first few bars of the temperature guage came up quite quickly and the engine settled down to its sweet burble within a mile or so.
I am aiming to keep the revs between 5,000 and 6,000 for the first 500 miles or so and it soon became apparent that this equates to "normal motorway speeds" of 80ish mph.
The GP800 is unmoved by blustery winds, lane markings or the blast when passing trucks and is supremely comfortable. The mirrors are not a problem if you tuck your elbows in when glancing and the only issues (and I make no apologies for banging on about this) is the b****y
speedometer. It is appalling that someone at VOSA passed this bike through Type Approval in the UK. The MPH readings are completely unusable and this is simply not acceptable on a six and a half grand bike. It's not as if Piaggio are some kind of niche manufaturer, they are the number three seller of bikes in the UK. Other Piaggio products (which all have KMH biased speedos) manage at least a degree of legibility in the MPH markings. I have tippex "blobs" at the salient speeds (thanks JT) but this is not really a proper solution to the problem. In this speed camera encrusted land of ours, this bike needs a properly legible speedo.OK, rant over. The real bonus of the GP800 is it's "range to tank" - at least 200 miles. I filled up the moment the light came on at 190 odd miles - I calculate that I could go a further 28 miles until completely empty. This is a major plus point for the bike (easily enough to outweigh the speedo issue). My first tank went through at about 54MPG which is brilliant for a bike of this size and performance. Filling the tank requires care through the narrow filler - the first half of the tank fills quickly then your dribbling for the next 7 or 8 litres which does take time - but that's a small price to pay for that kind of range.
The weather on the way back was variable winds and very short sharp showers but (like most scooters) weather protection was significantly better than most bikes.
It's big, comfy, economical and fast - all in all, another big "tick in the box" for the GP800
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