GP800 - The First Thousand Miles

I've now covered just over 1,000 miles on the GP800 and I'm starting to feel more "at home" with it. This of course tranlates into more spirited riding and I have managed to both lock up and wheelspin the rear wheel on slightly damp road surfaces. Although the power delivery of a big auto makes it easy to ride in the wet, it doesn't mean you can ignore surface conditions entirely and the two incidents acted as a timely reminder to treat a 260 odd Kilo bike with a bit more respect.

Fuel consumption has averaged a shade under 50mpg in varying conditions and combined with the 200 odd mile range to tank makes this one of the strong points of the bike.

Now we've got a few miles under the wheels I've been opening it up a bit more and performance is impressive both off the line and roll-on acceleration at speed. I think the speedo is wildly optomistic (especially if the GPS tracking by Nokia Sportstracker is accurate) but the bike is quick by any standards - and perfectly stable at speed.

Low points, I still hate the speedo, the mirrors could be better and I'm beginning to wish the saddle was a touch narrower and lower -but that's a problem with my body shape rather than any actual failing of the bike. The only other slight downer is the centrestand tang is sometimes difficult to reach and it's definitely a bit slippy when wet. Having said that, I am finally getting to grips with the sidestand/handbrake combo.

I may have found an aftemarket screen made by Sedcem but I'm awaiting confirmation of availability from Baglux who are the UK importers for Sedcem. If the price is sensible, I'll probably go for it even though the standard screen is better than I first thought.

"Practical and exciting" is a phrase that may have been applied to the Skoda Octavia VRs - but Gilera should have claimed it for themselves. The GP800 remains a winner.