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And so it came to pass….my test ride of the Thunderbird! This is the demonstrator standard black apart from the short TORS.
I set off to the dealers on by tba and had a traffic free jouney for most of the way into York (England) picking my way through the villages (B1228) of Melbourne, Sutton on Derwent and Elvington and I thought to myself this Thunderbird is gonna have to be good to match the tba. In short the ride to the dealers was perfect in every way.
I had one hour to put the T’bird through its paces and see what she had to offer. The weather was just perfect (forecast of rain never materialised – do they ever get it right – I mean ever!)!
The look of the bike has been well documented but when I threw your leg over what struck was there was nothing much in front of me. No big spedo, headlamp and spots, the instruments are on the tank and the headlamp more discreet. This was already a different bike before we started our hour long courtship. Even the keys are in a different position, actually the only thing (and the average brakes perhaps) that I don’t like about the tba.
So we are now both fired up and raring to go. The sound in more of a rumble, but you know it is ready to release a thunder storm the moment you command. Out of the dealership and through the town it is amazingly agile and very nippy. Lane splitting and weaving through the traffic is almost effortless. The gear changing is smooth, the power on tap and has the kick of a mule when you need/want it. The brakes are a dream, I mean they are awesome.
Once I had picked my way through town I dropped onto some nice open road (A63) to release the ponies. Winding back the throttle them ponies each gave me a kick in the back – this is a flying machine! I have ridden a few sport bikes in my time and I swear to you this is a sports bike, a sports bike with torque combined with ponies. Now I must confess I am not a passive rider and enjoy pushing the bikes a little. So the A63 was used to test the speed of the T’bird if you see what I mean. It passed the test!
Now for some twisties, I rode along some unclassified roads through Skipwith and down onto the A163 to Bubwith and then back up to Melbourne (the way I came in on my tba). She performed magnificently and rode like the sports bike she wasn’t. At this point I couldn’t get this out of my head – this is every bit as good as any sports bike I have ridden. At one point I even thought about getting my knee down – but I thought better of it!
I was becoming more familiar with the bike. It is easy to ride, and delivers the product on tap, power, breaking, torque and it is so smooth in the process.
