RUST magazine: RUST #44

HEriTAGE
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You can tell from those figures that
the development has been in creating
a torquey long-legged beast. It’s no
rev-hound, it punches strongly right
off the bottom and frankly it’s so strong
it could survive quite easily 99% of the
time with just the first four ratios. Fifth
and sixth gears are like overdrive, for
super-relaxed fast-ish touring. It’s not
brutish, though, there’s refinement and
wonderful smoothness that goes with
this power. It is very much a tour de
force.
Curiously, though – and I stand to
be frog marched to a wall and shot for
this – I have this feeling that the T120’s
little bro’, the 900cc T100, is the better
Bonnie! I recall riding the T100 Street
Scrambler a couple of years back (see
RUST #32) and that motor is just so
peachy, for it too has good torque, but,
it feels, just the right amount. The T120,
meanwhile, hits hard in the low-tomidrange,
like a power cruiser, and that
doesn’t feel to fit quite so well with the
style of this bike. It’s lovely to have, and
it means you can annihilate pestering
cars at the tweak of a wrist, but it seems
to impose its personality a little too
willingly. For best enjoyment I found I
would simply short-shift smartly up to
the speed limit and then let the bike just
waft along on very little throttle from
there, typically that’s in fourth gear. It’s
an odd thing to ask for less power (or
torque) but I think this bike could be
better for a more even power/torque
distribution.
IT WILL TURN…
The big motor makes the T120 heavier.
It’s 224kg before you put fuel in
(whereas the T100 is 213kg), and you
kind of feel that just pushing it around.
You are, I guess, getting an awful lot of
metal for your money. Fortunately once
you get moving that weight, being fairly
low, disappears. Kind of. You see there’s
a slight resistance when you initiate
cornering, like it doesn’t want to tip in.
I WAS BUZZING IT HARD –
WHICH IT RESPONDED TO
WITH ABSOLUTE EASE,
IT’S ONE SOLID LAST-
FOREVER KIND OF MOTOR
You get a feeling of a long heavy barge
(to be crude – it’s honestly not that bad,
but I’m trying to create a picture here)
and certainly it doesn’t feel like it’ll spin
round on a sixpence. And yet once you
start turning it’s all-good, it feels stable,
tracks dutifully and there are no dramas.
Just for that first instant you feel a sense
of reluctance.
That aside, as said, it’s all-good.
104
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