Meteor 350, post – 300 mile service.

For those unlucky enough to be subjected to my original review of this bike on its first ride home here, this is a direct comparison of the general performance now I have completed the initial 300 mile run in and had the first service.

Power!!!!!

Ahem, now I mean top speed here. That can however, be rather subjective. I’ll be totally honest I opened it up on the way into the office this morning, not thrashing it you understand but I took it all the way to 70 on the dual carriageway. With only light side winds we easily passed slower moving traffic. The 55-70mph section of my Speedo really is a bit if a slog. I’m told much of that relates to getting air into the engine, a lot of people seem to be recommending the DNA filters as a replacement for the stock unit. While this won’t improve the actual performance on paper I need to do some investigation if this will invalidate either the warranty or my insurance.

If however, you are heading up a slope with a headwind blowing directly at you…you will not be reaching 70 this day! You could ring it’s neck it you want (I don’t) but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to help you.

Let’s talk torque.

At between 0-50/55 the following scene applies quite strongly.

After that point though and especially in the 60-70 range the following applies.

Obviously this might well change with the rumour of the promised air filter of destiny. But we’re talking stock here.

B road performance.

Ok so in my first commute I mentioned how impressed I was with just how good the bike was tearing up the B roads on my alternate route home. This has increased, the suspension is a little bouncier but the bike just sticks to road however I ride it. You want to go national down the long hedges lined lanes, yup no worries! You want to tackle basic green lanes and tight winding lanes at a decent speed with nice amounts of torque so you can respond to road conditions and oncoming tractors, yup this bike got this!

Engine breaking.

Right, I mentioned last time that this just wasn’t as responsive on engine breaking as I was used to when learning. This has totally changed through the running in process and it’s now much more responsive. Very different level of breaking Vs when I originally got this bike.

But finally…..

Honestly I am really loving the bike and, while it’s not the most powerful offering it has so much heart that I certainly can’t see me changing this for a while!