Its now been over a month since I sold the SV. The saying is correct “You’ll miss it, when its gone”. Its true, not having a motorbike in my life made me feel like something was missing. After putting it off for as long as I could, I started looking for a new bike.
I made it clear to
myself that the next bike was going to be under 600cc. I’m not the
fastest rider and I’ve always had a soft spot for small capacity
engines. I enjoyed my MZ ETZ 125 Saxon Sportstar and a Honda
CBF125 when I was younger.
I’ve also admired the cafe racer style since those 125cc days as
well. Getting a Suzuki GS500E with clip-on style handlebars
and bar end mirrors was a massive achievement for me back in 2011. It
was the closest to a cafe racer I could get. So with small capacity
and cafe racer on my mind off to the internet I went.
After
trawling the internet and watching as many bike reviews as possible I
shortlisted a Kawasaki Z400, Yamaha MT-03 and Honda
CB300R. The reviews for these bikes were the usual “Great for
A2 licenses or experienced riders looking for something a bit more
practical”. OK, so suitable for everyone then? Don’t get me wrong
there are good review websites out there but this was the message I
was getting from most of them and they didn’t tell me much more. So
grab a hat, put them all in, and pick one? This nearly happened but
then I randomly came across a bike I’d never heard of but the
criteria for what I wanted was right there, small capacity and cafe
racer styling. This bike was the SWM Gran Milano 440.
 |
| SWM Gran Milano 440 😀 |
Sexy
right. No matter which angle you look at
the bike, it looks good. And
I have never seen a bike pull off copper gold like
this bike. The
Italians know how to
design respectable looking motorbikes. After
looking at the bike for far to long
I showed the bike to the
future wife and her reaction was;
“Oh,
that’s nice. I prefer that to the Honda. I like the
colour as well”. And
that was my decision made for which motorbike to test ride. I
found an SWM dealership 35 minutes away, on one of my favourite roads,
the
B5013. I took that as a sign and booked a test ride straight away.
The Test Ride
I loved every minute of it! Pulling out of the dealership and getting up to 50-60mph (80-96kph) was surreal as the bike didn’t want to rip my arms off, like the SV1000 did on numerous occasions, and hitting the first bend came up faster than expected but I pointed the bike in the direction I wanted it to go and it went round without any hesitation. It made me realise how much wrestling I had to do on the SV. The Gran Milano felt effortless, it handled like a 125cc with nearly 4 times the power on tap. I felt I was over correcting a lot but I put that down to getting use to the bike.
It took a few corners to get a feel of what gear the bike liked being in going through the bends. I think I was over cautious to be honest and was always selecting what felt like the wrong gear. After a couple more bends, an up hill straight and a frantic wave to a passing motorcyclist, I pulled in at one of the car parks next to Blithfield reservoir to the delight of the bird watchers. After a fight with finding neutral, and some nasty stares, I turned the bike around and left the Bill Oddy crowd behind. This was a quick test ride but my mind was already made up about this bike.
The ride back was much better, I was more comfortable with the gears and even got to overtake a car. Admittedly the overtake was downhill but the Gran Milano leaped up and flew passed with a lovely bark coming from the pipes. What I have failed to mention is the massive grin on my face I had through all bends and straights on this test ride. When you’re shouting “I’m ******* loving this!” into your helmet mid-corner you know the bike as sold itself to you.
Within minutes of getting off the bike I signed on the dotted line for the bike to be mine. Some paperwork needs to be sorted with the DVLA, and with the COVID-19 issue currently going on that is not happening very quickly, so the waiting game starts. Once I have the keys i'll be sure to post a blog about the first ride as an owner. Stay tuned.
Keep an eye out on Twitter as I am hoping to up my game on that platform with more content. Once I get the bike 😆
Ride Safe & Eat Cake! 🍰
Lardy 🧈