120km/h overtaking is comfortable and it will
ease on up to 140-plus reasonably briskly.
Of course, this isn’t a bike for high speeds
and its forté is relaxed cruising in the 90 to
120km/h range. Around town the power is
excellent. Its heavy flywheel and high torque
nature mean stalling is unlikely, and allows
for flexibility in gear choice when rolling. It’s
comforting to know there’s always a modest,
but reassuring, surge of power even at quite
low revs when needed. Two levels of traction
control (and off) and engine modes are just a
flick of a switch away. While helpful in theory,
TC is mainly just a nod to the PC brigade on
this bike… after all, it has a lovely tractable
power delivery and as always, the throttle
goes both ways.
INTERESTING MIX
I found the handling on the Rough an
interesting mix. The general handling once
underway is of a nicely solid, planted feel
with accurate steering and decent agility. I
like it, you can flow along comfortably in the
knowledge this Guzzi will go where you point
it easily, with little fuss and nothing is likely
to upset its preset course – even when you’re
not really paying much attention while taking
in the view. The only downside is it feels
heavy-ish on the nose when manoeuvring
at low speed, and it takes a little more effort
through the bars when performing U-turns
and the like than might be expected on a
bike this size. I put this down in part to the
large off-set between the steering stem and
the forks… I think if Guzzi reduced the offset
to, say, that of the new V85TT (which steers
beautifully), then the steering would lighten
up nicely with no detrimental effects.
The suspension action at both ends fits in
to the ‘OK’ category. The non-adjustable,
conventional-way-up forks are soft under
braking, but this isn’t really a problem
because they are very compliant in feel and
the front-end is nicely planted. In general
riding the forks never bottomed out and
the feedback through the bars was always
comfortable and secure – just right for the
Rough’s intended use.
KIWI RIDER 61