So let my share the good news and the bad news- Good news is I love e the bike and even with the corked up exhaust I was very impressed with the torque of the motor. Kinda funny it runs the complete opposite of my RG with the 124. On my 124 I need to run above 3000 rpm's to make the motor happy. On a hot day I will even get pinging under 3000 rpm's and it just doesn't feel right though to be fair, above 3000 it rips like crazy! the new bike with the 117 stage 3 kit has crazy power very low in the revs. Twist the grip at 2000 rpm's (which I am definitely not used to) and the back end breaks loose and power stays on hard up to about 4000 rpm's where it doesn't really like to be much. Everything else about the bike works terrific as well IMO. Love the way the bags and forks lock with the remote fob, stock suspension is hugely improved and overall bike just feels great. Couldn't be happier with the bike!
Bad news is if you have been paying attention to the weather in the Pacific Northwest is is a complete sh-- show! Picked up bike around 3 PM in Bend OR and it was raining but I didn't really worry to much about it other than think how dirty my brand new bike was going to get. About 5 miles in the "freak show" started. Wing gust up to 50 mph with rain like I have never seen in real life (not just rode in). I had to go about 200 miles to get to Medford OR on the CA border and had to go through a 6000 elevation mountain pass. Fog was so bad at elevation I could only try and tuck behind a big truck and not let him get far enough away from me so I couldn't see him while balancing the amount of rain coming off his wheels (not to mention the sideways rain hitting me).
When I finally got to the hotel (very happy to see that place..) and turned on the weather channel I saw what they were calling a "historic storm" for the rest of the weekend all the way down to almost So Cal. JC had put together a amazing route for me and when looking at it, a bunch will be closed to flooding. Even thinking about just jumping on I5 and power down I would have to go through Shasta which was predicting 80 MPH winds and crazy amount of rain.
Long story short I took my bike to the local dealer and am now having it shipped to me as I can't get the time off to go back up and get it.
So after planning this ride for a month and being almost as fired up about the ride as much as the new bike, I am sitting at home without either posting up on the forum...