TVS 961... FIRST RIDE IMPRESSIONS.

961al

961al

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My new TVS 961 arrived at the week end, and today the weather was good enough to take it for its first spin. After having a test ride on one a couple of months back -which left me very impressed- i was nervously excited wondering if all would be as good. Please remember that i had owned a donington 961 for 8 years... and i DO realise this IS the first ride on my new bike ... Started first time, just as easy as any other bike. Warming up, the engine was VERY quiet-no evidence of the famous clatter, or of the 'whine' the test bike had. Into first gear with only a slight clunk and off we go with a beautifully smooth clutch and throttle. Through the gears and every one ultra smooth... perfect fuelling ... and the bike is still relatively cold... Through the 30 limit and the bike runs beautiful ... no snatchy throttle.. no problems at all. We are now out on open roads... i can rev it to 3 n half which is 60 in top gear...engine feels great !.. very little vibration, no mirror blurr... just a fabulous rumble and the exhaust sounds brilliant ! Very much like an air cooled ducati monster with termi's. We approach a set of lights... down the gears, no crunching, and pull to a stop... no surging and the bike idles steadily at 1200 RPM. Setting off and there's no clutch screech and again it pulls smoothly through all the gears. Round a few corners and the bike handles perfectly for me, suspension smoothing out potholes...obviously only going up to 60...but still giving great feedback. For the 45 mile ride, the bike ran/felt 100% start to finish... nothing stopped working or dropped off... YES I KNOW its only the first 45 miles, but this has given me total confidence in the bike- which i never had with my previous 961... and with a growing dealer network and 2 year warranty. Just to say, this is MY personal impressions of the 2 TVS 961's i have ridden-both fabulous- so i am not taking sides with anyone (LOL) Hope this helps anyone who has interest in a new 961... Regards, AL.
TVS 961... FIRST RIDE IMPRESSIONS.
 
961al said:
seriously, you need to ride one Nigel.....
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I tried mate, but the demo was out and booked up for the day when I went to my local, which of course, is a very good sign in itself.

I will try again before the weather turns.

Hopefully it’ll have decent mileage on by the time I do ride it, which should make it even better by all accounts.
 
Fast Eddie said:
I tried mate, but the demo was out and booked up for the day when I went to my local, which of course, is a very good sign in itself.

I will try again before the weather turns.

Hopefully it’ll have decent mileage on by the time I do ride it, which should make it even better by all accounts.
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i can only think how amazing its gonna be, if it does get better with more miles... cos it feels bloody great now !
 
Taking one for a test on Saturday morning from Oakmere Motor Group , hope the weather stays ok. When I asked the fella at Norton how long I could keep it for he said around one to one and a half hours. I told him I wouldn't need that long to see if it was an improvement over my 15 Sport. :)
 
961al said:
My new TVS 961 arrived at the week end, and today the weather was good enough to take it for its first spin. After having a test ride on one a couple of months back -which left me very impressed- i was nervously excited wondering if all would be as good. Please remember that i had owned a donington 961 for 8 years... and i DO realise this IS the first ride on my new bike ... Started first time, just as easy as any other bike. Warming up, the engine was VERY quiet-no evidence of the famous clatter, or of the 'whine' the test bike had. Into first gear with only a slight clunk and off we go with a beautifully smooth clutch and throttle. Through the gears and every one ultra smooth... perfect fuelling ... and the bike is still relatively cold... Through the 30 limit and the bike runs beautiful ... no snatchy throttle.. no problems at all. We are now out on open roads... i can rev it to 3 n half which is 60 in top gear...engine feels great !.. very little vibration, no mirror blurr... just a fabulous rumble and the exhaust sounds brilliant ! Very much like an air cooled ducati monster with termi's. We approach a set of lights... down the gears, no crunching, and pull to a stop... no surging and the bike idles steadily at 1200 RPM. Setting off and there's no clutch screech and again it pulls smoothly through all the gears. Round a few corners and the bike handles perfectly for me, suspension smoothing out potholes...obviously only going up to 60...but still giving great feedback. For the 45 mile ride, the bike ran/felt 100% start to finish... nothing stopped working or dropped off... YES I KNOW its only the first 45 miles, but this has given me total confidence in the bike- which i never had with my previous 961... and with a growing dealer network and 2 year warranty. Just to say, this is MY personal impressions of the 2 TVS 961's i have ridden-both fabulous- so i am not taking sides with anyone (LOL) Hope this helps anyone who has interest in a new 961... Regards, AL.
TVS 961... FIRST RIDE IMPRESSIONS.
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That was great to read ! No evidence of the infamous clatter , superb... No judder from the clutch on take off either ! Your bike looks fabulous . Thanks for posting .
 
peebee said:
Taking one for a test on Saturday morning from Oakmere Motor Group , hope the weather stays ok. When I asked the fella at Norton how long I could keep it for he said around one to one and a half hours. I told him I wouldn't need that long to see if it was an improvement over my 15 Sport. :)
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love to hear an honest review thanks
 
peebee said:
Taking one for a test on Saturday morning from Oakmere Motor Group , hope the weather stays ok. When I asked the fella at Norton how long I could keep it for he said around one to one and a half hours. I told him I wouldn't need that long to see if it was an improvement over my 15 Sport. :)
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Oakmere is where i had the test ride and also where i bought my bike.... before they became Norton dealers, they were Car dealers only, so they're still 'learnin the ropes' with Norton... but Simon the salesman was brilliant -very friendly,efficient and helpful (but aren't they all when they're sellin you something..lol) If you ride the same test bike as me, it'll be interesting to see how it sounds/feels/rides after further rider 'abuse' since i rode it...(BX23 HXL) ..Please keep us posted . Regards, AL.
 
peebee said:
Taking one for a test on Saturday morning from Oakmere Motor Group , hope the weather stays ok. When I asked the fella at Norton how long I could keep it for he said around one to one and a half hours. I told him I wouldn't need that long to see if it was an improvement over my 15 Sport. :)
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Did you do the test ride ?

If so, how was it ??
 
Test rode BX23GVA at Oakmere on Saturday morning. What’s it like, well clutch and brakes excellent as was the handling and the overall feel. Very responsive throttle and sounds great although I feel my 961 (2016 sport) with long opens de-cat lamba sensors removed sounded better.
This particular bike had done 566 miles and the primary was noisy, started a couple of the others up and they were less so. Owning my 961 from new they are taught until you get some miles on the clock. Would I buy one Yes but part exchange prices are not good as I was offered £7250 against a new one in March and I must have upset them because I never got a salesman’s card at the end.
Overall the people who test rode them liked them as I do and the salesman said they were only building 250 so get your order in. Marked out of 5 I’ll give it a 4 1/4
 
DODGY DEN said:
Test rode BX23GVA at Oakmere on Saturday morning. What’s it like, well clutch and brakes excellent as was the handling and the overall feel. Very responsive throttle and sounds great although I feel my 961 (2016 sport) with long opens de-cat lamba sensors removed sounded better.
This particular bike had done 566 miles and the primary was noisy, started a couple of the others up and they were less so. Owning my 961 from new they are taught until you get some miles on the clock. Would I buy one Yes but part exchange prices are not good as I was offered £7250 against a new one in March and I must have upset them because I never got a salesman’s card at the end.
Overall the people who test rode them liked them as I do and the salesman said they were only building 250 so get your order in. Marked out of 5 I’ll give it a 4 1/4
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1/ yes i too thought my old 961 sounded better with short open pipes and decat... obviously due to the decat- but my new TVS 961 has a 'crackle' on the over run that my old one didn't have. 2/ The test bike i rode (BX23 HXL) had a pretty quiet engine, apart from a whirring sound,- much quieter than my old 961. My new TVS 961's engine is even quieter- but i've only done 80 miles. 3/ yes they offer very poor part exchange values- the ' extra £750' offer is a joke ! 4/ only building 250 bikes ? Does that mean EVER ??
 
961al said:
1/ yes i too thought my old 961 sounded better with short open pipes and decat... obviously due to the decat- but my new TVS 961 has a 'crackle' on the over run that my old one didn't have. 2/ The test bike i rode (BX23 HXL) had a pretty quiet engine, apart from a whirring sound,- much quieter than my old 961. My new TVS 961's engine is even quieter- but i've only done 80 miles. 3/ yes they offer very poor part exchange values- the ' extra £750' offer is a joke ! 4/ only building 250 bikes ? Does that mean EVER ??
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Keep us all posted how your ownership of the 961progresses. They told me a run off Commando 961 would be a maximum of 250 units.
I would like to think of the next evolution of the Commando being water cooled.
 
After taking the new 961 out on Saturday at Oakmere motors Norton ride out I made copious notes to write a report for any one interested. On looking at 961al's report I thought he had been looking over my shoulder at my scribbles, the only thing I can add is the fuelling was absolutely perfect and I loved the crackle on the overrun. The things I am not sure about are it seemed quite sensitive to road conditions by which I mean following ruts in the road made by snow clearing machines, probably tractors with teeth on their buckets. The other personal thing was the reservoirs on brackets simply because I have become used to my 15 plate Sport with alloy ones , and again I don't like the clock faces and the idiot lights are a bit dim compared to mine. One final thing I noticed was that the silencers had started to get a brown tinge in certain places ,whether that will polish out or get worse with mileage only time will tell
Talking to Dodgy Den on Saturday at the Norton test ride session, he said he had been offered £7250 and I was offered £6750 probably because of the mileage (26K) , when I told Kevin that was not enough, that seemed to be the end of the conversation. Would I buy one...................................in a heartbeat absolutely no doubt, I know it was a new bike but the difference was night and day but unfortunately it all comes down to hard cash and I am not giving the old girl away for a pittance , so where do I go from here who knows.?
 
It would be a difficult proposition to part-ex a Donington 961, lovingly coerced to 26K miles, for that figure; if still getting the same enjoyment out of riding it as most of us are.

Great to hear the reports 👍. Surprised by the 250 figure - if it means a total production run? Wonder if that might be part of the plan, or a result of poorer than expected take-up. I guess we’ll find out in the long run.
 
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