..... but if you kept the 998 on the power band and drive it the way it was designed the engine is smooth and responsive.
.....
The 1330 is competent and smooth, but there is something about the twin.
Fixed the 'drove/drive' & 'was/is' errors you made spydercodes, there's
nothing 'past tense' about the 998 V-Twin, especially mine! :thumbup: And YES, there certainly
is something about those Twins!! :yes:
It seems everyone else might be a little too scared (or maybe polite??) to say anything, but after spending more than a couple of days riding a few different versions, & covering well into 4 figures of miles on them, I gotta ask you all, is everyone just ignoring the lazy dog we've been sold in the 1330 ACE motor in the hope it'll go away, or is it cos you are just too embarrassed to comment on how you really see it?? I might be yanking the chain just a little here, but surely I'm not the only one to be a tad underwhelmed with what the 1330 has delivered?? IMO, the V-Twin is a much more vibrant & alive motor than the 1330, & with minor mods (lose the cat converter for starters!) the Twins have scads of mid range poke that quite bluntly, make the 1330 Triple look & sound like an under-powered sewing machine that ran away from home cos it was being bullied by the bigger sewing machines & was trying to hide in shame when it fell into a Spyder frame where it immediately nodded off!! Sure, the 1330 has some noice low down torque & you can tow a trailer readily; hitch up & just go tooling along thumb in bum, mind in neutral, without any risk of raising your pulse rate or ruffling your 'do'; but hey, if that's the sort of adrenalin rush you want why not buy one of those dinky little Mazda sports thingies or a people-mover van...
If you want something that'll get your heart pounding with excitement & joy & keep it going up there, something that'll make your cheeks flush from the wind & your shoulders pleasantly tired from hanging on just to stop you being dumped unceremoniously off the back every time you twist the throttle, then stick with the V-twin 998 & be damned with the slightly higher gas bill & the shorter service interval!! And who said the RT's hadta be staid & virtually lifeless like an OAP's mobility scooter gopher?? Once the heat alleviation work is done, the 2013 RT's have all the suspension & handling mods, all the same characteristics, handling (only better) & improvements of the much touted 2014-on RT's, but bundled up in a substantially lighter package that does all the same stuff and also answers the throttle immediately you twist it cos the motor's designed to spin out to 8+k rpm with power & torque pretty much all the way, yet the Twin has none of the sleepy nature or sewing machine noises you get from the 1330!!
I can appreciate that some might want or even need the extra torque, longer service intervals, & gas usage improvements the 1330 brings to the deal, but to me the 1330 offerings are ribbons & fripperies on an over-weight & lazy motor that's been bundled onto the 2013 frame & running gear & is then being hand fed to the masses like the Emperors New Clothes!! The 2013 V-Twin's are a much more
exciting package, they handle just as well as the newer units (or even better, cos they got all those mods & they are lighter too!) and yet they've still got an engine that's awake to deliver an adrenalin rush!! Even the F-3's with their cruiser styling & livelier packaging suffer from the laziness of the 1330 power plant!! Imagine what the F-3'd be like with some forced induction to liven the triple up (the Daytona Turbo Concept made me sit up & drool!!) or maybe an ECU that twists the motors' tail a lot harder teamed with the Daytona's more relaxed Nanny?? I'm certainly not going to give up my much more exciting & lively 2013 V-Twin until BRP do something to liven up that lazy 1330 motor, & please, please, pulease do something about the over-revved sewing machine engine noise exhaust note on the triple! The StraightShot Acropivich is a start, but hey, surely there's a whole lot more that could be done to make it sound like it's awake & working &
not a sewing machine?!!
Flame Suit on!
