Seen this article in the mag a while back. Always good when food for thought type directions are promoted more. Instead of a whole load of uselss power people never know what to do with properly!
...from building Blades for fast road riding for people, and from a work point of view here, I found a bit of a boost in mid range was good, so i like what they did there with power - even full Akra ain't too noisy - but am not in with the anodised bits, as they don't really do anything for me and do not make it corner better or anything anyways...
Suspension-wise, certainly the nicest build for the road done, was when we used a slightly modified R&T fork, so a 25mm kit (not the 30's), and then built up a WP shock instead of the TTX. The WP gives all the nice feel that you get from the Factory Showa once revalved, and has all the reliability for long trips that they don't - maybe you didn't know, but the K-Tech's and Kit HRC Showa shocks all run high maintenance bladders, which should be rebuilt often so as to dispel (or re-dispel_) the accumulating gas in the oil (rubber leaks). And whilst the TTX is a fine shock too, the WP is really suited to the Blade when on the road. Yet sadly overlooked due to its price out of Austria nowadays. Might not even be available anymore too...
I think we had like 42mm/32mm sag and some Racetec K3's so they heated up fast (lower operating range) and she was sweet for munching away one side of our continent - but still used up tyres faster than my 600 on the same mountains trip we did last year, ha ha
Riding all these bikes every year - all the litres - on road tests, I really have a soft spot for da Blade, excellent bike, even without TC like the others have. The 2012 is even better than ever, and when swapping back n forth all day on all these bikes, what one notices is how you gravitate toward the easier to ride one's as the roads get bumpier, wetter, or as I get tired-er after 6 hours riding! Of course the Beeemer is an engineering marvel, but actually the Gixxer, or the Blade are for the least-amount-of-effort-to-ride-still-fast type mental-space-place. There are heaps of fast bikes about now, and heaps of on-paper/screen really fast one's; but riding the last 200kms to the nearest bed, and putting up with it on highly-potentially unfamiliar surfaces; and basically dealing with in all scenarios is what goes on isn't it when you buy something and like riding it that you go and travel? So ya, Blade's are wkd, and it even does well around tighter tracks well too!