Leaderboard

I've been commuting year round for 2.5 years now on my trusty old Thunderace and being an old bike, it requires regular and sometimes in depth maintenance. Which, because I'm riding pretty much EVERY day, it's not getting... So... I bought myself a 2018 edition (registered 2017) Suzuki DL1000A to take the strain off the Thunderace and also allow me to strip it down and do the work to it it needs. Now. I'm not used to a V-Twin so, my questions are: 1/ When you wind a V-Twin on, do they always sound like several people are hammering a piece of concrete a couple of doors away? 2/ Baring in mind the above question, how do I tell if the engine is struggling (when I'm in too high a gear)? It's easy to tell on the Ace, but I just can't tell on the V-Twin lol 3/ What should I be expecting from my gears, so far, this is all I have: Gear 1, appears to be zero to bugger all... Gear 2, appears to be bugger all to about 40ish... Gear 3, appears to be 40ish up to 70... Gear 4, appears to be a responsive cruise at 70... Gears 5 & 6, appear to be just something to do at 70 to cut down your fuel usage! Am I just doing it all wrong on an Adventure bike? Am I just too used to a sports bike? Thoughts and observations welcome! P.S. Riding a V-Strom after a Thunderace is like having to learn to ride all over again! All my corners are a bag of shit! I look like a n00b! rofl