jaguar

I have had my 2012 Explorer for about 7 months and have covered almost 1000 miles of trail riding. Overall I am very pleased with it. I previously had a Serow which, due to my advancing years, I was finding very heavy to pick up on the frequent occasions I dropped it. So the Explorer was wonderfully light in comparison. No electric start of course but I find it very easy to start, hot or cold. It has excellent power and throttle response and in general easy to ride on the rougher trails. It is quite comfortable on rides up to 120 miles but as I am a lightweight, at 11 stone, I am considering a softer set up for the rear suspension. A slight inconvenience is refilling on a run; it has two linked fuel tanks but no continuous mixing so you have to add the oil as you are filling up with petrol, otherwise you could find one tank very lean on oil while the other is very rich in oil. I carry a calibrated bottle of oil under the seat. The Explorer suffers from large gaps in the gearbox ratios, noticeable on the easier trails. Intake noise is a bit tiring. The standard pads work well but I have already had to replace them. I had a problem with 6th gear but Andy Metcalf and Nigel Birkett picked the bike up, fixed the problem and returned the bike to me within a week; excellent service.