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telecat
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And that fits with all products which are made now (cars, dishwashers, tv's and especially phones, they are not build to last long anymore).

 

And for some thats not bad, e.g its much better to replace your fridge every five year or so, because they get way energy saver etc.

 

 

 

/too bad the prices dont adapt to that strategy

Edited by crazybond700
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Tricky, A lot of cars and appliances are a lot better these days. I do not remember that many Maxi's Granadas etc making 200,000 or 300000 miles back in the day. These days they easily do. I do not see people out jacking cars up and spending hours on a Sunday like they used to keeping the things going. Basically because they had to or they'd break down! Same goes for washer's fridges etc. Most are thrown out now due to a change in kitchen rather than breaking. The better makes seem to last forever. Yes buy Cheap and you will buy it again and nobody buys anything Chinese at 10% of what they used to cost and expects them to last. The Ossa we have is proving less troublesome than a 2011 GasGas and to be honest what has gone are mechanical parts rather than electrical and the effect was not major.

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Chris, the Ossa is great, as you have discovered, how long for nobody knows? they use same Kokusan F1 system as Vert, so we are all in the dark how resilient this type of bike will be. But your car injection system has bee around a long time and still works on very long in the tooth cars . But! when they go wrong its the knackers yard!! :hyper:  

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Kokusan have been producing the Two Stroke Fuel Injection system for a long time now. It's used for Snowmobiles, Boats ATV's etc. If anything goes wrong the system is available. Most cars have systems that can be repaired it is just not always financially viable.

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I know what to do with a carb.I also know enough about EFI and engine management to know how difficult they can be to fault find and fix.Its true there are people who can fix ECUs but they've been doing car ones for along time,fixing and resetting one they've never seen before and getting the programming so it runs right is different.KTM are huge in enduro and motoX,they don't inject their 2t only their 4t,they must have a good reason

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Personally I have better things to do with my week than strip down the bike,strip off the carb and clean it, take off the air filter and clean it, then clean out the Airbox which this time of year is full of Mud etc. The failure rate is the deciding factor and if the Fi design fails less then I am happy. So far the failure rate is less.

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I managed to get a Vertigo test ride on Sunday and I must say I was surprised by how impressed the bike left me. The test began with a brief of the features of the bike. As we know the fuel tank is low and the air filter sits under a cover on the false tank. The 9v rechargeable battery is also under this cover, well out of harms way. The battery is used to prepare the ECU before starting and is then recharged by the engine. Starting was easy but the amount of compression tells you it’s a 300.

So what is like to ride? I am in my early 50’s and normally ride a 250 gasser. I was expecting the Vertigo to be a bit of a handful but not a bit of it. The engine is smooth and runs cleanly whatever you do with it. The gearing is low with 4 usable gears in the sections and 2 more for the roads and trails. The engine pulled 4th gear up a slippery climb from a standing start with ease showing plenty of power. The fuel injection system provides an amount of engine braking but to be honest I never really noticed it. I am one of those people who believe that many marks are lost by people being over biked but at no time in the test did I feel this bike getting away from me. I would not normally consider anything over 250cc but the Vertigo changed my mind. I would be happy to ride one of these as it is.

The sales pitch highlights the stability and you get no argument from me. Equipped with the excellent Reiger shock and low centre of gravity the bike is very forgiving and a joy to ride. The steering is neutral with plenty of lock and no tendency to wash out or tuck in.

Vertigo has been playing with different exhaust arrangements for a while and the final rendition does the job. However, the final version in not repackable which is about the only negative I came away with.

I will wait to see what the TRS is like but the Vertigo is now definitely on my wish list which I wasn’t really expecting.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I try the Vertigo too.

Light feeling, good engine start, every thing looks good and clean.

For me just two little settings: handlebar too low and suspension too hard.

 

Really smooth usable feeling of the throttle.

A very nice motorcycle.

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I ride trials with a one of the USA Lewisport staff, Bill Merritt, in Southern California.  As a side benefit, I get to see and try out some of the new model trials bikes.    Our riding crew got out for a morning ride on 15 acres of big rocks in Simi Valley CA this past Saturday.  Bill had the new Vertigo Combat and he let us take the bike for a spin.  I am a NASA engineer by trade but pretending I am a magazine reviewer for now, here goes.

 

First impressions.  As a stock machine, the bike looks great but I am partial to bright lime green in my sporting goods so I may be biased.   The graphics are well done and the “Works” rim tape is a nice touch.    As you walk around the bike and examine it you realize what a nice job the Vertigo engineers have done in tucking in and protecting bits that might get damaged during a fall.  The shift lever is nicely tucked in.  The rear break lever on the right is almost complete shielded with only the flexible tip exposed, as it must be for braking.    The trellis frame protects the airbox, gas tank and other bits.  Black down spar frame members on the front of the bike protect the sides of the radiator and connect the green trellis frame to a skid plate that is thicker than the one on my 2011-2012 Gasgas Raga.  The silencer is tucked up under the rear fender with protection on either side running up to the height of the top of the rear wheel. 

 

Stepping on the bike it feels like any other modern trials bike in its ergonomics.   The rear shock is the Reiger unit that was first introduced to trials on the 2011-2012 Gasgas Raga.  The front forks are Tech units as one might expect on a high-end trials bike.    This Vertigo Combat I tried had been ridden for 8 hours or less total.  The feel of the front fork reminded me of the forks on my Raga when they were brand new, i.e., still a bit stiff.    The Reiger rear shock felt like it was already broken in.  Again this was very similar to the feel of the Reiger on my Raga when it was new.  These Reiger shocks seem to be golden from day one. 

 

Starting up the bike was straightforward.  You press the engine kill button.  This starts up the fuel pump to prime the pressure for the fuel injection and you then have 20 seconds to kick over the bike.  The bike starts right up with a kick from the top.    The tick over at idle was very smooth.

 

In terms of trials background, I am a 57-year-old Clubman rider with only about 7 years of trials riding experience but with decent balance and throttle control skills.   I am quite comfortable on my 300cc Gasgas Raga.  This is my point of comparison with the 300cc Combat Vertigo.  I rode the Vertigo in the most aggressive stock map setting #1.     Starting off in 1st gear I headed for a 3 foot bolder with a steep but slightly rounded face.   A little throttle blip and I was up with the rear wheel never leaving the rock face on the first try.  One more try with 1st gear and then two tries at the same rock in 2nd gear and then two tries at the same rock in 3rd gear.  In all 3 gears the torque of the motor was very strong, very controlled and resulted in an uneventful ride up the rock.  Just what you want in trials.   The engine has all the power of my Raga but is smoother.  Very, very impressive.  

 

You get used to riding your own bike with its unique handling characteristics and typically it is a challenging to hop on another bike and immediately have the same comfort level and riding performance.   This is the first bike, that after having ridden for only a few minutes I could say,  “I can ride better on this bike than on my own bike.”   It was all about the Vertigo engine combination of amazing torque down low combined with silky smooth throttle and engine response.   While my older Raga has smoother fork response than the new forks on the Vertigo, the smoother motor of the Vertigo made the Vertigo feel like an overall smoother ride.   I seem to be saying smooth a lot here but that is the word that sums up my overall first impression of the Vertigo Combat.   I look forward to getting more ride time on the Vertigo after the front forks have broken in.   

 

The slow speed control and turning of the bike were very good, as they should be.  I am not a super proficient wheel hopper but I am good enough that it is a useful technique for me at our club trials events that still allow stop and hop.   On the Vertigo, the stiffer new front forks made hopping the front wheel more difficult than on my Raga but still doable.   I am guessing that this would change as the font forks loosen up.   A rear wheel hop felt about the same as on my Raga and that agrees with my general impression that the Reiger shock was already breaking in nicely on the Vertigo. 

 

Balance on the Vertigo felt the same as on my Raga.   I was immediately as proficient in ability to balance indefinitely with the front wheel turned left or right and was able to balance with the front wheel straight with the same level of corrective leg motions that I am used to on the Raga.    This same level of balance combined with the smoother power delivery of the Vertigo made the Combat, for me, feel more stable going up rocks and pausing on top than my Raga.  Again, considering this was my first time on the bike, this was impressive.  I can only believe that if I owned a Vertigo Combat that my riding would improve relative to the Raga as I got a better feel for the Combat.  That is an exciting thought. 

 

I did not try any of the other fuel injection/ignition maps but I imagine that they could be very useful in slippery conditions.

 

Are there any downsides?    The brakes on my Raga feel a bit better than the brakes on the Vertigo.  That may be just newness of the Vertigo brakes or adjustment of levers to my own liking.  The silencer is a sealed unit that can’t be disassembled and repacked like the unit on my Raga.  Other trials bikes have this issue.    After-market parts and spare parts are likely in short supply here in the states for now.  I am sure that will change in the near future.    Do you trust electronics vs. mechanics?   Fuel pump and fuel injector vs. gravity fed fuel, carb and float bowl.    Electrical water pump vs. mechanical water pump.    I am a techie so I like electronic controls.  Your preferences may differ.  I expected the Vertigo Combat to be lighter and feel lighter in this “Works” model.  But I guess “Works” does not equal “Factory” and the factory bits are still to come from Vertigo.   A factory Ossa bike that Bill Merritt had is the lightest feeling bike I have ridden.  My Raga feels a bit heavier than the factory Ossa.  The Combat feels similar to the Raga in this regard.  It may be just my personal preference but the lighter the bike feels to me, the better it feels for trials.  I look forward to seeing how light the Combat can get with some of the soon to be available factory parts including the titanium chassis option.  I don’t regret paying extra for the Raga factory model when I got it and I doubt that I would regret paying extra for some factory Vertigo parts to make it an even lighter bike.  That titanium chassis must be pricey!

 

It seems that Vertigo has produced an excellent trials machine in their first production run and I expect it will only improve going forward.

Edited by dbell
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