Thanx for the nice comments. Bit of a wrench this morning. Wheeled Beastie out about 8 ish and cleaned her for the last time. Even had doubts riding her to K2 in Stoke. She goes really well does that Exup. Next owner is gonna be a VERY lucky bugger. The Ace, well what can I say. Yeah she's wider but god its so comfortable. 50+ miles today in pretty cold weather and my arthiritic hands never complained once. That in itself is a good enough reason to buy the bike. No cramped legs either. Felt very light too, really surprised how light in fact, compared to the Exup. Goes like stink and handling is spot on. The last owner must have a similar set up preference to me. Took it home to show wife before I commited to deal, and she liked it straight away. On way back to K2 was going round a roundabout giving it some, and well just happened to drag the old knee a bit. It wants a few bits of paintwork tidying up and some decent rubber, plus the brake lines are going for stainless replacements. But my god is that exhaust big or what!!!!! Will start scouring ebay once I've got some pesso's to lob about.
Seen it in the flesh today, and it is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry nice!! And to be fair, the paintwork isn't as bad as it sounds - a couple of small marks near one of the front indicaors and that's it. Looks absolutely spot on!!
Is that a natural progression for Exup owners... as they start to get older they move onto the slower , uglier Ace as they can no longer handle the extreme power of the mighty EX