[Dave] Okay two Gold Stars here today, the old DBD34 and the new Gold Star. Now this Gold Star,
I've ridden this today and I've been blown away. First thing, appearance, it does look right. This
is a new generation Gold Star. It's not the old one. Big difference is with this, anyone can ride it. The
old Gold Star you have to get it on compression, get it over the top. You have to get your valve
lifter to drop the compression. You have to get the advanced retard lever set right. With the GP carb
it's hard work. The RR2T gearbox is hard work to live with. This bike you can ride it quickly,
you can ride it slowly. I would say this bike would cater as a commute bike, and also as a
touring bike because let's start with the features. We have here as we know, there's no
secret about it, it's a Rotax engine. A proven engine, 650cc. It is water-cooled because with
the emissions now, everyone knows that things have to burn lean, so it generates a bit of heat.
So we have to get rid of that heat. It is cooled nicely which means in traffic that will keep cool.
It's got a fan a that will cut in so you haven't got the worries of overheating vaporising fuel.
What I like about this, it does retain the style of the old Goldie. Now this
is in like a touring trim, it's got standard bars. I was so surprised by the handling
to start with. The power is very linear. It's there, the torque is there from the word go.
It doesn't matter what gear you're in, it pulls nice and sweet. There is something that people
have mentioned, the baffle is detachable, and hearing a bike here today without the baffle, it's
not intrusive, it's not loud. It just has a better note about it, exhaust note. It's not so restricted.
The handling, it doesn't feel like a single. The way it rides, because everyone assumes that a
single cylinder engine will have a bit of vibration because it's a single cylinder.
This has got a really good counter shaft in the balance shaft. It irons out all that vibration so
you're not aware of it. This rides very much like a twin, and it's very torquey. You can drop it down
a gear and it will accelerate. I mean it's a bike that will quite happily, it will do motorway
speeds quite happily, and more without, you know, working hard. It's got a lovely gearbox. A lot of
people had mentioned about the exhaust shield. Now this one has been reduced in size. It came up
here and it came over the sensor. But now they've taken this off here, it's just down here now and
it covers over, we know it covers over the cat, you have to have that now, but it looks a lot better.
And yeah, I was open-minded when I looked at this today, and in riding this bike, and I've
said to everyone here, I'm really impressed with it. I think for the price, I think it's already
been mentioned that it starts off at £6,500 up to £7,000 and I think that's well placed.
Right, old versus new. The old Gold Star. Now this morning I had to leave at five o'clock
to avoid the traffic to get up to Alex's property so we go in the van to where we are today. So you
have to leave really early because you don't want the traffic, because anyone that's ridden a Goldie
with a GP carb knows that if you get behind traffic you get bogged down. If it idles or runs slow for
any length of time, it soots the plug up, then when you open the engine up it misfires. The other thing
is the gearing's are high with the RRT2 gearbox, that you're slipping the clutch in traffic.
Everyone knows that you're in first gear to about 30 miles an hour before you need to change,
without even pushing it. So it's a bike that once you start, it's really a race bike isn't it, once
you've started it you've got to ride it. So that is one thing. The starting of this is also the procedure
we mentioned before about getting the engine set up right, getting the thing on compression,
valve lifter pulling it in, and getting it over the top of the stroke. This one
struggles because the strike angle of the rocker is not quite right, so you have to
almost feel the compression, soak it away, then pull the lever and you get the hiss, then you know
you're ready to kick it. You've then got to make sure that your advance and retard lever is set correctly.
Over-advanced, we all know it kicks back. If it kicks back you don't want that to happen too many
times because it doesn't look good, and it can hurt your ankle or your leg or whatever.
So it is a bit of a nightmare. And that's always the other thing in traffic if you stall it, what
are you gonna do? You're stuck out in the traffic, cars coming by you, up behind you, you're in the way.
Okay so we're in traffic so we're slipping the clutch because we've got such a tall gearbox here.
And then what eventually happens is the clutch overheats. You lose your transmission, you lose
the adjustment on your clutch, it starts to drag, all sorts of problems. Also it's only air-cooled,
so in traffic it will get hot, and if the carb vaporises, fuel gets hot, it becomes a nightmare.
So it is a bike that we do love, but we don't really use them that much now do we. I mean I'll
be honest, I don't use this as much as people probably think I do because it's hard work.
I certainly wouldn't want to go any real distance in traffic because it would be such a hard work
thing to ride. Now the new one, what've we got? We've got electric start, press a button, you've got
nothing else to worry about. It's fuel-injected, so everything's done for you. So it's electric
start, it's water-cooled engine, it's a proven 650 engine, and it's a comfortable bike to
ride. And you can ride that with confidence that you're not going to soot a plug up,
it's going to do hours and hours of trouble free riding, and you're going to enjoy it. When
we ride these, because the price tag is so high, we're worried about where we leave these things,
that's one thing. And you're always worried that something's going to go slightly wrong, and you're
going to have to get yourself home. Well that, you're not going to have that trouble with that.
We're going to go over the features on that one in a moment but all die-hards like myself,
I do like the old Gold Star and they're nice to have, but with modern traffic now it's not easy to
ride anymore. And we know with modern emissions now you have to have a lot of restrictions on things.
Okay we're going to talk about the comparison between the power of the DBD34 or 32 against
the new 650 Gold Star. Now the old one with the GP carb, when you have got it going
it won't tick over because it's set up for racing really, but it has quite a flat spot about
2500 rpm. This thing it will start up on the button, it will tick over and it
will go. It has a power curve from zero, and it's a steady build up. It doesn't have any flat spots.
The fuel mapping is really good so it rides like a carburettor, you know, it's very responsive.
Right this versus Interceptor 650 Royal Enfield. Well it's not the same bike.
The interceptor as we know is a twin cylinder, and I think this bike pitches in the right place
because it's a single cylinder 650. It's not up against the Royal Enfield, that's a
twin. This is a single, it's a different character of ride. It's quite capable of
motorway speeds as I mentioned earlier. You can ride it slowly, you can ride it quite quickly.
We're talking about the cockpit display. Now sitting on the bike we've got the two analog
clocks here. They are nice, they look right too. And in front of it, it resembles the old
amp meter, but we have in here, we have our engine display. We have, you know, oil, side-stand, abs,
and neutral. So that's the only thing it has on here is abs, it doesn't have anything else.
Visual display, one thing we did notice because it's quite a bright day today, it can be a job
to see some of the illuminations there, but that's a minor thing. The switchgear is a
little bit similar to the Royal Enfield, but this is done to, don't forget a budget. This is a bike
that isn't expensive. It stands up well against the Royal Enfield and it stands up well
against the other bikes out there. Yeah nitpick, okay. Okay none of us really wanted to see
a radiator, and we have to live with this now because it's all to do with emissions now and
getting this engine to run a lean burn. But to be honest with you, you get used to it and most
bikes, these modern bikes now, have this. I really think, what's negative? None of us liked the first
view we saw of this exhaust. And what they've done here straight away, they've approached
that and they've altered it, and it now looks better. Okay we'll talk about power curve, torque,
versus the 650 Interceptor or the Continental GT. To be honest with you, this has got a lot more
torque. Reason being really, it's a single cylinder 650. You always get a big punch out of a big single,
and it really feels like it's got the punch. When you're on the bottom of a hill
and you open up the throttle, it will drive that bike up there.
And that's what you find with a big single cylinder British bike, the Goldie for instance
or B33 or whatever. They tend to sort of like a bit of loading, this loves it you know. So I think
out the two, this has got more bottom end torque than an Interceptor. Another thing is because it's
got a lower centre of gravity, a single cylinder as we've been saying, one exhaust. All the weight
is quite low down in this. The pipes on the Interceptor, the 650s are quite high and they're quite heavy,
and I know that's something that people mention. You change your cans and get rid of that weight.
So when you chuck a 650 Royal Enfield into a corner, you know you're pulling it over.
This would dive into a corner and it's very agile, and it picks itself up very quickly. It's got
a very good lean angle on here too. It surprised me how well this performs. I really, and I think
everyone here today, there's several of us been trying these bikes out, we're all very surprised how well
they are. And this is, don't forget this is early days. This has only just come out and it's it's a
really good bike. Can't really say any more than that. I think everyone should, don't talk about it,
wait until it comes out, take one out, and have your own opinion. I think that's what you need to do.