Yes I did read about the horror stories re the gearbox and oil leaks etc.. and it definitely has a clunky gearbox for sure, but this one has had the recall done, so it is a bit 'less clunky'. So far this one has no oil leaks, and I have a mate who works at Pro-Cycles, Hornsby, and in their experience, the RC-8's that where ridden sedately around the street where the ones that seemed to develop the oil leaks and had worse gearbox problems.. the ones that where thrashed where better..?? Maybe it was the constant heat running around in the traffic, as that massive muffler / cat / anchor creates a huge amount of heat from the time you hit the start button...
And of course simply keeping well up with the oil changes is a must, even though the book says 7,500k's between an oil change, I would never have stuck to that (if it was my road bike), hell I cant even stick with the 6000k's between services.. I end up doing it even sooner.. Obviously with the track bike it will be done way more often.
I intend to race this one in the Thunderbikes, so it will be well and truly looked after..!! It has only done 14,000 k's.. and as far as the gearing goes, it does seem to be geared very tall.. and it needs a new chain and sprockets anyway, so I will change them over as well.. might do a bit more test riding first... it is supposed to be my Winter project, but I reckon it might get done a bit sooner..
Macca