Yeah, most of the time I'm away first before they've had chance to think, sometimes if they're on the ball and really going for it we'll be neck and neck which is not a position I like to be in really!

What really makes me laugh is when I've filtered to the front and some guy on a sports bike filters up next to me and then revs the engine like mad in anticipation of blasting me away. On nearly every occasion I actually beat him away!! It seems the pre-emptive revving does them no favours in a quick gettaway situation. It also is always the case with drivers who crawl forwards at the lights. I always leave them for dust as well. It's just the one or two enthusiastically driven powerful cars that catch me out.... not bad performance really for an overweight girl on an overweight 33bhp £4000 scooter when you think about it.

I owned an X9 500 new in 2002, I had it for 18 months and covered 10,000 miles. It was comfortable,very quick, a bit too quick really, you can carried away following bikes at speed and get caught out when the bends arrive. It was great fun and could leave most cars for dead at the lights. Handling was reasonable.Economy good ( 70 mpg I think).
It had a lot of unneccessary gimics, electric/hydraulic stand,intercom system,radio etc.
I had problems with the stand as it wore out the rubber stop and then hit the oil filter,holing it it causing loss of oil pressure- a very bad design but if you keep an eye on the rubber stop and replace it (easy and cheap) you should have no problems. It may have been modified on later models.
I also got an annoying clicking from one of the front discs when braking. The disc and the calliper were replaced under warranty. Apart from these faults I can't remember anything else.

I had a 2009 Burgman for 6 months from Nov last year, I only did about 900 miles before selling it as I could not get along with it. It looked great and went well,handled well,and braked well. It was not at fast as the X9 but quite acceptable and did not have the uneccessary gimics. I remember checking the fule consumption as 79mpg.I had no mechanical/electrical problems.
The Burgman was too low for me at 6' 3" and I could not get my feet on to the floor properly when setting off and had to travel feet forwards mainly which caused me hip pain.Someone below 6' would probably have no problem.
For me the X9 was better,but I did have some problems. I did not have the Burgman long enough to find out it's reliability.
regards, Malc.