Joining the XSR700 bandwagon!

tl;dr: hello all, here's my bike 😊

Finally got my dream bike a few weeks ago. I bought this second hand from a dealer and got super lucky with the low mileage and lotsa upgrades from the prev owner (thank you sir). I've been riding for only 3 months now and this is a bittersweet upgrade from my first bike, SR400 - will super miss the kickstart-only, lighter and lower bike (but not the vibrations and lack of ABS lol).

So far, I just added crash protections and reinstated the original mirrors. My insights so far:

SEAT - flat seat is 100% more comfy as it's a lot softer. I'm 5'7 and can roughly flat foot with my boots - orig seat is not too bad. It's almost the same while riding but since it's a bit hard, it felt a bit higher than the flat one and so less comfy during stops for a short guy like me

MIRRORS - the barend mirrors look badass (it's foldable as well) but I prefer the orig one - anybody in the same boat? I also think suits the scrambler looks better - i rode having them both, looks a bit silly but this is the best way to test them at the same time. The barend mirrors have great visibility behind but the original one has wider visibility laterally. Therefore, I can say that the orig one is safer - with the orig mirrors, cars behind you looks bigger and closer so you'd supposedly change lanes more carefully - the barend mirrors have a bit fisheye effect so cars looks smaller and farther than they really are, so not very safe. To add to that, they're so low so you need to always look down to see behind you - the only cons of the orig mirrors is, aside from pain in the bottom to align, it has less visibility behind you

TYRES - a lot of people are saying that this Pirelli MT60 is not so good, some says it's dangerous even. So far I find it okay and pretty much planted to the road - I drove this in both dry and a bit wet weather, no problem so far

CRASH PROTECTION - Frame sliders were the easiest to install - Fork sliders were a pain, not having much tools - I just bought a whole 40-pc socket set but still not enough! - the pillion pegs and sidebar carrier might somehow help protect the bike during slides as well

FUEL ECONOMY: - I'm pretty particular to this and after today's ride (mix), I made it to 25km/l👌 - this is great as given that my almost half the engine size SR400, the mileage is about 27km/l

My future plans, not that anyone cares lol: - this color is gorgeous but not a fan of red, I've always fancied the silver one but for some reason, this color is always the one being sold here in Auckland - I plan to wrap the red panels with black. Then in the future repaint the white with dark olive (same as the Subaru outback) 🫒 - perhaps upgrade sliders to crash bars, i find them cooler and more protective - add a Givi cargo rack - add a big ass Givi top box and make it an adventure bike hehe

Thank you for making it to the bottom of this post 😄 Any tips are welcome! - such as for safe riding and upgrades (ideally functional) 🤘