(04 May 2016, 7:35 pm)GMitchelhill I've sampled 3 red kite examples on Monday and Tuesday.
They all rattled badly.
Ride quality was poor.
Kangerooing gearbox on 2 different vehicles, suprisingly I didn't end up with whiplash.
The lights were dimming and brightening every time the driver removed or added pressure to the accelerator.
The next stop announcements got confused on the approach to Metrocentre saying the bus was arriving at Clayton Street, the bus was heading to Consett, the NSA then stopped working altogether though I could only assume it got off and boarded a Red Kite heading to Clayton Street.
I've only encountered the gearbox juddering on the GNE coast and countries. I ride on an arrive Sapphire streetlite pretty much every time I go out by bus, since that's what's normally allocated to my local route and I have no choice. Never had a judder in over a year, now.
Agre about the rattles, mind - tempted to go at the emergency exits on ours with some blu tack, just to damp it all down a bit. Must give the drivers a right old headache after a continuous 3 hours on one.
NSAs doing stuff like that tends to be an issue with the GPS. Ours do a loop of a particular village and almost always get lost on the anticlockwise loop. What Adrian said holds, too - though the Arriva NSAs have an end of route announcement, which probably informs the driver as much as the passengers that a switch over can now be made.
