| Author | Message | ||
     Nb_mitch |
This morning I left home at 6am to drive to Daytona. Since the weather called for early showers, I drove my bug, didn't want to show up wet. As it turned out, there was only one wet spot north of Orlando and the weather was beautiful all day, I rode without any winter gear, just basic gloves, riding jacket, helmet & jeans, it was in the mid 50s-60s. I rode 5 bikes, BMW F800S, Yamaha FZ6, Kawasaki Ninja 650R, Triumph 675 & Tiger, in that order. All the bikes controls were about the same, except the BMW. All but the Triumph were together, so I ran down to the Triumph display to sign up for afternoon rides between my first and second rides. Each of the rides were about 30 minutes, except the BMW ride was a little longer. First up the BMW, my first impression was what am I getting into, the riding position was so severe, it seemed to have ok power, the ride took us onto I-95 where our group got up to 80 mph, but the instruments and "gadgets" seemed quirky, there were just too many buttons and stuff, controls non-standard, seperate turn signal controls on both grips and another button to turn them off. The only thing interesting about the ride is I found the severe riding position laying on the tank really didn't bother me. The ride was about 45 minutes, the longest of all the rides. Second was the Yamaha. It too seemed to have good power, but a completely different sound. For some reason, I was constantly not finding 1st. How hard can it be to find 1st,, but I found the transmission to be as clunky as my blast, but overall a nice ride. Next, was the Kawasaki (my wife says I can't have one of these, because I can't pronouce the name The 650R was a very nice bike, riding position was the most upright of the bikes so far, it had a good sound, seemed to have good power, only negative was the excessive fairings. I talked to a salesman and he said there was no interest to bring the naked 650 to the US. I went by the Susuki display and decided I liked the SV650 better than the VStrom, I sat on it, but didn't demo it, just ran out of time. Last, was the Triumph rides, I got there early, so I measured the bikes and had lunch, then it was about time for the first ride. The 675 was first, this one was red, not that it mattered. I could barely reach with both toes, the seat was 32 inches. All I could think of was how could I adjust the bars/seat. Lowering the whole setup is not the issue, adjusting the riding position so it is a bit more upright. I know I can change the bars and add 1.5-2 inches of height and I can shave the seat and maybe gain an inch. But, back to the ride, we were off and immediately the sound was incredible. The bike almost leaped off the pavement and I was in the #2 position behind the leader The ride was really really really fun, no question the best ride of the day and the only bike that made me droil. It seemed powerful but controllable, it was allot of fun to ride, almost too much fun and I was in a group ride and never went over 65 mph. After the ride, I talked to the rider leader, she asked me what I thought and I told her and then I asked about the Naked 675 coming this summer and she either couldn't say or didn't know much more than I had already found on the net. I asked if it would have the same riding or more upright like most naked bikes and got a "you will have to wait and see". At that point my day was pretty much done, I wasn't going to ride the Tiger, it seemed too high for me anyway, but I was there, only had to wait 15 minutes, so I stayed. The riding position on the Tiger may be very close to a stock Blast, but the seat was 33 inches, so I almost needed a step latter It seemed to have good power and ran good, but it was so drastically different from the 675. I felt like I was riding in the clouds it was so high, probably much like a Buell Uly. I would have been better had I rode it first, then it would have been high but the position similar to the Ninja before it. I had a great time, enjoyed all the rides, sort of. I was also glad to see Buell had a stand alone display away from Harley and with all the sports bikes. Here is how I ranked (scale of 1-10, 10 being best) the bikes I rode: BMW 3 Yamaha 5 Kawasaki 8 Triumph 675 12 Triumph Tiger 7 Mitch |
