Motorcycle.com

I am glad I bought this bike

I would like you to take everything I say here with a grain of salt as this bike is my first. I purchased this bike based on a number of resources from magazine professional reviews to the opinions of many on various internet forums including this one. All bikes are trade offs for various reasons on...e way or another and this bike is no exception. In a nutshell reviewers generally say it does everything well and it is surprisingly easy to ride and beginner friendly. Some may argue the beginner part. The biggest negative always has been the Honda Tax aka slightly higher price than the competition. I liked the fact that the bike was somewhat rare and had an old school yet modern look to it. I figured the lack of fairings would help me keep the speed down somewhat. I purchased this bike new on EBay from a dealer near my home. I won the auction by $1.00 more than the next bidder (I bet s/he was pissed). As I did not have my license yet my younger veteran motorcyclist brother rode it home for me. I took the MSF and one month later I had my license (Of course I read every article on how to ride from lots of sources). I did cheat, and rode the bike 30 miles or so in my closed neighborhood one Sunday on my permit before the MSF and rode to my other brothers house two miles down the road. My initial impression was that the bike was extremely fast and seemed to go where I looked with ease. It felt as if I were riding a high powered version of my mountain bike. Being a small chassis bike with no fairings, (and wearing a full face helmet) made it seem to disappear beneath me almost like riding a super fast unicycle. My younger brother laughed when I told him I had yet to break 5k rpm’s (about 1/2 way up the horsepower curve). I initially had a bit of trouble finding neutral once or twice but that was apparently due to me being a newbie. The front brake squeals a bit at very slow speeds apparently a known issue on this bike. I do not have the stink exhaust issue, I run on Sunoco 93 high test gasoline. Some have said that this bike is a boring ride. I disagree. Because it does everything so well with little fanfare and with a forgiving attitude one can concentrate on the ride and not issues with the bike. Speaking of which I think the suspension is a little soft but, I have yet to play with the now adjustable preload/damping settings on the rear shock and forks. The bike has power in all gears and an even handed power curve so there are no surprises when twisting the throttle. Pretty much you can pick a gear, twist the throttle hang on and go. If you need to scrub a little speed off in a curve you can brake gently (if you had to) without fear of crashing. The bike is very predictable never a surprise and not boring at all. For those who possibly want to lose their license this thing hauls, shifting smoothly at 8.5k it is already over most speed limits going into second gear. I suppose if you are not careful you could get into (or out of!) trouble very fast on this bike. It is not a high strung (and even faster yet) race bike, definitely more street orientated. And the ergonomics are very comfortable as is the seat, and I don’t seem to mind the wind as long as the speed is not much over 80 illegal miles per hour. If you just want to ride slow it does that well too. I am going to enjoy mine for a long time.