I’ve been a motorcycle rider for the last 4 weeks. It was 6 weeks ago that I passed my MSF Basic Riders Course and 4 days since I passed the MSF Advanced Riders Course. In the last 4 weeks of riding, I’ve passed 1500 miles on my bike. That’s an average of 18K miles a year if I could ride year-round. The reality is, in New Hampshire, riding a motorcycle is a May-September activity.
One thing I’ve noticed since taking up biking as a hobby is the overall difference in being on roads. Drivers don’t really care you’re there if they even notice you at all. It helps that on the bike, I’m taller than most cars on the road. It doesn’t mean I am considered any more when people want to pass or get over or pull out in front of me. I’ve been nearly-hit about 5 times in 4 weeks which is about how often I’m nearly-hit in a year in my Golf R. It’s a very tough thing to deal with. At the end of the day, cars are bigger than my bike, I don’t provoke anyone and I drive way less aggressive in the bike than I do my car and hope others see me but if not, I have to remain alert. There’s no area for distraction while operating this bike.
Bikers are mostly nice. A lot of them wave. Most guys on Harley Davidson bikes do not. I honestly don’t know why but they don’t both to look over or wave. I guess that brand is doing fine but I’ve tried to wrap my head around the Harley thing. I don’t want a big bike that’s flashy so they weren’t for me as a bike itself. I certainly looked at them where I didn’t spend any time looking at super sport bikes because I have to haul things. I can’t load up a case of beer on an R6. Either way, Harley riders don’t wear proper riding gear, don’t even wear a full helmet or any helmet and never wave or acknowledge you. They just pretend that they’re super awesome and I really don’t understand it. Then again, most of them own trucks and I don’t see any need for that either. My Golf can haul beer and tools. I don’t need an 8’ pickup truck.
The bike, while used and built 6+ years ago has been really amazing to ride. Taking the training courses has obviously helped. When I bought it, the stock tires were nearly gone (2/32 tread) so I replaced them with Conti Trail Attack 2 tires. These were far too road-centric and not really suitable for the trail at all. This was my mistake. I’ll do better with next year’s tires but I’m stuck with these since they were $350 for the set. While these are great on road and in wet, on gravel, dirt and mud, they’re pretty much useless. The brakes were good, maintenance was current (as it could be for a bike with only 7K miles). I’ve been really impressed with the overall handling.
First, the features that set this bike apart from others:
- The bike is very tall, normal for a dual-sport / Enduro bike / Adventure bike but it’s much taller than almost every single bike on the road. If you’re not 6’2” w/ at least a 32” inseam, you’re going to have issues putting your feet down at stop-lights.
- The hand-grips are heated. There are 2 intensities of heat. It’s awesome.
- The luggage racks are made by Touratech. They’re an optional add-on. They’re waterproof and easily removable. They’re really awesome! Guys have dropped these bikes going pretty fast and the boxes stay intact. I would never run plastic luggage on this bike. Metal or nothing.
- The headlight is weak. It’s a 2009 bike so no HID / LED. I need to do something about that.
- The tail light is LED and looks great. Very bright and noticeable.
- You can ride completely full-time standing on the pegs. The bike is designed for it. In fact, the bike is more stable as the center of gravity is lowered by 2.5 feet at least by putting all of your weight on the pegs. Any time I see a bump in the road, I default to peg standing. It’s just easier and gives my back a break for a few seconds.
- The seat is uncomfortable but I switched to an aftermarket Sargent seat and all is right in the world.
- The bike is not fast. My Golf R is faster without a doubt
- The bike is not loud
- The hand – guards are great at keeping wind down
- The wind screen would be perfect if I was 2” shorter. But luckily, touring wind screens are available or I can buy an $80 extension to mine to make highway rides more comfortable.
- The bike is insanely good on gas. 44 MPG is my average
- The fuel tank is 9.5 gallons. No joke. 450 mile range is not only standard, it’s the norm in normal daily non-loaded up riding
- The Crash bars have come in handy a few times
- The computer is awesome. Tells you everything wrong with the bike
- There are three different tiers of bars from handle to wind-screen so I have a RAM Mount for my iPhone, TomTom Bandit, TomTom Rider 400 and a USB Charging station with room for 1-2 more accessories without getting in the way of my field of view
- I think the bike hauls 600 pounds or 350 when you take me out of the occasion. Plenty of storage for long drives.
- It has 3 different suspension modes, Sport, Comfort and Normal
- The bike has ABS and Traction Control (that’s fully disabled if you want to do that)
- It’s air/oil cooled instead of water cooled which is seen as a rare-ness these days with european bikes
- The Adventure has spoked wheels which are far better for off-roading as they can take a beating over standard aluminum bikes
If you’re not sold yet on this bike, I can’t help you or this sort of bike isn’t really for you. It is for me because if I go to see friends, I’m going to be on dirt roads and if I’m going to buy beer at breweries, I’m 60 miles on the highway at 75 MPH so the big 1200 holds its own on dirt, frost heave roads and highway w/o feeling too big or too small.
My only complaint is easily remedied. The fairings while only 1-2 years of riding are now getting old so I’ve started looking into replacing all of the plastic on the bike which will cost $400 but I’ll get a perfectly sealed body again. The bike fairings are not in a great shape. That’s really the only downside I’ve found to this bike.
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In the 1500 miles, I’ve had a blast. We’ve ridden all over New Hampshire and Vermont together so far. The plans long term is that I commute to and from work on days it doesn’t rain, I go to breweries solo until next year when Heather can join me, I take the GSA to bike events day or overnighters and I take the bike on two road trips. The first, to Michigan for a RateBeer event and possibly into Canada for a few days before coming home. The second, down to Florida in November to store the bike with my Dad until next year when it’s safe and warm enough to ride again. Storing the bike in Florida will be better for the bike but also give me an excuse to go down and see family and start the year off right with a few days in the Smokey mountains as I make my way back to New Hampshire.
As for improvements, I have a few things on my list to buy.
- LED Headlights
- Auxiliary LED Lamps below main body
- Touring Windscreen
- Better Off-Road knobby tires w/ wheels for when I do mountain rally events next year.
- New Fairings in Red versus Carbon I have today
- New Brakes (next year)
- Wider pegs for highway rides or front pegs (Harley style)
- Custom license plate (approved, I get that any day now)
- Another set of riding gear for warmer weather (maybe next year)
- More training (off-road focused training)
- New Battery (this one is getting a little long in the tooth and isn’t happy with all of the devices I have plugged in)
That’s all for now. I love the bike. Thank Matt who sold me the bike and I’m so glad he and I made this deal work. It’s been a great new hobby that I’m really loving.
