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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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Old 14 Jan 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris gale View Post
Biggest problem i see is that you have to lift up the rear seat to fill up , which would become a pain if you carried your gear in a tailpack or similiar . the Mpg on it is nearer 80 mpg (uk) according to some mags .
I noticed that feature as well; it is very pillion-unfriendly for a splash and dash refuel stop and a real PITA for anyone carrying luggage strapped across the pillion seat.
It's maybe not so bad if you want to encourage the wifey to get off the back of the bike and pay for the fuel

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nath View Post
I was despatching on one for about 5 months until last week when I've moved courier company. This was the 'S' model though. Work was quiet all last year, so I only racked up a fairly low mileage on the bike in that time, 16,000miles.

The fuel economy is good, but not the 'game changer' that various people and magazines have reckoned. This S model has a relatively small 14litre tank, and believe it's the same for the 'X' model. The most I could ever get out of that was 220miles. 200 miles would be a more realistic regular tank mileage.


The bike is slow. I think I read somewhere less than 60bhp. It also has a very low redline, equivalent to single cylinder trailbike, but without such overwhelming low end grunt. Riding into a headwind or slight hill, you will struggle to get it to 100mph, and when riding on the motorway it has no power to accelerate when overtaking, cruising at 70mph you would have to drop to 5th gear to speed up and it still is sluggish, definitely slower than an average family car.

As a utility bike it fares well, and the fake petrol tank storage thing would be real useful when commuting or using it as a run around. But if you're planning on using it for going on holiday (which is what 'touring' is, really?), I think you'd find the engine really disappointing. One of the least 'fun' engines I ever experienced.
I surmise that you had no problems with Honda quality in that 16K miles.

A lot of the modern design of bikes are installing smaller fuel tanks against the fact that the engines are far more fuel efficient.
So, a 200 mile range is good enough for most circumstances/people.

I wouldn't use the word "slow" to summarise the characteristics of this bike that you list; it is different from some other bikes but, as an example, the Kawa Versys has a similar maximum power output with a very similar size of engine.
Perhaps a remap of the ECU would sort it for more sporting performance??
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