[wingsofsteel]

Hello all,
I have been lurking around this site for months now; enjoying my daily visits with each of you. Thank you for the wonderful stories, questions and general information. This will be my first post.
My wife and I are faced with a decission of which bike to purchase. Each bike, as mentioned in the subject line, has it's merits so it comes down to comfort for the passenger.
My wife does not like the saddle on the Vstrom, so a third party seat will have to be immediately considered. She likes the saddle on the Burgman a great deal, but will she after a few miles? Can the Vstom be retrofitted for her to ride comfortably, or, should a third part seat also be considered for the Burgman. I love both bikes but only can afford one. I suppose I am looking for your partners experiences in riding two-up. Any help would be valued greatly.

 

[billmeek]

Welcome to the BurgmanUSA forums. Glad to have you join us. As I rarely carry a passenger, I can't provide too much help here. The only complaints I've read are (for some) the floorboards are a bit too low and there is too much space between the passenger backrest and driver. Having too much space is much better than not having enough. I'm sure some of our members with more 2 up experience will chime in with other observations.

 

[pauljo]

Welcome to BurgmanUSA! It is great to have another participating member.

I wouldn't let the seat determine which bike you buy. Both seats can be modified or replaced. I went with a Corbin seat for my V-Strom, and my wife likes riding with it just fine. Although mine is on a DL1000, the exact same seat will fit a DL650. One caution, if you have any difficulty getting your feet on the ground with the stock seat - the Corbin will make that even tougher. It is a little higher, and also wider - which splayes your legs apart a bit when you reach for the ground. But you can request Corbin to do a "nose job" on the seat (narrowing it more toward the front), which can solve that problem.

Corbin also makes a nice seat for the AN650. I had some custom work done to my AN650 seat instead, because the Corbin product wasn't out yet. I like my modified seat pretty well, but I would have waited for the Corbin I think if I had known it was coming.

Seats aside, both are fine machines, and a lot of fun. I think the Burgman has more practical storage (and I do have the factory hard luggage for my V-Strom). I also like the Burgman's ECVT transmission a lot, and protection from the elements (rain/cold) is better with the Burgman. You can find a lot of info regarding the Burgman on this forum, as you already know. Try http://www.stromtrooper.com/forum/index.php for more DL650 info. I belong to that forum also.

Tough choice. For overall practicality, I'd nudge you toward the Burgman - but there are a lot of guys that love their 650 V-Stroms too. You can't really go wrong with either, but for touring you'll have a bit higher investment in outfitting the baby Strom with appropriate luggage. As for the seats, you should be prepared to spend in the 300 to 500 dollar range for a replacement seat (the V-Strom Corbin seat costs less than their Burgman seat).

 

[Arby]

Both my 13 and 17 year old daughters have ridden as passengers on my 650. Both complained about numb butt after about an hour. My wife didn't complain after an hour but she may have more padding (you didn't hear that from me :lol: )

 

[chuck807]

I've done quite a bit of 2-up riding and the opinions vary from rider to rider. From the top of my memory (no names mentioned), here's the 4 most frequent riders' experiences.

Rider 1 - female, over 40. Needs a break every 30 to 60 minutes. Without this she's extremely uncomfortable on the seat. Reason: floor boards. She feels a motorcycle is more comfortable because her feet can have various pivot positions on the pegs. On the Burgy, even though her feet can be placed in any spot on the floor boards, its always the same: feet flat. The wideness of the passenger seat coupled with the lack of a pivoting foot peg is her big complaint. I will be putting on foot pegs for her and the problem should be solved. Someone else also did this and they posted the pictues in the gallery on this forum: http://burgmanusa.com/gallery/Passenger-footpegs

Rider 2 - male, over 40. Only complaint is that when braking, the family jewels are forced into the metal frame of my Utopia backrest.

Rider 3 - male, 20-30 year old range. No problem whatsoever, but does get sore after a long ride (long to him being around the 150 mile mark).

Rider 4 - male, young teenager. No problem whatsoever, regardless of length of ride.

As you can see, age tends to play a role here. The younger the better.

 

[Edwljoseph]

The other half did not like the stock 650 seat. too flat (her words). I now have the Corbin. I like it and so does she. Big improvement over stock.

For two up riding, I believe the Burgman is a better choice unless you just splurge and buy a Gold Wing LOL.

 

[Burger Bob]

You really have a tough decision there. I also love both machines, but own a Burgman and would not swap (but it had crossed my mind once). I would choose a DL650 as a second bike, though. I think that the most important consideration should be whether you prefer a motorcycle or a scooter since seating comfort can be (and usually has to be) improved on either machine. You did not mention whether you are an experienced motorcyclist or not. This can make a big difference in your decision. Some people have a hard time adjusting to the switch from "motorcyclist" to "scooterist" and the way they are perceived by other riders. If this does not bother you, then the Burgman is the logical choice. It will do everything that the DL650 is capable of plus it has the advantage of its fantastic transmission, huge storage space and extra weather protection built in. I've toured a lot on both a DL1000 and my Burgman and the Burgman wins hands down. Now, about the seat on the Burgman. My wife has short legs and the wide seat splayed her legs out too far. This combined with the height of the seat made it difficult for her to put her feet on the floorboards. The problem was solved by carving some of the foam padding from the seat in the vicinity of her thighs making it narrower and then fitting footpegs which were raised and extended further out (The photos in the link in the message above are of my Burgman). She is now perfectly happy with the seat and will ride for 100 miles or more non-stop and I might add, she's over 60, if that has any bearing on the subject. If your partner is tall, you should have no problem at all, although you probably will do some mods to the seat anyway, don't we all! Go for the Burgman, it's a great machine, trust me.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[pauljo]

Just a couple of additional thoughts that "Burger Bob" triggered:

I've been a motorcyclist for many years. I still am. I just choose to ride my Burgman a lot of the time. I don't feel any less a motorcyclist when I ride it - the performance line between a super scooter and a motorcycle is very thin. That identity crisis doesn't exist for me. Further, the Burgman has triggered many enjoyable conversations with curious folk (both riders and non-riders) - it attracts a lot more attention than the V-Strom does.

I did three tours this season - all of them on the Burgman. I think I would choose the V-Strom for a tour that involved a lot of bad road surface - otherwise, I like touring with the Burgman. I've done a few 500+ mile days on the big scooter, and felt reasonably good at the end of each one.

 

[wasions]

When we went shopping last spring, it came down to the Triumph Tiger, the Yamaha FJR 1300, or the Suzuki 650 Burgman. My wife rode with me on the Tiger, and then sat on the Yamaha first, then the Burgman. I couldn't even get her to throw her leg over the DL 1000. Without actually taking the Burgman out, she said, "This is your next bike." It's the only bike we've ever had on which she would accompany me. Now she sometimes asks when we'll be going for a ride. 8)

 

[allwalk]

I could vary rarely get my riding partner to accompany me on my traditonal motorcycle. However she is always asking me to pick her up from work on the Burgman now. She just loves sitting back there. She doesnt even hold on any more. It's just a relaxed ride for her even in the city. My passenger is 5'9" and no adjustments to the seat were made. I did add the OEM backrest though.

One other thing worth mentioning that hasnt been brought up yet is this. Due to the seamless shifting of the CVT you don't get the head jerking associated with changing gears on a manual transmission bike. This adds great comfort to the passenger.

 

[Twinrider]

My wife and I are faced with a decission of which bike to purchase. Each bike, as mentioned in the subject line, has it's merits so it comes down to comfort for the passenger.

If it were me, I wouldn't decide on the basis of which bike can better accomodate a passenger. Both give plenty of leg room, and no doubt an aftermarket saddle can take care of any problem in the posterior department.

I recommend you think about what kind of riding you want to do. If you think you want to have a great road bike and have the option of exploring rough paved roads, gravel roads or fireroads, get the Wee Strom. If you just want to cruise and have great weather protection, get the Burgman.

Have you been to advrider.com? Quite a few guys with Wee Stroms there.

 

[Twinrider]

One other thing worth mentioning that hasnt been brought up yet is this. Due to the seamless shifting of the CVT you don't get the head jerking associated with changing gears on a manual transmission bike. This adds great comfort to the passenger.

My wife would disagree there. I took her around the city for a couple hours on a Burger 650 I was test-riding, and she hated the "power mode" setting. More than enough sudden torque to induce whiplash when you give it a handful in that mode :shock: :lol:

 

[Sails]

Interestiing problem! I went into buy a DL650 and left with a Burgman. I love it and think that I have made the right choice.
As to 2up, my wife likes the Burgman. I think that I would have had a problem getting her to do 2up on a Vstrom. Her only request was for a back rest so she felt more secure, didn't want me losing her off the back. I clip on a Givi E52 when we ride and it covers both her comfort and the shopping I know she is going to do.
My neighbour has a Suzuki GSX 1000 and his wife keeps looking at my seat. His bike is something like 5 years old and has less than 5000 kilometers on it, I hit that after 3 months. She isn't crazy about doing any long rides, my wife wants to ride across Canada. Big difference!.
Oh, the shopping thing, we got 6 grocery bags into the Burgman and had room for more. That is with the Givi box installed, I think I would have had a problem doing that on a Vstrom.

 

[allwalk]

One other thing worth mentioning that hasnt been brought up yet is this. Due to the seamless shifting of the CVT you don't get the head jerking associated with changing gears on a manual transmission bike. This adds great comfort to the passenger.

My wife would disagree there. I took her around the city for a couple hours on a Burger 650 I was test-riding, and she hated the "power mode" setting. More than enough sudden torque to induce whiplash when you give it a handful in that mode :shock: :lol:

I only use power mode when I'm alone, never or rarely 2 up riding.

 

[Twinrider]

Sure, I can understand -- but it was a test ride for me And after riding the FZ1 for the past half year, the power on the Burgster felt a wee bit underwhelming, hence the steady power mode If Suzuki would release a 900cc version I reckon they'd sell a lot more.

 

[wingsofsteel]

Thanks to all of you for your responses. This is a good example of how important a forum such as this truly is. My inexperience, left on it own, could have never considered some of the points so well illustrated here. Thanks again. I will be looking for a new Burgman. My wife is happy and I am more sure of my decission.

 

[chiefkeefe]

When looking to change my bike (a Piaggio X9 Evo 500), I recently test rode a DL650 and an AN650 (among others). My intended use is straight forward black-top riding, preferably over long-ish distances.

The DL650 was immediately comfortable for me (6'7'', 230 lbs) and the pillion perch seemed to be broad and more than adequate for a two-up tour equal to the range of the tank capacity, which is b-i-g.

The Burger, which was privately owned so I had to respect it a bit more than I might otherwise have done :wink: , was sheer luxury in comparison.

On reflection, the main difference between these two beasts - to me at any rate - was that the DL650 gave more of a raw and exciting riding experience, while the Burger simply said 'Ride me ... and ride me FAR'. The Burger's seating arrangement spelt 'comfort' whereas the DL650's perch was just that.

To me, the practicality and long-distance comfort of the Burger would have swung it had the two beasts been in all other respects dynamically identical.

Ideally, however, I'd have bought one of each ..... :?

 

[wingsofsteel]

Ideally, however, I'd have bought one of each ..... :?

You are absoultly correct Chiefkeefe,
I have since had the opportunity to ride both and agree. I wanted both. The DL650 in Red and the Burger in Blue. I ended up ordering the Burger.

 

[JohnnyDeath]

I ride two up with the wife all the time. I have had my stock seat recovered and it has been fine. Longest day was about 5 hours of riding with a break of about an hour in the middle (lunch). We were a bit numb in the butt by the time we got home, I think that would be the case on anything.

 

[chiefkeefe]

...I wanted both. The DL650 in Red and the Burger in Blue. I ended up ordering the Burger.

I stand to be corrected, but I think the 650 only comes in blue or black in the UK. If I'm right, then it would have had to be blue for me. Two blue dream bikes ... it works for me.

:wink: