kaden said:
I'd appreciate some feedback from riders that are familiar with cruisers and the Burgman 650.
...Two of my friends I will be riding with both have cruisers (Honda 1800 and Yamaha road Star) and they obviously want me to get a cruiser however, I'm still not sure. Most of the trips would be day trips in the mounains with weekend trips thrown in on a regular basis.
The Burgman certainly appears to have much more comfort than a cruiser, however would I be able to keep up with them for long periods of time without running the Burgman into the ground?
I've had my 650 for 10 months now -- more than 9,000 miles / 14,580km ridden so far; a trip from the Canadian Border to the Mexican Border and back; two trips over the Cascade mountains to Eastern Washington, one in company with a dozen or so Harleys and Goldwings (the Teddy Bear Run fundraiser for Shriner's Hospital in Spokane); several group rides with the "big motors" at my company, including one up to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains; etc.
I've never had trouble "keeping up." If anything, I've sometimes had to hold back. From 50 - 60MPH / 80 - 100km/h it's just getting into the sweet spot at 4,000RPM, and up to 80MPH / 130km/h it's still under 7,000.
At 112MPH / 181km/h indicated mine ran out of muscle at 8,000RPM, but that's still under the redline of 8,500 (and redline is only attainable in manual mode on mine). I only held it there for a few miles (didn't want any big traffic tickets), but it was smooth and steady and gave no indication that I was pushing it too hard.
The Burgman corners better than just about anything short of a sport or racing bike, although if you take it too fast you might rub the fairings (a couple of members have). It pays to follow the advisory speeds at curves.
From 0 - 60MPH / 0 - 100km/h it's hard to beat: while 7 seconds is less than what some bikes claim, it's a real-world number that doesn't require any smoking of tires or power-braking. Just put it in manual mode, twist hard, and blow the doors of whoever is next to you. Shift 4 times at 8,000 - 8,200 and then look in the mirrors for whoever was with you at the start. Even in auto mode it's a drag-bike in sheep's clothing: 8 seconds in Power mode and 10 seconds in standard auto. Not too shabby.
The flexible foot positions and wide seat make it a touring bike
par excellance, and on some of my group rides when others have said they needed a stop I could have kept going for hours -- and I'm not really a masochist.
The huge trunk (55 litres) is something most cruiser riders can only dream about. On that border to border trip I took last summer I had 5 shirts, 3 slacks, 2 ties, 10 briefs, 10 pairs of socks, toilettries, quart of oil and litre of water, and assorted small items all locked up out of sight in the trunk. Nothing bungeed to the back seat (don't call it a pillion, it's a real seat), no add-on saddle bags or top box, just the stock Burgman.
The only disadvantage, if you can even call it that, is the four gallon gas tank. It's only good for about 150 miles of town riding or 180 miles of highway riding. I've gone over 200 twice, but I was running on vapors at the end. But since 180 miles at 70MPH is more than 2 1/2 hours in the saddle, most people would want to stop and stretch anyway, so it's really not a problem.
There are both a Road Star and a Honda 1800 in my group, along with several Harleys, Goldwings, a Victory, a Volusia, a Magna, a couple of Shadows, etc. They're all nice bikes, but I am completely contented with my Burgman.
When someone asked me today why I hadn't bought "a real motorcycle" I just looked at him and his Goldwing and said, "Why didn't
you buy a real scooter?"
To paraphrase a recent ad, "This is
not your father's Vespa."
