OK let me announce it here and now after driving my 2005 650 home (10 kms)... the 2005 650 Burgman does have an "overdrive" !!!
It is enabled in the manual mode. There is an "OD" light that is to the right side of the instrument panel. Once you place the transmission in manual and jump through from 1st to 5th, then one more push of the "up" button places the tranny in "OD". Funny the owners manual has no mention of this feature. The dealer knew nothing of this feature and my friend from Suzuki Canada, who shall remain nameless, told me there have been no changes to the 2005 model.
Don't ask me revs vs road speed yet. I risked life and livihood to try this is Vancouver rush hour traffic. Like others, I think I will be leaving the tranny in the auto mode. Prior to picking it up, I was so concerned about this feature I called the dealer this morning and asked if they could walk over to it and look closely at the dash. I asked them to find that "OD" indicator. It was locked in the warehouse and I'd come down myself and take a look when I picked it up. Well there was this OD there alright but after leafing through the owner's manual still no mention of the OD, I just had to figure out how to get it in the OD mode. Got it home ready to place it in the shed and it bugged me so much I had to take it out into rush hour traffic. Shifted through 1 to 5 and then finally plunked it into OD at about 75 km/hr. Turned around and went home ...enough excitment for the day. All I need is to rear end some other vehicle.
My first impressions, it pulls like a freight train from a stop and is so so smooth. Engine is quiet and the exhaust note sounds more like a motorcycle rather than a lawn mower. Slow speed handling is easy for such a heavy machine. Making me rethink the role of my 400. Anyway, more miles on it, I know, will further impress me. I love the mirrors and the digital speedo is going to take some time to get used to. At least it doesn't wander around....that could be very annoying so I think the engineers figured to delay the road speed sampling rate to avoid this.
Thats all....lots for only 12 kms of riding. Timothy