Test ride challenge

[Tomor]

The tracer seat isn't very good, the comfort seat........is even worse. But after 5000 miles on mine I don't think it's bad enough to spend 250 odd on getting a new one. I'll live with it.

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[carelesschucca]

Test Ride today was an epic fail. Turned up at Triumph Edinburgh to find someone else footering about with the bike. Dirty horrible man bought it... Thing is he actually offered me a shot of the bike if I wanted but it didn't feel quite right.

[L3nny]

Today I have been mostly at the Suzuki Cafe tour. Managed to get a ride on these 4


Full reports to come

Took a test ride on a Z1000sx today. Blew me away & made the sv feel like old generation technology. Seemed heavier to maneuver at town speeds but that completely disappeared once up to speed, which the speedo could not keep up with and was still going up when I was in the brakes!!!!

[L3nny]

Z100SX is a great bike, one of the first in this thread, often think I should have bought one.

Took this beauty out today. Need to pull my finger out!

That looks awesome although I've no idea what it is!?

[Craig380]

It's all personal taste etc but I really, really do not like that kind of short / bobbed tail look on bikes. Always looks to me like the bike's been squeezed lengthways

[L3nny]

MV Agusta Dragster

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[L3nny]

Test 28 - Suzuki GSX1000S

Next four reviews were done at the Suzuki cafe tour. Suzuki are going around to "biker" cafes with a bunch of bikes and booking them out for half hour guided test rides. You book in, put on your yellow Noddy jacket and follow a guide around for about 20 miles. The list of bikes available are on their website and you just pick what ever's free and head out. I already own a V-Strom 1000 and my Mrs has a GSX750 so I didn't take those two out. As the ride is guided and you aren't supposed to overtake it's a bit difficult to get a proper feel for the bike but the leader isn't that slow so you can still open the bikes up in some places.

Anyway, the GSX1000S. The main thing that hits you with this bike it the torque, it's an absolute monster. It just has oodles of grunt everywhere in the range. It may as well be an automatic as you can pull away in top gear and it'll happily rip your arms off in any gear.

Handling wise, it fells a little heavy but it's fitted (I think as standard) with Renthal "Fat Bars" which make it easy to chuck about. It felt very planted and the suspension is very plush, it's sporty without being too firm.
The dash is great, lots of information on there and even though it's small it's easy to read, there's also traction control with 4 settings and ABS.

Comfort wise it's a bit odd, the foot position is like a sports bike, so your legs a pretty cramped, but your sat upright with your arms out wide so the little screen does nothing to block the wind. Seat is nice and comfortable too.

It's a very capable bike, but had zero character, it's also shockingly ugly and as the fairing does nothing to block the wind you'd be much better off with the naked version, which is a pretty good looking bike.

[L3nny]

Test 29 - 2016 Suzuki SV650

Not going to write a lot about this as pretty much everyone on this site has ridden an SV at some point.

It's amazing to think that the SV is nearly 20 years old and hasn't really changed much in that time. The new SV is pretty much the same as the old one but a bit more refined and IMO better looking. The suspension feels a little better, not as much dive when braking and a little more composed on rough roads. The fuelling is a bit better too, it's smoother and has feels like the torque curve is flatter.

The dash is the same as the GSX1000 and makes the SV feel much more up to date.

For 5 grand it really is a bargain, on the road it'll do anything you need it to, it makes the grunt of the 1000cc bike I was on earlier seem completely unnecessary, in fact it, being forced to stick to speed limits(ish) it was actually more fun to ride as you can hit the rev limiter without risking your licence.

Comfort was on par with the GSX too, but the seating position was a bit more natural with the pegs a bit lower and more forward.

Only negative point are the brakes, they are borderline dangerous, and this was a bike with 1200 miles on the clock. Such a shame really and as many people have said before there really needs to be an SVR, if it had some decent USD forks like you get on the GSX and Brembo brakes, I'd happily pay and extra £1000 and I'm sure they'd fly out of the showroom.