- Joined
- Mar 6, 2007
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- Location
- St.Joe/Kalamazoo Michigan
Well, today in the morning I had an exam in my first class. Then, my second class was cacelled leaving me 2 hours until I had my third and final class of the day. I would normally have a fourth class, but it was cancelled as well, and tomorrow we have off, "Spirit Day", the Friday before spring break. My buddy and I didn't feel like sitting around for two hours in a lounge, so we decided to run to the local Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki/Kawasaki dealer to check out some gear since he wanted to get some sizes for some helmets. While we were there we checked out some bikes, nothing speical except a Monster Energy ZX-14 and ZX-6r, which really arent all that special. They did have a used V-Max, that was piped, but they wouldn't let me start it up 
...
So we were looking, they really didn't have much since half the showroom was still filled with snowmobiles. They had a leftover FZ-1 in candy red, which I was showing my friend, and then by the door they had a Concours 14. I have read a bunch of stuff about it and was showing my friend some cool things and eplaining them, like the proximity key feature, shaft drive, ABS... Now, this Concours was the ONLY touring/sport touring bike they had on the floor (yes yes, Kawi says it's a supersport touring, I know). The least sporty thing there aside from some scooters against the back wall, and a couple of the cruisers they had in the corner (in comparison to all the SS bikes). This old man walks in with presumeable his wife, and they were probably in their mid to late 60's. He looks at us, 2 college guys checking out the only touring bike in a sea of sportbikes and performance sleds, some nice quads, a couple of cruisers, and a few scooters, and says "You're gonna kill yourself on one of those".
I just looked at him, dumbfounded that this guy is even talking to me, and I said "Well, you can kill yourself if you fall in the shower, does that mean that you don't ever wash yourself?" He seemed confused, and started walking towards the back, while muttering something, by the scooters where a salesman was waiting for them, presumably he knew they were coming.
ANYWAYS,
So we left that joint and went down the street to the Harley/Buell dealer. We went in and they had an '08 1125r in black, '09 1125cr in orange, and an '09(I think '09) XB12Scg in translucent red. I was happy to see the 1125cr, since this was the reason I wanted to go there, even if it was orange and not black. A salesman came over and started talking to us, sorta, he seemed like he didn't know how to act towards us, maybe we didn't fit the typical clientel profile? But anways, I knew before going in that I know more about the 1125's than anyone at that dealership does (thanks partially to Hellgate), so I started asking questions, sort of playing dumb like it's the first time I had seen one. I asked how many 1125's they sold last year and when he said 3, I knew why they didn't have but the 3 bikes I mentioned, and 2 Ulysses next to them. They must not push them at all or advertise much (haven't seen anything) and the sales guys must not care much about them.
I sat on the bike, and actually, with the handlebars it really only felt like a little bit of a further reach forward and slightly down from what I remember about the FZ (yes it's sad I have to try to remember, the damn thing is packed away in the parent's garage for the winter, hopefully to soon be freed again if we can ever start getting some nicer weather...). I checked it out and figured there is some adjustability, maybe enough, in just rotating the handlebars up some to where it would be a little more comfortable for longer trips/commuting. There is another handlebar available for it however, I do not know how much up and back it brings the grips. But, it seems as though the stock handlebars could easily be rotated, and possibly in conjunction with a custom made riser on the clamp to create a pretty comprable position to the FZ.
The seat felt firm when I put my hand on it, and I was scared that it would be too thin. When I got on the bike however, it felt pretty good. I'm sure a custom seat with a little extra foam or whatever would make it pretty plush, without really changing the appearance of it. While in the saddle, I'm 6'-6'1" without shoes and have legs on the longer side, I noticed that the pegs felt just a little bit high for their position, which possibly would make your foot have to bend quite a bit up to get your toe on top of the brake lever, however I wasn't riding it so that might not be an issue. I think that if lowered pegs were installed, like what Hellgate did, you would have to use the maximum adjustment available to lower the crontrol end of the foot levers to be comfortable. But then again I wasn't riding it, I just put one foot up to check it out.
I also noticed how light and incredibly small the bike felt beneath me. It really felt tiny and compact, but it also felt stout or full enough I guess you could say, that the small size would not cause any problems, just ehnace performance. Swaying it side to side beneath me felt like it required much much less effort than the FZ, probably due to the lower center of gravity of the 1125cr.
Seeing the 1125's in person is much better than seeing them in pictures. The radiator pods are nowhere as big or ugly (I thaught they looked alright in pictures) as one would think, and the headlight on the CR looks much smaller and compact. I also thaught that by the pictures the gauge cluster would be too small, but being on the bike and in person, this was not the case.
My friend is pretty passive, so I really had to coax him to sit on the XB. When he first saw it, he said that seeing it in pictures and on the internet he had just overlooked it and thaught it was ugly, but in person he was actually starting to really like it just in the first few minutes of being there. He's a little shorter at probably 5'8" or so and he fit very well on the Scg. I liked the details on these bikes, the way they felt, looked, and the features like the stainless braided brake lines, the hdryaulic clutch on the CR among other things.
The salesman had not really tried to talk to us much about the bikes let alone push a sale and left us alone for a bit, and came back with some Buell brochures and said if we came in and bought the two bikes together he'd give us $900 off a piece, which from what I've seen is what bigger shops are advertising them at anyways.
So anyways, the two bikes seemed really nice, and I'd love to be able to test both variations out some day, but it seems like to do that I will have to find a bigger dealership that moves more Buells and has some demo models. I don't think they'd be willing to have demo's with only 5 Buells on the floor. Going there I knew I already liked the CR, but I am actually starting to like the XB more as well. Initally I am turned off by the air/oil/fan cooled pushrod engine since I am partail to water cooled, but people seem to love them and I guess I haven't heard too many bad things about them.
If I came into some money, I'd definately consider one of these bikes. I'd like to be able to consider one anyways, but this year I have paid the FZ off, and of course what did I do? I got myself into a car payment, but it's only $170/mo including insurance for the car. The last day of '08 I got a red '07 grand prix GT supercharged. I gave $8100 and a'97 accord for it, which I must say was a pretty good deal. There's nothing wrong with the car at all, and it's got all the options I wanted: heated leather, the 5-double spoke 17" silver rims, and then the dual zone climate control. It's got XM which I haven't used, and it doesn't have a sunroof, which is good since unless I lean back I hit my head on the ceiling on GP's with sunroofs since the liner is lower by an inch or two.
But anyways, sorry for writing so much. I guess I just got bored, and felt like rambling on telling my stories of the day.
...So we were looking, they really didn't have much since half the showroom was still filled with snowmobiles. They had a leftover FZ-1 in candy red, which I was showing my friend, and then by the door they had a Concours 14. I have read a bunch of stuff about it and was showing my friend some cool things and eplaining them, like the proximity key feature, shaft drive, ABS... Now, this Concours was the ONLY touring/sport touring bike they had on the floor (yes yes, Kawi says it's a supersport touring, I know). The least sporty thing there aside from some scooters against the back wall, and a couple of the cruisers they had in the corner (in comparison to all the SS bikes). This old man walks in with presumeable his wife, and they were probably in their mid to late 60's. He looks at us, 2 college guys checking out the only touring bike in a sea of sportbikes and performance sleds, some nice quads, a couple of cruisers, and a few scooters, and says "You're gonna kill yourself on one of those".
I just looked at him, dumbfounded that this guy is even talking to me, and I said "Well, you can kill yourself if you fall in the shower, does that mean that you don't ever wash yourself?" He seemed confused, and started walking towards the back, while muttering something, by the scooters where a salesman was waiting for them, presumably he knew they were coming.
ANYWAYS,
So we left that joint and went down the street to the Harley/Buell dealer. We went in and they had an '08 1125r in black, '09 1125cr in orange, and an '09(I think '09) XB12Scg in translucent red. I was happy to see the 1125cr, since this was the reason I wanted to go there, even if it was orange and not black. A salesman came over and started talking to us, sorta, he seemed like he didn't know how to act towards us, maybe we didn't fit the typical clientel profile? But anways, I knew before going in that I know more about the 1125's than anyone at that dealership does (thanks partially to Hellgate), so I started asking questions, sort of playing dumb like it's the first time I had seen one. I asked how many 1125's they sold last year and when he said 3, I knew why they didn't have but the 3 bikes I mentioned, and 2 Ulysses next to them. They must not push them at all or advertise much (haven't seen anything) and the sales guys must not care much about them.
I sat on the bike, and actually, with the handlebars it really only felt like a little bit of a further reach forward and slightly down from what I remember about the FZ (yes it's sad I have to try to remember, the damn thing is packed away in the parent's garage for the winter, hopefully to soon be freed again if we can ever start getting some nicer weather...). I checked it out and figured there is some adjustability, maybe enough, in just rotating the handlebars up some to where it would be a little more comfortable for longer trips/commuting. There is another handlebar available for it however, I do not know how much up and back it brings the grips. But, it seems as though the stock handlebars could easily be rotated, and possibly in conjunction with a custom made riser on the clamp to create a pretty comprable position to the FZ.
The seat felt firm when I put my hand on it, and I was scared that it would be too thin. When I got on the bike however, it felt pretty good. I'm sure a custom seat with a little extra foam or whatever would make it pretty plush, without really changing the appearance of it. While in the saddle, I'm 6'-6'1" without shoes and have legs on the longer side, I noticed that the pegs felt just a little bit high for their position, which possibly would make your foot have to bend quite a bit up to get your toe on top of the brake lever, however I wasn't riding it so that might not be an issue. I think that if lowered pegs were installed, like what Hellgate did, you would have to use the maximum adjustment available to lower the crontrol end of the foot levers to be comfortable. But then again I wasn't riding it, I just put one foot up to check it out.
I also noticed how light and incredibly small the bike felt beneath me. It really felt tiny and compact, but it also felt stout or full enough I guess you could say, that the small size would not cause any problems, just ehnace performance. Swaying it side to side beneath me felt like it required much much less effort than the FZ, probably due to the lower center of gravity of the 1125cr.
Seeing the 1125's in person is much better than seeing them in pictures. The radiator pods are nowhere as big or ugly (I thaught they looked alright in pictures) as one would think, and the headlight on the CR looks much smaller and compact. I also thaught that by the pictures the gauge cluster would be too small, but being on the bike and in person, this was not the case.
My friend is pretty passive, so I really had to coax him to sit on the XB. When he first saw it, he said that seeing it in pictures and on the internet he had just overlooked it and thaught it was ugly, but in person he was actually starting to really like it just in the first few minutes of being there. He's a little shorter at probably 5'8" or so and he fit very well on the Scg. I liked the details on these bikes, the way they felt, looked, and the features like the stainless braided brake lines, the hdryaulic clutch on the CR among other things.
The salesman had not really tried to talk to us much about the bikes let alone push a sale and left us alone for a bit, and came back with some Buell brochures and said if we came in and bought the two bikes together he'd give us $900 off a piece, which from what I've seen is what bigger shops are advertising them at anyways.
So anyways, the two bikes seemed really nice, and I'd love to be able to test both variations out some day, but it seems like to do that I will have to find a bigger dealership that moves more Buells and has some demo models. I don't think they'd be willing to have demo's with only 5 Buells on the floor. Going there I knew I already liked the CR, but I am actually starting to like the XB more as well. Initally I am turned off by the air/oil/fan cooled pushrod engine since I am partail to water cooled, but people seem to love them and I guess I haven't heard too many bad things about them.
If I came into some money, I'd definately consider one of these bikes. I'd like to be able to consider one anyways, but this year I have paid the FZ off, and of course what did I do? I got myself into a car payment, but it's only $170/mo including insurance for the car. The last day of '08 I got a red '07 grand prix GT supercharged. I gave $8100 and a'97 accord for it, which I must say was a pretty good deal. There's nothing wrong with the car at all, and it's got all the options I wanted: heated leather, the 5-double spoke 17" silver rims, and then the dual zone climate control. It's got XM which I haven't used, and it doesn't have a sunroof, which is good since unless I lean back I hit my head on the ceiling on GP's with sunroofs since the liner is lower by an inch or two.
But anyways, sorry for writing so much. I guess I just got bored, and felt like rambling on telling my stories of the day.
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