Bike Week: Concourse, FJR1300, K1200GT, ST1300

[Gank]

I'm going to have a lot of saddle time on these bikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. My wife wants the BMW. I'm personally leaning toward the FJR. Riding them all will make the difference.

I have the FJR1300 on Tuesday for 24 hours, then the K1200GT for an hour and a half. I pick up the Concours on Wednesday morning, switch back to the ST1300 in the afternoon, and return the Connie on Thursday morning.

If you have any specific questions about these bikes, it would help if I knew about them before hand so I can evaluate the bikes with your questions in mind. I'm going to write up as much as I can.

The first thing I can tell you is that my current insurance is $282 per year on the Vulcan. On any of these other bikes, the lowest quote I got was $1126. That's a pretty significant leap and surprised me quite a lot.

[rbentnail]

Shop around for insurance. I had Progressive with the 1500 Classic but they wanted $1179/yr for the FJR.

[Ken]

I was just quoted $415/year for the C14 with 100/300, collision, and a $500 deductible. 43, clean license, excellent credit score, Allstate.

[NCDave]

Can you tell NC insurance prices STINK?????

[Ken]

Originally Posted by NCDave

Can you tell NC insurance prices STINK?????

I would have bet that it would be worse here in New York

[NCDave]

I dunno...state laws here! Any time you see an insurance ad on TV, NC is always one that's excluded from the special once-in-a-lifetime-savings-offer.

[pdsgt]

Originally Posted by Gank

I'm going to have a lot of saddle time on these bikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. My wife wants the BMW. I'm personally leaning toward the FJR. Riding them all will make the difference.

I have the FJR1300 on Tuesday for 24 hours, then the K1200GT for an hour and a half. I pick up the Concours on Wednesday morning, switch back to the ST1300 in the afternoon, and return the Connie on Thursday morning.

If you have any specific questions about these bikes, it would help if I knew about them before hand so I can evaluate the bikes with your questions in mind. I'm going to write up as much as I can.

The first thing I can tell you is that my current insurance is $282 per year on the Vulcan. On any of these other bikes, the lowest quote I got was $1126. That's a pretty significant leap and surprised me quite a lot.

Where does one get to test ride all those awesome bikes. Where do I sign up?? I want to test ride a C14 so bad, I can hardly stand it.

Help please

[anamosity]

wow, with both my V2K and the C14 on for full coverage at $500 I pay $528 a year or $22 bucks each a month. Living in Montana actually does not suck some times. Although I have not got a quote for the zx14 yet. That one might sting a bit.

[Slo'Poke]

Originally Posted by Gank

I'm going to have a lot of saddle time on these bikes on Tuesday and Wednesday. My wife wants the BMW. I'm personally leaning toward the FJR. Riding them all will make the difference.

I have the FJR1300 on Tuesday for 24 hours, then the K1200GT for an hour and a half. I pick up the Concours on Wednesday morning, switch back to the ST1300 in the afternoon, and return the Connie on Thursday morning.

If you have any specific questions about these bikes, it would help if I knew about them before hand so I can evaluate the bikes with your questions in mind. I'm going to write up as much as I can.

I look forward to your impressions of three of these machines -> Concours, FJR1300, and ST1300. An upgrade is scheduled for next year, and sport tourers are one possibility; that trio are my candidates so far in that class.

If you could try to get the distinct differences (if any) in the ergos of those bikes I listed, it'd be much appreciated.

[A2rider]

There's rumors of a Honda V5 tourer in the works.

[Gank]

This is a classic story of The Good (BMW K1200GT), The Bad (Yamaha FJR1300), and The Ugly (Kawi Concours 14). In that order, here’s my thoughts on these rides.

The Good – 2008 BMW K1200 GT – Approximately $20K
Payload – The test bike had every package option available from BMW except the alarm system and low seat. Here’s a list of those options.

Looks: The test bike was Aventurin Silver Metallic (aka silver for us plebeians)
I’m somewhat reminded of the Ducati Moto GP bikes when I look at the front of the K-GT. The side plastics are long and visually unbroken by vents. Where the plastics end, the rest of the bike begins – except in different colors and lines, which gives the bike the appearance of a taxidermy experiment. They get away with it in Silver, but in the Blue and Graphite color options, it’s pretty eye-jarring.

The scalloped rear end of the hard bags is another eye puzzle. It may contribute to some engineer’s sense of style, but for MY touring bike, I’d have been happier with an extra few inches of cargo space instead. I think the bags ought to have extended to the end of the luggage / trunk rack.

Ergonomics:
The seating position is the most “upright” of the group. That is not to say it was straight upright – just more so than the others. For my rides, the two-position adjustable seat was in the higher “standard” position. The seat itself was reasonably comfortable, but seemed like they overstuffed the center to prepare for eventual butt-related compaction, so it was slightly (but notably) higher than the rest of the seat. This could also have been related to the electronic heating element. I can’t speak for the passenger seat, but to quote my wife as she sat on it: “Oooooh...” This is a big improvement over what she says on the Vulcan: “Owwwww.”

The handlebars were within easy reach, and can be adjusted +/- three inches within a few seconds if you prefer a sportier riding posture. For my rides, I had the adjustable handlebars in the full upright touring position. However, with all the options available on this particular bike, these were some BUSY handlebars. There were buttons, paddles, levers, and switches everywhere. Like the Harley, there are self-cancelling turn signals on both sides of the handlebars and a manual cancel above the right signal switch. This little detail took a bit of getting used to and proved a distraction that would take a couple hundred miles to cure. All of the other controls you’d expect to find on any motorcycle are there as well – just not precisely where you might expect them. The adjustable clutch and brake levers were pretty standard, easy to reach, and easy to operate. The grips were also very comfortable and didn’t beg to be changed right away.

The footpegs are rubberized and comfortable and in a very “natural” location, so there is no flailing around with your foot trying to find a peg when taking off. Your feet just want to go right there. However, I have yet to reason why they are such an impediment to moving the bike. Duck-walking backward out of a parking spot was no easy feat, and the bruises on the backs of my calves are witness to their cruelty. They don't look like they should be in the way, but they are.

The gear shift lever is also in a very natural location. The rear brake lever, however, was not as friendly. It is tucked in very close to the frame, and in order to reach it, you need to get your foot between the brake lever and a large round structure that might be the crank case cover. There is not much clearance between the two, and keeping my foot in that position felt awkward on the road. More than once, I pushed my toe forward to hit the brakes and missed the lever completely – a strange and unpleasant sensation.

Comfort:
To this moment, I am simply in disbelief at how cool this bike ran. I averaged between 5-6K RPM for over 70 miles and never felt even the slightest engine heat. The front plastics are completely sealed around the engine compartment, and the only place for heat to escape is a duct in the bottom that scoots heat out toward the rear of the bike. The gas tank cover is plastic, and the majority of the gas tank itself is under the seat, so there is no heat-collecting metal tank to wrap your legs around. Unlike any other bike I’ve ever ridden, Roasted Leg is simply not on the menu with the K-GT.
Although my ride was relatively short for a true tour evaluation, I’d just come off a 100 mile run on the FJR so I’d been sitting a while. My butt never felt achy on the BMW and I didn’t get the fidgets at all.

There was virtually no vibration through the foot pegs or the handlebars. Unfortunately, there was a very definite vibration through the seat at specific times. When just off the throttle (but not full deceleration) between 6-7K RPM, I got a pretty strong buzz in my nethers that felt, to me, outside of what I’d consider normal on a motorcycle. The salesman I reported the buzzing to said he’d never heard of that problem with the K-GT, and thought it might be some kind of resonance with that specific engine on that specific bike. He was going to ride it and get back to me.

The windshield directed airflow precisely into my visor, so riding with the face shield up and windshield down would be very welcomed on a really hot day. A few fiddles with the windshield adjustment and I was riding in a pocket of nirvana. There was no buffeting and no significant back pressure. I thought the windshield could stand to be slightly wider, and maybe a smidge taller, but it was certainly passable, functional, and easy to operate.

Engine noise was considerable. Unlike the quiet purr I’ve come to expect from stock sport bikes, this engine (especially on the right side near the foot peg) made an annoyingly audible “clackety-clackety” sound that prompted me to question the saleswoman about it. She explained it was the cam chain adjuster doing its thing. Whether that’s the case or not, I can’t say. But I can say that my initial thought was, “Whatever it is, it sounds like crap.” But I didn’t say that because I still wanted to ride it. Instead, I said, “Hmm.” Even at speed, I could still hear the clackety sound. This was a pretty major turn off for me.

A major turn ON was the cruise control. Even a nice set of grips with a throttle boss or cramp buster can’t compare to the ease and comfort of cruise control. That feature alone was grin-worthy.

Performance:
The throttle on this bike is very touchy, much more so than the others. One little dab up on the throttle and I’m combating whiplash. One little dab off the throttle and my nose is touching the handlebars. Okay, not quite that severe, but this engine has zero “coast” ability between gears. You need to flick through the gear changes fast because if you linger on the clutch for more than a blink, you’ll chirp the rear wheel. When I was hard on the throttle on the highway, this was not an issue. When tooling through town, though, I found myself wrinkling my nose at having to blip gear changes with dragster precision when I was trying to have a leisurely roll.

The engine makes satisfying power even at low RPM, and rolling on the throttle was rewarding. The gears all felt solid – none too short and none too tall – and there was plenty of RPM range to toy around in. Even though 5 gears might have been plenty for this bike, I shifted into 6th at around 95 mph and definitely appreciated having it.

During my test ride, I was averaging 42 MPG. Considering the speeds I was traveling, I think that's very respectable.

There are a zillion bike reviews that talk about horsepower and torque and all other manner of things I don’t pretend to understand, so if you’re looking for engine-speak… look elsewhere.

Handling:
Amazing. That’s the word for it. Low speed, high speed, didn’t matter. The bike was smooth as glass. It’s one of those “goes where you look” bikes so it was incredibly easy to navigate sharp turns at intersections despite its substantial weight. Heading onto the highway, I put a good lean on around the curvy on-ramp, and even on bumpy pavement the bike was solid in the turn. Swerving was effortless, and once I realized how glassy it was, I wanted to just keep swerving all the way down the highway.

It’s not without its flaws, though. Remember those solid plastics I mentioned earlier? They are something of a liability on the highway. Any kind of crosswind at all and the bike was moving laterally. Little gusts that wouldn’t budge my Vulcan had an impact on the K-GT, which is unsettling considering the speeds it’s capable of achieving. I never felt like I was getting blown into the next lane, even when riding alongside the big rigs, but there was enough motion at the wheels to keep my shoulders tense. This could be another of those “you’d get used to it” things.

Braking was absurd. I know there are some who pan ABS on motorcycles, but I really felt like I could stop on a dime, or any other currency, foreign or domestic. When I hit the brakes hard and saw how quickly the bike went from 60 to 20, I just wanted to weep. The beautiful thing was there was practically NO nosedive. The bike tracked nice and straight and just… stopped!

It's kinda late right now and I have to get up early to return the Concours, so I'll save the reviews of The Bad (the FJR1300) and The Ugly (Connie) for tomorrow afternoon. I was planning a ride on the ST1300 tomorrow, but I think the weather is going to chase me off until Saturday. Stay tuned.

[LordGT]

Yeah, the K1200GT is what I can see myself migrating to when I decide to move on from the Cruiser style. If I have my way, I'll have both.

But I'd love to have the power, handling, options & storage of the 1200GT for longer trips. Or even for to and from work. And to keep the V2K as a Monster Cruiser.

[Gank]

The Bad – 2004 Yamaha FRJ1300 – Approximately $14K
Payload – All standard, no farkles

Before I get into this review, I will say up front that this is not a fair comparison. This was a 2004 rental that had recently returned from a highway tour of Canada. The result of that tour was a set of Metzlers with a severely flat tire center surface on both front and rear. The other models I rode were 2007 or newer and in perfect condition. That said, I rode it, and I’ll give it an honest appraisal.

Looks: The test bike was Blue. I don’t know what fancy name they had for it, but it was blue. It was a really nice blue, the color of the eastern sky just after sunset when you can see the stars coming into existence.

This is a very smart looking bike. Every line extends from the front to infinity. They even added a little crimp in the hard bag for the purpose of continuing the line under the seat. While I’m not a huge fan of the fins on the side plastics, they make sense when you look at the top and bottom of the seat, and realize the fins were added for the purpose of creating lines. It seemed evident to me that the designer had symmetry in mind when doodling around in AutoCAD, and from a buyer’s perspective, it paid off. This bike looks like one I want to show my friends and family, and I got compliments from strangers telling me how nice a bike it was. That was pretty compelling.

Ergonomics:
This bike was the best fit for me. It was low enough that I didn’t feel like I was stretching to get my feet flat on the ground but high enough that I never felt cramped. The seating position was upright and standard. While there is nothing great about the seat, it was reasonably comfortable and I felt like I could stay on it for many hours before needing a break. There was not much potential to move around on the seat anyway, because if I tried to scoot back a little, the slope of the passenger seat scooted me back forward. The bike wants you to be in one position, and there you stay.

All of the controls were exactly where I expected and wanted them to be. The only extra gizmo was the rocker switch for the electronic windshield. It took no time at all to get comfy in the cockpit. The handlebars were at a good height to allow my arms to relax, and in general I’d say this was the best riding position for me.

I don’t know if this was the lightest bike of the group, but it sure felt like it. Moving it around the driveway was a cinch, and I never felt the threat of stop-sign-topple. One serious drawback of lock-to-lock turning on this bike is the edge of the windshield. While turning the wheel all the way to the left to back out of a parking spot, I smashed the pointer and middle fingers of my right hand between the edge of the windshield and the front brake. I let go a stream of expletives that would burn Samuel L. Jackson’s ears. Who makes a motorcycle with so little clearance between these parts?! (Answer: Yamaha.)

The clutch lever was very odd, and uncomfortable. The metal was exceptionally narrow from front to back, and I felt like the edge of it was digging into my fingers every time I reached for the clutch. I tried adjusting my wrist position a few times, but I couldn’t find a place where the clutch felt natural.

The hard bags are pretty crap; sad because they look pretty sharp! Unlike the BMW's soft-release side covers, the hard bags on the FJR fall violently open as soon as you lift the release handle, dumping all your stuff on the ground and banging against the exhaust.

Comfort:
When I started thinking toward this bike, my research found rumors that this bike ran hot, but the rumors were completely wrong. This bike does not run hot, as that is an inadequate description of the heat generated by this machine. In order to appreciate how hot this bike is, you need to start with picture words like “magma” and “Hindenburg.” Only then does it begin to come into focus.

When I first felt the bike start heating up on the county roads leading toward the Turnpike, I thought it was a combination of high RPM and low MPH. I thought for certain it would cool down once I got on the highway and got some serious airflow over the engine. Believe it or not, the highway just made it worse. After only a few miles on the NJ Turnpike, I was sweating profusely despite my mesh jacket. For the first time, I had to open my visor at highway speed because the heat was intolerable, and I didn’t care if the visor broke off. By the time I arrived in Metuchen (about 45 minutes), my crotch had completely melted, and from my zipper to my knees, the inner thighs of my pants were soaked like I’d peed myself. This was unfortunate, because I was in Metuchen to pick up the BMW K1200, and I had to walk into the dealer with my pee-pee pants and ask them for the keys to their $20K bike. Embarrassing? Yeah. Anyway, I rode the BMW for an hour, and when I came back, the FRJ1300 was STILL glowing hot, and all the heat from the engine had collected at the gas tank. When I sat back down on the FJR, my immediate and overwhelming thought was “I cannot own this bike.” On this particular day in New Jersey, it was 75 degrees and sunny with a 5-10 mph breeze, and low humidity. On a TYPICAL day in New Jersey (95 degrees, 90% humidity), I have no doubt that the FJR1300 would have killed me. It could not be ridden in those conditions. I am not joking when I say that on the way home from Metuchen, I thought my leg was resting on the exhaust pipe because my leg was burning. I literally had to look because I was afraid my pantleg was on fire. It was that hot.

The foot pegs were the only source of vibration. I had on thick soled riding boots so it was bearable, but I’m sure it’d be annoying in sneakers or flip flops or whatever the kids are wearing these days. I tried to convince myself it was like a sport touring foot massage, but ultimately it had the effect of numbing the bottoms of my feet.

The windshield had a slight curl at the top that was good and bad at the same time. It was good because it funneled much needed volumes of air into my helmet in the “down” position. It was bad because in the “up” position, it distorted the road ahead like those mirrors in a Fun House. I never really found a happy place for the windshield, much as I fiddled with it. If I wasn’t getting wind directly in the face, my head was bobbling like Jay Leno. If I tried to fix that problem, I got buffeting around the sides that felt like someone was using my ribs for boxing practice.

On the bright side, the FJR has THE BEST headlight arrangement I have ever seen. The lowbeams lit up the road in a way I didn't think possible on a motorcycle, and the highbeams were like stadium lighting. I wish every bike had lamps like this. When I pulled in my driveway at the end of the night, I sat there for a minute flicking the switch from high to low beam, and just marveled at the sheer volume of light that was pouring out of the front of this bike.

Performance:
This engine behaved much better for me than the BMW. It was much smoother through the gears and had a good “feel” to the throttle. Blipping the throttle produced modest acceleration, and I never felt like the front wheel wanted to leave the ground. The bike was plenty fast, though, and had no trouble getting into the triple digits. It definitely felt hampered by the 5-speed transmission, though, and more than once I tried to upshift to a higher gear that simply didn’t exist.

Handling:
There is a letter grade below F; it’s FJR. At every opportunity, this bike undermined my confidence in its ability to do anything except go straight and fast. Part of this I attribute to the misshapen tires, and part of it I attribute to vehicular demon possession ala Christine. When I first put the bike into a corner, it immediately tried to stand back up straight. This scared the living crap out of me because I was going hot up an onramp, couldn’t hold the line I wanted, and was clenching as I prepared to hit the sandy crud that piles up on the shoulder. It only got worse from there. I was not at one with the FRJ1300 – I was at WAR with the FJR1300. Going into any turn, I had to counter-steer so hard that it was more like wrestling than riding, and was zero fun. By the end of the night, I was so shaken by the terrible handling that I practically wanted to get off and walk the bike around any curvy parts and only get back on when the road was straight and flat. Low speed, high speed, any anywhere in between, it was nothing but disappointment.

[jnk]

great reviews i felt like i was reading a copy of road bike or something
can't wait for the ugly review

[Slo'Poke]

Originally Posted by jnk

great reviews i felt like i was reading a copy of road bike or something
can't wait for the ugly review

Indeed. Maybe you should submit these to a few magazines. A new career, perhaps?

I especially was keen on the FJR review. I just dropped into a dealership today to look this bike over. Makes me wonder how many changes the bike has gone thru over the last four years (has the heat issue improved?). I'm thinking the only way I'll find out for certain is to find a place that rents them out and take it out for a weekend.

Thanks a lot, Gank. Looking forward to the others.

[Gank]

Originally Posted by jnk

great reviews i felt like i was reading a copy of road bike or something
can't wait for the ugly review

Thanks very much for your kind compliments. Makes it feel like it was worth doing.
The Ugly review is coming tomorrow morning. I got diverted from that task tonight by regular life interference.
Also, the ST1300 is supposed to go out with me again tomorrow, but again it looks like rain. Most likely, I am going to ask them to hold off until Monday when it looks like we'll have a decent break in the weather.

[Gank]

Originally Posted by Slo'Poke

Makes me wonder how many changes the bike has gone thru over the last four years (has the heat issue improved?).

This is the exact thought that went through my mind. I know I've heard the heat issue was resolved in 2006, but that does nothing to repair my shattered regard for Yamaha for releasing the 2004 as it was. It's difficult for me to believe their test riders said, "It's hot, but I think riders in Greenland will enjoy that feature." Probably, they wanted it redesigned but the company had no time to do so, and released a lemon onto the world. I'm left feeling that if they can make such an ergonomic engineering blunder in such recent history, what disaster awaits me if I buy a 2008 model?

[Slo'Poke]

So the magma issue (you crack me up) might've been corrected? Nice to know. With the wife taking lessons now and wanting to be an 'emergency backup rider', I looked at the FJR due to the YCCS technology (electric shifting) it possesses.