Was a nice day to ride the Suzuki

[rjs987]

Took off on a ride today before the rain (and possible light snow) set in for the next few days. Rode on one of the favorite roads for motorcyclists in the area and did see several other bikes and a Spyder going the other way, either solo or in pairs. Lots of gentle curves and hills on this road just enough to be interesting. Ignored the yellow suggested speed limit signs for the curves and the new rear tire was ready to handle those with no issues. In fact grip was better than my last tire on the rear providing a bit more confidence around the curves. Temps stayed right at 59F +/-1 almost all the way around. was overcast so didn't have any sun in my eyes... which is sometimes nice. The sky just getting ready to rain tonight. No destination. No riding TO any place in particular. Ended up about 60 miles for this ride with no place to go, but just having fun going.

Went for only my second "fun" ride this year on Tuesday after removing the heated gloves cables and controller from the bike. Figured I wouldn't need those for a few months now with high temps forecast to stay above 40F until next winter. Went only 40 miles on that ride but was still fun to get out on that sunny 70+F day.

My last rear tire was a Shinko SR568 (made for the Burgman 650) and I was not impressed with the performance. The Shinko lasted longer than the former Bridgstone at 8800 miles vs 6000 miles, but I was never really confident on it on wet roads. When I added the Shinko front tire the performance went from mediocre to just plain bad. I still have the Shinko on the front but now have returned to the Bridgestone on the rear and performance was back where it should be. At least so far. Haven't been in rain yet on this pair. I wanted to at least try Shinko tires since the cost is less than half the Bridgestones for each end. So far the front Shinko is looking like it will last a long time. Usually, when I've used Shinko tires on my other bikes, they perform really well in wet or dry so this experience was a surprise for me.

 

[rjs987]

After too much time building a deck with no time to ride I finally came up with some time for a ride.
Actually I'm waiting on one more composite board that the vendor just cannot seem to get right. First they sent me the five 16ft long boards I ordered but they were grooved edges for hidden fasteners which I did NOT order. Then they made another trip to my home to swap out the wrong kind of boards for the right kind, with solid square edged boards. But one of those had big old gash right in the center of the length of it. I need full 16ft lengths with no blemishes since I'm not going to cut out the middle and have a seam or butt edge in the middle of a run. So now I'm waiting on that one board to be replaced before I can finally finish the deck.

Meanwhile my wife told me to go take a ride since I can't "work" on the deck! So I did. Only 78 miles but some very nice roads. I even know where some rather curvy roads are in central Iowa so I rode down to Winterset, birthplace home of The Duke (John Wayne). While there I stopped to have a chocolate malt. It was a very sunny day with temps around 87-88F so seemed appropriate to have some kind of ice creme. Then off to that curvy road with the warning signs about how much slower I should go for the S curves and double S curves coming up. Of course I didn't pay much attention to those. More fun that way. I did stop at one of the Covered Bridges of Madison County for a rare (for me) photo op. This one is called the Imes Covered Bridge. Look close and you'll see my Burgman in there.



BTW- those yellow tanks hanging from the rafters are a fire suppression system. Seems there is some dim-witted crazy person or persons who get their laughs lighting up these bridges in the area. One of them has had to be rebuilt 3 times.

 

[rjs987]

Escaped for a ride today after several days without. Went to my son's house to help with moving furniture and then took off to find the long way home. Didn't start with a full tank so knew my miles would be limited. As it was I made it about 69 miles round trip. Crossed the lake on the long bridge. There were a LOT of boats on the lake. Made it look crowded even. Almost no wind so crossing the Mile Long Bridge (as it is known around here) was an easy ride across. Took the scenic route around in the country. Almost was ran over by 2 women drivers. One crossed right in front of my front wheel as we were coming around a curve to a stop light. Almost activated the ABS on that one. The other was a woman who was coming to a stop sign at a T intersection. She was on the leg that ended and I was coming down the road that crossed it. I had my turn signal on and was planning to make a left turn onto that leg. She decided to pull a U-turn right in front of me as I was turning in. WHERE ARE THE BRAINS IN SOME DRIVERS!!! Oh, and did I say there was another SUV following me who was going straight and another car behind this dim-witted woman? I'm not saying that most women drivers are bad. I sometimes see only men drivers who act more like spoiled brats on the the road. But other than those 2 incidents it was great to get out and ride.

Oh, and a bonus. When I stopped to fill up just before I arrived back home I added 3.1 gallons and calculated that tank was just over 60 mpg. Trip meter A, which I always use to track how far on a tank, showed just over 190 miles and the last bar out of 5 on the gas gauge was still not flashing. That means I could have gone more than 30 miles more before getting close to the bottom of the tank. I figure I could have made that tank of gas go 220 miles at least if I ended up at the gas station. Which is really good for only a 3.9 gallon tank.

 

[Mike 2000 ST 1100]

Those burgmans look nice . How do they ride? They are a mix between moped and motorcycle rite? 400s and 650s . 75mph? I have a couple mopeds myself a 50cc and 150cc that me and my wife ride around the lake. I can go a little slower then my motorcycle comfortably. Really take in the scenery , wildlife , and smells lol . Usaully cow poop from the farms around. Im in upstate NY 10 minutes or so above Cooperstown "baseball hof" , so i know about sneaking out for rides when you can. Long winters up here . This summer has felt like i live in a rainforest. It seems like it rains 5 days a week lately if not more. Glad you enjoyed the ride. Can't let the bonehead drivers kill your good time, they are everywhere and very spontaneous.

 

[rjs987]

@Mike 2000 ST 1100
Actually the 650 I have is more motorcycle than scooter. It is officially classed as a Maxi Scooter but I prefer to call it a Super Scooter. It rides like a motorcycle too. After my ST1100 and CTX1300 it's hard to tell I am running with a 638cc motor now. Other than being lighter it easily keeps up... given my skill level, or lack thereof. I credit that with the engine being mounted in the frame up front like any other motorcycle with a inline slant twin and the CVT. The CVT for a transmission does have a very slight delay between twisting the grip and feeling torque at the rear wheel (as is common in all vehicles with CVT) but once that is past it really makes up for any deficiency in cc or peak torque or peak HP. That hesitation is really only noticeable from initial startup and diminishes a lot when needing to bump the speed up while already going at a good pace. After learning how to compensate and anticipate that initial hesitation I usually don't even notice it any more. On the Burgman 650 speed tops out around 112 actual mph, give or take a few. It gets past 90-95 mph quickly and then takes a bit longer to get up to top end. It's very smooth as well so I don't notice I'm going as fast as I am. It will cruise at 75-85 mph all day without effort, or zip around town on city streets like a much smaller scooter. I have a power mode that works like a sport mode on bikes with riding modes. That boosts the rpm about 1500 instantly. That mode burns gas a little faster so I reserve that for passing when it really comes in handy. I normally run at between 3500-4000 rpm on county roads and highways. Interstate speeds take it up to around 4500-5000. It also doesn't act like a fixed gear manual transmission since rpm varies with load more than with speed so maintaining a constant speed I'll see the rpm vary up and down with going up or down hills unlike a standard motorcycle manual transmission.

Part of the comfort on mine comes from having a Corbin seat installed. I can ride this thing all day long without the need to stop... other than for gas and, well, other necessary breaks.
It's also, yet only, about 100 lbs lighter than my ST or CTX. Those are both the same weight as the ST1300. The final drive is a little bit heavier than a shaft drive but just as reliable. It has a train of gears for the final drive as part of the swing arm. This is why it's not even lighter.

 

[rjs987]

This is more like it.
Another very nice day I was able to take advantage of. I really enjoy 30-60+ mile rides. Mainly 'cuz that's what I usually have time to sneak in and also I get to do other things (like check out what's happening on the forums). But also I needed to do some yard work today... mowing. So in a way I got 2 rides in. One going around and around the yard on my lawn tractor and the other a bit farther away.
Went to the bank for some important business this afternoon. The bank is about a 3/4 mile round trip. But going the back streets to get there makes it a mile round trip. So as it seems happens when I *ride* to the bank I go the short distance to get there, take care of what was needed, and... 2 hours and 63 miles later finally get back home. Now THAT's the way to do an errand. Lot's of 40-45 mph country lanes mixed with 55 mph local roads. Almost no traffic due to the routes I went. Some of that time was spent in the bank. But the best part of that time was quality time on my Burgman 650.

 

[rjs987]

Hot day today. Around 92F. Took a ride anyway. As long as I was moving it was fine. My was wearing shorts under my mesh riding pants so that was good with a little breeze. My riding jacket is good for all temps. It has a panel on the back that almost completely opens up to mesh and half the chest opens to mesh venting as well as bicep vents. So all was good... as long as I kept moving. Only really started to get hot when waiting for the occasional light to turn green. I only planned for a short trip due to the heat so did a round trip of 23.4 miles.