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The 650 Burgman is probably quite a bit faster than an 883 Sportster. All this 'manly' stuff gives me a pain. I gave up my membership in the 'manhood through suffering' group long ago. I don't care what anyone thinks about my ride, as long as I like it. BTW, I ride an 84 Honda V65 Sabre. Not that it matters.
I had a young "rebel dressed" Harley Hog type ask me why I was riding my "wimpy" little Mio 50 trainer scooter a few years ago. I explained that we wimpy former Marine Viet Nam combat vets were not too concerned with appearances and that I thought it wise to re-learn how to ride in stages. An old war injury made shifting not an option so I was a scooter type.
I did ask his opinion about putting XXXs on the Mio to reflect the number of my confirmed kills in Nam like the pilots do, but explained that there wasn't enough room. I ask his opinion if he thought bigger Xs representing ten each was a cool idea. He didn't have any good suggestions, just looked at me rather strangely.
(Most vets I know didn't keep count but he was too dumb to know better.)
Last edited by Pilgrim21784; 05-16-2011 at 07:12 AM..
I ride a Harley-Davidson Sportster....and a Kymco People 150. I would suggest you check out a SYM HD200. My wife has one and I ride it a lot. It will easily do freeways at 55-65 mph. As I recall its got a 4-valve head, ceramic coated cylinder, and is water cooled. The Kymcos are very good scooters also, as are the Genuine Scooters.
Most name brand scooters will work well for you. I would never buy one of these cheap Chinese bikes. They fall apart and not many people will work on them. There are a lot of Vespa clubs and they are made well. The Burgman(400 and 650) and Silverwing(600) are both great for a bigger bike. I looked at both and got the Silverwing since it was a bit lighter and easier for me to handle. The Helix(250), you would have to find a used one, is very comfortable and has a low center of gravity.
I have an 09 Silverwing going on 23k miles and I've loved every minute of it. I'm getting about 62 a gallon which is a lot of fun for the money.
Well good luck with it...Our group just stopped at a dealer the other day and we looked at the bikes, all Chinese. They were made so poorly. Very thin shields, things not lined up well, etc. One guy sat on one and a piece fell off and the guy just said, "oh we are having problems with that and we need to glue that" One of our guys bought the one that looks like the Helix and his lid to the case cracked and it was just so thin. Now he likes the bike but we all just shook our heads when he bought it. My Silverwing is the fourth Honda in a row and I've never had a problem and I really trust my dealership. I hope yours does well and you enjoy it...
And half the thread consisted of suggestions of what should be replaced, right off the bat
I take the long-term view: pay a bit more for something sturdy that will have a decent service network and not have to worry about problems until after you've put many, many miles on it or have had it for a long time.
I have a first-import-year, 2002 Silverwing. It had a couple of recall bugs; accepted because it was new to the market; but since then it has been nothing but basic maintenance and more frequent back tire changes than normal. I have a sidecar that causes it to eat back tires at a rate of about every 5-7000 miles. Other than that, I pay a visit to my local dealer for inspection and oil change/lube each spring and then take off for a season of trouble-free riding.
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and the guy just said, "oh we are having problems with that and we need to glue that" One of our guys bought the one that looks like the Helix and his lid to the case cracked and it was just so thin. Now he likes the bike but we all just shook our heads when he bought it. My Silverwing is the fourth Honda in a row and I've never had a problem and I really trust my dealership. I hope yours does well and you enjoy it...
