Depends on the engine and how heavy your right hand is.
My wife's bike has 20L and I get about 250-300 kms on that tank.
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2027 Versys 900 SE LT ABS : woah!!
- Thread starter Norcorider
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Depends on the engine and how heavy your right hand is.
My wife's bike has 20L and I get about 250-300 kms on that tank.
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100%
I think consumers are realizing that pretending to be Ewan McBoorman has real-world drawbacks if you're only pounding pavement all the time. Heavy, large-diameter spoked wheels with 90/10 tires suck on asphalt. Sky-high seat heights. Bouncy suspension.
I really think the market is evolving from Adventure bikes to these cross-tourers, where the rider has the best of all worlds: ADV-type comfortable styling, but real-world pavement oriented design.
The Versys, the Multi Pikes Peak, S1000XR, standard V-Strom. These should be the models most people should be looking at.
I can envision Honda eventually coming out with a Africa Twin Street with 17s front and rear shod with sports-touring rubber and stiffer suspension. It would totally outsell the current models!
The tech is reasonably cheap to add these days and gives people a reason to buy new bikes over most bikes in the used pool. It also generates perpetual parts sales as when tech goes bad/gets damaged, normally there aren't aftermarket repair options. I doubt we will see a stripped version as it doesn't save them much money so it wouldn't save you much money. Maybe if there was a direct competitor and they wanted the marketing to say they were cheaper, they would turn some tech off but I suspect almost all of it would still be mounted so you could pay to add it in the future.
I would be comfortable cruising on my CB500X at 130-140kph all day long with no issues.
Isn't that essentially the NT1100?
What people need/SHOULD buy has virtually no influence on what they do buy, in terms of motorcycles at least.
How many people who ride any version of an HD bloat-glide ride any further than the local HD dealer and local gathering places? And to be fair how many of the equally bloated and tech-laden "Adventure" bikes actually travel a dirt road on occasion as opposed to multi-lane highways or paved secondary roads? I'd suggest that the majority of those owners would be better off riding something closer to half the weight in both cases, and low enough to plant both feet without electronically lowering the suspension for the ADV bikes. If they weren't so tall and heavy maybe those guys would feel more comfortable on less predictable surfaces than the starbucks parking lot.
Marketing tells these guys they too can be Pol Tares, Ewan McBoorman or Adam Rieman (3 extremes) if they only had "that" bike and/or all those friends, but of course you need that bike to have those friends. I think they call it "aspirational marketing", and I'm as susceptible to it as anybody.
Motorcycles in North America are toys, and increasingly toys for wealthy boys. If dude has the money (or credit rating) for a $40K BMW R1300GS - maxi-bloat edition, he's not cross shopping the Versys, standard V-Strom or even the Multi Pikes Peak or S1000XR. Like the HD buyer he made up his mind when the new, and even more expensive Klim super-duper, "I'm EVEN MORE ADVENTUROUS now!" gear came out as it, and his bike choice sends the message he wants to convey.
People will spend their money on their toys however they want, and that's good because it keeps the industry putting along.
All that aside, I think a touring bike, sport touring or otherwise is the bike you already have plus some sort of luggage and adjusted expectations.
Regarding tech features such as adaptive cruise and lean sensitive abs and the like, stuff like this becomes appealing once you experience it and becomes your norm.
Then it’s not about how cool the features are as much as if it doesn’t have them, folks move on to a comparable ride that does.
Then it’s not about how cool the features are as much as if it doesn’t have them, folks move on to a comparable ride that does.
Yep, it is.
As you rightfully pointed out, consumers are badging and marketing sensitive.
I had a very similar conversation on ADVRider when most of the GS guys were complaining about what they wanted to see in the next gen GS.
17" wheels.
Lower seat height
More asphalt-oriented. In fact 100% asphalt oriented.
More touring gizmos, radar cruise, chomecast Nav, etc.
I pointed out that the bike they wanted already existed. It's called the R1300RT.
Lots of hemming and hawing, but what it came down to was the badging. It had to be called the R1300GS. It could be an RT under the tupperware. But it *HAD* to have the GS badge.
Because of Ewan McBoorman and the fact that you can't thump your chest and claim to be a off-road world traveler if there was a lowly RT badge on your bike.
Same with the Africa Twin and NT1100.
Buyers will bend over backwards making the AT more street-oriented vs buying the bike they really needed, the NT1100. Because no NT1100 commercial ever showed it kicking up a plume of sand behind its rear wheel in the Namibian dunes.
Would *they* ever do *that* on their Africa Twin?
No.
But it *could*...
I liked the Michelin Anakees on my KTM 1090. Predictable on loose surfaces, excellent on pavement, wet or dry and they lasted well. They're on my Moto Guzzi too, though they must be original equipment as the bike had just over 5k on it when I got it.
