Dealer Demo Ride: "If you break it, you buy it!"

[Gaoler]

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Dude, this is so far from true it's not funny.

Manufacturers look at demo days as marketing investment. The demo days generate sales, brand loyalty, and free word-of-mouth advertising.

The fuel, insurance, and event staffing costs are legal corporate advertising expenses.
They wouldn't do it if it didn't benefit them financially

 

[timtune]

I like long and low cruisers, a la V-Rod, so I was partial to the Scout Bobber.

This reminds me of test riding a Yammie Bolt. Looks like a fun ride until you realize how much forward controls suck.

 

[Lightcycle]

Bikes getting messed up is just a cost of doing business and aren't really a huge loss to manufacturers... they're write offs I'm sure.
'Probably gets entered in their books as advertising and promotion.

Write offs come out of profit but if a manufacturer is healthy enough the occasional hit shouldn't hurt too much. Dealers have smaller budgets.

The factory might farm the repairs out to a dealer because factories run production lines far differently than a repair shop. Stopping a production line to fix a one off sets schedules back. Workers are assemblers, not mechanics, However OEM part prices are a fraction of retail.

The demo bikes are insured. If they get messed up, the insurance company will cover the repairs.

But yes, they will probably write off the insurance premiums and any deductibles they have to pay in the event of an accident.

Was recently in a situation where the dealership messed up a repair and I asked for a loaner bike while waiting for replacement parts. They gave me a demo bike, but told me that the insurance was specific to demo rides and for 24 hours per rider at a time. They had to write a new insurance policy for me to take the bike home for a week or two.

 

[Lightcycle]

This reminds me of test riding a Yammie Bolt. Looks like a fun ride until you realize how much forward controls suck.

Agree. The V-Rod has a mid-mount kit for most of their later model-year runs, which I would definitely put on.

Or go for the Street Rod with mid-mount, higher clearance pegs.

 

[DoASkid]

The demo bikes are insured. If they get messed up, the insurance company will cover the repairs.

Lol. No. OEM demo bikes are not insured. Manufacturers bear the costs of all crashes, mechanicals from clowns who like to rev bomb the things, and theft of parts that happen on manufacturer demo rides.

Was recently in a situation where the dealership messed up a repair and I asked for a loaner bike while waiting for replacement parts. They gave me a demo bike, but told me that the insurance was specific to demo rides and for 24 hours per rider at a time. They had to write a new insurance policy for me to take the bike home for a week or two.

That's a separate thing for dealer demos, which almost never get used for OEM days.

Manufacturers look at demo days as marketing investment. The demo days generate sales, brand loyalty, and free word-of-mouth advertising.
The fuel, insurance, and event staffing costs are legal corporate advertising expenses.
They wouldn't do it if it didn't benefit them financially

Yes, all of that is true. But that's not the same thing as crash damage. Re your last line: Why do you think manufacturer demo tours are much more rare and stilted these days then years gone by?

Then again, given all the bragging in this forum about thrashing and crashing demo bikes and how they only do it so they know what to buy used later on anyway.... I don't think I blame OEMs for winding those things back.

 

[Gaoler]

The demo day FJR I rode had crash damage.
Busted up fairing.
I'm sure whomever did it walked away with no more an an "Ooops, sorry".

 

[Lightcycle]

A Couple Of Xs Mark The Spot

In not-so-recent news, Neda is opting to keep her 901.

However, technically it's still her turn to buy a bike and I can't get a new one until she does...

She's now interested in street bikes. So we went for another test ride!

She's looking for something sporty, yet comfortable. Previously, she went down the sport-touring route with the R1250RS, but the aggressive riding position had her legs too folded up and cramped underneath her, so we eventually traded that in.

I suggested one of those crossover bikes - Adventure-styling but street-focused. We looked through a few of them online, and despite me trying to steer her towards the Multistrada she eventually gravitated towards this one:

It's not a V4 Pikes Peak, but still quite nice.

The 2026 BMW S1000XR boasts impressive power figures: 170hp, up 5hp from the previous gen. 84 lb-ft is okay and not as torquey as the boxer's motor's 110 lb-ft, so obviously it achieves all that power at the top of the rev range. This thing likes, and needs, to be revved to have any fun on it.

I rode the previous gen and was disappointed by the dip in power in the mid-range, but after some research, there are a couple of tunes available on the market that will restore the missing lb-ft and bhp which were cruelly robbed for the sake of Euro 5 compliance.

Another issue I had with the last version was the bucket seat that locked you into one riding position. This new gen, which had its refresh in 2024, features a flatter seat which allows more movement for the rider. A huge improvement and very comfortable for longer distances.

Fortunately, this demo bike was out of its break-in period, so no cap on the revs. This allowed Neda to push the needle on the tach all the way to the XR's 12K redline. We spent most of the test ride on the highway where my wife was busy doing frequent 3rd-gear pulls - well into lose-her-license territory - all the while giggling maniacally over the comms: "I love the howl of the engine above 10K!!!" Good ole inline-4s!

I think she found her bike...

As a side-note, I took out a different kind of X to accompany her on the test ride - more out of curiousity than a desire to trade up:

The revamped DesertX with the new 890cc V2 engine, which I really wanted to compare to the venerable, but outgoing, 937cc Testastretta 11° powerplant.

The power is down a couple of ponies to 110hp (113hp previously), but the real story is the weight of the engine which is supposedly 22 lbs lighter!

Unfortunately all those savings never found its weigh, er, way to the new DesertX. It tips the scales pretty much same as the old version despite carrying 3 liters less gas. umm... whut?

Numbers on paper matter, especially with everyone comparison-shopping on the Internet. Wet weight is a headline item, especially on an adventure bike. But tank range is listed much lower on the spreadsheet... I see what you're doing, Ducati!

I suspect the poundage crept back onto the chassis due to the redesign, which fixes the air filter access. Instead of having to remove the gas tank, the filter is now accessible from the outside. What took 45-60 minutes for a filter change on the old bike is now supposed to take 5 minutes - a welcome upgrade for off-roaders who force-feed sand and dirt down the DesertX's gullet!

Seating position and riding (pavement) dynamics are exactly the same as the old version, as are the 'tronix. But this new engine is noticeably different. In a good way.

I have the Testastretta 11° in two of my current bikes and I am acutely aware of its idiosyncrasies. The biggest headache is the lumpy fueling at low-revs, which requires a lot of finessing with the clutch to keep crawl-speeds steady.

This new engine totally fixes that and it was quite a revelation. Even though peak power is down by 3hp, it's barely noticeable - pretty much a rounding error when you're on the pipe.

Would I swap out my DX out for this new version? The engine is much smoother and refined off-idle, the air filter access is much easier. The new plastic fuel tank moves the center of gravity lower than the top-heavy metal tank that I have. But the redesign leaves me a bit cold. It feels very compromised - like the designers were gagged and tied to a chair while the engineers had their way with the bike.

It's the little stylistic touches that made the original DX feel a bit unique: portrait-mode TFT display, offset gas cap. The new bike has regressed back to a traditional landscape mode display and centre-mounted gas cap... just like every other motorcycle out there now.

Also, I really enjoy owning and operating a Desmo-driven engine, which is a key Ducati signature feature. But with the advent of the V4 Granturismo engine and now with the V2 mill, every non-racing, street-oriented model moving forward will have spring-actuated valves. Just like every other motorcycle out there now...

The new DX is inarguably a better bike than the old version. The only practical drawback is that it loses a fair bit of tank capacity and range - quite a drastic and desperate measure to keep its wet weight similar to its predecessor. But the looks... it's a big (desert)X from me.

We got back to the dealership having formed some good opinions about both bikes. But it's my wife's turn to go shopping.

So... what's the verdict on the S1000XR?

"I love the bike, but I don't really like the colour..."

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