Dennis Andress Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Not many bikes in the parking lot. Can Am was the only manufacture willing to do demo rides. Interesting saddlebag shape on the Honda VFR. K1600GT I don't get how something this big can be considered "sport." It's a really nice bike and I heard lots of positive comments. My impression? Simply that the seat felt very wide. Looking at it from this angle shows the frame is wider still. GT on top. GTL on bottom Close up of the GTL's dash. Hopefully the little airfoil on the back of the saddlebags is just there for style... These look like more fun. Cute Not cute And, a bit of history. Link to comment
pbbeck Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 I went to the show in LB. This caught my eye... The Royal Enfield looks like it would be a hoot to commute on! Link to comment
Boffin Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 The Royal Enfield looks like it would be a hoot to commute on! Just so long as you do not ride fast roads - 65-70 is about tops for these, though fuel economy is fairly good. Andy Link to comment
Motodan Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Thanks for the pixs. And your comment of the K16's (width) seat....interesting as that is one of BMW ad comments....how the engine/trans is narrow under seat area to allow narrower seat and foot peg relationship....helping leg to ground ratio Guess one must always assume the Ad writer never really sat on the product. Link to comment
Dennis Andress Posted December 20, 2010 Author Share Posted December 20, 2010 Thanks for the pixs. And your comment of the K16's (width) seat....interesting as that is one of BMW ad comments....how the engine/trans is narrow under seat area to allow narrower seat and foot peg relationship....helping leg to ground ratio Guess one must always assume the Ad writer never really sat on the product. Don't take my word for it. My impression is tainted by my dislike of large bikes. I also noticed the GTL's seat was considerably lower. Link to comment
essman Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Being as it was a rainy day, it seemed like there was a good crowd and it was a fun show. I can't help but think the dash of the new 1600 reminds me of , as a youngster, our family's 1957 Ford wagon dashboard--no GPS, of course. Link to comment
pbbeck Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 There's not much that appeals to me about the new K1600GT. Dimensionally, it is nearly the same as my 1200GT, so why does it seem so ungainly and large. The seating position is radically different, like an RT with barbacks. The forward-leaning "GT" position is no more. The dash - at least when it is off - looks like it came out of a 1982 Reliant K. Of course when the new K1200GTs came out I didn't like them. Then look what happened. Link to comment
Firefight911 Posted December 20, 2010 Share Posted December 20, 2010 Dimensionally, it is nearly the same as my 1200GT, so why does it seem so ungainly and large. 2 inch longer wheelbase to start! Link to comment
sgendler Posted December 21, 2010 Share Posted December 21, 2010 Where are the pics of the v4 Tuono, dammit! Link to comment
Dennis Andress Posted December 22, 2010 Author Share Posted December 22, 2010 Sorry Sammy, I missed the Tuono. Link to comment
Dennis Andress Posted December 22, 2010 Author Share Posted December 22, 2010 Since there's been quite a bit of chatter about the K1600 around here... Maybe something to pencil in on that pre-order form... I wonder if I can retrofit that. The bike seemed very narrow from the front. Note the air intakes on each side of the oil cooler. The front of the little silver thing I circled pivots out and around. It looked and felt like some kind of air vane. It can pivot up to 180 degrees. I got a few shots of the Tenere too. There was not much interest in it. Link to comment
notacop Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Those Tenere' bag mounts look nice and tidy. Not like my Givi's were. Link to comment
kmac Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Are those bags on the Tenere aluminum or some kind of ABS/nylon/poly construction? Link to comment
Firefight911 Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 Are those bags on the Tenere aluminum or some kind of ABS/nylon/poly construction? Plastic with aluminized panels. Link to comment
kmac Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 So is that a plastic with a stamped aluminum plate over the top on the flat surfaces? Are they all plastic inside? Or is it only plastic on the corners like it looks? Link to comment
Firefight911 Posted December 22, 2010 Share Posted December 22, 2010 All plastic with aluminized wrappers for looks only. Link to comment
TEWKS Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 A musical question for the very two bikes tugging at me right now, the S10 & K16. Yeah I know, i'm a goofball. Thanks for the pics D! Pat Link to comment
kmac Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 You need one of each, then i need to come and ride your spare one so we can do side by side comparisons. Then you keep the one you like the best and I ride the other one home so you dont have to worry about storing it. Link to comment
TEWKS Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 You need one of each Why the heck didn't I think of that! Problem solved, that was easy! Pat Link to comment
Dennis Andress Posted December 23, 2010 Author Share Posted December 23, 2010 Thanks for the pics D! Pat You're welcome. It seems that every touring bike on the market these days, except the Gold Wing, is labeled "Sport Touring." Our moniker has been stolen by marketing... In the early `80's I restored an R90S rat into my dream touring bike. At the same time an Air Force buddy had a 1976 Gold Wing. It took a few months before I got over it and asked to ride it. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I put more than a few miles on his bike over the next couple of years. It was a good bike, just limited by its size and weight. My previous bike was an `02 K1200 RS. I loved that bike; strong, stable, and fast. After around 40,000 miles the thought came to me that it did everything that old Gold Wing did, only better. To this day I think of the RS as a modern version of an early Wing. Yet it was still limited by its size and weight... I'm riding a K1300 S now. I find that I compare it to that old R90S, which I rode for over 10 years. Where the RS was a full on touring bike with low bars, the S is a sport bike with minimalistic touring features. That works for me, at the end of the day, I find that I am not as tired and sore with the S. I'm imagine that some day I'll find it to be limited by its size and weight too. By then I'll be ready to buy an old airhead... Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted December 23, 2010 Share Posted December 23, 2010 This is what a R90S touring bike looks like: (Venezuelan Andes, 1977) Link to comment
StuGotz Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 This is what a R90S touring bike looks like: (Venezuelan Andes, 1977) Back when men were men, and ya had to use a bungee to hold your Krausers on.... Just kiddin' ya Paul, thanks for the pic. And thanks Dennis for the pic's...wonder if IMS show days are numbered... MB> Link to comment
beemerman2k Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Paul, those old air heads made such a huge impression on me in my teen years during the 70's, that I vowed I would buy one of my own someday. I was nuts about the R90S and the R100RT, thus my R1100RT. Those bikes stood apart from the rest for me even back then. Link to comment
Limecreek Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Paul, those old air heads made such a huge impression on me in my teen years during the 70's, that I vowed I would buy one of my own someday. I was nuts about the R90S and the R100RT, thus my R1100RT. Those bikes stood apart from the rest for me even back then. Same here; so much so that I am currently shopping for an R100RS project bike. Thirty years from now will our kids be looking for K1600GT project bikes? Will they elicit the same romantic emotion I have for the R100RS? Link to comment
kmac Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Now that is an interesting question and idea. Personally I doubt it. I doubt that many of those will even be around. All of the older machinery like cars and bikes had such a simplicity that makes them so rebuildable. Plus so much of them was steel or aluminum and not so much plastic. Old stuff was about clean lines, simple beauty, improved reliability, and small steps in improved performance. New stuff is all about technology and gadgets. That stuff will always be out dated in a few years. I still se teenagers at my daughters school driving 60s and 70s muscle cars and beetles that they are building just like some of us did back in the 70s and 80s. You dont see much in the way of 80s and 90s plastic mobiles that they are building. Those cars and bikes may have worked nice when new, been more comfy than older bikes and cars and had more amenities, but once that plactic crap starts to break down the entire vehicle looses any appeal. Link to comment
Glenn Reed Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Peter Egan did a good piece on this a few years back. The technology to rebuild/restore cares from the 60's on back is relatively straightforward. Once they start getting into electronic/computer controlled bits, it's not going to be anywhere near as easy. As tto beemerman2K's point, I too was enthralled by the R bikes when I started riding in the late 70's and early 80's, thus the 1100RT now. I actually rode an R80RT to see if that was for me, and it didn't work, but they still are classic to behold. Link to comment
Quinn Posted December 24, 2010 Share Posted December 24, 2010 Wait, are you saying that my beanbag chair isn't an antique? How about my Radio Shack TRS80 computer? ---- Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.