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Just a few thoughts on the bike after 3500 miles in 2 months, including one "long" trip of 1600 miles. The bike has been flawless, & my only mods have been heated grips, centerstand, & Renntec luggage rack. I'm pretty small & light (5'7", 145 lbs) so the bike fits me very well. I've been riding a Kaw. Concours {GTR} for the last 11 years, so the complaints about the weight of the 650 F always amuse me. After the 650 lb weight of the Connie {full of fuel} the Suzuki feels like a bicycle to me. I've never been without a bike for more than 2 weeks in the last 40 years & have about 350,000 miles on 2 wheels, & each new bike has been a little heavier, bigger, & more powerful than the last, until now. I've come to the conclusion that 1 liter is as big as I'll ever need to go. Like many riders, I ride mostly on day trips for most of the year & take two big trips of 1 -3 thousand miles per year. Also like most, I want the impossible, a Gold Wing to ride down to the good roads (BRP, Cabot Trail, Cherhola Skyway) then I want it to turn into a Ducati 848 for the twisties, then back to a Wing for the trip home. My old Connie came down a little too far on the "touring " side of the sport/touring equation, & all of the recent S/T bikes seem to go even farther in that direction (GTR 14, BMW RT, triumph St) The BMW 800 ST looked great until I got to the price tag.(!) This 650 F looked interesting & when I found a leftover for a great price, I jumped on it.
The new bike's seating position is actually almost exactly like my old Connie's, in terms of Handlebar/seat/peg relationship, so it feels really familiar, the revs come up quicker, & she turns & brakes quicker as well. The total impression is one of agility & quickness, by comparison. The fuel milage is excellent, consistent 51 MPG, in town as well as on a trip. I get more wind blast & bugs than the old Connie, & it's just as buzzy as the Connie, but the Hot Grips helped some there, & there are other fixes available if it becomes a bother. A new seat and a Vario screen may be in my future, but I'll need another 3000 miles to see if it's worth spending the cash. I noticed the rubber brake lines & figured that changing to SS lines would be the first mod, but the brakes are superb as is, so there's no urgency there...maybe when the pads are gone I'll consider it. Oddly, though I check it weekly, the chain hasn't varied by 1 mm. from perfect tension. I would have expected more stretch in 3000+ miles, but maybe these new o-rings are almost as good as they say. It's been nearly 12 years since I owned a chain, but it looks like it won't be much more maintenance than a shaftie. She's certainly quicker than my old Connie, & the top end is only a few mph. lower than the liter bike, it just takes more revs to do it on this little one. The gear position readout on the dash (love it!) is the only way I realized I'd taken off from a stop in second. This tells me that she probably has enough torque to go up a few teeth, when chain/sprocket time comes around. I think I could lose a few hundred RPM from the highway cruise speed & not even notice it at stoplights. I do miss the many nooks & crannies for storing "stuff" that were a hallmark of the old Concours. Room under the seat & behind the plastic is really scarce. I wish Suzuki had used some of that empty space under the black plastic inner fairing panels to add a couple of bins for tire qauge,spare fuses, bandanna, sunscreen, etc. All -in- all, I think I've got a keeper. She took me from Connecticut to central Pennsylvania on the slab in relative comfort, with all my camping gear, then turned into a sport bike for a week of flogging around in the Pa. mountains, then brought me & the gear back home, all with virtually no drama or fuss. I'll report in in a few months when I've got 6000 mi. on her, hopefully that will be before the New England weather shuts me in for most of the winter.
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Jim K.
New Haven, Ct.
U.S.A.
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