My brother has been looking for a new motorcycle and we have looked at everything from a Rebel to a Rocket.
How do you tell when a motorcycle salesman is lying? Their lips are moving. I asked the Kawasaki guy about the small front wheel on the new 900 Custom, if it had a large enough patch for stopping. He told me cruisers always used their back brakes only. I asked him how he had suddenly repelled the laws of physics concerning weight transfer, that cars, trucks, motorcycles-everything uses up to 70% of their front wheels for braking.
Anyway of all the people we talked to most,(who knew what a Triumph was) were very respectful of my bike and thought it was a cool bike-except for the Harley sales guy. We looked at a Fat Boy and he was telling me how under powered my bike was and that I wouldn't be able to keep up, with a Fat Boy. We walked of course and I looked up the spec on the mighty Harley. 75 HP and 640 pounds, that comes to less than one HP per pound difference between my America and the Harley. It's a nice looking bike and 6 speeds would be great but I could buy two America's with change left over. Plus my brother and I both have livestyles.
Then I read the latest Torque magazine and the tone of the review of the America and Speedmaster was "I really wanted to do this review in California and the TBA and TBS are okay even if they are cruisers and all." He said, “Cruisers aren’t designed for sustained speedâ€Â. Funny thing I can run all day at 80.
The trend is toward bigger, heavier bikes and I know a bigger displacement twin will probably replace the Speedmaster in the near future but I hope they keep an 800cc America in the lineup. For 90% of the riders(myself included) the limitation is not the bike but the rider's skills.
Anyway, my brother is leaning toward the Speedmaster but shopping for motorcycles has been every bit as bad as cars. I really think an 800cc bike is a reasonably sized cruiser for average sized people. Hell of a lot easier to pickup or wheel around a parking lot than a 700 or 800 pound machine and does everything I want it to do-including cruise at 80 on the highway.
End of rant
