You know the one.
http://www.suzuki.co.nz/motorcycles/...k7.m.white.jpg
http://www.suzuki.co.nz/motorcycles/...k7.m.black.jpg
It looks much better in the metal, they look stupid and fat and ugly in the pictures. In the real world, you are looking down on it (It is VERY low at the rear end), and it doesn't look so big. Except for that fuel tank. I saw a plane circling me for a while, I suspect it thought it was a runway.
I rode one on Saturday while my GSXR750 was getting it's 6000k service (At 7100k...)
Okay, so I have never had a go on a 'cruiser' before, and Dave Anderson motorcycles ( http://www.daveanderson.co.nz/ ) have two on the floor. No pissing about with silly little 800cc jobs, skip right to the daddy. So I asked for a ride, I thought it would be fun. Or funny. Funny 'ha ha'.
It turned out to be both. Plus a little bit of stupid.
I didn't ride it enough to have a really good go on it, maybe just 15mins but it did make me smile. The first thing I noticed was the silly riding position. Totally bloody silly. Score one point for funny. Your feet are up under the handlebars instead of your arse. This is uncomfortable, and doesn't make sense.
What this does mean though is that the second time you go through the round-a-bout at the north end of Masterton, your heel touches down on the pavement, when you were not trying to do that. I tried to do it the first time through and it didn't happen. Here we score a point for fun. I'm sure the pegs could come down given another 15 minutes practise and a few more largeish round-a-bouts.
This bike is piss easy to ride, thought I will admit mucking up the first gear and second gear change. The first gear up, I didn't use a full hand of clutch. The first change down, I didn't blip the throttle and dropped the clutch as usual (Coddled by slipper clutches I have been) and the rear tyre locked up for a moment and this big fat bike slowed down real fast.
After that, I decided ANYBODY could ride this bike. I was even clutchless shifting after awhile, the gearbox seemed quite happy with this.
Once moving (Even at sub-walking pace) the bike is very easy to turn and doesn't feel like it weighs 319kg. This is a good thing because of the stupid footpeg location, you don't want to take your feet off. Fucking hell, 319kg. That's like.. 2 Fatjims!! A short arse could ride this no problems, both my feet go flat on the the floor, legs bent, no worries.
The engine is cool. I took much delight in being in second doing ~50km/h and jamming the throttle open to make the thing judder and make a motorcycle like noise. And again when I got the a 100km/h zone.
But it is in a 100km/h where a M109 raises itself to new levels of sillyness. There is no wind protection. Your legs are splayed out like a worn out whore and your arms are out to praise Jesus, so you catch the wind. No fairing to hide behind. The bike itself wasn't upset by the northerly, but you'd be a nutter to ride something like this very fast very far. It'd just plain hurt. At non-ticketable speeds, it was tolerable, but go faster and 'fuck that'; time to slow down.
And the handgrips (Perhaps to compensate for something...) were too big for my childlike hands.
Oh yeah, M109Rs go around corners. It's true, it's even fun. Mostly because of the 'I can't believe I just did that' runs through your head every time. Seriously though, it's easy to tip and and to bring out of a bend. I was honestly impressed with that side of thing.
The brakes were fine to, nothing special. But I suppose after using the GSXRs awesome stoppers, I've gotten used to very good brakes.
Anyway, M109R fun. But only for posing on around town. You'd be a loon to try and ride it anywhere. The silly riding position and no protection from the wind would make it a chore if you encountered any weather.
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Originally Posted by Coyote
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