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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> A tale of two 650's
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Message started by bentwheel on 01/25/05 at 11:41:47

Title: A tale of two 650's
Post by bentwheel on 01/25/05 at 11:41:47

Last month I had three bikes in my garage. A vintage bike from the sixties I am slowly restoring, and if it takes a few years to finish, well that would be a good thing. My other two bikes are both 650 singles. BTW the restoration project is also a single. There have been times when I have licensed and insured more than two bikes in a season but with rising insurance costs or more accurately egregious gouging by the insurance industry, I no longer insure more than one bike at a time. I will try not to go on a rant here but there are two things that throw me into a fit, and they are the banking and insurance industries. Let there be no ambiguity here, these people are crooks with a license.
I reluctantly decided to sell one of my 650’s so the conundrum began as to which one to sell. Here are some comparisons. One bike is air cooled, the other liquid cooled. One bike has dual shocks with five pre load settings, the first two unusable, because it causes the tire to rub on the inside fender mounting bolts or make the handling seem like there is a hinge in the frame. The other has a single shock with adjustable rebound dampening and on the fly compression dampening with an adjustable knob to forty clicks. One bike has a carburetor set from the factory with a too lean mixture predetermined. The other has fuel injection with sensors feeding a computer to monitor and make adjustments automatically as required. One bike has a disc brake up front and a drum brake on the rear. The other has ABS with discs all around. One bike develops 31 HP, the other 50HP. One bike has a standard generator. The other bike is equipped with a 400 watt alternator to power its heated handgrips and other possibilities like heated vests/pants for both, GPS unit, auxiliary lights… whatever, you get the point. One bike has bias ply tires, the other radials. One bike has a standard exhaust system, the other a three way catalytic converter to make our planet last longer. One bike has room for small soft sided saddlebags. The other comes with aluminum clad expandable hard cases easily removable and look good bringing into any hotel. When new, one bike comes with a one year unlimited mileage warranty and the other a three year unlimited mileage warranty. One bike was designed for around town cruising while the other one can do all that plus is capable of running across the country at faster speeds. It also is well suited for gravel roads and forest access roads and when the road ends, it is still capable of continuing on off road.
Well, I made up my mind and sold one of them. You know, I’m going to miss that BMW. The deciding factor was the Savage was just plain more fun to ride.

Title: Re: A tale of two 650's
Post by Savage_Rob on 01/25/05 at 13:45:42

/applause

I believe I would have made the same decision though simplicity of maintenance would have played a much greater role in the process for me. I'm relatively sure the Savage is cheaper to insure too.