General Operation

Overall, these events operated in a similar manner. The bikes were split into groups (2 each for Harley and Triumph, 3 for Kawasaki) and groups left in regular intervals. You signed up for a bike and were given a time to ride that bike. Triumph was the only one to put a limit on the number of rides, a paltry 2. Kawasaki and Harley were more giving; just wait in line and sign up.

Kawasaki provided a nice awning covered area with a very popular water cooler (the heat index was well over 100° that day). The crowd started to taper off due to the heat leaving open spots in some of the rides. The organizers would yell out the bikes that were still available in the group to keep the bikes out.

Blue Springs Harley-Davidson had some tents, a band, food and a Harley on rollers so you could “run it through the gears” in the parking lot. Harley did specifically have helmets to lend out. I assume they anticipate lots of novelty helmets and don’t want to risk the liability of sending someone out with a fake helmet.

Triumph had a tented area for the riders’ meeting and El Dorado Cycle provided coffee, donuts, water, and hot dogs.

Bikes

Each of the manufacturers had at least one of each model (except the Ninja 250, I can’t figure out why Kawasaki didn’t have one of those … oh and the ER-6n). The Harleys and Kawasakis were all stock while Triumph had quite a few modified bikes. Specifically, Triumph added aftermarket (Arrow) exhausts and windshields to a few bikes. Given the emotional nature of a motorcycle purchase, this is a great strategy. I attended a Ducati event in 2009  and every bike had carbon fiber Termignoni exhaust which made the demo much more visceral.

Not that I expected different, but Harley had the most limited range of bikes. Triumph and Kawasaki make a wide variety of styles of motorcycle while Harley makes only large cruisers with one exception, the XR1200 which is a standard motorcycle.

Route

A good route is the foundation of a fun (or exciting) motorcycle ride. For a test ride, you really want to see a mix of riding: a little slow around town, a little high speed highway, and some turns.

Distance and time are from tracing the route in Google Maps.

Kawasaki – 13.7 miles, 33 minutes

Kawasaki's Demo Route

The route chosen by the Kawasaki team (Google Maps link) included a lot of the better roads in the area. My short pleasure rides will frequently include some of these roads. The speed limits are low (45 MPH tops) but the escort riders paid little attention to the speed limits anyway.

Given the area and the time allotted, Kawasaki did an excellent job of picking interesting roads.

Harley-Davidson – 8.7 miles, 19 minutes

Harley-Davidson's Route

Harley-Davidson’s route (Google Maps link) is fairly tame. A few sweeping curves but mostly straight road with low speed limits (again, 45 MPH). Unfortunately the escorts kept to the posted speed limits.

Triumph – 24.9 miles, 38 minutes

Triumph's Route

The Triumph event was on completely unfamiliar roads so I can’t comment as to whether there are better roads in the area. I can say that I would love to have DD around here. It has lots of nice high speed turns that flowed really well. It never took 38 minutes.

Pace

Admittedly, pace is completely subjective. Some riders are completely content cruising around, while others are full on all the time. I think I fall in the middle. I like to keep a swift speed, get some good lean in the corners, feel some serious acceleration … but avoid tickets. In this respect Kawasaki and Triumph got it perfect while Harley failed miserably.

In Harley’s defense, Kawasaki had their cruisers in a separate group from the sport bikes and standards. I wash only in the sport and standard groups. They may have kept the pace slower for the cruiser group. That said, Kawasaki was pretty fast easily 5 – 15 MPH over the speed limit at all times. They also seemed to expect pretty adept riders as evidenced by one of the ride leaders doing a U-turn after missing a turn. Honestly, if I were leading a group of people on unfamiliar bikes, I would not have them U-turn. Fortunately, no one dropped any bikes and we made it back in one piece.

Harley was dreadfully slow. The acceleration was slow. The cruising speed was slow. The few gentle curves were slow. Easily the most boring motorcycle ride I’ve been on. I would have expected an occasional moment of hard acceleration … but no. Nothing but tameness. Despite the pace I was able to scrape the floorboards on the Softail 3 times. I assume they chose to keep speeds down to prevent accidents.

Triumph’s escort riders went out of their way to make sure the ride was fun. There were quite a few “wink and a nod” moments in the riders’ meeting, specifically: “ride your own ride” and “if you get pulled over, it’s our bike but your ticket.” It was as if the escort riders had read my mind. We were moving swiftly, keeping speed in the turns and there were clear moments of “accelerate hard now.” The halfway point was marked by a stop sign where we were instructed to “open it up” and “really wring it out here”.

Of note is how well Triumph’s cruisers appeared to handle. On my second ride I was behind a guy on a Speedmaster which is a low, feet forward styled cruiser. I expected to be limited by either the rider or the bike, but was pleasantly surprised to see that both were up to the task. The Speedmaster had plenty of ground clearance and kept pace with the lead rider with no problems. After the ride I spoke the the rider of the Speedmaster and he said that the pace was good but that he would not have been comfortable were it any more aggressive.

Rider Quality

Riding in a group of motorcycles is not something to be taken lightly as there is real potential for one rider to cause another one harm. A good rider can get in a group and figure out the dynamics in a few moments. A poor rider may not have enough control to keep up with themselves. In this setting, riders on unfamiliar bikes, the rider’s ability is plainly on display.

The quality of rider at the Harley demo was very poor. My friend and frequent riding companion was so upset by the poor control of the other riders that he stopped riding the bikes at the demo. It really was that bad. Every turn and corner was a mess of bobbing motorcycles bumbling back and forth in their lane. Given the slow speeds, we never needed to break the staggered formation to make the curves but I saw frequent crossings of the yellow lines.

The scary part, all of these terrible riders have their motorcycle license. This shows that there is a serious shortcoming in our rider training and licensing. There’s no logical reason that these guys should be allowed on the open road on a 700+ lbs motorcycle.

For Kawasaki, I can only speak to the sporting and standard groups as I was never out with the cruiser group. I would put the Kawasaki riders as competent. Quite a few of the riders would slow too much for the turns only to then pin the throttle once pointed in a straight line and oriented straight up. I never felt as though any of the riders were dangerous, just ineffective.

The riders at the Triumph event completely shocked me. The riders I saw were great at holding a steady line and accelerated and braked smoothly. On my first ride I was the “the slow guy” through the first two turns as I adapted to the feel of the blocky tires on the Scrambler.

Conclusions

I’m going to fuel some motorcycle stereotypes with this section. The Harley experience is exactly what I expected: slow, older riders, and poor ability. The design of their bikes plays to these characteristics. The low seat height of all of the H-D bikes (excepting the XR1200) give riders a false sense of security and stability as they straddle them on the showroom floor. Once moving, it takes actual skill to keep these behemoths in actual control. Sadly, I think a majority of Harley riders are not in control.

Kawasaki was perfunctory. The bikes are all fine machines, but none really grabbed me. They riders they attracted seemed to be more focused on motorcycling and had a higher skill level.

I’ll probably look like the ultimate fanboy here, but Triumph had the best demo event. They would have been perfect were it not for the 2 bike limit. I really could have ridden every bike there. The riders at the event seemed to be serious about riding and were able to competently handle their motorcycles. The bikes were presented in a way that made them very appealing with the aftermarket exhausts and accessories. The route and pace were impeccable. They also made it clear that they wanted you to go out and have fun.

The truck

After performing two shows with my band the night before, it was tough to get up at 6:15 a.m. to make the two hour trip to El Dorado Cycle. Four friends and I had solidified the plans at the party where we all knew that the late night and Boulevard beers would make the morning rough.

Demo fleets are a great way to test ride motorcycles. Read about Harley-Davidson’s demo truck, Kawasaki’s demo truck and my reviews of the Ninja 1000 and KLR 650.

We made it. There were no bright eyes, but there was also no puking beside a trailer.

In the interest of time, we took the most direct route down to El Dorado Springs … straight down 71 highway. With a tinge of hangover and 50 degree air it was rough, but we made it in good time.

Unlike other demo events, Triumph placed a hard two ride limit. Ducati, Kawasaki, and Harley had no such limit, rides were only limited by the number of riders requesting a given bike. The off-putting attitude of the woman at the registration tent did nothing but add to the collective sigh we all gave when we registered. Riding two hours for a limited demo event was a bit of a let down.

We all registered for our first bikes and proceeded to wait for the slotted times. The waiting was made easier by the refreshments provided by El Dorado Cycle, specifically, donuts and coffee that were perfect for heading off my teensy hangover.

The Route

The chosen route was the best I’ve been on at a demo ride. 25 miles of straight rural highway, twisty county road, and a short jaunt through a quaint small town main street. Pacing was impeccable reserved in the town and around traffic and a healthily sporting gallop once away from the in town obstacles. At the midway point there was a stop sign. On each ride, the lead rider put his kickstand down, waited for the group to regather then walked back through the line making sure that each rider knew that this was a good place the “open it up, really wring it out here.” It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what happened next. The rural Missouri countryside was disturbed by cacophony of British twins and triples.

My first ride was on a Scrambler which Triumph had smartly outfitted with the Arrow 2-into-1 exhaust. This bike made a seriously addicting racket. Everyone that got on the bike went gave the throttle quite the workout while in neutral in the parking lot, I was no exception. From the moment the motor caught the staccato thump of the motor egged on my throttle hand.

Nick admiring the Scrambler

I immediately missed having a tachometer. I always have a hard time gauging how hard a twin is working. After the first couple of gears I decided to just run it hard and keep up with the group.

This is the “coolest” bike I’ve ever ridden. It’s not fast, it doesn’t handle exceptionally well, it doesn’t brake exceptionally well (though it’s more than adequate) and it doesn’t care, and you don’t care once aboard. This bike doesn’t scream “look at me” it gives a smirk, a nod and a “thanks for noticing”.

All of the important workings felt like proper working versions of their classic counterparts. It didn’t feel sharp and modern but more like a vintage bike that was actually in proper repair. Very tight, very solid, but definitely a design of a time.

Upon returning I had to decide on a second bike to ride. My preference would have been to ride them all, but I decided that comparing a Bonneville to the Scrambler would be fun.

The Bonneville SE I was given was fitted with the Arrow 2-into-2 pipe. I can’t overstate how effective a raucous exhaust is on getting someone to like a bike. The Bonnie is nearly as cool as the Scrambler, but nicely reserved and straight forward.

Bonneville SE

The difference between the 360° phase engine in the Bonnie and the 270 ° phase engine in the Scrambler is striking. Where the Scrambler thumps along, the Bonneville has an urgent blat. Low end power delivery is softer than the Scrambler but the overall character was much more sporting. The tachometer helped considerably in the first few miles as I was able to map the sound and feel to the actual engine speed.

Once in the curves the Bonneville felt much more in touch with the road than the Scrambler, a trait that I chalk up to the difference in tires with the Scrambler having a knobby-esque tread pattern that felt a little squirmy.

All the right buttons were pushed by the Bonnie: it looks cool, it looks classic, it started, it didn’t leak oil, the brakes worked as expected. Basically, everything that make a vintage bike good, but actually in working order. I fully intend to add one of these machines to my garage in the next few years.

Other than the 2 ride limit, Triumph conducted the best demo event I have been to. It was orderly, but kept fun. The route, pace, and riders that it attracted (more on riders at demo days coming soon) were top notch.

Harleys waiting in a damp parking lot.

Blue Springs Harley-Davidson called me 5 times two weeks to let me know that they had the Demo truck coming. I guess they are needing to get some traffic in the show room since the bottom fell out of the market for expensive luxury items.

Demo fleets are one of the best things going in the motorcycle market. Read about Kawasaki’s demo truck and my reviews of the Ninja 1000 and KLR 650. A post about Triumph’s demo truck is coming soon.

In typical Missouri fashion, the weather was uncooperative. A string of rain poured in mid-morning threatening to stop the demo rides. The sun gave it’s all and dried out the route enough for the demos to continue. I assume that the rain was the main reason for the low turnout.

My goal for the day was to ride the XR1200X, a V-Rod and to see what the big deal is with the “big twin”. I was able to meet this goal in this exact order.

XR1200X

I’ve been enamored with the XR1200 since it was released. I owned a Sportster at the time and the XR fixed nearly all of my complaints (high weight being the last niggle). The extra X at the end specifies upgraded adjustable suspension.

The ergonomics of the bike are very comfortable erring on the side of relaxed vs. sporting. As I thumbed the starter button I was created with that familiar wobble that’s such a part of the narrow V-Twin. H-D would have been well served by adding some aftermarket pipes to this machine. While I’m not a proponent of the straight pipe noise pollution that is so common, I do like to hear some noise. Some manufacturers (Ducati and Triumph specifically) outfit their demo bikes with their factory blessed aftermarket exhausts. a clever sales tactic.

This is where the demo started to fall apart. Even getting started was met with a delay as one of the test riders was unable to get his bike underway without stalling the engine to dumping the clutch and spinning the back tire. This guy should have been taken aside, moved to the back, or simply denied the opportunity to ride. Instead they let him proceed to ride with the group of 12 or so riders. This was clearly a dangerous choice. Nick, who attended with me ended up behind Mr Can’t- Ride-Bike and was so annoyed that he didn’t want to continue riding the bikes.

The Route

Anyway … back to the XR.

Once underway I was glad the XR was comfortable since there was no threat of the ride being exciting. The chosen route was fairly straight and low speed. To make it even more boring, the escort riders kept the pace slow, somewhere between the speed limit and 5 below. This is in dramatic contrast to Ducati, Kawasaki and Triumph whose rides were paced between 5 and 15 MPH over the speed limit which is a much more realistic ride in my experience.

I was honestly surprised at how capable as a motorcycle the XR is. Compared to the ultra low Sportsters the XR is able to absorb bumps without bottoming out the suspension and sending the rest of the movement straight up your spine. Ground clearance is adequate enough to take turns at a reasonable speed and lean-angle. I might have really liked this bike had I the chance to push it a little.

The ultra slow pace made my next ride pointless. What’s the point of riding the “muscle bike” V-Rod if there’s no opportunity to flex the muscle? For this ride there wasn’t. At one point I was able to crack the throttle open a little but hen I caught right up with the guy on the touring model with the stereo cranked.

V-Rod, complete with folded clam ergonomics.

I abhor forward controls and this V-Rod was just another tick in the “hate forward controls” box. So much control is given away when forgoing the ability to use your legs. Even lifting of the seat to avoid a particularly harsh bump is an exercise in silliness.

The V-Rod is uncharacteristically smooth given it’s lineage, but smooth to a fault. The clutch and front brake are completely devoid of any usable feedback making every start and stop require more thought and attention than really needed.

As Sportster owners (or previous owners) know, most Harley fanatics assume that the smaller bike is just a stepping stone to a big twin. I had always discounted it as the bigger-is-better mentality but part of me thought there had to be some characteristic that made the large Harleys something special. The Softail Deluxe I was on sure wasn’t special.

The big twin.

Like the V-Rod, the clutch and front brake offered no response to your input, they completed their action but you didn’t know it by feel. Unlike the Sportsters, I never found the point where the engine smoothed out, it just got more and more shaky until felt like it was going to rattle to pieces which is the point I was shifting. I never got the sensation of massive torque or a relaxing lope that so many people talk about.

I did get the sensation of a clunky transmission that likes to stick between gears. I can forgive the occasional false neutral, but one that needed 3 attempts of clutch, kick, release was just unacceptable.

The last kicker, even at the slow pace with very gentle curves, I scraped the footboards 3 times. That’s pretty close to a dangerous situation of levering a wheel off the ground.

In retrospect, the slow pace and boring route were definitely needed. The low skill of many of the riders coupled with the limitations of some of the bikes could have made anything faster a really bad situation. These are big, heavy motorcycles that require some skills to be able to anticipate and correct any problems as the weight, momentum, and characteristics of the machine make the margin of error very small. Watching the other riders bobbing and wobbling around while trying to hold a line through a turn shows how lacking the current training, testing, and licensing practices are in turning out proficient riders.

I’ve spent the last few months trying to live with and love the iPhone camera after trading my last point-and-shoot for a guitar. Today, that experiment ended when I purchase a Canon 300HS.

I loved my old camera, a Canon SD1000. It was small and fast. It started quickly and took pictures quickly. Picture quality was pretty good and the so-called manual mode gave me just enough control to get the shots that I wanted. This new camera has quite a few of the same traits. I’ll be detailing the differences as I live with the camera for a while.

For now, here’s a group of photos from today. It’s been quite a while since I just took pictures while going through my day. Having a physical shutter button and a wide angle lens allow me to document to situations as I’m in them.

According to the aforementioned Google map this route is 327 miles and should take 7 hours, 8 minutes. I have estimated my actual ride time to be right at 6 hours. Needless to say, I wasn’t stopping a lot nor was I taking many pictures. I do blame the lack of pictures on my lack of a point and shoot camera. Switching from a camera to my phone only is not as convenient as I had hoped.

This is a beautiful time of year to ride through this area. The grass is green and dotted with golden hay bales. When the sky is clear it’s a deep blue background to fluffily white clouds. Think of the most cliché rustic paintings … this is the inspiration for those.

Road surface on this route were surprisingly good with many of them having just been re-surfaced.

Low speed maneuverability is excellent. Bar input is light and there’s a lot of room to swing the bars between the fork stops. This easy low speed did not translate into high speed twitchiness. Smooth and stable were the major handling traits. The rear shock seems a little underdamped as the rear tended wallow over bumps while leaned over. Turn is was easy and holding a clean line was no problem as long as the aforementioned problem with bumps was avoided.

Power delivery from the engine was smooth and immediate but it did lack the low end punch that I was expecting based on reviews I had read. Not that there wasn’t power, it just didn’t smack you in the face.

It’s a shame that bikes like this are so often overlooked for more narrow use bikes. This big Ninja along with the Z1000 and the smaller Ninja 650R make great everyday bikes that can accommodate some sporting riding as well as a daily commute. They lack the sexiness and bragging rights of the super sports, sure but on the streets at any pace that might go unnoticed by the law, I would argue they are equally fun.

I was particularly interested in riding the KLR so I could compare it to my old BMW which follows is also a 650 cc single cylinder dual sport. Note that both the KLR and G650GS (ex F650GS) are now pretty old designs.

A 35 inch seat heigh make the KLR seem a bit much to handle (especially for someone with a 29 inch inseam) but the cushy rear suspension gives quite a bit of sag. I still had to pick a side and lean it over when stopped, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the spec sheet would make it appear.

Once started the big cylinder definitely lets you know that it’s acting alone. This is a thumper in every sense of the world. There’s always some power, never a lot and never in an unexpected manner. Revs build slow, and fall slow. Engine braking can be fairly severe and I never did find the nice balance between throttle and clutch to make a smooth downshift. Every attempt at gear changes led to some serious bucking on the soft suspension.

Soft is a good word to describe this bike. Soft shocks, soft power, soft seat. This isn’t always a negative though. Some parts of the road were fairly bumpy or had a washboard ripple where cars brake. The KLR just ate that up keeping me completely comfortable. I imagine off road riding would be a joy on this bike.

Rider comfort seems to have been a big factor in the design. The seating position is neutral, like sitting on a chair. The ride is floaty and smooth.

Now for the comparison to the BMW single. There really is none. These bikes are at totally different ends of the dual sport spectrum. The G650GS is a road bike that’s capable off road. It’s pretty smooth and precise. Long highway trips were without complaint. The KLR is clearly a dirt bike that can be ridden on the street. The motor’s a little brash and the whole package is much more bare bones.

Where the KLR really makes its stand is price. At just over $6k new (and much, much cheaper used) the KLR is a great bargain for someone venturing into dual sport or adventure riding.

Read my reviews of the Ninja 1000 and KLR 650.

This event was really well organized and well run. Going with the “Ticket” theme you would receive a “ticket” for the bike of your choice at a given time. This was quite a blessing as my compatriots and I were able to take refuge from the 100+ degree heat index weather at a local diner while waiting for our ride time.

Speaking of the weather, Kawasaki did provide an awning for shade, a big fan, chairs and an immensely popular water cooler.

Kawasaki picked a good, curvy route.

The bikes were organized in to 3 lines. One for the sport bikes: ZX-6R, ZX-10R, ZX-14, Ninja 1000, and Z1000. Line two was kind of a mix and match: Concours 14, Z1000, Ninja 1000, Ninja 650R, Versys and KLR 650. The third line was the cruisers of which I simply had no interest. It was interesting to see the trends of gear worn based on the line of bikes. The riders of sportier bikes tended to have mesh jackets, full face helmets, and substantial gloves. Moving towards the tourers and on to the cruisers the amount of safety gear worn was decreased. However, full face helmets remained the most popular configuration throughout the day. I only remember seeing one of the non-legal “skid-lid” that is popular with many cruiser riders.

Kawasaki did a good job picking a route. These are some of the more interesting roads within a close ride of the events center.

Demo events like this are a great chance to ride some new bikes in a low sales pressure environment. I recommend every motorcyclist take advantage of these events.

Make sure to go “Like” Dead Ven on Facebook.