A quick review for people who are considering visiting a demo day here...
You could call for pre-booking a bike at an assigned time. Show up 20 mins earlier to sign in, or your spot gets given away (not sure everyone is told that up front). After your ride, you can sign up for additional rides at the discretion of the "Gate Keeper" who handles the sign-up sheet. Be nice and patient and you can get to try another bike or two (if pre-bookings don't show up or there are free spots).
The Ride: ~25km loop of country roads (approx. 20 mins), speed limits from 50 to 80. Actual cruising speeds get up to 110ish, so you get to feel highway speed. One or two "twisty" sections to get a feel for holding an arc.
Experience: Enjoyed it overall, great sales guys and nice showroom with new and used bikes. Free pizza and pop too, which was very nice. I did feel like the event could have moved faster that the one-hour per group. There was lots of standing around but maybe organizing a tighter schedule gets tough.
Bikes Tested:
GSX-S750 - Super smooth engine, comfy bike with nice instrumentation. Power was decent, very linear but no significant top-end punch (compared to my ZX6R). Takes more effort to tip into a turn. Gearbox was buttery good and lack of windshield was not a problem at the speeds we did. Very cool bike...
Vstrom 1000 - The V-Twin has torque but runs out of breath up top. I was a bit underwhelmed. It seemed easier to tip into a turn than the 750 somehow and generally handled well. 1st to 2nd shift would sometimes land me in neutral when I was giving it the beans but I'm chalking that up to rider error. Very relaxed at speed, low revving but the windshield (at the height it was set at for me) didn't seem to help. Ride felt noisy and buffeting at certain head positions. Maybe a good touring bike, but had no personality for my liking...
You could call for pre-booking a bike at an assigned time. Show up 20 mins earlier to sign in, or your spot gets given away (not sure everyone is told that up front). After your ride, you can sign up for additional rides at the discretion of the "Gate Keeper" who handles the sign-up sheet. Be nice and patient and you can get to try another bike or two (if pre-bookings don't show up or there are free spots).
The Ride: ~25km loop of country roads (approx. 20 mins), speed limits from 50 to 80. Actual cruising speeds get up to 110ish, so you get to feel highway speed. One or two "twisty" sections to get a feel for holding an arc.
Experience: Enjoyed it overall, great sales guys and nice showroom with new and used bikes. Free pizza and pop too, which was very nice. I did feel like the event could have moved faster that the one-hour per group. There was lots of standing around but maybe organizing a tighter schedule gets tough.
Bikes Tested:
GSX-S750 - Super smooth engine, comfy bike with nice instrumentation. Power was decent, very linear but no significant top-end punch (compared to my ZX6R). Takes more effort to tip into a turn. Gearbox was buttery good and lack of windshield was not a problem at the speeds we did. Very cool bike...
Vstrom 1000 - The V-Twin has torque but runs out of breath up top. I was a bit underwhelmed. It seemed easier to tip into a turn than the 750 somehow and generally handled well. 1st to 2nd shift would sometimes land me in neutral when I was giving it the beans but I'm chalking that up to rider error. Very relaxed at speed, low revving but the windshield (at the height it was set at for me) didn't seem to help. Ride felt noisy and buffeting at certain head positions. Maybe a good touring bike, but had no personality for my liking...