On the lookout for a new bike (sorry, long post)

[dean owens]

well guys (and girls), i haven't been here in a while because my bike has been broke down and i haven't had time to get it up and running. this just brings home the idea of having a 26 year old bike and no garage ... i have a feeling this will be the rest of my life with this bike. so i'm starting to do a little searching for something newer and smaller. a few months ago i started this thread. i wanted to give that for a little background. i'm not continuing on with that thread because things have changed. i'm no longer even considering the r1200r and i'm not hung up on shaft drives anymore - although i do like them.

so here's the important info... i'm a "short" guy (5'8"ish) with a short inseam (maybe 28/29). i will primarily be commuting 20 miles each way to the college campus where i work. because of uni traffic and parking i would like something small and nimble (650cc's has served me well so far). but i do like packing my bike up and going on a road trip for a week or more... so i'll need to be able to put bags on it. i also like the standard seating position of my gl650. so nothing too sporty for me. and a small fairing is a plus for pushing a little bit of wind away when it's cold. also, i have champaign tastes with a beer budget. i'd like to stay as close to $4000.00 as i can. and i'd like good gas milage.

having said all that, i am wide open. i'll share the bikes i'm liking right now and why. but i would really appreciate y'all throwing out some bikes i might not have heard of, or sharing why a model i'm thinking of isn't good for what i'm looking for. so let's get started.

fz6

this bike just looks good to me. it has an upright seating position. seems to be pretty popular to turn it into a sport tourer so i shouldn't have to be too creative in mounting bags. has some fairing for wind protection. isn't too heavy (459 lbs wet).
the only "dislikes"... seat hight of 31.3" - i'm not sure how much it can be lowered. the gas milage is ok at 40mpg. i get 50mpg with the gl650. although i'm not hung up on shaft driven i still wonder about chains.

g650gs

i like that it's small (387 lbs dry). it's a dual sport with a seat hight of 30.7" - that's a big plus for me. i've read that it gets about 50mpg.
dislikes/unsure of... i've never been on a single cylinder bike. i'm not really a fan of spoked wheels.

f650gs

same as above but i like that this one is a 2-cylinder but it has a higher seat.

f800st

this has turned into much of a favorite but it's more than i could hope to spend right now and it is a little taller in the seat. but a big plus to me is the belt drive.

f650cs

i don't see many of these but this is quickly becoming the front runner. it's small, decent mpg, i can get bags for it, it's belt driven and i actually like the little "bars" to give you a place to strap a tank bag to. and the used ones i've seen are within my price range.
only thing i don't like is the nose (looks like a blunt shark nose) and the lack of a decent fairing.

well, that's all i have for right now. i have looked at the v-strom but it has a pretty high seat hight and it's got some weight to it as well. but i haven't ruled it out. any thoughts you guys have? oh, and most of these are of the sportier type. i'm fine with cruisers as well. throw them in the mix for me to think about.

thanks y'all.

[RhadamYgg]

This is going to be a completely useless comment, but they all look like great bikes. Normally I like more fairing than some of those models... But then I went and got a naked bike.

Funny thing, though, with the added windscreen and those huge fake intakes... The wind is back down to the level of my old Kawasaki.

The g650gs - comes with front wheel ABS, some of the other ones you can get ABS as an option, but the g650gs is the cheapest bike and it has the front wheel ABS.

RhadamYgg

[Wrider]

Agreed on the ABS, but at the same time I'd also look at a Kawasaki Ninja 650. Then the Kawasaki Z750.
Also if you want to add a windscreen the Honda 599 can be had for fairly cheap.
Suzuki has the Katana and the GSX650F now, but the GSX is too new to be had for 4k and the Katana is just plain ugly in it's last 10 years.
Overall the FZ6 is probably going to be the cheapest/most common one out there used and you ought to be able to pick up a clean 2005/6 or possibly 2007 for that price.

[dean owens]

trust me, i like more fairing as well. but they tend to come with bikes that i'm not looking at right now.

about the fz6 - anyone know about lowering it? is it possible? by how much? is there anything to look out for with various years - any years better than others?

about price. i've seen some bmw's for my price. here is one of them. that seems pretty fair to me. it's a decent distance away, but not impossible. and there are others as well.
here's another with bags but higher miles

as far as the fz6 i found this 05 for 3900.00
or this 04 for 4200.00

most of them are closer to the 5-6k range it seems. doesn't mean i can't find one that's in my price range and in good shape. and it is the bike that caught my eye and got me into the sporty world.

i know the advantages and disadvantages of an inline 4. but i'm digging the idea of a little bmw dualsport. is there anything to be concerned about with a single cylinder? i have family in the mountains of nc. is it a bike that could make it up there or would it struggle? should i just narrow my search to an fz6? any other options out there? at this point i'm not saying no to anything. in the last post i said the f800st wasn't my cup of tea. now i would love to have it. at this point, cruiser, standard, sporty, doesn't matter. just needs to meet my above criteria.

thanks you two for your help so far. i do appreciate it.

[HYPERR]

the only "dislikes"... seat hight of 31.3" - i'm not sure how much it can be lowered.

You said you were 5'8". I don't see how a seat height of 31 and change is even remotely an issue. Why in the world would you even want to lower it?

[dean owens]

did you read my inseam? i have the body of a tall little person. my hight is in my torso. my gl650 has a seat hight of about 30 inches and i would really like it to be about an inch lower.... if not more.

[HYPERR]

did you read my inseam? i have the body of a tall little person. my hight is in my torso. my gl650 has a seat hight of about 30 inches and i would really like it to be about an inch lower.... if not more.

Yes I did see it. Are you looking for a bike that you can completely flat foot on both sides simultaneously at a stop?

[gsJack]

The 650 and 800 cc BMW GS models have low seat and low suspension options that come from the factory. The G650GS comes with the low seat standard to give the 30.7" seat height and can be ordered with the low suspension option that gives a 29.5" seat height. The F650GS has a 32.3 seat height but can be lowered to 30.1" with both the low seat and low suspension options.

Many standard/sport type bikes with the single shock rear suspensions have a couple links connecting the shock lever to the swingarm and can be lowered easily with longer links that are relatively inexpensive. The FZ6 is not one of them, it has a single shock connected directly to the frame on the top and directly to the swingarm at the bottom. Requires an expensive shock replacement to lower.

Have you considered a GS500 or Ninja 500 bike for your short commute? Although they look like sportbikes now they are really more like standard bikes underneath with standard bike ergos. The GS500 has a 31.1" seat height and the Ninja 500 a 30.5" seat height and both can easily be lowered 1-2" with the inexpensive links. Both can be fitted with Givi type top boxes for travel. I made week long trips with a 33 liter Givi trunk and a large tank bag on my GS500 doing 400 mile interstate days from NE Ohio to the Smokies and I was 68yo back in 01 when I did that the first time on a GS500. And both the GS and Ninja 500cc twins will give you about 60 mpg overall.

[Wrider]

That could be a problem because the FZ6 can't be lowered. It doesn't have dog-bones like most modern bikes.

If the inseam height is an issue with the FZ you can always loosen up the rear shock, it's not very hard to begin with and if you loosen it up it'll sink under your weight.

[slimcolo]

Dean
28K on a ten year old japanese bike may seem high mileage, but on a ten year old BMW that is low- average. I have seen several F650s with over 60K and less than a year old. (what BMW lacks in performance they make up for in dependability)

And as to ABS, most of the bikes with ABS are a bit newer and will be above your budget of $4000. (keep in mind also that with poor economy many bikes are selling for a lot less than a year ago)

Another note on single shock replacement, real expensive. I replaced the shock on my 91 GS and it cost $725 back in 97 (of course I got an Olins bot the OEM shocks were $425, at the time these were only two options)