2013 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS: Voted Cool

[totalmotorcycle]

And the 2012 Total Motorcycle Cool Wall ends with a big bang as 103 votes for the 2013 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS were registered - the most votes ever in 1 week!

Your Coolness Factor of the 2013 Kawasaki Concours 14 ABS is...

Awesome 38%
Cool 42%
Uncool 19%
Fail 1%

Total votes : 103


The first 2013 Cool Wall Motorcycle is now up for voting! Have fun.

Mike

[Hanson]

The Concours 14 has quite a bit of competition in the sport touring segment including the FJR, ST, K1600GT, Multistrada, and Norge. I like the sport touring niche because I have fantasies about long distance motorcycle travel, but of all the bikes listed I find the C14 to be the least appealing. It is a just criticism that I do not have any experience riding these bikes and that my opinion is of no great value, but if any bike is this group is going to get an awesome it is going to be the BMW while the Ducati and Moto Guzzi are works of art and the FJR is perhaps the best combination of value, dependability and dealer network.

When you look at participation in long distance motorcycles endurance rallies, such as those put on by the IBA and MERA, the Concours is not well represented. There are lots of people in that community riding K bikes (although not as many as in the past because of final drive problems), Wings and STs, and FJRs, but very few Concours. The last Iron Butt Rally, 2011, numbered 16 FJRs and 9 STs but just 1 Concours. These men and women are, to a significant extent, giving the Concours an uncool at least for the purpose of long distance endurance rallies where comfort, performance and dependability are all critical factors even when many people do chose to ride sport touring motorcycles, and it can not be argued that this community of riders share my obvious lack of riding experience.

I am not much inclined to rate any bike as awesome or fail, but when I look at the spectrum of sport touring motorcycles the Concours 14 would be my last choice in this segment so it gets an uncool, but not by much. At first I voted cool, but after thinking about it a bit more I moved the C14 down to uncool as I like the FJR a lot more which I would rate as cool.

[JackoftheGreen]

Ugly little thing.

Little??? LOL! You ever stood next to one of these things in real life?

I haven't, and on going back through the spec sheet I see it really isn't a little bike.
It sure looks small in the picture, maybe a trick of forced perspective or just my own bias against the ST segment. But that dischordence between it's visual weight and actual dimensions only reinforces my sense of this as awkward.

[TnT]

I think it is in the eye of the beholder, I could easily say that it is a great piece of engineering, or a bike truly fit for purpose. But because it doesn't float my boat I would never say it is cool. But I can quite understand that most would look at my bike and then ask what it's purpose was?

[JayFL459]

Gets a Cool from me but prefer my Victory ...