Quote:
Originally Posted by krat
They just released a Daily Rider episode today and that was not "all they could come up with".
Zack was not as "gentle" as the joint article and gave some of the behind the scenes feedback.
All of the associated riders agreed that they would prefer a used Jap 650 anything to a new Adventura and that making the bike on the adventure platform was absurd. The company lacks the craftsmanship culture to pull it off.
3/4 the price for 1/2 the bike with no dealer support is not the deal I want.
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I just watched that video and did not get your take from it. Basically, in addition to the suspension and handling not being to his liking, Zack did not like the mirrors, the abrupt fueling (my 2015 Versys 650 is the same way), and some of the fonts on the TFT and how it is adjusted. Also some of the Navigation units were wonky, but the fonts and Nav can be corrected through firmware, so not something that I would be that upset about. Throughout the video he was pretty hard pressed to say that anything was actually bad on the bike, which I find very telling. He even likes the styling, not accusing it of aping the styling of any western bike. In the past, Chinese bikes usually had something glaringly wrong that stood out like a sore thumb and begged to be criticized, but that was not the case here, which is pretty impressive and indicative of a sea change of sorts regarding Chinese motorcycles.
Regarding no dealer support, did you actually watch the whole video? There are 200 CF Moto motorcycle dealers currently, per Zack, with more to follow out of CF Moto's 550 ATV/UTV dealers. That damn sure as hell qualifies as dealer support in my book.
So the Adventura 650 is more like 85% of the bike, for 65% of the price, which is a much more favorable ratio to me. If this had existed four years ago, I would have chosen it over the used 2015 Versys that I bought for $6150. New, with zero miles, as well as a warranty, for only $650 more? Yep.
As for the ADV thing, the only thing ADV about the Adventura 650, as well as the Versys 650 and Triumph 660 is the body styling. The tires are too small in diameter, weight and center of gravity too high, suspension travel too small, and they have too much exposed down low to qualify as ADV's - they're sport tourers and that is how they were reviewed, properly in my opinion.