New CB650R (retro-ish style)

[DILLIGAD]

No.
People are buying  a new Triumph twin exactly because IT IS A Triumph.
Because it says Triumph on the badge on the tank.
They are buying the heritage & history that goes into that styling.
Not a no-name Chinese knock-off.
Regardless of if it looked identical and was half the price.

+1


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[eisfeld]

3 hours ago, thaiguzzi said:

No.

People are buying  a new Triumph twin exactly because IT IS A Triumph.

Because it says Triumph on the badge on the tank.

They are buying the heritage & history that goes into that styling.

Not a no-name Chinese knock-off.

Regardless of if it looked identical and was half the price.

Exactly. Triumph in Thailand is a brand and status thing. A sales person at a Triumph dealer told me that for this reason they have a hard time selling mid-tier or the adventure models for example. Thais either are rich and just go for the highest spec'd version that exists or get the cheapest one that lets them still ride a Triumph. That dealer sold exactly zero Street Triples to Thais, all customers were falangs while the classic bikes sell well to locals. The decision is not influenced by what features they really need or wanting a technically sophisticated bike. They want to be seen as riding an iconic Triumph. It's like a chilled out version of Ducati. Nobody turns their head for chinese knock-offs.

[eisfeld]

First english ride review that I came across:

 

 

[DILLIGAD]

First english ride review that I came across:
 
 

Good revue but how can you go to Box Hill without a stop at Rykers!!!


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[guzzi850m2]

Seems like a very good bike for the money, thanks for the video eisfeld, saw it last night.

 

I am considering selling my V and get either this one or the new Street Twin.

 

Yes I know they are very different, the Triumph is all about the look (which you can't see when you ride it, ha-ha) & high torque.

 

The shitty part is testing; Triumph Pattaya only let you try selected bikes on their land at the shop after one tester crashed on Sukhumvit last year. I doubt Big Wing have a test bike.

 

Will go and have a look and talk to the shop guys next week and see what they say.

[guzzi850m2]

Sorry double post

Edited January 12, 2019 by guzzi850m2

[DILLIGAD]

Seems all good with regard to this new model but as much as I try (in any colour), I really think those 2 panels between the tank and engine look hideous, unfortunately.


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[eisfeld]

1 hour ago, DILLIGAD said:

Seems all good with regard to this new model but as much as I try (in any colour), I really think those 2 panels between the tank and engine look hideous, unfortunately.

 

If they didn't have something ugly stuck to the bike and made it look any nicer, they'd probably have to rebrand it away from Honda ????

 

But yea, those air intakes are the only thing that I think that sticks out. At least they are way better than the panels of the oil cooler on the 1000 version of the bike. In fact, I think it looks better than the bigger sibling in quite a few ways. Overall I think Honda seems to be steadily improving its designs year after year currently. I hope they continue down that path.

[DILLIGAD]

It nearly made me home-sick watching your link. No, only joking!

Let us know if you buy one

 

 

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[eisfeld]

23 minutes ago, DILLIGAD said:

Let us know if you buy one

Will do. My plan is to sell the Scrambler and to buy this one. But I'm freezing in Europe currently and probably wont be back in Thailand for a couple months ????

[eisfeld]

Finally got around to test ride the CB650R. Overall I got a pretty good impression of the bike. The updates like slip-assist clutch and traction control are solid. The latter one is a simple yes/no switch, no levels. It worked pretty decent though it once let the completely new tire slip a little bit during acceleration in a bend. It didn't let the slide get out of hand though. So for inexperienced riders or in unexpected circumstances, I think the traction control is a great security feature that I wouldn't want to miss anymore. The seat was decent, throttle worked pretty good as well. It's one of those Hondas where you ride for 5min and feel right at home. Fit-n-finish also very good, nothing loose or cheap feeling. The new dash, hm, I think it's OK. Could have better readability in the sun and felt also slightly small. I prefer the old black-on-white LCDs. It had all the info that I wanted including gear indicator.

 

Power felt really enough for a naked, in fact it felt a little bit more powerful than my Africa Twin when pushed at high RPM even though they have nearly identical horse power. That's probably down to the missing wind protection. At lower RPM one can of course feel the lack of torque due to smaller displacement and being an inline four but it never felt sluggish. Accelleration was smooth, no dips. I think it'd be great for around town and speeds up to say 170kph at which point the wind blast becomes too strong anyways. Heat was noticeable near my hand on the right side but I couldn't really feel it on my legs and it never got annoying at all. I gave it the beans on a highway as well as being stuck a bit in traffic. Today was a hot day, so all clear on that front.

 

I love the more active riding position with the very slight forward lean. The pegs didn't feel too high for me, I felt very comfy over the whole half an hour or so that I rode it. The more active ergonomics make it a bit more engaging while not causing

 

The one thing that stood out to me as negative were the vibrations. It's a thing that I might be a bit sensitive about as readers might know but it really struck me how pronounced they were in the foot pegs. I could also feel them noticeably in the handlebars, tank and seat. They start around 6k RPM, continue through the upper part of the rev range but around 10k the frequency became so high that they didn't feel annoying anymore. Unfortunately 6k is less than 50% on the RPM range so you regularily will hit this and it'll be also the cruising RPM in 6th gear at highway speed. This was very surprising as many reviewers mentioned the missing vibes compared to the CB650F during the press launches. The old model was known to be buzzy so I'm not completely crazy hehe. I told the sales guy about it and he took the bike also for a test run. He too was surprised about the pronounced vibrations though for him they were only annoying in the pegs. Then he told a mechanic who also tested the bike and also noticed it. He then checked the bike including chain slack, tire pressure etc and said it might be because the new model is missing the rubber from the pegs that the old model had. One can replace the pegs but for the bars etc it'll be hard to get rid of. Note that it was a completely new bike with few miles on it. The sales guy will later also check with a CBR650R model and see how that goes. What a bummer, I already thought about selling my Ducati and getting a CB650R in matt blue. Not sure about it now. Time to ride a few bikes of other brands and see how I like those.

[Happy Grumpy]

Far better than the first gen version.