So here I am wanting to go touring again and for many different reasons I've now bought a CF MOTO TR650 to try out. It started off very cheap with luggage in white and was grubby but now painted. My idea is to rack the miles up to to brag having a high mileage chink!! Bike under review as I just insured it today
Wow that looks amazing ! You've done a lovely job on that. Is it an actual ER6 or a Chinese copy of an ER6 ?
Thank you half ton, thank you big lad too. Not sure if it's a copy or not but it also runs on German kyb suspension. If you didn't know china builds 50% of the worlds bikes so thought I'll try at some point. What really swung it was I had a cheap budget in mind as I did a previous year (£1200 this year) but I blew it by £600!! I had to find a bike with standard panniers that'll do the job as I didn't want loose aftermarket ones so I bought this but wait for it....... £5200new and so this was a early 2014 for £1800!!!
That's a lot of nearly new bike for very little money. I can understand that the reputation of Chinese bikes hits the residuals hard, but hopefully for you the rep. is unfounded.
So first 100 miles........ Got bike out of the garage yesterday morning to go to work and looked at the speedo to find NO BLOODY KILOMETRES!! Aargh! I'm going touring on this in the late summer and no kilometres. Also there's no trip metre too, WTF??? Even 1970s jap stuff had these basics!! Anyway, the ride...... Strangely enough it rides very well and extremely sure footed. The motor sounds crap like a washing machine but once the wind noise takes over the bloody thing just whooshes on the motorway. I can actually say I'm really impressed with the speed of the thing as it's effortless on motorways and its gonna be a good mile muncher. The fairing works very well so I'm impressed on those points.
My Harley only has miles, it's pretty easy to convert in your head . Or if your using a GPS just set it to kilometres
I can't see the km marks on the speedo anyway..... Nice job TG. That bike cost only twice as much as the panniers I just bought for the Thunderbird. Hope the trip goes well
Top technical tip..... some thin stripes of day glo tape where the most important km speed limits are stuck to your speedo glass. keep the roll incase they come off in the rain and you have to re-apply. missing trip meter? cheap alternative...pen and paper! sorted £1.75
That's probably what's going to happen. Apparently the speedo is made by Koso who also make after market sports speedos with all the singing and dancing lap timers,teas maid and anything else overdone. Can anyone believe that they made a bloody dash clock without a TRIP, TIME CLOCK AND KPH??
Yes I can see where your coming from but sometimes when your in traffic keeping your eyes pinned on nutters, trying to read road signs, wondering which turn off your only riding mate has gone down and it's somewhere foreign to add to the mix then you want less to think about. I did notice when I also had a Harley that I had so much time spare whilst riding it I could do the maths in between spotting the rare flowers!! Heh heh Eric
FIRST 'OFFICIAL' Breakdown!! After riding this bike now for a month or so and enjoying the fun it has been for the money this morning the clutch cable went light in my hand................................ That was a low sigh feeling as I was going to work on it and mile '3' of a 25 mile road/motorway M62/ road trek. At least I wasn't on the M62, giant car park of the north where its been bumper to bumper filtering. Anyway about turn, then downhill start and fine careful tuning to which way has least hazards. Got home, garage open, spanners out....... Theres the problem....... And the milage to date.... And what another job of taking half the bloody thing apart again just for the cable..... And todays feeling......?
Hi Tig, sorry to hear about your breakdown, what actually happened? Has the cable snapped or has it just come adrift of a fixing on the operating lever next to the clutch cover?
Oh well it is how it is. Yes half ton, good job it was local. Big lad, the ball on the engine side frayed off. 4k miles?? Worst part is the amount of strip down. Makes us enjoy our real bonnevilles and appreciate our naked bikes for what they are.
Every relationship has its ups and downs.... In years to come (hopefully) you will remember the downs as a way to reach the ups ( retch!!!)
Another challenge! Just posting this as for once Ive time spare, just broke down on the slip road off the M62 Halifax turn off with now a flat tyre to add to things. Not the bikes fault but it's got angled valve extensions which has caused the valve tube to slowly tear with centrifugal force. I've never had any on my bikes and did think they were good for access but this came with them and now I've changed my mind. Anyway, I've also had to change rear pads as I just caught them .25mm off the metal at just 4500 miles!! Now that's cheap shit!!
This is what testing is al about Tig but I do not think it is the bikes fault eiththe cable or the sfter market extentions, I have had a cable end go on a top of the range BMW before now so I do not put any score in that, please keep up posted I am interested to see how you find it over all. Keith
Strangely enough I can actually say I look forward to riding it even as much as my Bonneville would you believe. The fact that when it's broke makes me have an urge to ride it more and appreciate it. I can't believe I actually said that about a budget bike but it's true.
