test rides de800 transalp 750

[minkyhead]

probably not the most dynamic cometator in the world ..but long story short two test rides and just some thoughts as i rode along
disclaimer ...after the t7 i was really testing both these from the perspective of a road bke which is a bit unfair but like a lot i like the ergos of the adv style but maby not the 21 inch front which in fairness after the t7 wasnt realy bothering me as all these are pretty decent road handling bikes but thats what im after ..i like me crfs for trails and dont shy away from long distance on either of them ...
thought about not putten em up as im no reviewer tbo ..but i had little time on either and i had to form a impression and neither really blew me away
tbo the suzuki was hands down my prefered bike but as you will tell from my ramblings the lack of any weather protection at all was getting on me tits and i wernt out very long ..the honda was better in that regard but still pretty poor but due to its design woulkd be pretty easy to sort out ..much less so the suzuki ..i guess its obvouse when you just look at them
i would say if they later bring out a roady 19 inch cast tubless vee /parrelel strom 800 with somthing approaching a proper cocklpit id be deffo intersted for a 2nd go ..as the engine was way way more banty from very low revs ...the honda was pretty flat at low revs and then just took off like scalded cat kinda encouraged you to go faster and use lower gears as tbo without doing that it was borderline dull until you hit the magic revs ...it was kinda nothing and everything make no mistake its a fast bike and when you rev it hard it bants on hard but personally i would find it pretty frustrating and didnt really take to its drop one gear personality

..the t7 has more low down bant but 15hp less and the suzuki seemed to me to be stronger than either from the 2 to 6k rev range which worked for me for sure ..id also suspect on limited time the suzuki would be pretty usful of road ..but still to big and heavy for me ..if it had the qualituies of the 650 as road going bike id be back on it for sure
....imho for waht its worth ..honda needed to bring the whole thing down 1500 revs ....the saving grace may be is that it has a very very long lazy overdrive 6th and maby owners will go one down on the front for off road and earlier pull and still retain a very easy cruissing speed that wouldnt surprise me at all .....
dont shoot me its just a test ride... no research no scripts or owt like that i just said what thought ....
a very lot depends on how you like to ride ...if your a fast boy and on it all the time ..id say the honda has it ...if you a lazy fecker and like low down bant and are already half deaf from tinitus the suzuki is deffo the one ....... test rides essential

[adventure steele]

Legend Minky I always enjoy the none given bikes reviews always find they give a good appraisal of it, getting harder to find those owner reviews or normal test rides now on youTube with how the search works. Make a good mix next to the mag reviews which can often be drastically different.

It's a shame the screwed up on the weather protection I thought that when I saw it at the show tbh. Wasn't as keen on the seating position as the 650xt which fits like a glove everyone's body is different.

The one thing that's worried me so far is the talk of vibes in the 800 at motorway speeds as that's where they end up spending a fair bit of time if it doubles as only transport like it does for me not having a car, had a chance to have a go on a boxer gs yet mate?

[Steve T]

Good work Steve

[Lexinoo]

Good stuff .
Have you tried the BMW 850 and triumph 850/900 variants ?

[minkyhead]

The one thing that's worried me so far is the talk of vibes in the 800 at motorway speeds as that's where they end up spending a fair bit of time if it doubles as only transport like it does for me not having a car, had a chance to have a go on a boxer gs yet mate?

tbo i could feel alittle bit of vibes on the susuki but they deffo were for me not a big deal ..if you want vibes on a motorway try the tiger 660 ,,
yer in former life ive had the bmw phase ..had a 1150 for afew years that i liked ..thena 1200 gs that to be blunt was riddled with faults and after that i just couldnt bring meself to go back ..
id say nowdays some of the middleweights have as much if not more performance than the old gses and that would certainly be true of these two bikes .but big performace doesnt really impress me ...im not arsed about the hillbilly gp anymore ...ill keep trying stuff but just at the moment im struggling to get that ride that grabs me and drags me and me wallet wallet to the till ..its not reallya so much acase of budget tbo its a case of just finding somthing the list of test rides is growing and tbo i stayed with the budget tourer as nothing is inspiring me to let go of a big wedge of cash ...case in point i took out the versys 1000 and 1000 se thinking i may want to go back to the big bangers ..tbo once you had lamped it 2nd and third a few times for the novelty it was very hard to find anything it would do much better exept maby pillion work which isnt in my breif ,,,, think the standard one was11k with boxes and it was ok ..the se model with fancy crap all over it was 15.5 and where the difference is i really dont know leccy suspension was nobetter than me moped 650 and cornering lights i can live wothout ..at the time it would be my 21 plate pls 6 k for the standard and 10.5 for the se ..... total joke tbo .in the end i just divied up another 2k and got another bit posher 650 more though ;lack of inspiration than owt else
ive tried allsorts tracer 9 nt1100 versys 1000..1050 vee strom tiger 900 tiger 660 and nothing has come close to inspiring me ...
i kinda wanted the tiger660 to be good as i like the middleweights ..its mcns bike of the year ..to me it had a rear shock that needed scrapping from day one skinny weather protection and a most annoying vibration placed just right for the motorway ....??
summet will turn up im just havin a hard time finding summet that really grabs me hard enough to jump ....maby ifthey do the 800 de in roady type version with some sort of sensible front on it id be liking to try that ....i did like the suzuki overall maby next year they will fill the gap with a R version
im in that limbo position where ive cheap bike that i find better than expected and cant bring meself to till up for a newer model thats not as good as i hoped for ...summet will turn up .....be reet

[minkyhead]

Good stuff .
Have you tried the BMW 850 and triumph 850/900 variants ?

maby i should ..i had a terrible time with me 1200 gs and i know the 850s have a very good reputation ...maby i should revisit the brand ..im behind the times but it wasnt easy to do home maintance on the 1200 and i was put off by some very very complicated faults it had on its electronics that even the dealer was stuggling to cure ...since then ive more or less blanked them i would hope the 850s are more in line with the jap twins ...maby ill give it a go but i may need dragging there after me 1200 debacle it really did destroy my faith in the brand ..i blank it out as the flashbacks of breakdown trucks 5 times in 9 months still haunt me to this day

[adventure steele]

ace pics mate I was saying that to dad there's not alot of the newer bikes that have grabbed me they all seem really samey like no ones taking any risks any more having had lots of British stuff you'd never mistake one brand for another even if you took the badges off.

An in the past most of the 80s Japanese bikes 350lc's rd250lc's rd250c's gsx750et' rzv500r, just got the one 350lc now, ridden n worked on my uncles old kettle. Everything was so so so different unique an nowt was like another companies bike. Now they all just seem to be blending into 1. Maybe it's a symtom of modern product design bit like how everything gone parallel twin lately. An RZV500R from an RG500 was so different in every way.

An I agree with the mag stuff, they never mention the stuff that matters, only once the bike gets a few years of age on it then you start to hear what you experienced after spending your hard earned cash on it , like the cutting out on the 390's the displays that the 390s an 790s suffer with, all the issues with the Himalayan brake light switches an other issues. Sometimes it does get mentioned though I have more respect for those sort of reviews. Nathan's are usually solid reviews.

Its interesting having read all the old 1920s - 1960s bike mags when I was researching the Nortons over the years they didn't half hold them the companies to account cracking reads especially the 1920s an 30s stuff. I understand its how they get there money but people go out n spend the money partly based on the reports.

I must admit that's the one thing that bothers me slightly with the modern beemers my 1200 2014 lunched 3 engines but that was due to a dealer screw up the clock assy failed first day I had it in 2015 an the esa was constantly packing in till i let it go about 2017/18, that 2018 I had but had to let go for funds was nice infact had really moved it's game on since the 2014 version

They did have there issues to although I didn't experience them with soft cams (worth a read up on) remember reading about that. I don't know about the newer 1250 a mate has one an loves it

I've looked at some older water cooled ones n thought about it but them not having the warranty bothers me having experienced when they go wrong. I think riding daily an year round you always experience more issues so they show up more.

Like you mate I was left getting the bus to work for 8 Months or using my rd250lc at the time which was hammering miles on it while bmw attempted to fix the screw ups on the 1200gsa I remember it turning up for about the 11th time off the van it comes I say don't bother driving away, on I hop an it wont even go into gear box full of neutrals back it went after 3 engines for a gearbox ffs lol that was a main dealer.

I did have the F800 that was ok but id did the stator before I had it under warranty an they liked to eat headbearings.

My honest take away at the moment is they've engineered the uniqueness out of the modern stuff an the reliability with the focus on fancy wizz bang tech is daft then they even screw up the basics stuff like clocks n brake light switches. Bit like all the vids currently on the issues with the 890 platform 2k miles an people are having issues are the people that have spent there own money on them not good really, my old mans I10 just clicked over 70k miles no faults an cost less than most modern bikes are.

One of my fav's was the vstrom 650xt loved that bike an found it a bit more inspiring than 1000xt

The 1050 it is interesting seeing how close the pricing is on the 2020 1050 though lotta bike for the money second hand.

We were wandering round the superbike factory the other day an I said to dad you could swap the badges on everything but the boxers an the himmy's an the rest could be made by any of the companies really.

My overall takeaway is I prefer the reliability that I've experienced with the Japanese stuff just wish they would take some risks like Nathan said in his MCN video about the 300 Rally that an the cb500x could be so so much more an it's a shame BMW dont make a simple but firecracker of a 310 or 500 or 800 boxer. The R80 was the original hit shame they don't resurrect it.

Alot of them arn't cheap any more an are past the price of cars (I ride a bike all year round n don't have a car)

Obviously this is only my thoughts an everyone elses will probably differ an mines based on having 3 new bikes (2mine 1 himmy one 390 and dads 390) in less than 6 months that went back under rejection in 12+ years of riding never had to do that on modern stuff.

It was good to see you mention the wind protection all the pro reviews I've watched on the 800DE didn't cover it but it matters when you are doing long days.

[Paul_C]

If you're happy with spanners and don't mind an older bike the touring Tonti framed Guzzis are worth a look. 850 T3, Spada etc. I've had my 1979 Lemans II since 81 and it's still a great bike to ride. Ok, it's 1970's suspension can struggle sometimes and I've replaced a few bits over the years but it still starts, runs and rides well. Very easy to work on too, even if a clutch replacement is a big job it's straight forward.


And from the 80's... Still got the boots in the loft but the hair has long gone.

[Lexinoo]

Just watched the big rock Moto video of the vstrom,, he sounds pretty excited about it. Looks a decent bike to be fair.

[minkyhead]

i do agree it is a decent bike for sure ...my problem ..big deal breaker was the low cockpit and i do think it will be hard to resolve ... ..
tbo it was 25 degrees and calm and it was not really very pleasent ...i tried to imagine a long shift required with the wether closing in and that pretty much sealed the deal ..
again i guess it was my own fault as its pretty obvius its set up for a different breif than a road bike ..i really liked the motor it was the right way up for my kind of riding ....in fairness i do think it would be a good bike in aloto of ways .i pretty much said that ..i wonder why suzuki kind of ingnored the fact that a bike with that kind of motor would be apealing to longer distance riders or maby simply just wanting to a road trip with some mates from time to time ? .....
dunno but if they do a roady version later on id be deffo giving it a 2nd look .

i saw this guys video and i think it explains it better than i can ..it just kind of dominated the expieriance and i knew i couldnt live with it