Had a recent test ride, considerably long one of the GS150R last week.
Pros:
Extremely refined motor (and I felt totally vibration free). At times I felt like I couldn't almost feel the motor running. Maybe its because my current ride is my trusty RX-135, which definitely lets you know its running.
Superb suspension. The damping was just phenomenal. I rode it on concrete and on the new disgusting interlocking tiles they are laying down all over the city. On regulation tar, it feels like you are gliding.
Riding position is very comfortable.
Sixth gear is a major advantage if you are inclined to do long rides.
Cons:
Brake feel was vague.
Motor feels underpowered. What I mean is it definitely FEELS like it takes ages to put on some decent speed. Whether, this is in fact true, I am not clear on, as the speedometer was disconnected. Or maybe, the extremely refined motor made it feel that way. Point being, I never felt I was going at speed, or picking up speed, no matter how much I was wringing the throttle.
Rust issues. This might be worrisome. The bike I rode was supposedly from the latest lot, and there were tell-tale signs of rust on the fuel tank mouth. When I pointed it out to the dealership, the guy appeared shocked, and immediately rushed the bike to the service area to get the issue addressed.
The sixth cog is impractical and unusable in city stop and go traffic. Most times you will never employ it, and when you do, it will be a pain in the *** downshifting 4 times to get it to 2'nd in our kind of stop and go city traffic.
Overall, the impression I came away with was this was a bike, if you wanted absolute comfort and refinement, and excitement was not on your list of priorities. Its a bit difficult to digest its very sedate nature for me after being used to an RX-135 for 11 years.
However, yesterday, I happened to ride two RTRs back-to-back. One was a carburetted 160 and the other a FI 160, and man-0-man - I think this is the bike that comes closest to the RX's sense of urgency and involvement among the current crop of bikes. But needless to say, refinement levels are nowhere close to that of the Zuki.
So, its really apples and oranges.
Last edited by hell_rider : 30th March 2010 at 20:45.
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