Riding the BSA Gold Star 650; 7 key observations by a Duke 200 owner

I find the New RE bikes (Himalayan, Guerilla, Super Meteor 650) a bit too big visually, this felt more "right" size-wise.

BHPian Williams_f1 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi Everyone,

I had a quick test ride of the Gold Star today from Shakti Automobiles PCMC, Pune. Test ride was available easily and within 5 minutes of entering the showroom I was out riding the bike, The showroom shared that they already have 8 confirmed bookings, waiting period is a week. Must say the Bikes on display (Jawa-Yezdi-BSA) all are eye candy, hopefully, the bikes are more sorted also with the recent updates, Wish them all the Best!

My observations of the Gold Star:

1. The bike had the DB killers removed, and another bike at another showroom had the same setup, I thought why so? and I got the answer as soon as the bike was started up, it sounds epic! Clearly, this is done with the Interceptor in mind (With all those after-market silencers(16-20k), here you just need to take of the DB killer and you are sorted!
2. Off-the-line torque is awesome (I ride a Duke 200), this should make the bike easy to putter around.
3. The sitting position is not too feet forward and just about right for me and anymore further and I wouldn't have liked it. The engine is not that wide so it doesn't feel like you are on a 650, I find the New RE bikes (Himalayan, Guerilla, Super Meteor 650) a bit too big visually, this felt more "Right" size-wise. About the handles - felt right at home, I didn't even think twice about it(I am 5' 10"). While riding I liked the look of the twin pods (they have a retro charm about them) but probably not the easiest to read, there are a lot of bikes ahead of you, and you can almost feel that they tried to give a feel of how the original Goldstar felt.
4. The bike is pretty stable even at low speeds, I could get away without the need to put my feet down at almost zero speeds, bad road - well it just trundles along, it's no corner carver though nor is it meant to be.
5. Off throttle (While deaccelerating) it has a hint of Turbo Diesel Whistle, which I really liked!
6. The First Gear was low geared rest is long, so I couldn't get space to check its cruising ability but should ok with the 5-gear setup.
7. This is the kind of bike you chug along enjoying the countryside yet it has some poke if you want to have some fun, it should be good at a variety of things. The spiritual successor to the UCE 500 as many have already said.

Quality, fit finish, spares and maintenance are questions for the future, at first glance it felt better put together than the first gen Jawa-yezdis, Stuart Fillingham a British YouTuber said in one of his videos that this bike uses a lot of forged components, forged parts are strong but don't have a good finish, I don't know how much of that is true but that's the reason he gave for observations regarding the finish on the bike. The bike has a couple of years under its belt, being sold internationally so hopefully should hit the ground running.

That's all folks!

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