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Cruiser
Posts: 115
Victoria, BC | Well after many, many months of anticipation, the Wife & I were finally able to make it over to the mainland via BC Ferry to test drive the Vision at Sea to Sky Motorsports in Langley, BC (basically an all day affair, plus $100 for the ferry).
Kyle, the Store Manager, was expecting us. He quickly ran through all the features of the bike & then let us take the bike out on our own after giving us directions to the Freeway. I don't know Greater Vancouver that well, so we always depend our bike-mounted Garmin 276c GPS for navigation. Unfortunately I had no way of mounting it on the Vision, so I tucked it away in the glove box. When ever I got lost, I'd just pull it out to see where we were. After a 45 minute ride we managed to find our way back to the dealer.
I was thrilled at how well the Vision handled in town and how stable it was on the freeway. I was not thrilled at how much noise it made though. I'm used to my very quiet & turbine smooth Suzuki Burgman. I kept thinking & wondering why a lot of you wanted to make it even noisier, so when I returned the bike I asked Kyle if this was the stock exhaust. He said nope, most people that bought the bike wanted the optional exhaust, so the demo bike already had it mounted. Ok, that answered that problem. However, when I buy mine I'll just leave it stock. It won't be as quiet as the Burgman, but hopefully I won't have to wear earplugs either.
I forgotten what a pain it the butt it is to have to shift all the time in city traffic (way too much work). The clutch had nice light feel to it, but the toe shifter was too low and I had a heck of a time trying to get my big boots under it, so I missed a lot of up-shifts (frustrating!). Thankfully they had enough sense to put a gear indicator on the dash so I could tell what gear I was in. I eventually got the hang of using the lip on the front of the boot to snag the shifter. I would just have them move the shifter up or install a heel/toe shifter. Easy fix!
Loved the floor boards - lots of room for my big feet (just like the Burgman).
I was pleasantly surprised how little engine heat there was on my legs. Mind you it wasn't a hot day & I didn't look to see what position the little wings were at, but engine heat was not an issue for me.
On the freeway I had the windshield set just below my vision & my wife said the wind protection for her was better than our bike. My legs were more exposed to the wind than I'm used to, but I'll just install the lower wind deflectors since I ride a lot in the rain (after all, we do live in the Pacific Northwest) & I hate wearing rain pants.
My Wife will definitely need the footrest risers, as the saddlebag was rubbing on the back of her legs. I was concerned that it would tick her off enough that she would veto buying a Vision, but Kyle let us sit on the boss's bike which had the risers and that solved the wife's problem. She loved the heated seat & found the trunk backrest very comfortable. So I was very glad when she said she loved the bike. However, it had to be black with all chrome trim (Mmmm, I wanted the Midnight Cherry). Oh well, happy wife - happy life! I guess I can live with black.
All in all it was great experience. The dealership was great. In spite of the fact they were moving into their new building the next day, and everyone was very busy, they all had time to answer any questions we had. Even the female owner came over to chat one-on-one with my wife for awhile about her experiences with Victory bikes (that made my wife feel more special). Never did we feel any pressure to buy. Everyone was relaxed. I liked that!
Although we did leave the dealership without a Vision, it's now not a matter of "if", but "when". We both loved the bike, and as much as I would love to be riding it now, the new ones will be out in September, and hopefully all the little problems will have been properly addressed. Since I ride all year round, waiting until September is not a major deal to me.
But a funny thing happened two hours later. We were looking at reading glasses for my wife in an Optical Store, when an older couple come bursting in asking if the Burgman belonged to us (we were the only customers in the store). I had seen the husband looking at my bike earlier while he was walking the dog in the parking lot. Now they were both wanting to know if I would sell it to them right then & there - had the cash in their bank account. They had never seen a Burgman before, but it was exactly what they needed & wanted. I was so taken aback, I didn't know what to say. I knew I was going to be selling it soon, but not that soon! I wasn't even sure how much I wanted to sell it for, so I took their phone number & said I would get back to them soon. Crazy, eh!
Cheers,
Reg
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Visionary
Posts: 1324
So Cal | Whew! when you talked about the noise I thought my hearing was getting worse. Ive never owned a bike this quiet. You have the Burgman sold, the rest is easy. Sounds like you wife is sold also. Maybe you can compromise on color(wear her down). Who knows, there may be new colors for '09? |
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Cruiser
Posts: 115
Victoria, BC | Well she did see a different Victory model on the showroom floor that was pearl white. If she had the choice of any color, it would be that. Somehow I don't think the Vision will come in white in '09. In the end, the color is not as important to me as the fact that it's trouble-free. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 98
Santa Maria CA | Reg, the shifter is real easy to adjust. You can move it foward or backwards. there is 3 settings you can set and how high you want the shifter. The more you ride a vision it get easier to shift. If you have your bike sold, buy the vision now. I have had my Vision seens March, was built in October. I have 13,000 miles now and have no problems. It also sound like you find a good dealer to work with. Best of Luck. ( I like my vision so much i don't know how you can wait ) |
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Cruiser
Posts: 256
Florida | Hi Reg,
I noticed the same thing about the shifter when wearing steel toe riding boots. After making the adjustment on the shift lever, it was still a bit too tight. So, I mashed the toes of my boots and that fixed the problem!
In terms of the engine heat, I notice little if any heat rising towards the seat. This is a great improvement when compared to the three H-Ds I've owned. When wearing long pants and boots, it's very comfortable. However, if you ever wear light pants and no boots, when the temps get higher, you will definitely notice the heat around your ankles and calves. From my personal experience, it gets very hot in that area. I'd like to find a modification that could fix that situation.
For the Bergman, it's a cool scooter. If it's not a financial or storage issue, I'd recommend keeping it for short jaunts...or when the Vision is getting serviced. Maybe you can get your wife riding it...then you can take the trunk off and really feels how well this bike can handle without the trunk weight. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 115
Victoria, BC | I'd love to keep the Burgman also, but insurance rates here are very high. The state owned insurance company rates motorcycles only by cc's and not usage. Therefore the Burgman which costs $200 for full coverage in Florida (Progressive), costs $1500/year here. If you use a private insurance company for the Collision & Comprehensive part, you can get it down to $1100 (which is what I paid). So add that to the high cost of insuring our two cars & you can see something has to go when I purchase the Vision.
Could be worse though - I have some Harley friends here that were paying over $2400/year for their Electra-glides.
I wish we could buy all of our vehicle insurance from private companies - at least then we'd have some competition in the marketplace. As it stands now, you have to pay the full insurance premium for each vehicle - no discounts for multiple vehicles. That sucks 'cause I can only drive one vehicle at a time.
I think the state owned insurance company is probably here to stay for a long while. I hate monopolies!
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Iron Butt
Posts: 600
Linwood, MI | Lifeisgood, when you finally get your Vision the Shift lever is very easy to adjust. It has a turnbuckle-style adjustment, so you just undo the two jam nuts a little and twist the turnbuckle until you have the lever height where you want it. Tighten down the jam nuts and *poof* you're done. I just had to adjust mine because I have big ol' feet, too. The hardest part was crouching down to reach the jam nuts.  |
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Cruiser
Posts: 115
Victoria, BC | Thanks for the info on the shifter.
My graphic-oriented wife thinks we should black out the front silver pieces (paint or powder-coat) and get the ones fore & aft of the engine chromed. The female owner of the dealership thought that some hand-done red pin striping would also look good on the black Vision.
I'm not graphically oriented - I'll leave that stuff to the wife. I just want to ride!  |
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Cruiser
Posts: 115
Victoria, BC | By the way, does anyone have an idea of why the later part of my posts all of a sudden change to a smaller font?
Reg |
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Iron Butt
Posts: 600
Linwood, MI | Lifeisgood - 2008-06-16 12:36 AM
By the way, does anyone have an idea of why the later part of my posts all of a sudden change to a smaller font?
Your posts all look fine on my screen. |
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Test drive
