Quote:
Originally Posted by skyl4rk
Would you recommend a F650 CS for long distance touring? I am trying to decide what bike to get and would like a relatively lightweight bike but it still needs to do 2-up long distance tours.
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I think similarly to kawboyCAFE - my main concern is not power. In this respect, of course a 650cc single behaves differently 2-up than with one rider, but it doesn't bother me at all. I also had several hundred km long trips with a 250 (Ciliegia, Hyosung GV250, log also included), and I was fine with it.
So my advice is that you should try one for riding comfort. My position is upright - with pretty folded legs. The most I have ever ridden without stopping is ~300km (and ~600km one day, there's nice headroom here
), and I had to excercise my legs after 2 hours or so. The same goes for my right wrist, Teresa has quite strong spring in the throttle handle, at least stronger than Ciliegia. Other than that, I had absolutely no problem at all. If you take twisty roads you may won't have even these problems, heading home on a freeway lacks the exercise you'd have on roads with details.
Other thing I'd check the position of the passenger. When I gave a lift to my colleague (a bit taller than me) he complained about the passenger footrests, he had to fold his legs more than I have to and found the position very uncomfortable. OTOH my girlfriend, who is shorter (163cm/5'4"), has much less problem there. I think these can be the limiting factors on any bike you find sufficiently strong for the job.