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Original Article:
Sport-Tour 2006

Please discuss the Motorcycle.com article Sport-Tour 2006 in our Motorcycle Forums below. Use the reply button to let others know your comments or feedback on the article. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, along with your thoughts and personal opinions on the bikes and products we have tested.

 

[62133]

Hmm - they told the reviewers to discount the Yamaha's shifting mechanism and two of the testers said the bike would have been #1 except for the shifting . . .

Then the complaints about the auto-retract feature of the screen - ask guys. Mine doesn't retract any more. Then again I always leave mine fully down so I didn't need to make the change. Just pull the retract plug and it stays where you leave it - a 30 second modification.

Then the comments about the suspension - it is so completely adjustable that you can REALLY mess up the machine. But the simplest thing is to slide the soft-hard lever to the 'hard' position and any questions you might have had fade into the distance.

Why is the BMW in this shootout? It is probably better set against the Goldwing, though a lot more sporty than the Goldwing.

Yamaha's FJR is absolutely the category leader (at least it WAS, until Kawasaki released the Concours 14 - but until I ride one I'll reserve judgement).

 

[56065]

These shoot-outs drive me crazy. I love them and yet they leave me all frustrated and confused in the end. Even when you try and narrow down a segment to "sport touring" you still leave all kinds of room for widely different bikes trying to one-up each other.

To me, there is a big difference between the "softer" K1200GT sport touring and the "sportier" Sprint ST version of getting from point 'A' to 'B'. So much of a difference that it's pretty crazy to try and have a bake-off between those two bikes. Maybe the Sprint ST, a Ducati ST3 and a ZX-14 as a comparo in the "I like to ride solo and run at spirited speeds, but I occasional also do the weekend trip with my wife (s/o) and have to keep her happy as a passenger" kind of segment.

So many bikes and so many ways to ride them...