Deal on Voyagers

[jamiep24]

Just got back from Vicksburg Cycles (where I got my Nomad). Just went ahead and got 4 quarts of Motorcycle oil and an oil filter. Wasn't but 30 bucks with my discount. Took another look at the new blue Voyager and they had it priced at $15,799 and I couldn't believe they had marked it down that much. Won't be around long at that price. Sounds like a heckuva deal. On a another note, got my new issue of Rider magazine and they had a test of 4 touring cruisers: the Voyager, Ultra Classic, Victory Vision and Star Stratoliner. Of course the Harley and Victory was first and second with the Voyager being dead last. What do you expect from an American magazine testing American bikes? Said they didn't like the top-heavy Kawasaki. Didn't sound like they had much of a test, only two hours of riding must have been enough. Anyway, they get a few kinks out and in a few years that may be my next bike. But I really thought that was a good price. Jamie

[Jared]

Sounds like a good price. I will watch the review carefully and if they still seem to be good bike 3 years from now, I might go that direction as well.

[paul]

TOPHEAVY??!! Somebodies trying way too hard to make a case. I went to the bike show in Houston a few months ago and made a special point to go to each of the bikes in this class, and sit on them and pull them off their stand and run them back and forth on the carpet. By far, the easiest was the Voyager. The Vision was not terrible, but it was heavier to pull off the stand and the seating position was waayyy to far away from the instruments for me. Don't even get me started on those glove compartments they call saddlebags.

The Harley was nice enough, but a little cramped for me. The Yamaha was a TANK. NO way for me. The one that suprised me most was the Wing. I know its not in the test, but I tried one out at the bike show and really liked the balance and overall feel. I didn't expect that.

[jamiep24]

The article did say a lot of positives about the Voyager, but it seemed to be picking on Kawasaki pretty good. It said the Voyager appears large and bulbous (whatever the hell that means), feels heavy and ungainly, couldn't see over the windscreen, fairing reflected a lot of engine noise and gear whine, gearbox clunks when shifted (sounds like another bike in that comparison, doesn't it?), shudder and shake in the engine (again, that other bike), floorboards drag easily and put down it's 379 lb. weight capacity, whick I agree with, is ridiculous.
The positives included: protection from pivoting lowers is good, it feels lighter than expected on twisting roads (that's a contradiction to his large and bulbous comment), it's saddlebags are much larger and holds much more than the Harley's (who it appears he works for), of course he said the Voyager's trunk was patterned after the Harley's, the Voyager's anti-lock brakes were better than Harley's, rear seat is firm and well supported, with good room to spread out and windscreen blocks wind well for the passenger.

[jamiep24]

I made a mistake, it was a Star Venture, not a Stratoliner.

[dhomoney]

I like Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine, they don't seem to be so HD-centric. They wrote up this month on the entire 1700 line and gave it a good review. Most other mags are either in love with and give a reach around to the HD or are sport bike mags.

[jamiep24]

I get 6 or 7 mags and usually I like Rider. One of them, I think it's Cruiser Magazine, used to be called Metric Cruiser until they felt pressured to take out the Metric and include Harleys. Now I can't read any mag without seeeing HDs. That sux.

[dhomoney]

They are the 800lbs gorilla in the room. Motorcyclist did a review of the Voyager and HD and they said the new HD was more refined than the Voyager, though they didn't bad mouth the Voyager.