Well, about 1150 miles since I picked up the Strada last week. It's a great bike, I can't stop riding it. Here are my overall thoughts at this point. For my perspective, I'm a reentry rider, 49 yrs young, been riding about 10yrs after a 20 year break. I bought the Strada for day tripping 'round Oregon/Washington, rural stuff, forest roads, etc. I have a BMW K1600GTL for the long haul, have owned a couple of BMW Boxers, a KLR, a WeeStrom, and a Triumph Bonneville. I'm 6'4" and 280 lbs, riding 'two up' all the time as they say. Suspension The suspension is working well for me. I ride a lot of less than ideal pavement, and gravel connecting pavement. Say 90/10. The rear suspension was a bit soft, that got cranked up at my 600 mi service. Need to find a wrench that fits for preload, it's really compact. Broken pavement, washboard gravel, it soaks it up nicely. Engine Wow. I'm really delighted with the engine. I've got an issue with fueling below 4K, which makes riding in traffic an issue, but once out on the open road I'm really enjoying the power. The combination of the relatively (800 lb other bike!) light bike with the power of the thumper really are a lot of fun. Plenty of power for freeway passing, really comes on a boil at 5k. I'm riding it all over the place and never think 'it's just a 650 thumper.' Over several mountain passes since new, no issues. The engine is incredibly smooth, surprisingly so for a single. Transmission Mostly a BMW rider, I find the transmission just right. :-) It's notch, but I'm used to shifting with authority. Ratios work for me, I find myself working the first four gears, fifth is overdrive. Road 70ish miles today and 50ish miles yesterday at freeway speeds, crusing along about 70 at 5k, very smooth. Since new, I missed 1st gear for neutral once. No other issues. Brakes I'm a big fan of ABS, and it was a key consideration when considering Strada vs Terra. Brakes work well, very predictable. ABS on the rear is a bit sensitive, easy to get it to engage. The front requires some serious effort before ABS kicks in. I like the feel of the brakes, no surprises. Instrumentation Big analog tach along with digital speedo works for me. Things are readable regardless of light. Nice to have a temperature display. The fuel consumption is displayed, which actually works great. Pull in for gas, you know what you've used. After many tanks the measurement shoes tyo be very accurate. Reset it and you are good for the next tank. Reserve light comes on with about r tenths of a gallon to go, and it counts miles since you hit reserve. Time of day is a nice touch. At night, the bright light indicator, and the fuel light a bit bright for me, and there's a bit of blowback from the area surrounding the headlight. I've had Lasik, I'm probably a bit sensitive. Handling This bike has no surprises. It goes were you point it, inspires confidence. Front end is light, turn in is light. In still air it's solid until about 80 where it begins to wander. Truck turbulence move things around a bit, but in a consistent way. After a while, it seems normal. Turning radius is great. On gravel, keep it under power and it's uneventful. Fit & Finish In general, a great bike for this price class. Things fit well, are complete, and seem solid. Lost a Husky label about 600 miles in, seems they can't get the glue right, neither can BMW. Plastic is a bit soft, already showing a bit of my knee rub on the sides. Owners manual is useless, cool USB version of the 'service manual' was partially corrupt for myself and others. Surprisingly, one of the best motorcycle seats I've ever had. Overall It's a great bike, an incredible value. It rides well, is comfortable, and is FUN. For me the only downside if the fuel injection below 4k, dealer says it's not right, hopefully will get it resolved soon. The dealers don't have the diagnostic computer or service manual yet, but that should get fixed soon. It's a keeper from my perspective, a great all around bike.
My dealer calls it a flat spot, I use the term stumble. More than 3/4 of the time, rolling off below 4000 RPM and then back on results in hesitation, as if the bike is not getting fuel. Rolling on harder solves the problem, but isn't exactly possible in traffic and off road situations. About a total of five times since new, rolling off coming to a stop has resulted in a complete stall, the latest one yesterday. Off the line, it needs to be at 3500 RPM before the clutch release begins or it will cough, sputter, etc. until it pops forward once all is well. It was worse when new, got better up to about 200mi, then has stayed the same. Somethings not right, but it's not obvious. My dealer is talking to Husky. I have a RAM mount coming for my camera, once that's here I'll post a video. I did not notice this behavior when I test rode my dealers Terra, with about 170 miles on it at the time. I suspect a sensor or connector issue, and am confident it will get figured out.
A few possibilities I can think of: - The issue I am having below 4k RPM with the fuel injection could be related. - I've been riding a bunch at 60-80mph, I'd say at least half. If your riding a lot slower, could be it. I tend to seek roads with a high quanity of curves, and don't hesitate to hustle between them. - I'm a big guy, 280lbs, 6'4". By the time I have a heated liner, jacket liner, and then my Darien Jacket I present a fair amount of both gravitational pull, as well as wind resistance. - Finally, most of my rides involve some amount of vertical, often times up and down and up and down... I'm using Chevron / Shell premium. I compute the mileage based on pump reading not consumption, but so far they have been within 1 mpg.
I ride much the same stuff. Nestucca river road over the top to Beaver and back through tillamook should be very similar. I weight 190 right now. My bike will do the stall thing maybe 1-2 times a ride after a hard charge and then chop the throttle and then back on then the flat spot. Not an issue but there once in a while. 700 miles on the bike. 60-90 mph and pretty ham fisted and lots of twistys and passing cars... 55-58 mpg ez. Odd.
One thing for sure is the bikes are set up to meet emissions and are definitely on the lean side of mapping. I went through this with my Super T. Did virtually the exact same thing. Would cough and stall on occasion after taking off from a stop. As soon as Toytech gets there machine in, will get with them to see what we can do to richen up the mapping. As I been hoping, someone comes out with a remap, a good K&N filter and an exhaust and this thing will really come alive.
Attached is a spreadsheet with the fill ups I recorded. They are in chronological order, but not all fill ups were recorded. I typically fill up, grab a picture of the gauge trip and consumption, and a shot of the pump reading. Sometimes I don't get the ODO or the gauge consumption. Anyway, those show 48.7 average, with a low of 45.7 and a high of 51.5. Ironically, my 800 lb, 6cyl, 160hp K1600 get's about 48 average too. One other thing I thought of was tire differences between the Terra and Strada. I have not checked my speedo against a GPS yet. I did do a freeway check next to a Prius (big digital dash) and we both were indicating 67mph. If it's dead on, it will be the first bike I've ever owned that was. So perhaps a bit of tire difference is contributing.
I hope they get it fixed and I am very curious to what they do to fix it. Have you brought it back to the dealer for them to check it out, or was it all done over the phone so far? Curious, have you had to adjust the clutch cable/lever play yet?
They looked at it during the 600mi service, nothing obvious. They don't have computer or service manual yet, coming soon. They reported the issue to Husky. Nope, it's been fine.
My speedo is very close to right on with my GPS. What is really odd is the Tr650 uses the rear wheel for info which must be misleading in gravel etc. while it is spinning.
Chances are there is a setting for the different wheel sizes. I recall the X series bikes had 3. My X-Challenge also had the same speedo/OD pick up on the rear wheel. Try riding a lot in the sand and see how far off it gets. Mine was at least 10% optimistic on the OD most of the time I checked it against a GPS.
The hesitation or stumble sounds like "fuel cut". On the FZ1 forums that I read, fuel cut is typical fuel injected bikes. Some bikes are more noticeable than others. For the FZ1, many folks installed a "FCE" (fuel cut eliminator) that a guy named Ivan created. Anyways, I thought that I would mention it because the characteristic is like you described.
I doubt it's fuel cut, as the FZ6's do this as well, and it's at any RPM. Also, no way would the TR be so smooth if it did have this annoying "feature". It could just be due to the TR's running a bit on the lean side. Also, seems like not everybody has this issue. Just my best guess anyways! Wow, a motorcycle with and actual, accurate fuel gauge? Never thought I'd see it.
I captured a video of the stalling issue. I'm just sitting in the drive way after a fifteen minute ride, gently rolling on the throttle, back to idle, rolling on a bit. It stalls twice, one at 0:10, once at 1:23.
Wow, that's weird, especially given how high it's idling, and smoothly at that. The second time it stalled, did you try to give it gas and then it stalled, or was it just idling and stalled? It seems like the electrical gets cut to the ignition, the way it just dies so suddenly.
