Am I becoming feeble minded or am I under the influance of some strange and incidious notion that when buying a new motorcycle at least the sales people should maybe speak to me or something.
I am greeted by a most helpful and friendly man that says he will try to fit me to a bike. About 30mins later I am cruising down the local highway on a 2006 CB1300 naked muscle bike that I have to say I have fallen in love with. No it is not a Bandit and in some ways it is very similar and it is also very different. This thing can really boogy. It has a very usable mid range and is smooth as in all situations. It holds the line well despite being on twin rear shocks (showa). To cut a long story much shorter 1 1/2 hours later I take this thing back and hash out a deal that is very hard to refuse. To date I have resisted the urge and want to give the Bandit another try but I am being pulled very strongly to the way of the Honda.
Help Help Help 
You're not being feeble minded. I have a rule. I don't chase people to give them money. It really bothers me when a salesman makes an "assessment" that I'm not worth his time before he even talks to me. (And it happens a lot, as a female in the computer industry, who rides and works on both of her own bikes, in a town not exactly known for its multitudes of motorcyclists, I run into a lot of salespersons who seem to know what I can and can't do before they talk to me.)
As for going to Honda, here are some other things to help turn you to the darkside
Parts availability. Maintenance Schedules. Build quality.
If it's anything like here, I can walk into a Honda dealer and buy a Regulator Rectifier for a CB400. I'm not referring to the "new" CB400 either (we didn't get those here either
) I'm talking an RR for a bike that's built as early as 1972.
No part I've ever needed from the honda dealer has ever taken more than a couple days to come in, and that was for an obscure part, that most people would be hardpressed to lose. What can I say, I'm talented.
I can call my suzuki dealer ( or every one of the suz. dealers in town) for parts on a current model, and they will tell me "backordered, in Japan". Throttle cables for a 2003 GSF600, Regulator rectifiers for a late model gs500, or a Gear Shift Link Rod for a 2001 Gixxer 600. ALL backordered.
Now, I can and have order parts from Bike Bandit and others, for those and older bikes, but shouldn't my dealer support me better than a 4 - 6 week turn around time for every part I've had to order??
Check out the maintenance schedule on that CB1300. It looks a little different than that B12 I'm guessing. I just about fell over when I saw the schedule for the cb900 ( 919) that I bought. First valve check at 25600 kms! (That's 16K miles for the metrically challenged.
) At 1k kms, it goes in for an oil change and very basic check. (Idle speed, brake system, clutch system, and nut and bolts tightness check.)
Honda tends to have a select number of engines that they use, and they reuse them from bike to bike. This means that in all likelihood, your bike, though it's new to the market, will have tried and true parts under the er,.. tank. Many many people will tell you you can't beat the reliability of a Honda. It also means that should you decide to service the machine yourself, there are tons of forums that will have others doing the same to help out. Check out the net for forums that include this bike. (fireblades.org, and cb1300.com (redirects to another site) for instance. )
When I bought my B4, I thought I would be a Suzuki girl for life. I tend to be very product loyal. But Suzukli pushed me away from them with their lack of support of their own bikes. Our riding season is way to short here to be waiting 4 - 6 weeks for a part.
Topic: The dark side (Read 8067 times)