I owned my 05 B1200 for 18 months before I sold it and made a few 600 mile trips which included interstate highway speeds and cutting tight slow city traffic. The continuous good reviews of the B1250 finally won me over, but I still found it hard to believe that aside from the power plant improvements that the B1250 could have a ride noticeably better then then my B1200. You wont be able to tell by sitting on one as the look and feel are the same, it is the ride that makes a believer out of you. Compared to my B1200 which was a very capable, adequate and powerful motorcycle, the B1250 is beyond that in a very real and much more orchestrated way. You can read about all the changes but its how they have made such a real felt improvement over the entire bikes performance compared to my B1200 what blows me away. Its like the difference between a good cup of creamed coffee at a diner and a Starbucks coffee latte. I realize this is not vary objective to here is a review I wrote up at another site:
"I also had the 05 blue and white I sold last spring and while I agree I didn't like the racket my 05 fairing made, always promising myself I was going to pad it with old inner tube, I was able to live the noise but never felt any arm buzz or vibration in my arms, feet or hands.
The head shake or wag that was noticeable on power take off's with my 05 (corrected with super brace) is not present on my red 07.
The 05 engine case had a much more refined or crafted look especially with the hex bolts which allowed for work without worry of stripping. I was disappointed that Suzuki went back to the cheaper bolt heads which have a tendency to deform the first time they are torqued on. Also I was disappointed that the lower engine has a more cast then machined appearance although I know it is just as good, I like the 05 lower engine cases better.The 07 seat is defiantly firmer and although not as soft for the long haul defiantly more supportive for input steering when shifting your wight. Also because higher density (better) foam was used in the 07 it will be easy to modify the foam by removing the cover and reducing the foam density (drill holes) for custom feel and support 3/4 inch gel at very little cost ($50). The old 05 foam seat was made of cheap soft foam and couldn't be improved without replacing it. The 07 seems lower to me at the moment, probubly because I don't have the bar risers that I had on my 05, and while I will probubly install bar risers on my 07 I defiantly noticed much less need for them then I did on my 05.
My first mod on the 07 will be the lack of engine noise compared to the 05 Although a great thing in a world filled with just motorcycles, is actually a dangerous thing in cage traffic where you have no presents on this bike and can get run over, rear ended, or turned into because no one knows your there. This is especially a problem worth the OEM side cases which interfere with off the shelf performance mufflers which sit too high. This will require custom fitting by a bike shop. Other then those things mentioned the 07 bone stock is surprisingly much better handling and with much better engine performing over my 05 even with all its handling and engine mods. Also the 07 rides and feels so much more completely improved oner my 05 that there is barely a hit of similarity between them, but not in terms of being so different so much as being so improved like the difference between drinking a flat day old coke compared to a fresh one they are both sweet but the 07 so much more enjoyable.
In the end it really doesn't matter what the two of us think where the market going, Suzuki itself probubly isn't sure where the B1250 will eventually take them. But one thing I do know is Suzuki put in an extraordinary amount of effort, time and upgrades for a motorcycle that only needed to meet a global emission standard. If that wasn't enough Suzuki managed to keep prices to the customer effectively the same, at least in my case. However even that isn't what I find remarkable about this bike, its the fact that Suzuki got it right "the right stuff". Having said that if I had taken the time early in its release to set aside my predilection and test drive the bike I would have sold my 05 B1200 much earlier."
Topic: Ergonomics compared to older 1200 Model (Read 5386 times)