I'm a cruiser owner. I've got to admit that image has something to do with my pride of ownership. I like how my bike looks, and I like what it says about me.
I recently parked my cruiser in Brea, California at
The Burgman is a mega-scooter. A casual observer might not immediately recognize the difference between a scooter and a motorcycle, but to riders it's self-evident. A motorcycle is built around its engine, which occupies the central position in the bike. The rider straddles the engine, in essence, resting his or her feet on footpegs or floorboards outside of the bike. A scooter moves the engine further back, near or over the rear wheel, which frees up the space in the middle of the bike for a pass-through space and floorboards within the bike. In order to mount a motorcycle, the rider must swing a leg over the seat. To mount a scooter, the rider just steps through the frame and sits down. If a
The Burgman plays with scooter design, exploits its strengths and bolsters its weaknesses. First of all, with a 638 cc engine, Burgman is hardly the underpowered scooter of yore, delivering 54 hp and 45.7 lb-ft of torque. My very first ride took me on a 40-mile tour of the Los Angeles freeway system, and Burgman had no problem leaping ahead of traffic on the onramp, merging with ease, and maintaining freeway speeds without a hint of strain.
Burgman's continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) operates simply and seamlessly. There's no manual clutch to engage, just a throttle twist grip on the right side of the handlebars. With the CVT, the engine revs at its optimum rpm range while the transmission adjusts to deliver the right amount of power to the wheels. The resulting performance is smooth and predictable. Suzuki provides three transmission modes to allow you to fine tune your ride: Drive, Power and Manual. Drive is the everyday mode, tuned to give a smooth, efficient ride. Power packs more wallop, getting the most out of the engine. Manual allows you to emulate the performance of a stepped gear transmission -- kind of an unnecessary mode for the way I like to ride. I spent most of my time in Drive, finding the power delivery sufficient and the smoothness desirable.
Burgman's seating position is extremely comfortable for short rides, but I found it to be a little cramped for longer rides (over an hour). Riders under 6' might not have the same complaint. I appreciated the fact that there was enough room on the floorboards for me to ride with my feet flat and my knees bent, or to stretch out a little with my feet tilted up and my legs a little straighter. The electrically adjustable windshield made finding a clean pocket of air quite easy, and I was extremely comfortable during my rides.
Burgman's storage options are great. There's a big 50-liter locking storage compartment under the seat, big enough to hold my ginormous full face helmet and my wife's medium-sized helmet at the same time. A clever cable lock makes it possible to secure your helmet to the side of the body if the storage compartment is in use. There's additional clever storage in the fairing, and a 12V DC power outlet for charging cellphones, GPS units and other gadgets.
Riding the Burgman is surprisingly easy and fun. It has a 15" wheel up front and a 14" wheel in the rear, which is big for a scooter, small for a motorcycle. The wheels are big enough to lend a good sense of stability, especially at speed. Some scooters with small wheels feel very squirrelly at highway speeds -- not a problem for Burgman. Floating discs and ABS braking (operated by hand controls only) works great, too. The engine is so quiet and smooth that the speed and agility come as somewhat of a surprise. The riding position is so upright that it's not quite like riding a motorcycle -- but it is very close.
This is not a beginner bike, though. The Burgman 650 ABS weighs in at a hefty 613 lbs, which means that moving it around the garage is not a task to take lightly. And you should not neglect safety when riding the Burgman. The same safety gear you'd wear on
a regular motorcycle should be worn every time you ride a Burgman: Full face helmet, motorcycle jacket with armor, motorcycle gloves, pants with padding and abrasion resistance, and motorcycle boots. A fall from a scooter, even one as sophisticated and elegant as the Burgman, is every bit as likely and dangerous at speed as a wreck on a motorcycle, and you've got to plan for it.
My test bike was a Pearl Bracing White Suzuki Burgman 650 ABS with a suggested retail price of $10,999. That seems like a lot of money for a scooter, but it's hard to argue with the utility, efficiency and fun that the Burgman delivers. It would be a great commuter bike -- inoffensive in traffic, quick and maneuverable enough to take advantage of gaps in the flow, and very intelligently designed for maximum utility. The CVT's shift-free operation saves you from fatigue, and the bike feels solidly built and durable.
After two weeks of riding the Burgman, I rode back down to Brea to retrieve my motorcycle. The scooter experience was enlightening. I didn't connect as passionately with the Burgman as I do with my cruiser, but I was perfectly comfortable riding it everywhere I went. I noticed that other motorists were a little more polite to me on the road -- maybe because my white test bike looked a lot like a police motorcycle in their mirrors. Maybe it was because the Burgman was so quiet and looked so non-threatening, or because it forced me to sit in an upright "respectable" position.
I'll stick with the cruiser. But I won't reject the Burgman from consideration next time I'm ready to search for a new ride.
