Author Topic: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT  (Read 20837 times)

Offline eng943

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Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« on: June 04, 2013, 06:53:09 AM »
Short but relatively decent article describing the pros and cons of these three bikes. Predictably, the FJR was a distant third due to it's inferior suspension, braking, handling and wind protection, but still got praise for being the low budget leader of the three.

Having owned the K16, and ridden both the 2013 FJR, and the Trophy, I tend to agree with the article in terms of the way these bikes rank in a comparison. The article proclaimed these are good days to be into the sport touring category, and I could not agree more. Lot's of choices, price ranges, options, and bikes of varying emphasis on comfort, sport, and touring. 
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Offline George R. Young

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2013, 07:28:21 AM »
It's a shame the C14 wasn't included.
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Offline ljcorby

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2013, 07:31:12 AM »
It's a shame the C14 wasn't included.

I agree.  I was quite surprised it wasn't. 
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Offline stevewfl

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2013, 07:44:42 AM »
Kawi didn't bribe as hard
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Offline BruceR

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2013, 07:49:26 AM »
I think the press is all gaga over the Trophy and K16000- they picked the FJR because they knew it would be a distant 3rd place- that way they can say how great these 2 machines are.  You couldn't have a budget bike (C14) giving them a hard run for the money and have the same outcome...

Offline stevewfl

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2013, 08:49:01 AM »
The Trophy is a steal for the price
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Offline BruceR

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2013, 09:08:39 AM »
I don't think any of the current ST bikes available are a bad choice.  I think that 1600cc is way overkill though.  i'm betting the trend will be smaller, lighter s/t bikes in a couple years.  I know that 1400cc is the biggest I want to go right now.  If I had enough legroom on the VFR800 I'd be on one of those instead of the C14.


Offline jayke

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2013, 10:15:30 AM »
Hey.........

I just bought a '13 FJR, great bike if bang for the buck is important.  Cash is tight, I couldn't afford either the Trophy or the K1600GT but wanted a new bike with factory cruise.  There was no other option. 

Offline eng943

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2013, 12:06:53 PM »
Kawi didn't bribe as hard

If you read the article, the criteria was to test the newest sport touring bikes against the benchmark K16GT. Hence the reason the C14 was not included.

Not everything is a vast conspiracy against C14 admirers.   
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Offline eng943

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #9 on: June 04, 2013, 12:07:49 PM »
I think the press is all gaga over the Trophy and K16000- they picked the FJR because they knew it would be a distant 3rd place- that way they can say how great these 2 machines are.  You couldn't have a budget bike (C14) giving them a hard run for the money and have the same outcome...

....And I think that's utter nonsense. There have been tests with the C14 in the past.

It's as simple as this. The Trophy is new, and the FJR received some noteworthy changes. Therefore, that was their criteria to test them against the benchmarked ST bike.
 
Of course the FJR is going to come up short in some areas, but that does not mean it's a bad bike, or is needed to justify praise for a Trophy or K16GT.

Where is all this conspiracy theory BS when the C14 has been chosen ahead of an FJR, ST1300, etc????


 
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Offline roger dodger

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #10 on: June 04, 2013, 02:04:25 PM »
The good news (for all frugal Japanese bikes) is the FJR was credited w/ ...  Lightest
                                                                                                                        Lowest
                                                                                                                        Torque-est
                                                                                                                        and Cheapest! ;D

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Offline BruceR

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #11 on: June 04, 2013, 02:22:21 PM »

Of course the FJR is going to come up short in some areas, but that does not mean it's a bad bike, or is needed to justify praise for a Trophy or K16GT.

Where is all this conspiracy theory BS when the C14 has been chosen ahead of an FJR, ST1300, etc????

 
No conspiracy theory at all.  The FJR is older technology than the other 2 bikes.  I expect it to come in third in the above comparison.  Same as when the C14 was compared to the FJR & St1300- I expected the newer C14 to do better.   You must have ignored the post where I said they were all good choices...
The press almost always gushes over the newer bikes.  That is not utter nonsense, that is fact. 

Offline eng943

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #12 on: June 04, 2013, 02:54:26 PM »
No conspiracy theory at all.  The FJR is older technology than the other 2 bikes.  I expect it to come in third in the above comparison.  Same as when the C14 was compared to the FJR & St1300- I expected the newer C14 to do better.   You must have ignored the post where I said they were all good choices...
The press almost always gushes over the newer bikes.  That is not utter nonsense, that is fact.

The nonsense is that they would add the FJR to justify heaping their praise onto the Trophy and K16.
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Offline BruceR

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2013, 03:09:45 PM »
The nonsense is that they would add the FJR to justify heaping their praise onto the Trophy and K16.
Yeah because a tweak in bodywork and cruise control make it so much better.  It still is down in power, handling, and almost every other category compared to the other bikes.  Having it along for the ride lets them point out how vastly improved the new models are.  Really, if you don't think bike mag comparos are biased....seriously?

Offline Pokey

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #14 on: June 04, 2013, 04:05:49 PM »
The BMW is the benchmark?  :o :rotflmao:
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Offline stevewfl

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #15 on: June 04, 2013, 05:08:05 PM »
If you read the article, the criteria was to test the newest sport touring bikes against the benchmark K16GT. Hence the reason the C14 was not included.

Not everything is a vast conspiracy against C14 admirers.   

I didn't read the article i read his post.  And asides I didn't mean ill will, don't take me too seriously on the Internetz =)
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Offline stevewfl

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #16 on: June 04, 2013, 05:11:16 PM »
The BMW is the benchmark?  :o :rotflmao:

It should be, its the top of the top for both performance and price.  Nothing else compares to it (other than maybe on a drag strip).  As a sport-tourer, nothing can touch it. I didn;t realize thats not a known fact. 

What bike you know of surpasses it as far as sport-touring type performance, and standard OEM sport-touring features?  The suspension alone is outrageous and trumps everything in the sport-touring class.
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Offline gPink

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #17 on: June 04, 2013, 05:22:10 PM »
Gadets are cool but there is a point of diminishing returns.

Offline stevewfl

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #18 on: June 04, 2013, 05:52:35 PM »
Gadets are cool but there is a point of diminishing returns.

Agreed, but some will pay 40% more to have a suspension that performs second to none (not including Zg'sbike, I mean off the show room floor :)  )

Well, some will pay 40% more for a 5-10% better bike, but on the flip side one would be dillusional to say a C14 or the Yamaha the better bike for anything other than a value budget play.

I agree with the article

1) BMW...the benchmark
2) trophy...2nd....
3) Jap bike....distance third on performance, features, but much better on price =)

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Offline Pokey

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Re: Cycle World - FJR vs. Trophy vs K1600GT
« Reply #19 on: June 05, 2013, 07:06:39 AM »
It should be, its the top of the top for both performance and price.  Nothing else compares to it (other than maybe on a drag strip).  As a sport-tourer, nothing can touch it. I didn;t realize thats not a known fact. 

What bike you know of surpasses it as far as sport-touring type performance, and standard OEM sport-touring features?  The suspension alone is outrageous and trumps everything in the sport-touring class.


It has the most crap on it for sure, and since it is a "BMW" that makes it the benchmark. Considering a friend of mine that owns a 2008 C14 rented  a K1600 for a few days out West, he said it was a pretty nice bike, but still liked his old C14 much better. He also said he would rather have a Goldwing over that bike anyday, and that tends to be where my head is at as well. Until BMW can compete with the Japanese offerings in terms of reliability and cost of ownership, folks can have their damn BMW's.  ::)
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