Howdy,
I was on a short work+vacation trip this last week to Amsterdam, The Netherlands and I of course tried to find a CTX1300 I could see in person there. I got lucky on my second attempt, when I decided to make a 1h train journey and visit Goedhart Motoren in Bodegraven. They say they're "the largest motorcycle dealer in the whole Benelux area" and, judging by what I've seen at ground zero, they do not appear to be telling lies -- but I digress.
They did have a red CTX1300 on the floor and I could spend all the time I wanted looking at it and trying it for size. I was there on Saturday and it appears Saturday is some sort of gathering day there as there were bikers of all colours and sizes constantly coming and and going out
This probably kept the regular sales stuff busy with showing off jackets and helmets so that I could explore the bike at my own pace -- nobody seemed to mind when I just laid myself on the floor to better see the oil sump and the inner front cowl area from beneath.
On to practical stuff:
I was on a short work+vacation trip this last week to Amsterdam, The Netherlands and I of course tried to find a CTX1300 I could see in person there. I got lucky on my second attempt, when I decided to make a 1h train journey and visit Goedhart Motoren in Bodegraven. They say they're "the largest motorcycle dealer in the whole Benelux area" and, judging by what I've seen at ground zero, they do not appear to be telling lies -- but I digress.
They did have a red CTX1300 on the floor and I could spend all the time I wanted looking at it and trying it for size. I was there on Saturday and it appears Saturday is some sort of gathering day there as there were bikers of all colours and sizes constantly coming and and going out
This probably kept the regular sales stuff busy with showing off jackets and helmets so that I could explore the bike at my own pace -- nobody seemed to mind when I just laid myself on the floor to better see the oil sump and the inner front cowl area from beneath.On to practical stuff:
- I've read many reviews saying the CTX1300 is hard to get off the side stand. FALSE. I come from a Yamaha Royal Star Venture and I was prepared to lift the CTX off the floor with both hands, torso and left inner thigh all in -- much to my surprise, I almost dropped the bike on the right side. Put it back on the sidestand, took a deep breath and allowed my heartbeat to return to idle and then tried again. Much to my surprise, it came right off using just my left hand and very little of the left thigh. It's also much easier to lay on the side stand as the amount of weight increases very gradually (compared to the RSV where, if the stand were to break/come loose at the last moment, that would be a certain drop).
- the position of your left foot on the footpeg is somewhat delicate as both the sidestand and the center stand are very close. Not a problem for me but could be for people that like to "wander" a lot with their feet over the pegs.
- controls are placed in a very ergonomic location. Yes, the turn indicator and horn buttons are reversed but that's not a problem for me either because I tend to have a very flexible motor memory.
- I've seen a lot of bad reviews about the mirrors, FALSE again. The bars on this one bike appeared to be set to the Honda factory position (i.e. on the high side of things -- the cables were more than "just" clearing the pocket covers when open) and the view to the mirrors was top notch. When I sat on the bike, the mirrors were set *******-style (i.e. to show the colour of the vehicle ) -- I gently pushed to adjust them outwards and I could get a clear and unobstructed view of everything behind me with just a bit of saddlebag on the inside, just to keep tabs on proportions. They're also bigger and clearer (they appeared to have a very gentle sunglass-like tint) than the ones on the RSV.
