After several months scrutinizing every review, picture and comment on the CTX 1300 (hereafter called C13), yesterday I finally got a test ride. My review will hit on some things that the paid moto journalists seem to miss or deemed not so important. First, let me say that If you are seriously in the market for a new motorcycle, get yourself to a dealer that offers test rides. Plan it. Take your gear and have a routine in mind. You wouldn't buy a cage without a test ride, would you? Same deal here. The salesman started up the C13 , a blue standard, and basically told me it is one down, four up and then left me to my own devices. Cool. I had to paddle the bike backward a few feet than then backward again down a small incline into the parking lot. No issues here. I twisted the throttle a couple of times, shook the C13 back and forth to get a feel for balance and then launched. Not true. I eased away at the pace of a snail in winter. In my mind, low speed performance in first gear is critical to enjoying the experience. Although parking lots, stop lights and congested roads are not the glamorous parts of riding, they are perennial parts of riding; an on-off, poorly fueled, badly geared low speed ride is something I've dealt with in the past and will not tolerate in the future. (I know I'm being wordy here, but have patience. I'm getting to the good stuff.) The parking lot was large and so I went through a series of eights, starts, stops, parks, turns, backups. Creep speed performance: 10 out of 10. It seemed almost impossible to stall the engine due to velvet clutch engagement and torque squared. The C13 is a long bike and the pulled-back bars make it feel even longer. However, what it lacks in turn radius is compensated by the torque of the engine at low rpm. Here is the humorous part. Every time I stopped and then started, my feet instinctively went searching for Bonneville SE pegs. Not there. Several times I even had to look down and find the places for my feet. This is a learning issue and once my feet got in the right place, all was well with the ergos. Leaving the parking lot I entered a smooth secondary road with little traffic and went through the gears up to about 55 mph. The C13 felt like no other bike in my experience (dirt bikes, BMW's, Triumphs). No vibration, clunking or throbbing. Smooth! Snick snick shifting. Ergos: a funky, unique sort of laid back, hot rod, one-with-the-machine position that took about 20 seconds to love. Seating position: 11 out of 10. (That's not a math error. That's my rating.) Most of this is the result of the seat (plush), peg position and the swept back bars. The bars give the impression you are pushing a magic wheel barrow but this is probably just because I'm used to bars that are much narrower. The road went through a series of turns that I took pretty slow but I did have the opportunity to test handling when I met a car slopping over the center line. (The driver was probably texting!) Even in the corner I was able to adjust position simply by shifting my weight to the right. The C13 felt really planted on this road at speeds less than 55 mph. Handling: 10 out of 10. (This review is starting to look like a figure skating competition) I don't care about lean angles and peg scraping because I just don't ride like that and I signed a piece of paper that said I would be on the hook for any mishaps. I left the good road and turned on a frontage road that would eventually put me on the interstate. This road had lots of craters and stress fractures due to the miserable winter weather. I was going about 35 mph and could really feel the bumps through the bars, but not so much through the rear shocks and seat. Middle speed ride on bumps: 7 out of 10. Now I'm wondering if the front shocks are adjustable and perhaps they weren't quite dialed in correctly. And while we are on a down note, I'll give the mirrors a big rotten tomato, mirrors: 6 out of 10. They are too small and don't adjust enough. There may be the possibility of mounting some mirrors on the bars, but the controls do not have the 10 mm holes so they would need to be clamp ons. (The Triumph Trophy SE I tested also had the same problem.) On to the crowded interstate, a kind of scary thing after logging only 4 miles on a foreign motorcycle. The C13 has oodles (that's a lot) of power and I was in the traffic flow almost instantly. Actually, I started overtaking cars and had to test the brakes a bit. They had a solid, confident feel. At speeds of 55-75 mph the suspension issue vanished. I sat back, relaxed and came to the conclusion that one could cruise along comfortably on the slab for quite some time. How long? It just depends on your body or age. I do know that with this C13 you won't be shifting gears or dealing with annoying vibration. It offers a comfortable, no-drama ride. Slab riding: 9 out of 10. (Dinged a point because of the next subject.) Now about that windscreen. Much has been said about this issue. Here is my opinion relative to three previous bikes where I never managed to smooth out the flow. The air flow on the C13 was laminar not turbulent. It was present but not overbearing, even on the interstate at 75 mph. The strange thing was that the wind pressure didn't seem to vary that much with speed. I usually wear earplugs to kill the pounding of turbulent flow. I didn't have on earplugs for this test and the sound was, as mentioned before, that of clear air, not turbulent air. There will be aftermarket windscreens that I assume will give better protection but right now I'm not so sure I would buy one. Perhaps if I was taking a really long trip I would get a bigger screen, but then I live in South Carolina where cooling wind flow is also often a necessity. A final wind note: the fairing gives excellent protection from mid-chest down and I'm 6 feet tall. Wind management: 8 out of 10. I exited the interstate and completed the test by weaving through some urban traffic. No problems whatsoever. Back at the dealer, I spent some time inspecting bits and pieces. I originally deemed the saddlebags as kind of cheap, but on closer inspection I've reconsidered. They are made of that ultra hard plastic that can be thin but still durable and the latching mechanism has a really satisfying, secure sound. There are two options for more storage. One can hook a dry bag to the saddlebag supports via two holes. There is also a place for mounting a rack that I assume can be paired with a top case. There are some things that should be there but aren't: 12 volt power outlet, heated grips, maybe even some cool floorboards. Conclusions. This would be an easy decision if the price point was a bit lower. The same dealer had some new 2013 F6B's that were selling for less than the 2014 C13 deluxe and the F6B is a huge piece of machinery with lots of creature comforts. I think the next step will be some haggling. Enjoy.
