Quote:
Originally Posted by JamminJere
The original Concours weighed in at 595 lbs.
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I'm sorry I'm just a little torqued on this but I just dont see the big deal between 10 or 20 pounds difference in weight on any bike from any manufacturer in the same class.
Jerry
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The question of whether the C-14 is too heavy, is entirely subjective. As such, all opinions are valid and appropriate, as long as the opinions are directed at the bike itself, and are stated with appropriate tone.
Personally, I don't think it is especially useful or relevant to compare the C-14's weight with the weight of the original Concours. If that is relevant, then it should also be relevant to compare it with bikes made twenty years before that, during the middle of the Vietnam era, and twenty years earlier still, during the WWII era, and so on and so forth.
For that matter, it isn't particularly relevant that it weighs 140 lbs more than the ZX-14.
What is relevant, is how much is weighs in comparison to other similar modern bikes, which will not include either the original Concours or the ZX-14.
Assuming that Kawasaki UK is not telling a lie, the C-14 weighs 141 lbs more than the ZX-14. Please do not misunderstand that I am suggesting that the C-14 should be compared to the ZX-14. The difference in weight between the two can be applied to the wet weight of the ZX-14, as measured independently by Motorcycle Consumer News, to deduce a number that can be used to compare the weight of the C-14 with the FJR1300 and the ST1300. That is a useful comparison, and that comparison reveals that the C-14 will be about 25 lbs lighter than the ST1300, with about 5 lbs of that difference being accounted for by the difference in fuel capacity. Going the other direction, the C-14 will be about 20 lbs heavier than the present FJR1300A with ABS, and nearly 65 lbs heavier than the original FJR that was sold in the USA, without ABS. These comparisons are valid, but the interpretation as to how meaningful they are, is entirely subject to individual opinion. Some people don't care that much about the weight. Others do. Some people like to have their cake with their coffee, while others don't like coffee, and some don't even like cake. Sometimes the baker will put a little coffee into the icing on the cake, in which case the people who don't like coffee will often say, hopefully in a matter-of-fact tone, that they would have preferred that the baker had not put so much coffee in the cake icing. As long as the people who express that opinion do so in a reasonably civilized tone, I have no quarrel with that. But when someone then comes along and makes a big fuss over it, confronting those people for having expressed their displeasure with the amount of coffee in the cake icing, and calling them all a bunch of fat, whining obese slobs, that just seems unnecessary, and, dare I say, rude.
I just don't like motorcycles that weigh that much. In the past, I've owned bikes that weigh that much, and I've never liked them or kept them for long. I've had the FJR1300 for five years now (minus one month), and this is the longest that I've kept any bike that weighs as much as it weighs. Even though the ergos on my '97 CBR1100XX are inferior to the FJR, I've gone back to riding it mostly, with the main reason being that it weighs 80 lbs or so less than my FJR (although after accounting for the mounting hardware for the Givi luggage, the difference is probably more like 60 lbs, and the Heli bars don't contribute significant additional weight). My analysis of the C-14's wet weight will likely miss the mark by a few pounds plus or minus, but it is close enough for me to be confident that the C-14 will outweigh my '03 FJR by at least 50 lbs. To my way of thinking, that is significant.
