Yeah, I like to refer to mine as not being baked fully yet. Its not a bad bike by any means, simply just not a great bike.....yet. I'm hopeful Berlin will increase the the specs a bit and smooth some edges out in the next few years before my easy ride is due. Otherwise I'm likely to jump ship for an Indian Pursuit
Indian is just ANOTHER vtwin. Ride an 1800 Valkyrie if you want flat torque,hp and ultra smooth performance!
No android Auto or Car Play, no fairing, no cruise control, and sadly, no longer made.... so, no warranty. I ride a few 10k miles a year and a warranty is a life saver or trip saver, whichever!
Oh I hear ya man...many short comings, but from a rideability perspective, nothing comes close. Plus bulletproof reliability with very low maintenance. But, and I mean this, there are things about the R18 I like WAY more. The R18 is very unique, with super cool character. Like my 1800 Valk...an original...No android Auto or Car Play, no fairing, no cruise control, and sadly, no longer made.... so, no warranty. I ride a few 10k miles a year and a warranty is a life saver or trip saver, whichever!
Its funny, when I was younger the character of a bike was sooooo much more important to me than now. When I was in my late teens/ early 20's I had a 84 V65 Sabre that I thought was just the cat's meow. Of course I also thought a long ride was down to the local bar. Now at 45 I don't even bother warming up a bike for less than a 200 mile ride. So, now I'm much more focused on "can I ride the thing for X miles without hating it?". I'm hyper focused on going places in reasonable comfort to the point that even though I never drank the Harley cool aide, I'd buy one if I could ride it just a half a mile further than the R18
Then what you need is a true Goldwing...period. For touring it's the top of the food chain ..if that's your thing. That flat 6 boxer is unsurpassed in many catagories...
No,Indian is not just another V-Twin and the Goldwing isn't just a Subaru.
came to fruition.I like my 116 and get better gas mileage.
Wow, Honda must have greatly improved the Wing engine over the years. My Valk gets close to 50mpg with ethanol free gas and conservative throttle positions! With it's 6.4 gallon tank I go nearly 280mi before I begin thinking of getting gas
Since I don't drink,I get my alcohol in my gasoline,
I can do 50+ at 50
Use this!!! Neutralize the *ucking poison!
Kinda like a mixed drink
Your experience with windows 11 was similar to mine. Also, it wasn't just me that noticed the bike when at idle doesn't vibrate as much as it used to.
I have had more people stop and ask me about this bike than any other bike I have ever owned. Occasionally asked if it was a Harley. Not insulted in any way. Enjoyed my Harley but not as much as this.
I was on a major charity ride in the Milwaukee area about the time the X Wedge debuted. I guy had one in elongated retro track racer frame. That bike ripped and it sounded incredible.No,Indian is not just another V-Twin and the Goldwing isn't just a Subaru.
Since we are off topic anyway,here is some expierence for me to share.
The R1800 is more like the Indian Thunderstroke than it is like the Honda.TQ not HP with low end grunt and pretty much done at 5500 rpms.
Both the 111(116) and R18 are air/oil cooled engines.That which means the heads actually carry oil pressure from a pump to the heads.The Indian carries 50/60 pounds at idle.Not sure what the R18 carries but probably around 50.
The Harley Davidson Vtwin is a splash system.Not bad but just what it is and been that way for manny moons.Btw,a oil cooler on a HD does not make the HD a oil cooled engine.A oil cooler cools the oil not the engine.Having a oil cooled engine is just that.The oil is pressurized to advance cooling kinda.
Here is a little history on the S&S designed Wedge and the Thunderstroke.Where it is believed the Thunderstroke grew from.
History:
I remember seeing the Wedge engine at the Laughlin River Run.If my mind serves me correctly it was 2002 or 03.The engine was a 56 degree Vtwin with 3 belt driven cams.The Thunderstroke uses oiled chains instead.The 3 cam design used the center cam for intake and the 2 end cams for exhaust.This allows the engine to keep a long stroke but keep engine height down.Back at the time I was interested in buying a X Wedge engine.Sadly,the folks at S&S said "The X Wedge won't fit in your Roadking Frame."WTF?
Crazy huh?Why would S&S build a engine that would not fit in a HD frame???Anyway,as the story goes, the idea was to build the engine 1st.Then build frame around the engine which came later.Funny,the engine was kept a secret under the code name "FRED"and of course the frame was to be called "WILMA".LOL,which S&S did build a couple frames, but did not to sell them.
I won't bore you with how BIG DOG ended up building a frame around this beautiful engine as you can do all the research you care to.Just thought I would share my personal expierence with any Bro that might be interested or that may have heard some rumors about how the 111
https://www.sscycle.com/docs/defaul...7-x-wedge-owners-manual-20160524.pdf?sfvrsn=4
My 116 only makes about 98hp at the rear wheel because of the the heads are designed to make TQ(125 tq @3000 and over 70hp at the rear wheel)
The engine is designed to have tq where a person rides yes, where it is ridden.
For comparison a good running twin cam makes around 50-60 hp @3000rpms.Funny folks get caught up around numbers,peak numbers.The real question is:How much throttle is needed to get the bike to excellerate or how many gears are needed to down shift to pass.The R18 was not made for Hp but for Tq.Hence a smaller boxer that makes more hp and less tq.
R Nine T:Engine: 1,170 cc air/oil-cooled 4-stroke flat twin ...
Max Torque: 86 lb-ft (116 Nm) at 6,000 rpm
Engine Power: 110 Hp
Yeah,Great and thx MD for reminding me as I did not mention the sound.
At WOT, you can actually see the fuel gauge slowly lower.
But I knew mileage would decrease in advance of getting the tune.