Alternative to Wee

[Stuart]

Had my 10 plate x for a year now (still don't miss the Pan!!), & just can't fault it!  For the price, I can't think of an alternative that's so all round good (or with so many excellent reviews).  And I guess it's the price that matters a whole lot to many of us!  A couple of mates have GS's... pay polite compliments towards the Wee... & I always get the impression they're just a wee (sic) bit jealous of the reliability.  Anyway, can anyone think of a similarly priced alternative?  

[putbinoot]

Yes, another wee.

[gadgetmandb]

Tiger 1050SE

[firestrom]

I had a go on my mates xt660z tenere the other week and that's a cracking bike, the seats a bit hard and the wind protection is poor but it was a sweet handling and fairly quick bike, and the off road capability is superior to the wee.

[Countrysailor]

I too traded a Pan for my wee, don't miss it at all, Wee 4 me, well happy .  

[V-Strom-Mark]

There really wasn't anything to tempt me away from the Wee at the Toronto motorcycle show earlier this year.  The 1050 Tiger is a great looking bike but they are pretty expensive here and there don't seem to be any on the used market at the moment.  The salesman I dealt with before at the Suzuki dealer told me the 2011's should be in this week or next, so I'm sure it will be another Wee!!

[minkyhead]

I had a go on my mates xt660z tenere the other week and that's a cracking bike, the seats a bit hard and the wind protection is poor but it was a sweet handling and fairly quick bike, and the off road capability is superior to the wee.

I've still got me wee strom    and its been worked real hard    
I really think its  a cracking  bike  

I've test ridden   dozens of the latest whizz bang    bikes   and  most people  know I don't   hand out  praise easy
 I even branded the multistrada  as a one trick pony    ..not impressed at  all      ..take away the stonking  engine  
 its  not that good at all    unless your a track day  person    ..  

    me  problem is   I  sold me  drz   and  missed  me trails     so  I decided to get the 660z  
its  taken me a while to  set it  up properly    ..altering the  gearing  height   screen and   seat  and tyres of course   ..its  taken a while  and  maby  400 quid to get it   how I like it    
it  very capable on the road     ..and  so much  fun      
    best  bike I've ridden in years    
     
..but if you have any desire to go off tarmack  ..   its the best dual purpose  bike  out there  out of the box  
[not  counting  690 ktms  ]  radical and expensive   highly strung  ..but  real nice  
 
by a country  mile      ..I  can't stop riding it  .. its  brilliant  
    and  cheap to  run and service too    
   pleanty good enough on the back roads   ..strange old game I've run bikes  with three times the power  
gses   included    ..this thing is way more  fun  

I've ridden off road quite a bit abroad    ..but I  love the ability to ride there  and   do it  
     

  ..I'm off to dakar    next  month    its  given me the  bug    big  time      forget  the   new tiger..[poor delivery in tricky terrain   and then spinning up like  feck  ]  
 and   gses    ..heavy   powerful expensive and vunerable  

..this thing is the real deal  
 soft  power in the mud   brilliant balence ..and thumping touque just in the right place  

    and  the standard suspension is  more than up to the job of making trail riding   feel how it  should    
  it  just feels managable  as soon as you leave the black stuff
 no other  pracical road bike I've  tried   has felt anywhere near as good as this     on the trail  


By minkyhead at 2009-01-23

By minkyhead at 2011-03-14


By minkyhead at 2011-02-20

By minkyhead at 2011-02-20


By minkyhead at 2011-02-12


By minkyhead at 2011-01-13

[2112]

Looks a beast Minky, like it  

P.S. I've fitted a tool tube to my Guzzi too, they're dead handy.

[Gassoon]

Hell, you 'd make a good salesman minkyhead! The xt looks the business but prob too tall for me, and expensive for foreseeable! How does it work out for you having the wee still? Under what circumstances do you ride it, still? I mean, if you're so smitten by the 660?

[beep]

Plenty of alternatives out there. I tried the Transalp 700, F650GS (twin), Tenere 660 and Versys, most of them twice, before choosing the Wee. For me the Wee is better but would be happy with any of the others - the TA and Versys don't have enough legroom for me, was concerned by reported poor reliability on the BMW and the Tenere isn't so good on faster roads. The clincher was the Wee engine, the best of the bunch (punchy, reliable, frugal and fun!), with only the BMW coming close.

[Fat Rat]

[mr_diver]

think if given the choice again, I would have gone for the wee, but looked very hard at a tiger!

[minkyhead]

Hell, you 'd make a good salesman minkyhead! The xt looks the business but prob too tall for me, and expensive for foreseeable! How does it work out for you having the wee still? Under what circumstances do you ride it, still? I mean, if you're so smitten by the 660?

    I've had it three years  now  and I use it  mostly for work   ..I work as  a bike instructer     ..it  comutes    works  in all weathers    gives  280 to the tank and is  100 percent reliable ...  ..and still in very good nick 44000  up  
        if  you have no  ff road pretentions    its a more practical  bike     ..  
I can forgive  the xts   shortcomings   .. no good for pillions   limited to a practical 80mph  cruising speed  
because its   brilliant  fun     ..I used to trailer me off roaders  everywhere  now I don't need to  
 I have no problem with being underbiked    its  as quick as anything on the back road bumpy  hillbilly  gp  
  and just   potter along at 75mph  on the odd occasion I use  trunk roads     ..
..in all honesty the wee isn't  much quicker    if that's your bag   ... get one of these  and you'll soon relise how
one dimensional  the road biased  bikes  are    
   horses for courses

[Firestorm]

Wonder what it is with Pans? I'm another who traded a Pan for a Vee - and no regrets at all!

[blackops]

Would have really liked a Tiger I think its a far superior bike in every way when compared to a wee having said that I bought my 08 wee for half the price of a Tiger so can't complain and like the way it rides and handles its a shame the build quality of the wee is very poor.

[chrisreid]

loving the Tenere Minky, think its going to be the bike of choice for my next trip. Do like the look of the tiger 800 too though

[jonH]

to be fair blackops it's not the build quality, just the finish quality and there are plenty on here that will testify that it's no worse than many other similarly-aged bikes that have also been out in similar weather

the fixings are made of cheese but really, what can you expect for the money you pay for one - that saving has to come from somewhere  :-)

[cearnshaw]

well I've ridden mine almost daily through the last 2 winters except when the snow was on the ground. It has been filthy and salty for  alot of that time. I'm not really one for cleaning it. It gets a wash about once a fortnight, not a scrub with a toothbrush but a spray with bike cleaner, a quick rub with a sponge and a blast with the hose then a spray of GT85/Wd40. I have a couple (no more) of furry bolts but other than that it's fine, no peeling paint (like the bandit had) and water pump is fine (I do have a mudguard extenda). I'm pretty happy with the finish

[minkyhead]

loving the Tenere Minky, think its going to be the bike of choice for my next trip. Do like the look of the tiger 800 too though

mm    no stone unturned    ...I gave the tiger a good going over      

its a real  smooth  motor  light clutch  and great gearbox  its  pretty quick and  takes off pretty well with a   rush  from 6 to ten         but      ...it  doesn't handle the 21 in  90/90 front wheel that well over  75 mph  not as well as  a 800gs  which has  shitty slow speed fualling      grrr

    ...I think  with  tks  or  k60s  on it  would be   no faster  by nessesaty  than  ..   anytthing  else    ..so  off road biased tyres  would cut the balls off   a bike already reluctant to steer ..and trust me the wear rate would be eye watering    if you ride the engine  a tkc  would be toast in  2k  miles    but  like most trumpets I've ridden the engine is  a peach   and this one has  perfect fualling   ..
    but I've done that before   ..  the engine and speed  are not  the be all    I've owned  loads   of  bikes  rippingly qicker than this..  so  its not so thrilling    /....brrrrrrr      brrrrrrr  brrrrrrrrrrrrr     brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
brake brake brake       blip three gears  repeat     ...same old  same old    

   
      its  fast  linier   and comfy      ..the handlebar  to peg  position  standing is poor for taller riders    ...I don't think it could be cured by raisers  for me   as tyhe throttle cables  wouldn't allow it   ..I reacon 3 or 4inches is requred    to make it  somthing  like  
     the  side exhaust is far to big and exposed  and the crash   protection  of  vital parts     is  pretty poor as standard    
the  price  ...  7840   ..I  figure  somwhere near to a grand  on top  to armadillo it  

the suspension is pretty dam good on road    ..but  show it some  cart track the front is too hard      ...major crime  here   ..no preload adjustment    so it  got pretty skittish  pretty quick      

    I set the clock thingys     and at the endof  a mixed  test  ride  it  came up with  41.6  mpg  average
its important   now  the  ten and the wee would be in the 60s     here  mmmmm
in fairness I think it  could be made to do  some reasonably  off roading    ..but its  not  made for it  tickover too quick    ..and down hill rocky decents  could get interesting   with a relative lack of engine braking       ....

   the overall  appeal and look of the thing     is very  nice     ..nice touches  like a power outlet     ..
all in all its  not  a great leap forward from the  1050     in the off road department  although  they market it  hard that way  ..    

without  switchable abs  id be looking at      8500 to  get it  off road ready and it would  not   do the job of the tenere   9100  with switchable abs     ..ffs  don't forget to switch it    or it will hurt    ...  
the ten came in 4300    1200 miles old     mmmmm  

    all in all    good but no cigar     but as a road  bike I recon the  800 19inch  wheel model  at 7200  is a very  tasty deal    and a decent   bike toboot ..if  you ain't  going off tarmack  the 21inc front is a  poor choice on a bike of this speed            ...that's how I see it        

I'm  sorry but its in the nice try bin with a lot of other    expensive   options     ....  
the bottom line  is  a soon as I test rode the 660    ..I knew thre and then it was  going in the garage   ...and it hasn't dissapinted    


the test ride tarts  line up  please    ,,,,
     

By minkyhead at 2011-03-17


By minkyhead at 2011-03-17

I liked the gs   but  it was  the most unreliable bag of shite I ve ever owned     shame    


By minkyhead at 2010-04-04
I don't know what this  was supposed to be     not a sports bike    not a tourer

By minkyhead at 2010-07-30
  hard chargers  look no further       fast as   ferk    

By minkyhead at 2010-07-09
  quirky  pleasent    ..upside down engine  ..gutless to 4500  and then takes off like a scalded cat    
shame  I liked it    

By minkyhead at 2009-01-27
   real  brow furrowing  here     ..  I'm not good enough to boss this off road   ..and  would you want to drop it  at 13500    but  a real  nice  bike  ..   better than my gses   ..near miss this      ..  

By minkyhead at 2010-09-06

and the winner  was    based on the smile  factor     I knew a soon as I turned on to the first cart track  

      de  derrr    :hb:


By minkyhead at 2010-11-20

    this is why I love it so much    ...  it take me places  you can't otherwise go :limp:  

 
100hp  and related weight  here is  just  a  unwanted pain in the Donkey    unless your  simon pavey or dave thorpe  
25bhp delivered nice and sof  good engine braking  is  what most mere mortals  need      14/46 gearing is  a real good compramise   stock is far to tall    ..shaft drive    has  some  disatvantages    ....    


By minkyhead at 2011-01-07

By minkyhead at 2011-01-26

By minkyhead at 2009-04-17


By minkyhead at 2011-01-26

By minkyhead at 2011-01-13


By minkyhead at 2011-01-17


By minkyhead at 2011-02-12


By minkyhead at 2011-01-01


By minkyhead at 2011-01-26


By minkyhead at 2011-02-20

well most places       .....   peace  out  


By minkyhead at 2011-03-06

[Gassoon]

Class posting minky.