6 months in....

Hi from Yorkshire.

I've been riding for 40 years now but this is my first maxi scooter. I'd been thinking of getting one for a couple of years, a T-Max really but it soon became clear that for what I wanted to spend (sub £3k) I could get a better/newer Silverwing, so I started to consider one. Last Nov on Ebay one night, beer in hand, I did what I always do, make an impulse purchase from many miles away.....I've been to every corner of the UK to pick up bikes I've not yet seen & then ride home.

I bought a 2011 blue Silverwing with 40k on the clock, for the money (£2k) I could have got one with half the miles, but it would have been much older and I prefer a regularly used bike. It's got a few scrapes on the fairing extremities and widest part of the rear flanks, but nothing significant or that stands out without inspection. I was happy enough, it was blue, with reasonable history, had a Honda colour coded top box, heated grips, Givi air flow screen & a good cover, I didn't need anything else for it.

Unfortunately I was 200 miles from home in a howling gale & torrentail rain, I didn't enjoy the ride home & don't think I looked at the bike for another month. By which time, nearly every day was cold & wet, I didn't enjoy riding the bike, the roads were always wet or icy, the weight was in the wrong place (for me) & it was cumbersome filtering through traffic. I made my mind up quick to move it on in the spring.

But I got used to it, the weather protection is great, the storage useful, slow speed manouvering, once I knew where the weight was, startlingly good. The roads are dry, summer is coming and my first leisure rides will happen soon, I am not there with it, we've not bonded.........yet, but I am no longer thinking of selling it.

Hello, Mark.

I don't think you're the first to have to work on bonding with a Silverwing.
I was fortunate in having had an X9500 for several years before buying my first Silverwing so was used to the feel of a big maxi.
However, the transition from X9250 (with a Honda engine, incidentally) to X9500 took ages (several months) before I felt completely comfortable with the bigger engine .... and the two bikes were identical in overall size, if not weight.

I genuinely think that, if you stick with it, you'll not regret buying it one little bit.

The Silver Wing was my first scooter purchase. Ridden a couple of small ones but never owned one. It was eye opening when I drove my Kawasaki KLR 650 60 miles in and traded it for the Wing. Scooters and motorcycles are similar but different animals. The handling is much different as is the weight distribution but OH the storage! Long story short I acclimated very quickly and have now had my SWing for 9 years and last summer bought a 2015 Forza to leave at my summer place! Long live Honda scooters. Have fun with yours.

Mark F wrote.

Unfortunately I was 200 miles from home in a howling gale & torrentail rain, I didn't enjoy the ride home & don't think I looked at the bike for another month. By which time, nearly every day was cold & wet, I didn't enjoy riding the bike, the roads were always wet or icy, the weight was in the wrong place (for me) & it was cumbersome filtering through traffic. I made my mind up quick to move it on in the spring.

I've been in that weather situation with G'Wings that I'd ridden for many miles and never thought gee I'm sure enjoying this glad to see you saw the light.

Welcome aboard the board Mark. Thanks for the detailed intro. Keep riding your new-to-you SWing and nobody will be able to smack that grin off of your face. Stay Safe!

Hi MarkF and welcome to the BEST SWing forum on the net.
I have an 08 SWing that I bought from my sister in Pensacola, FL in May of 2014. It hadn't run for two years. I paid off her loan and trailered it back to MN. I got it home and it needed quite a bit of TLC to get it running again. But I did get it running without any trouble. It needed a battery, drive belt, tires, oil and filter, etc.
In 2018 I had it converted over to a trike with a Motor Trike kit that cost about $8,000 total for the kit the shipping and for a dealer to install it. I have no regrets in converting it and after getting used to it I like it even more.
The top box has 4 speakers, a Bluetooth receiver and a 300 Watt Amp inside. I use a Ram mount on the handlebar for my MP3 player and it works really nice.
I'm sure you'll fall in love with your SWing as much as the rest of us have.
Again, Welcome!!

Hi Mark and welcome to the forum.
Maxi scooters are a bit different to other bikes, more akin to a cruiser than a street or sports bike, but once you get used to it they are inordinately good fun.
I'm just over Yorkshire's Northern border in Co Durham.
I do scooter ride outs now and again if you fancy coming along. There ain't a lot of us, usually 3 on a rotating basis, and the rides are neither far nor fast due to the coffee and cake stops.

Coffee and cake, I heartily recommend The Hide Café, Market Square, Pocklington, In Yorkshire's East Riding. I hade a ride to 'Pock' one afternoon last month just for the coffee and cake.

The tray bakes and cakes there are all delicious, in fact if the lady that does them ever went on The Great British Bake Off, she'd get a Hollywood handshake. They are that good I spent an extra £16 on portions of tray bakes to take home.

Thanks for the replies.

Never seen a Silverwing trike before. I've had this isssue before, taking time to settle with a new machine and it's a big change from bike to scooter, buying it going into winter didn't help either. Some days though I think I never want to change gear again!

I do actually have another scooter, a 1962 Vespa Gran Lusso 150cc.

Hi Mark!
Another fellow Yorkshireman here, tho I live in the West Midlands now... Good to have you with us!

I've had my Silverwing about a year and a half now and I just love it to bits. Always had big sports bikes, but my knee is pretty bad nowadays, so I'm enjoying the easy life of automatic gears, belt drive, comfy riding position and tons of storage.. Not my first big scoot, having briefly had a 2013 Burgman 650 in 2017, when my knackered old BMW K100LT gave up on me.
It was a bit of a learning curve, but I was sold on the whole maxi-scooter thing. I was without wheels for a year when I bought an MP3 500, but wasn't impressed. Then bizarrely went and part-exed it for a Honda VFR1200F! Sadly, it was just too uncomfortable for me, which is when I got my Swing!

I don't miss the speed of the bigger machines - the Swing has plenty of oomph for what I want, and though the luggage capacity isn't quite as good as the Burgervan, the overall build quality of the Honda is much better IMHO.

(@Meldrew - I grew up in Pocklington! Left there in 1988, so I don't recognise that particular café, but it is indeed a lovely town! Must take the Swing back up there sometime and see how much it's changed! Small world, eh?)

Anyhoo... welcome again Mark... I doubt you'll find a better site if you have any questions regarding your fine purchase!

Cheers!