Comparing maxi scooters performance

I visited a friend some 200km north of Brisbane on the weekend and we had an opportunity to do a bit of a " shoot out" between our scooters. Myself on my trusty 2007 SW, and friends with an Aprilia SRV 850 ( previously known as Gilera GP800) and a BMW C600 Sport. After a joint tour on Saturday, during which as a group there did not appear to be too much difference in capability between our respective scoots, we went to my friends " hot stretch" . An 11km long, nearly straight country road where we tested for sheer performance. I am afraid, the Silverwing did end up last by a fair margin. The beemer beat me by a fair margin and the Aprilia simply rocketed away. I had a chance to ride her and this beast gets up to 200km/h, measured with a GPS!
A small dent in my admiration for the SW, but I can honestly say that I would not swap her for any of those two. No wonder the Aprilia ( with ABS and Traction Control) will leave it for dead with 75hp in a machine the same weight as mine. But it is too much like a motor bike, not as comfortable and the wind nearly sucked me off the seat at that speed. It hasn't go the storage and weather protection of the SW and both of my friends paid three times as much for their respective scooters and they are always at it fixing something.
And timed at 170km/h the SW is probably more than fast enough for an old guy like me, seeing that in real conditions we cannot legally do more than 110km/h on our best roads.
And before anyone asks, we did our test under conditions in which we only put ourselves at risk, by having a lookout sitting 12km up the road.

Horses for courses eh gremlin. You don't use a racehorse to plough a field.

In real riding terms comparing performance and top speed between maxi scooters isn't much use for anything, they all reach the legal speed limits with ease and it's the rest of the package that matters. For me riding comfort, weather protection, and storage capacity are much more important than all out top speed. I've found from long all day rides there's not a lot of difference between a 250cc maxi and a 650 maxi in terms of getting you there. It's only headwinds, steep uphill road sections, and carrying a passenger where the 250 is at a disadvantage. Of course overtaking cars or a line of slow moving trucks requires more thought and anticipation on a smaller capacity maxi scooter than it does on a larger one.

It's up to the rider whether they want to be a tortoise or a hare. It's pretty pointless clocking up miles at high speed then losing that impetus by stopping to spend ages mooching round a service area before resuming the ride. Looking back over the years I'd say I've had more enjoyment being a tortoise than a hare, and that's why I'm looking to go back to smaller and lighter.

Why is the scoot I want never has all the things I want?

I grew up dealing with idjuts on a 80cc that was in their way.

Many times I thought I would be ran off the road from drivers in a rage because I couldn't keep up with traffic. Lucky I haven't been shot by someone thinking I was a drunk.

Of course putting a 860cc motor in my swing would be almost perfect and the look of a T-max. would make it the top dog. I admit the comfort factor sold me on buying my swing over the horsies and exotic looks. The problem I have is not being able to pull away and leave all the idjuts in the dust who keep trying to cut my lane off in front of me.

Nothing is more frustrating than some idjut who pulls in front of you and hits the brakes.

Thanks for the comparison.

What did you think of the riding comfort of the beemer compared to the swing?

There have been cosmetic dash things I want out of my Swing, like ambient temp gauge, a better dash layout, etc, I like the looks of the new t-max, but every time I see the cockpit on one the higher more hp beasts, Im always ho hum.

ozzman wrote:

What did you think of the riding comfort of the beemer compared to the swing?

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to ride the BMW myself; my mate Steve is very possessive about it and will not let anyone else ride it.   But he topped out at 170 km/h too, or maybe he was too chicken to push it further.

I have to agree with Medrew; a faster ride will not get you to your destination any earlier, except on the race track. I am confident that I will be keeping my SW for many years yet. I wouldn't know what to choose as a replacement for it from what is available on the market.

I bought my Swing purely for commuting on in London, when I first rode it after a Velvet 125 many years before I thought it might be a bit on the large side for what I wanted but what a revelation, because the centre of gravity is so low it is effortless at cutting through traffic and I had a guy on a CBR900 catch me at some lights only to ask if I had a Turbo in it, “No it was standard”.

I’ve been hit by a car and a van, thought I was going down but no not at all.

Also the storage on board is amazing I could pull up at some offices, park for nothing and stow all my riding gear under the seat after removing my Laptop and tools, so no one would think I had turned up on a Bike. Ahhh the freedom and speed.

Then at weekends the coast was easy to get to even on bank holidays.

Why is she on Autotrader? Because I have a family to transport…….. but if the phone doesn’t ring who knows… ;-)

So in essence she’s plenty quick enough, has plenty of weather protection and the storage is phenomenal.
No looking like a t*** on a sports bike with a ruck sack on yer back just to carry your sandwiches!!

I found my SW(s) comfortable but my BMW GT more so. The GT has a bit more legroom and doesn't need added wind deflectors. Overall the GT gives more wind protection. Top speed on my GT is around
114mpg according to my GPS which is a bit more than the SW.
The GT has a lot more features than the SW but the most important one, reliability, is still to be known since it hasn't been around more than a bit more than 3 years. There's no way it could exceed the reliability of the SW and can only hope to approximate it. Those extra features could be a bit of an Achilles' heel.
If I had a little cash to spare there's a nice '04 SW for sale near here. I'm sure my GT would like a stablemate.

I know that a lot of riders like to keep several bikes or scooters at the same time and I have never quite understood that. Ok, I have a decent size dirt bike as well, but that is a different animal altogether and does not need to be registered or insured.
Maybe it is because in the past I have never had the sort of money to acquire and pay the upkeep for several of a kind at once ( It is expensive to bring up three girls and put them through Uni ); but now that I have the money I don't see the need or fun in it. My SW does everything I want and does it well. And for some reason they are by far the best secondhand buy in our market.
My friend Mick can brag that no motorbike has beaten his customized Aprilia SRV 850 from a standing start yet, but that is not what I am prepared to spend a bucket load of money for. I am happy for him to have his fun and the opportunity to ride it from time to time.

Since I don't buy bikes new and do most of my own maintenance it's not all that costly to have a couple at the same time. For instance my BMW GT and my '95 BMW K1100LT together cost less than a new GT. I sold the LT because of knee problems but may very well buy another scooter. For one thing I like having a spare, that way if one's down for maintenance there's a standby. Another thing is that they'd be different brands or models so there's a bit of variety. But mostly there's two main reasons. I can afford them and I like having a second.

exavid wrote:

Since I don't buy bikes new and do most of my own maintenance it's not all that costly to have a couple at the same time.................... But mostly there's two main reasons. I can afford them and I like having a second.

There's two convincing reasons that I could not argue with