YEEEEHAAAA!!!!! Venture and Goldwing in the same day!

[BigLenny]

Friday and Saturday of this past weekend, Teresa and I got on the bike for the first time since the first week of November. I had a major shoulder surgery the week before Thanksgiving, and have been rehabbing ever since. Finally was released a couple weeks ago to ride my bike. The weather finally cooperated this past weekend, so, off we went on a 2 day, 400 mile jaunt up through the Ozark Mountains. Soooooo good to be back on the bike! I gotta admit, I was starting to struggle a little with losing interest in riding. Didn't think I would ever admit that, but, it was a real feeling I was having. Anyway, that feeling is long gone after we spent a couple days back on the bike.

 

On Saturday, we stopped by a popular Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Polaris dealer, hoping they would have a new Venture, and new 2019 Goldwing in stock. THEY DID! So, after some small talk, I was signing a waiver to test ride the new Venture. Man, what a beautiful bike to just stand and look at. When they rolled the bike out of the showroom and outside the dealership to the parking lot, people in the parking lot flogged us. This is the most popular, highest volume dealer in the state, so there is always a bunch of customers on the lot on Saturdays. They always have a radio station there, and hotdogs and hamburgers cooking to feed all of the customers. It's a cool, hospitable place. People were excited for us because they thought we had just bought it! Lol. After going over all of the tech stuff, we fired the bike up, and headed out. This dealer just throws you the keys and lets you go by yourself. And they don't freak if you stay out longer than usual.

 

My initial response was the weird, non-revy feel of the big V-Twin was so different than the smooth racy, quick reving feeling of the V4 we all love so much, I just felt it was underwhelming. I guess that's a standard feel for VTwin riders. But, when we got on the entrance ramp of the freeway, and I poured the coals to it, and started going through the gears to get up to speed, I was at 90MPH in a blink. This thing is stronger than train smoke, and pulls hard. Slowed down to 75mph, put the cruise on, and kicked back for about 20 miles. Man, what a smooth machine. My wife immediately remarked how smooth it was, and how comfortable it felt for her. Se made the comment that it's a Cadillac, and I agreed.

The thing that I was so impressed with was, how light the bike felt at slow speeds, and how nimble it felt once we got off the freeway, and I put it through it's paces on a curvy country road for about 15 miles. Then, I purposefully rode the bike down the main traffic filled boulevard of the town to see if I could detect the heat issue we've been reading about. We sat at several red lights, and rode in slow traffic for quite a while. I did not experience a lot of heat on my thighs, but, and this is a big but, it was only 73 degrees outside. From what we've all been reading, the heat issue appears in 80-90's degrees.

It must be noted that we spent the first half of our ride in the Tour mode. I then switched it to Sport mode. WOW! What a difference! I would probably do a lot of riding in Sport mode if I owned one. Lol.

In the end, we both really really really liked the new Venture! A vast improvement in all the areas we wanted to see improvement.........except for the powerplant. I spent the whole time wondering if the bike was going be hotter n hells half acre during the summer months. It is a strong motor for sure, but to me, it doesn't make my heart thump any faster. Especially when we kept hitting the rev limiter. Like I said before, it was underwhelming, like most VTwins I've test ridden. But, it is a gorgeous bike with a boat friggin load of storage capacity, and the tech stuff is wonderful! When we got back on the parking lot at the dealer, folks flogged us again. It's gonna be a bike that will be a conversation piece when you are on trips and stopping at places to eat and stay. Oh, I almost forgot, the gear box was wonderful! Click, click, click. No clanky gear shifting like a lot of VTwins ive ridden. It is a very nicely put together machine, and dripping with a feel of quality.

 

Immediately after we got off of the Venture, we walked across the parking lot to the Honda dealership (owned by the same folks), and signed up to test ride the new 2019 Goldwing. They didn't have an automatic shift one ready, but had a standard shift outside waiting for us to throw a leg over and go. So, we partook.

OMG is not a strong enough expression for the feeling this bike gave right off the bat. It is a very noticeably smaller machine than it's predecessor, so it's gonna be a struggle for the old hand Goldwing riders to begin to love, but as Cowpuc would say, WOWZY WOW WOW WOW! This freakin bike is for lack of a better word, "perfect" What I mean by that is; it exudes a feeing of preciseness and perfection from the way it rides, to the way it sounds, to the controls, to tech stuff, etc. The new double wishbone front suspension is crazy cool, and I found myself watching it work while we were going down the freeway. Lol.

We rode the exact same route we rode the Venture, and their rides were similar on the freeway, but not even close on the curvy country road. As you are starting to think about beginning to lean into a turn, the bike points there and goes aggressively at the turn like no other touring bike I've ever ridden. I kept telling my wife it begs to be on a race track. What an absolutely superb overall bike! It even has a Bluetooth hookup for your phone just like on a car, and has the answer/hangup button on the left grip controls. It also has Apple Carplay so you can mirror your Iphone onto the dash and use your apps, or your phones GPS. It has Tour, Sport, Rain, and Economy modes. As with the Venture, we started out the ride in Tour mode, but later switched to Sport mode. Sport mode changed the bike to a beast. The powerplant in this bike is one to fall head over heels in love with. It's revy with a deep smooth sound, and feels like it will handle anything you want to throw at it.

The main drawback of this bike is the storage capacity. The Venture dwarfs this bike with storage. I told my wife while we were riding it, that this bike seems to be a perfect candidate for a Unigo trailer. It would give it the storage capacity for the long trips, and not affect the performance of the bike like standard 2 wheeled trailers do. You don't want to take away the canyon carving ability of this bike at all. We LOOOOVVVVEEEDDD the Goldwing! This is the bike that Yamaha should've made with the new Venture.

When we got back to the dealership, the salesman showed us that there are 4 preload settings, and that we had actually did the whole test ride in Single rider mode. DANG, I wish we would've been told that before the ride! We would've changed it to 2 up mode.

 

Overall, it was a great time at the dealership, with getting the chance to ride these 2 wonderful bikes. It's funny that, after we got back to the dealership from the Goldwing ride, I looked over at the Yamaha parking lot, and folks were still crowded around the Venture. LOL. There were 6 Goldwings sitting outside, and one person was looking at them.

 

The dealer did tell me that they had sold 2 Ventures in the month of March so far, but thirteen 2019 Goldwings. If this number holds true across the nation, the Venture is not gonna come close to outselling the Goldwing. But, it IS going to grab a bunch of Victory riders. I'm sure of that.

 

Big Lenny

[Cliffieg]

That was a fantastic post, Big Lenny, thanks for the reviews!!!

[BigLenny]

Thanks Cliff, and your certainly welcome.

 

We we were highly impressed with both bikes.

 

I truly do do feel the Venture is going to pull quite a few Victory riders, who are already used to the VTwin drive train and wanting a bike that is completely updated and bullet proof. The question is; how many of the current Venture fans are they gonna keep. Remains to be seen on that point.

[cowpuc]

:clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2:

 

It's getting to late to do the usual here Lenny but WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,,,, I snuck into the backroom of the local Honda shop today and got to FINALLY see one of the new Wings brother..........

 

More to come but I gotta say here and now,,,,,,,,,,,, you done good here my friend,,, REALLY good!!