My new C109R and its 1st ride review

K

kaciedeb

New member
Just picked up my new C109R from the shop friday 4.30.
I needed a new helmet so a mate on a 07 Fatty and i rode the 380k's(236
miles) from Maryborough Qld to the Sunny Coast to go helmet shopping.
The following is a critical review on my 1st ride of my new C109R.

1) 1st of all the handling, on the highway it was awesome. It felt like the bike was purpose built for the gentle curving hiways of southern queensland. The bike tracked like a charm, even over the rougher pot holed sections of the road. Thru the really rough potholes it bounced a bit but never took off on its own into directions unknown.
The only negative on the highway would be that if your going to really push this big heavy bike thru the tighter bends you need to pick a really good line before committing to the bend because this bike is heavy in the front and it will take a lot of fight to correct your line if you get it wrong.
I can envision this bike will be very popular amongst the Bagger Brigade, it should eat up the miles like a champion.
BUT in town, its a different story. It is very heavy in the front end.
It does require a bit of muscle to force it around a round about at anything above a crawl, i reckon if you use this as your daily commuter in the city you will pack on 10 pounds of pure muscle after 2 weeks of use. I have no doubt as i ride it more it will become easier but have no doubts it is a handful at low speed.

2) The riding position.
The handle bars are great i love the positioning and the wrist angle.
Really great and nothing but praise for bars.
The floor boards and leg position however is not so good. I am 5'10" and i wanted the boards to be pushed forward another 6 - 8 inches. The stock position leaves you in a fairly upright position, which unfortunately doesnt suit my riding style, i liked to be a bit more stretched out.
If your 6'2" or more you should try to get a good test ride in before you decide to buy because this is my biggest criticism of the whole bike.
But that being said it will be fairly easy to fabricate a set of hiway pegs to fix this problem.
The seat is not as comfortable as the stock seat on the VTX and i will be looking for an ass break every couple hundred k's.
I think the addition of hiway pegs and a aftermarket seat will take care of my ass problems..lol.

3) Fuel, we did 380k's, 340 of them on the highway. The bike travelled 288 ks (178 miles) before the fuel light flashed on to tell me 4 litres left. That equated to 5.3 litres per 100ks and should see the bike getting around 340ks plus (211 miles) to a tank.
While where discussing fuel, i was excited about the idea of the bikehaving a fuel gauge, but to my disapointment the gauge is far from accurate, so dont forget to set the trip meter on each fillup.

4) Performance... OMG its awesome, the torque is unreal, so much so that when hitting the odd patch of rough road i felt the bike shoot forward as my wrist jerked the throttle. The bike cruises at the national speed limit of 100 k's (60mph) with the bike in 5th gear and the engine running at just above idle. The accleration thru every gear is just plain fun, and i had a great time humiliationg my Harley riding mate at every set of traffic lights. The Fatty just couldnt match it.

5) Looks... Again just great the big 240 rear tyre just sticks out like dogs balls and attracts the gaze of lots of pedestrians.

Now you may think im being just plain picky but this is the sort of plain speaking review i was looking for before buying this bike.

Am i happy with the bike oooooooooooooh yes. its a fantastic machine that will give me hrs of pleasure and amusement. Although the bike is not perfect there is nothing that cant be fixed with a bit of effort, cash and more time spent on the bike.

It is a fantastic bike and would be happy to recommend it to anyone in the market for a bigbore cruiser. I think the large engine set in the big bike frame is awe inspiring and imposing. Its ready and willing to be taking out 1 up for a hell of a good time, but also capable of so much more set up as a tourer, which i will be doing monday with a 2 day trip away with another mate

I hope this helps some of you looking at thr C109R

Pete from Australia
 
Congrats on the new bike and welcome to the site. It's always great to hear reviews from regular riders. It sounds like you kinda like your bike. LOL.I might start my bike up today because it's been in deep winter storage since late October. Still a lot of ice and sand on the road though, so I might take it around our half mile block. What's that in Kilometers?
 
That's a great review.

One word about the highway pegs - I'm 5'11 and tried them, but with the factory engine guard, they're REALLY awkward even with the offsets. I actually took them back off and found I could slide my feet forward and rest my heels on the floorboards to be more comfortable.

The seats DO take time to break in. Wife and I hated the seats until we put almost 5000km on the bike, then there was a noticeable difference. I'd still opt for a Mustang seat.

My fuel gauge is relatively accurate, but like a car, the top 1/2 of the tank is the largest. Once you get two bars down, it drops fast. I typically get 200-250km before my fuel light turns on and I've managed to put up to 100km on from that point.

Glad you like the bike. You'll also notice the exhaust deepen quite a bit at 5000km and the fuel mileage will improve as well.

Another good place to read some of the experiences someone has had with their 109 since buying it is
http://gmanindustries.com/pages.php/page/c109rt?osCsid=2e1711d81e2faedb702c5294d0fe5a89
There's very little Gary hasn't experienced with that bike - good or bad and he's a great person to learn from (also a member of this board)
 
drjekyll, thank you for a great write up [you should write reviews for other bikes, too] and congrats on the new C109R.

109s are awesome bikes, admittedly though, could be intimidating when it comes to p o w e r.

How about some pics?

Enjoy your ride!
 
Nice review Pete!
I opted for the Fatty Freeway bars and the kury longhorn dually iso pegs and that worked out well for me. The suzuki bars just are too narrow.
I'm still trying to decide on what I'm going to do with the seat.
 
Hey Pete,
Glad your loving your C109. I bought mine a couple of months ago and never want to get off it!!

About your comment above (daily commuter), mine is a daily commuter (about 50kms/day, city and highway split). I don't have any problems pushing it around the bends or at highway speeds but have to agree that it is a handful at low speed. I constantly feel uncomfortable when taking corners and the dreaded 'ROUNDABOUT OF DOOM' (I hate roundabouts). I always feel like the bike is unstable at slow speeds and wants to tip out from under me. I'm not going that slow to lose forward momentum but it just seems unstable.

Some have said that the surging issue causes problems and I do feel that may be the case as once you lean into the corner its very hard to keep it from surging fast then slow then fast and so on. I'm sure other riders and drivers must look at me taking corners and think 'sheeeet man, that guy can't ride'. Do you have this problem? Slow speed and corners are unstable?

Your comments are really appreciated.

PS. I ordered a TRE to hopefully resolve the surging issue and to give me a smooth speed in corners.

Hoodathunkut
:bluethum:
 
I believe it's the Bully that's supposed to cure the surging. I've never had much trouble with it myself, once in a blue moon really. I've got the TRE and it's still happened on occasion.

One thing with the cornering. Since it's such a big bike, I've found that the lower you can make your center of gravity, the better. You've really got to lean into tight corners instead of trying to steer through them.

Once you get used to it, it's just one more thing to amaze you about the bike!
 
I would love to lean into the corners really low but i'm still uneasy. Not sure if it's tyres, surging or just plain inexperience on this bike, but I always feel that the bike is going to slip out from under me. Maybe I should just bite the bullet, lean it over, scrape the pegs and hope for the best!:mrgreen:
 
yeah roundabouts of doom is about right, you really need to concentrate.
But in the short time ive had it i have found you can throw it harder than you think into a roundabout, just push down on those bars and dont be scared to throw your weight around.
I dont have the surging problem but i find all that low end torque just adds that extra spice to tight corners. One touch on the accelerometer and i find myself surging forward and then trying to stop from being slid up onto the tank.
I read in one of the forums that a power commander or simililar may help with this as well, so after i get a sissybar and luggage rack i will be saving up for a power commander and a hi flow air filter like the K&N.
And remember - Ride it like you stole it ....lol
Pete
 
Well I got the TRE. Man-o-man the surging has become so much worse!! I was under the impression that the TRE was supposed to cure the surging problem. It has gone from an annoyance to just plain he11 to ride. Anybody got any ideas?

Hoodathunkut
:sad:
 
Weird
I know this may sound stupid, but make sure it's hooked up correctly.
If your FI warning light is on, it's hooked up wrong and that could be part of the problem.
 
Yep, did that (plugged in to the wrong plug first that is). But I quickly changed it and found the right plug. Even still the surging is so bad that I am considering not riding the bike and selling it. I don't know what else to do. I really love the bike except for the CONSTANT surging. It just doesn't stop!!
What to do???
 
I have been thinking about asking the TRE supplier for another one to try so that I can figure out if it is the TRE or another problem. Your comment has made my mind up. I am going to ask right now. I'll let you know how I go.

I really want my 109:cry:

Hoodathunkut
 
Back
Top