Wed, 18 Nov 1998 14:28:09 +0100 - Message No. 4484
From: NMaiwald@t-online.de (Norbert Maiwald)

Subject: 10 years @


Hi Dave !

concerning your question about converting the varadero into a dual sport bike:
IMO this is useless.
this bike is not designed to go offroad. And this doesn't mean rally cross, this means 
travelling on gravel, bad asphalt or mud.
look at phil's mail. he mentioned the rear suspension.
if you have a look at the pic in the mag where the varadero is "naked" you will see that 
some details are simply not designed to be used in a dual sport purpose.
starting with the lack of space to put a larger front wheel in ( concerning suspension 
travel at the front wheel: about 175mm I think...), the seat position (which has moved 
further back ! ) and ending with the short swingarm at the rear end. 
additionally you should not think about a power to weight ratio without thinking about the 
total numbers, weight 240+ kg, power about 95 hp.
instead of that you should aim at the same power to weight ratio with about 200 kg of total 
weight or even less !
In the same mag there is a story about a sahara tour, watch the guy digging out his GS out 
of the sand...this should be no fun. Remember the specs of a GS concerning weight and power.
So this power to weight ratio won't help there !
( some time ago there was an article in the german mag "tourenfahrer" comparing the @ to the 
KTM adventure. This article could give you some details about the dual sport capabilities of 
the @. Compared to the KTM, there are only few points, that are better. )

if talking about dual sport, look at the pictures in the @ article in the motorrad mag. 
There are some pics of the @ participating in the paris-dakar and the "big dady" NXR 750. 
And watch this bike built by a guy named "Linde", its weight is below 200 kg and the power 
should be 60 hp or more as it is the rd04/07 model with the "big" engine (750 ccm).
this guy has partially solved one of our biggest problems with the @: weight...
despite of that this bike is looks quite good, the rear is fantastic but the front light is 
quite ugly, he should have found a solution with twin headlights (maybe from the KTM 
adventure...).

IMO Honda made a big mistake when they didn't put a cat into the varadero.
Only argument would be that in some lower developed countries there is no unleaded fuel 
available. But this could be solved by a quickly dismountable cat...despite of that you will 
get trouble driving to such coutries as there might be some non-asphalt roads on the way... 
And the guy who drove this thing wrote in the mottorad mag that the plastics and the 
windsreen don't work that good . Especially on highways at high speed there should be some 
nasty turbulences because the rider's 
position ist too far behind the windscreen. Why switch to this bike ?
There are so many bad details on this bike. Power is not the main thing to look at.
Have you thought about consumption of the VTR engine yet ???


Have fun...


CHRIS





www@atic.org