Comparison test Funduros

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Comparison test Funduros

Yes, it tastes good

Or do you think that enjoyment is directly related to high calorific values?

Nothing against sumo bikes like these fat guys on pages 12 to 21. They’re motorcycles too – somehow. And such a super-fast Heger-Yamaha should also be fine with us, as long as there are machines that you can drive without a black belt and a gun license. Nice, humorous curve robbers who neither arouse fear and horror nor the total financial crisis. Motorcycles for every day.
Funduros, for example. Questionable name – true. But so far nobody has come up with a better way to characterize such crosses of feather duster and street sweeper. So let’s stick with it: Funduros. By the way, the word is Bavarian. BMW introduced it, together with the F 650, which is something like their farewell performance here. Despite its sensational success, it is to be exchanged for a new model next year.
There are reasons why the single-cylinder is one of the best-selling motorcycles in Germany: First of all, it says BMW. This counts as a title of nobility in this country. Austrian engine and Italian assembly or not. However, the F 650 distinguishes itself more than the prestigious, white and blue propeller on the tank. For example, it opened up the beautiful world of enduro-like driving experiences to those who are afraid of heights as early as 1993. 83 centimeters above the ground, the saddle invites you to safely conquer. If required, the seat height can be reduced by a further five centimeters at the BMW dealer. Cost: 500 marks.
The 650 series plows the wide field of ergonomics in an exemplary manner. There is princely space behind the wide handlebars, and the four letters are wonderfully embedded. The Bavarians know how to carve benches, nobody can fool them that easily. On the other hand, it’s a matter of taste: the seating position. More in than on the machine, you automatically look for ashtrays, window regulators and sunroofs. It doesn’t feel particularly enduro-like, but very binding.
In general, the seductive skills of the Munich woman extend far beyond the short curve flirtation. On a big tour, she turns out to be a serious companion. The 17.5 liter tank, together with the Christian consumption, ensures that the range is unfriendly to smokers. The clock on board destroys all hopes of reaching the ferry on time. Solo travelers lash their belongings securely to the luggage rack, pillion passenger handles and pegs. Tandem bikers like to use the useful BMW case system, which costs 935 marks.
The cockpit window is first and foremost great. Takes a lot of wind pressure out. With a cross helmet, however, the part is annoying because the airflow gets caught on the helmet shield and creates an enormous din. In this case, we recommend dismantling the disc. At that moment, the bell-shaped character also changes. The environment moves a bit closer, the machine looks more manageable, the spirit of discovery knocks on the chest.
At the next best opportunity, the front wheel swings off the road and the film starts running in your head: “Alone through the desert.” Experiences away from paved areas arouse fantasies, even if the dust only stirs up from a Swabian dirt road. The F 650 takes this with serenity. Tricky off-road passages are certainly not her thing. The waist is too big, the weight is too high. Then there is the short-stroke hind leg, which wedges out at every groove, while the 19-inch front wheel, which is guided by an iron handle, plops into the next hole.
Back in the safe arms of Father Tar. Enjoy the effortless handling. Draw elegant loops, so beautiful, so diagonally, so easily. But it is a swing. So: Screwdriver out and the rebound damping of the central spring strut turned towards H for “hard” and the spring base programmed with the handwheel to shortly before very “high”. Now the direction is right. In two-person operation, however, the stability fluctuations of the comfortable chassis cannot be completely eliminated. Nice and typically BMW that you sit just as relaxed in the back as in front.
The engine, a water-cooled four-valve engine from Rotax, works mostly well. Typical single cylinder stroke up to 3000 rpm. Then the single switches to concentricity, tenses the muscles and develops a drive at 4500 tours that his heartless nuclear reactor design would never be capable of. Really good fun. Zero fun, meanwhile, knocking in the hallway. The long shift paths of the jagged transmission always end up in a neutral instead of in the next gear.
The feeling when braking is similarly unsavory. Everything is okay for the first few centimeters of lever travel, but the effect only increases slightly afterwards. And because the index finger is straight up, there’s something else on the bell: Surely it can’t be true that such a grown-up motorcycle chases every pissy, little ruts. It is largely due to the tires, of course. Bridgestone TW 101/152. However, the F 650 is on bad terms with many tires. Is there a serious pneurosis? Quite possible. Otherwise, the good Bavarian never loses sight of the essentials: main stand, uncontrolled catalytic converter, exemplary on-board tools, easily accessible spark plugs and so on.
Virtues that the daring Cagiva Canyon doesn’t care about. The 500 lives in a completely different world. Stroll carefree in the youthful, fresh Jurrasic Park outfit, combat glasses on your nose, bold make-up around it: military green. Frosted. You never know for sure: does it look fun or dangerous now? Can a grown person even allow himself this design? In case of doubt, we recommend the red-black version. Also matt. Has something too.
Compared to the buxom BMW, the Italian looks bony. Almost a little starved. The tank and seat are extremely slim, the narrower handlebar is lower in the hand. Feels a lot more gathered. More direct, sportier, more aggressive. More from above than from the middle. It’s completely different handling. Dedicated. Dynamic. Digital. While the BMW front wheel steers more intuitively and pulls the rest of the machine behind it, everything happens at once with the Cagiva.
The chassis is hard to beat in terms of stability. Even with double occupancy, the petite 500 cannot be crushed. Unmoved, she rushes across the train, while the lament about the short bench can be heard from behind. The spring elements know a suitable verse for every inconsistency in road construction. Small bumps are sensitively smoothed out, coarse blunders with appropriate severity. The canyon took the dirt road, this time a Baden one, by storm. She dislikes coarser slopes as much as the BMW.
Lots of light. Until here. But now it comes: “Lost world!” The password on the red stickers on the cockpit fairing and tank should actually be engraved on the engine. Although the air / oil-cooled single cylinder with 40 HP gets the most out of itself in the test bench measurement, it’s just a shame that you notice so little of it in real life. A quite tough second half follows a respectable start. From 5000 revolutions there is only little propulsion. Overtaking maneuvers have to be long-term: take a hard look, take another look, downshift twice, open the bulkheads fully and pass the obstacle with your bum pinched. With all the love for the passionate sound and the beauty of the outdated engine, sometimes you want a few more horsepower.
Vigor, the rebellious single from Honda, has not the faintest idea of ​​performance inhibitions. Completely unabashedly, he presses 45 HP on the test stand roller and thus shoots far beyond the tolerance limit. To mock yourself about it is difficult, however, because this engine is a hit. Hisses everywhere like lightning below In the draft, Vigor even shows the 50 hp BMW its cute taillight, thanks to the shorter gear ratio and lower weight.
Why is Vigor an ER? Well ?? because “the Vigor” sounds about like “the Viktoria”. Vigor is a lad, that’s it. And besides, Vigor is an Indian bicycle. Light, compact, low, agile. A bike that is limited to the bare essentials.
Vigor practiced as an SLR for two years. With more popular colors, fashionable chrome bars in front of the headlights, without cockpit fairing and rev counter. Not a worse motorcycle than today, technically almost identical, but it didn’t go down well with the people. Maybe it was because of the misleading term “city bike”. Doesn’t sound like an all-round talent, even if that’s what it’s meant to be. With Vigor, Honda has said goodbye to city bikes. Worse traffic jam results are therefore not to be expected. The 650 finds space in the smallest of gaps, strikes the tightest of all possible hooks and is often let through anyway, since its unobtrusive tiny design does not arouse envy. Rather, it gives other road users the good feeling that they are better off. If they only knew.
Arrived on the outskirts of the city despite merciless bottlenecks with full rear-view mirrors and in a good mood, the second round is elated: scratching curves. With limitless ease, amazing stability and daring inclines. Vigor thrashes around corners like a big guy. Device does not go off track even under full load. However, the shock absorber would not be able to cope with more than the permitted 174 kilograms without going on the block. As with the Cagiva, the bench is too short for two full-grown Central Europeans. The front should also be a little better padded? According to the wishes of a single, slightly overweight colleague who claims to be sitting directly on the plastic tray.
Anyway: Apart from that, everything is ergonomically fine with the Honda. Even if it doesn’t look a bit like it with its minimal design. Even long distances can be covered relatively effortlessly. However, you feel at the mercy of the motorway? so close to the handlebars, naked and defenseless. The plastic asceticism brings decisive advantages later, with the pike roll in open terrain. There’s next to nothing that can break. Anyway, with Vigor you dare to venture the furthest into the pampas, although from a technical point of view he is hardly better suited than the Cagiva or the BMW.
If there is a machine in this field that is more geared up as an enduro than a funduro, then it is the Kawasaki KLE 500. After all, it bears a few insignia of the knights’ guild. A 21-inch front wheel, for example, and long suspension travel, plus a few narrow tires and hand protectors ?? that’s enough in these circles to pass as a real earthworker. Nevertheless, the KLE already makes you feel cold when you think about suckling: 205 kilograms of weight, the center of gravity is quite high, the seat height is not necessarily low either, it takes a bit of practice. May the spring elements iron out even the deepest craters. Behind the enduro-like appearance, however, there is a well-behaved motorcycle.
The KLE should appear in this test, as it is regarded as the primal mother of the funbike generation. However, it is already clear from the first few meters how bad the ravages of time have already damaged her. The youthful-looking plastic hoses in the cockpit are of no use either. She got tired, the 500s. Your two-cylinder, once found lively, no longer comes out of the quark. You twist and twist and squeeze it out, and there is power too ?? but only in homeopathic dosage form. Maximum of four horsepower per 500 tours. So the twin struggles to at least 46 hp at 7700. And the crankshaft turns on and on, although nothing happens anymore, except that it vibrates more and more.
The character of the engine does not match the lofty nature of the Kawasaki at all. The confident feeling on the wide handlebars, the easy handling ?? and then this phlegm. That’s bad. The comfortable rear suspension leaves nothing to be desired in terms of stability. But the very soft fork, which is also quite insensitive, does. Short waves are passed in a petulant manner. The brake feels similarly woody. Good delay values ​​can only be achieved through merciless packing. You have to get used to the depth of the front.
In terms of security, the KLE could almost compete with the BMW, if ?? yes, if it didn’t have the worst bench in the world. Too narrow, too soft, sloping too steeply towards the front. Everything comes together that no one needs. 50 kilometers is enough and your butt will glow like a baboon’s ass. The KLE completely gambled away when it came to travel suitability. Neither the usable luggage rack nor the proper space for the pillion can help, and even the fantastic suspension reserves at the rear cannot iron out this breakdown.
S.went bad for the Kawa. But even with a lot of humor, their weaknesses are difficult to bear. The KLE somehow tastes like cold coffee. Vigor, on the other hand, has the effect of an Ahoij shower, the Canyon spreads the aroma of pure distilled 20W50, and the F 650 has the full-bodied bouquet of a heavy French red wine.

BMW F 650

2nd place The S-Class among the Funduros. “Funtouro” would describe the character of the F 650 even better. Typically BMW, even the smallest child in Munich offers exemplary tourer qualities: comfortable bench, front and rear, plenty of space, endless comfort, wind protection, luggage rack, clock, main stand ?? everything there. Performance too. And not too close. After its rough start, the single-cylinder really works. There’s scolding for the high price and the meager one year warranty.

Cagiva Canyon 500

3rd place “Take me”, signals the Canyon with every fiber of its polyethylene body. Displacement and power deficit or not, after all, this is about more. Chassis, feedback, suspension, sound ?? in these points the 500 is a lot of fun. Who ?? s always wanted to try an Italian motorcycle ?? May I help you. It has almost everything that makes a real Tifosi bike. From the rattling engine to the extremely stable driving experience to the detailed design. Addition: the digital handling.

Honda Vigor 650

1st place Nobody expected that. Not even Vigor himself. He’s so modest and unspectacular, the little guy, and turns out to be the greatest joker of all. Its lively engine runs well and on top of that extremely cultivated. The qualities of the chassis are also pretty complete? can be slapped in the corners like a wet cleaning rag, this Honda. Okay: wind protection, pillion comfort and nothing like that. Still, Vigor offers the most biking for the money. 8990 marks are hard to be okay.

Kawasaki KLE 500

4th place The old lady’s visit did not end well. Although it was meant nicely. We had better memories of the KLE. For almost 10,000 marks, Kawasaki sells a lot of motorcycles here, but very little pleasure. The through and through tough character of the two-cylinder does not match either the enduro-like driving behavior or the hard plastic design of the 500 series. The bench is unreasonable. It completely messes up the high level of touring suitability. High time for a model change.

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