Test Sachs Roadster 650

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Test Sachs Roadster 650

Test Sachs Roadster 650
Simply that way

One cylinder, four cycles, two wheels. Saddled up early in the morning, swept across the winding country and in the evening the realization that less can also be more.

Werner Koch

01/24/2000

Hand on heart, when was the last time you got up with the birds, crept quietly through the apartment, put on your clothes and left everyday life behind you as you gently chug away? While the crowd pushes the crackling and baking rolls into the tube, man and machine cheer from one slanting frenzy to the next. The streets and lanes are swept empty like at the soccer World Cup final, and when the stomach growls, the roller shutters of a dreamy street cafe in the next town are guaranteed to rush up. Coffee, fresh croissants, and next door the beloved box crackles in the first rays of sunshine. What a day.
For hours like this, the people of Nuremberg have come up with a motorcycle that is quite clearly linked to the classic generation of small curve planers. the Sachs Roadster ranks among the Yamaha SR 500, Honda XBR and other underdogs who interpret motorcycling as a recreational pleasure apart from performance thinking.
The Sachs under the microscope: The rustic welded steel constructions such as the gear lever and brake pedal are striking. The reason: Sachs only produced around 800 roadsters in the first year, and specially made cast or forged parts are nowhere near paying off for this comparatively small amount. For this reason, the Franconians also use existing components from mainly Italian parts suppliers. The bright H4 headlights, practical switches and the manual levers, unfortunately without adjustment options, come from their run-of-the-mill repertoire. In terms of design and frame construction, on the other hand, the small Sachs team relied on their own ideas and ideas.
The engine, in turn, comes from Suzuki’s Freewind. He does the cold start without grumbling, but for the first few kilometers the single hangs on the drip, because without choke it jerks and rumbles a bit awkwardly. Cold and ice-cold is not exactly what the Roadster 650 really likes. When warm, the Sachs, which weighs 170 kilograms, can be maneuvered effortlessly through the urban jungle. A comfortable 780 millimeter seat height makes the balancing act easy for short-legged two-wheelers and ensures a secure stance or, if necessary, easy footing. Annoying: the red-hot muffler coke due to its exposed position on heat-sensitive thermal or rain clothing. A small screwed-on heat shield would be the only sensible solution here.
Due to the classic English posture, with an upright upper body and feet placed far forward, the promises Roadster 650 on the other hand, relaxed long-distance comfort. Whether the promise will be kept?
Because spring is still hibernating in our country, we move the morning trip to the mild south of France. Cevennes, Provence, down to the Mediterranean. Here you drive dizzy. Curves, curves Curves, and the asphalt as grippy as 40 grit sandpaper, peppered with bumps and crests. To take off. And right in the middle of it all, the new Sachs. Swings through the district in a fun and happy manner, pushes ahead with the briefly translated, 49 hp Suzuki single with high torque and easy turning. The clutch, gearbox and gearshift slide like clockwork, plus engine vibrations from top to bottom, robust, but never annoying. Just a single cylinder. And that with music that the slim megaphone plays in compliance with the law, but in a wonderful bass stakato. Just nice to hear.
Simply the chassis too. A classic, broad double loop frame with sturdy sheet metal profiles at the swing arm pivot point, plus a long box swing arm, at the end of which a pair of struts ensures a surprisingly high level of comfort and chassis smoothness. At the front, the telescopic fork unfortunately lacks sufficient damping reserves to iron the jarring slopes as smoothly as you want them to be. In addition, it is not quite able to cope with the strong bite of the Grimeca four-piston pliers mounted on one side, it dips away quickly and warps noticeably when the deceleration is brutal. A third “fork bridge” between the dip tubes as a stabilizer would do no harm, nor would a thicker fork oil for more controlled damping. In return, the roadster wears the finest footwear on the beautiful wire-spoke wheels. Brand: Pirelli, type: MTR 23/24 Dragon GTS. The solid radial touring rubber with the best handling characteristics only requires a little more air in the front wheel (2.5 instead of 2.3 bar) in order to put its light-footedness and cornering stability into practice.
With the Sachs you don’t have to be able to do magic to drive a clean line. Whether tightly winding serpentines or fast, fluid arcs, take a sharp aim and the Roadster 650 will do the rest by itself. The great thing about it: She also does it in pairs. There is hardly a mid-range motorcycle that whistles around corners with a pillion so handy, stable and precise. Even better: on the Sachs, the pillion rider is king. A spacious, comfortable seat, relaxed knee angle and a suspension that is pretensioned to the maximum and hardly penetrates through. Nevertheless, be careful. In swiftly approached bends with bumps, the exhaust manifold rattles over the asphalt, which only happens in solo operation with fairly sporty inserts.
Speaking of ground clearance and such. We adjusted the preload of the suspension struts to position four in solo mode, with the result that the Sachs’ handiness and ground clearance were noticeably improved. Small disadvantage for little ones: The seat height increases by almost 15 millimeters.
And the comfort? How’s it going after 1000 and one curve and umpteen times as many bumps? Great, because the mighty 20-liter tank has no edges, the bench is nicely flat and well padded, offers a pleasant contact and the tubular steel handlebars are right at hand. Only in the storm wind of the top speed of 166 km / h does the single driver hang a little lost in the saddle. It is good that the load does not move a millimeter off the track and can only rudiment massive trucks even in air turbulence. Not so good that after the full-speed autobahn hunt, the taillight lamp dissipated and the Suzuki drive stubbornly refused to call the electric starter. Even if a little push is enough to get the single going again, that’s not nice. From spring 2000, Sachs dealers will find out whether the Sachs Roadster 650 runs better than it occasionally starts.

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