My First C90 Review - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

Jayhawkk · 10-19-2005, 02:45 PM

2005 C90
8799
tax, tag, title total of 9978
500 in accessories(suzuki end of oct deal)

2 Weeks ago I bought my first cruiser, a 2005 c90 Blue/Black paint scheme. Drove it home and admired it in my drive way for about another two hours. That night I spent on the computer book marking forums,accessory sites and ebay stores...

The next 8 Days it rained. Good thing I bought a bike cover with the 500 dollar accessory gift from Suzuki. Then one day something happened that I did not expect. The sun decided to come out! I strapped on my helmet and threw on my back pack(no saddle bags yet) and took off to; hell i didn't know. Almost 200 miles later and a mixture of back twisting roads and highway use I got home. More about the ride.

The first thing I noticed with this bike is the shifting is loud. It sounds clunky but the dealer told me to expect this so I didn't mind. The second thing I noticed was that the clutch didn't really engage until the final release which could prove a pain when going from stopped to go on a uphill. During a couple of these moments I found out that this bike has plenty O torque! I think a few times I may have went back in time.

Okay, even with the clutch and shifting not exactly top notch the rest of the bike performed much better than I could of expected. It was easy to handle and felt very light. The power and torque this bike has is plenty I loaded the bike with me and a passenger and gear that totalled about 430 pounds and she didn't even grunt at me which of course was a small downside; the exhaust had no bite what-so-ever. I don't want glass breaking and alarms going off but a nice tone would of been nice to at least let me know I wasn't riding on an electrical scooter!

Over the next few days I added a total of 510 miles to the odometer and always had a smile on my face. Always had people come up and ask me what kind of bike it was and how many CC's it had and they always seemed to expect something in the 1000-1200 range. One guy decided to trade in his sportster for one. Then it was bound to happen...

Something was wrong. I looked down to see how fast I was going and the speedomter read a big fat zero. I was also missing my fuel guage, running lights, to include break lights. After trouble shooting I found it to be the fuse so I replaced it and rode another hour or so only for it to pop again. Basically a short in the system and the bike is due in tomorrow for service. The only thing that could, in my opinion, have caused this was when I refueled one day I spilled a very small amount of fuel and it dripped down through the hole in the fill and dripped on to the engine cover. If this turns out to be the cause it is a very poor design by suzuki not to have a rubber hose taking the extra fuel down to the ground instead of being able to cause things like this.

More to continue when I get the ride back. I'll keep a update for the first couple thousand miles.

Pos: Light feeling, low center of gravity and perfect seat height for those of us vertically challenged. Great looks. Plenty of power and torque for one or two up riding. Great instrument cluster set up allowing to easily change between the clock, odometer and two trip odometers. Very comfortable ride.

Cons: Too clunky shifting. Clutch takes too long to grab making it difficult at times to get a smooth launch from stand still. Needs a more aggressive exhaust. Way too damn small of a gas tank. 140 MPT(whoops) for a crusier is really unacceptable. Breaks a little weak but I don't know if this is me expecting too much coming from a Ninja Crotch rocket.

Overall: Great bike for the money and even still a great bike if it has cost a little bit more. A few short comings but you have a hard time noticing it with a big grin and the wind hitting you in the face(I suggest getting a full face helmet until this effect wears off)

Stay tuned!