Gladius Review / Road Test

rockin!

go gladius!

Looks interesting...still not sure about the styling.

I like the motor improvements. Makes me wonder if the cams would swap over.
Im glad they ditched the silly radiator-style oil cooler for the gsxr-style oil cooler.

Interesting read and good find. The final results: 1st: Suzuki Gladius 2nd: Yamaha XJ6 3rd: Kawasaki ER-6N 4th: Ducati Monster 696

" And the winner is ...
The Gladius wins this comparison without much discussion. She seduced from the first meters: Home Thoughtful, pleasure when we seek his mechanical full of vitality. Also rigid, but not firm suspension, the SFV is display 650 of homogeneous behavior. Draw paths all round well turns out the couple becomes a pure joy to his handlebars. If its direction is slightly on the change of support or high speed, it is a quality or a defect depending on the taste. But whatever the use, Gladius demonstrated consistency and character. Two aspects not always easy to reconcile and achieve in this way, this is a tour de force".

What I want is that instrument cluster. Badly.

It's ahead of its time.

Looks silly to me.
But then again I'm not French.(fashion)

Strom1 said:

Interesting read and good find. The final results: 1st: Suzuki Gladius 2nd: Yamaha XJ6 3rd: Kawasaki ER-6N 4th: Ducati Monster 696

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Well actually, they said the Ducati was really apart from the other 3, price wise it cannot compare. The Monster by the spec sheet is a better bike but alas we live in the real world and this is where a bike really shows what it is made of. I was surprise that it did not put more power down.

Yes the SFV650 is not a masterpiece of beauty but the Monster ain't any better.

After I thought about it, it makes sense. The french would like this bike.

LOL...

cfreger said:

I like this review. It's funnier.

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But quite useless as an actual review ...

So what exactly is the horse and torque on that chart?

trunkmonkey said:

So what exactly is the horse and torque on that chart?

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Yamaha FZ6R naked: 61 [email protected] / 35 ft/[email protected]

Suzuki SFV: 62.8 [email protected] / 40.6 ft/[email protected]

Ducati Monster 696: 61 [email protected] / 39.9 ft/[email protected]

Kawasaki ER6N: 60.3 [email protected] / 39.9 ft/[email protected]

Again these number are from a specific dyno, only use them for comparison purposes.

So the SFV makes the most power, the earliest and keeps going torque wise where the others left off. This again is just me looking at the graph.

Looks like it might be like a Factory dyno, as in real HP number rather than the inflated Dynojet dyno #s which have become the standard in the US.

Very interesting articles, and hilarious reading as the Google translator produced a lot of gibberish & nonsense. But you can get enough to tell that it's a very good bike.
Maybe the looks will grow on me.

motosliders said:

Looks like it might be like a Factory dyno, as in real HP number rather than the inflated Dynojet dyno #s which have become the standard in the US.

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According to the article, the dyno brand was Fuch from a shop called West Bike 78 http://www.motoconcess.com/westbike78/default.html

terryb said:

Very interesting articles, and hilarious reading as the Google translator produced a lot of gibberish & nonsense. But you can get enough to tell that it's a very good bike.
Maybe the looks will grow on me.

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I knew the translation would be horrible but at least info can be extracted.

There is no question here, the looks of the SFV are not everyone cup of tea, not even mine. I see it as the looks of the BMW 7 series from Chris Bangle, eventually pple got over it ...

Too bad the XJ6 lacks any real power... it looks better than the Gladiola...

Good thing my bike has so few miles on it.. I should be able to squeeze another 5-10 years out of it.... perhaps by then they will rename the Gladiola and make it look a little better too

I like the idea of the way the rear suspension of the ER-6N is (if it works well) but that thing is a$$ ugly otherwise...

Just hope it doesnt become the 3rd gen SV