Classic Velocity

It is the mark of modern technology, that I am dedicating an entire post to the electronics associated with this new machine. They are so extensive and complex, that they warranted a separate ride just to muck about with them.   I should start out by saying that most of my machines have dials and gauges that are approaching 40 or 50 years old. I have to wonder whether the new electronics will also be able to be useful and serviceable on an old 40 to 50-year-old motorcycle in 2079. Now with that said, they are so much more readable, and display so much more information than those old machines, that it is not even worth comparison.

I remain somewhat befuddled by the whole helmet system to phone to Connect app to bike display interaction. I have managed to make it functional for navigation and for playing music, but it has not been seamless. There is a sequence that must be followed to get everything working correctly, and I cannot find info on that process. Suffice it to say, that it is not intuitive, and not reliable. There may be some pilot error in the mix here, so I will continue to gain experience and follow up. Once functional, the precedence of sources seems to function logically. Navigation prompts are later than I would like compared to something like Waze or Apple, but they are clear and do interrupt music. I have not yet seen what happens on a phone call.

The drive modes are fun to play around with on the road. Rain does dramatically soften the throttle response and the power. Dynamic is dramatically sharper and more powerful. Road is closer to Dynamic but the edge is dulled a bit. Perhaps the main challenge is remembering that you have these modes to help adapt the machine to the riding context. I tended to get intoxicated by dynamic and keep it there. I did not get anywhere near the traction control differences between the modes. The suspension modes were either less dramatic, or I wasn’t testing them hard enough. I also have not yet ridden 2-Up or loaded, where they might be more noticeable. However, they did this well back in 2010 on the GS, so I am sure that this is even better.

The screen alerts are multiple and intrusive. You can argue that this is a good thing, but in some cases they obscure Nav or other more immediate needs. They consume almost the entire screen. They could take up less real estate and still be very noticeable. There is also no quick way to reset the trip meters. I always like to use the trip meter as a backup to the fuel guage, so it gets reset every fillup, which on this machine is fairly frequent. Lastly, the default screen is often a few button clicks away. It would be good if there was always a single click/push which got you back to a “home” screen, and it would be even better if you could define some/most of the elements on that home screen.

This trip was a mixed bag. Amazing information and capabilities when everything was synced up, combined with frustration when it did not stay that way. The fact that this is software and firmware hopefully means that it can and will improve.