Demo rides, who does it best?

[klaviator]

During the lunch stop of a recent ride the topic of demo rides came up because there have been so many in this area this year. I did demo rides by Kawasaki, CFMoto, Royal Enfield, BMW and Indian. In past years I also did demo rides by Honda, Yamaha, Buell, KTM and Harley.

One of the guys who used to live near Daytona said he would do several days of demo rides during Daytona Bike week. His opinion was that Harley did it the best in that they made it easy to do demo rides because they wanted people to ride their bikes. The Japanese often made it a PITA to ride their bikes.

I'm talking about demo rides by the factory, not the dealer letting you test ride on of their bikes.

For those of you who have done Demo rides, who does it best....and worst.

 

[DJ_MI]

Interesting. I’ve only done one so my vote would have to go to Triumph.

My neighbor is a semiprofessional demo day participant. He has them planned out months in advance. I’d bet he did close to ten this year. I always like to hear what he says about the events and what he rode. I know he talks highly of the Harley events. He also likes Kawasaki but I’m not sure he’s saying that because I have one. He’s frustrated that Yamaha only allows a certain number of rides (2 maybe?) even if there’s no wait.

I’m going to make it a goal to hit more events next year. 👍

 

[Friz Freleng]

I'd vote Harley as probably the best for factory demos. Second would be BMW but it doesn't seem to send its trucks out as much any more.

 

[Soggy Biscuit]

I've only done an Indian demo ride so far. They were mellow and weren't pressuring anybody to make a purchase. We could ride any bike all we wanted.

 

[psykown]

Yamaha!!! the lady I got let me open up a Vmax trying to chase her, it was a good bit of fun!

 

[blue72beetle]

I did a Suzuki demo day back in 2016. They let you ride whatever you wanted, but the route was short and lame. I guess it paid off, I couldn't stop thinking about the GSXS so I bought it.

 

[klaviator]

I have done a bunch of demo rides over the years. I enjoy getting the chance to ride and experience a wide variety of bikes. Most of the bikes I have ridden where bikes I had no intention of buying but i just wanted to try them. My first demo rides where at a Rider Rally in Richmond KY back in 1991. I went to the rally and did as many demo rides as I could in a day. Since then I have done a bunch more. This year was especially good in that I did demo rides of Kawasaki, BMW, CFMoto, Royal Enfield, and Indian motorcycles as well as Can Am Spyders.

So who does it best?

Overall I find that the Japanese have the most tightly controlled demo rides and they try hard to not let you really ride their bikes the way you would want to.

BMW has consistently had very good demo rides. They tend to be longer, faster and just better than the Japanese demo's. The real issue with the latest BMW demo ride I did at Barber this years was that the line to sign up for the rides was ridiculously long. I decided the line wasn't worth it but later i saw it was really short so I got in line. It still took around 30 minutes and then it got real long behind me. I'd say it was probably an hour or more long most of the time.

My only Harley demos were back in 91. They let you take the bike out by yourself and just follow their route. My first Indian Demo was the same but the last one did group demo rides.

Going back to the Japanese. I have gone to three separate Kawasaki Demo events in the last 13 months. I haven't done any demo rides by the other 3 Japanese Manufacturers in a long time.

I have been on some outstanding demo rides by KTM. They use to do demo rides at Two Wheels only which meant the route was on some fantastic roads. I did some Buell Demo rides there as well but they didn't ride as fast as the KTM ride leaders. On one of the KTM demo rides we rode 6 miles up route 60 and then turned around and went back. When we turned around the ride leader took off with a loooong wheelie and then hauled ass. My buddy who was behind him on a 950 SM saw 100+ on his speedo. I was on a 690 enduro and saw 80+

I saw 90+ on a CFMoto demo ride this fall.

I expect I'll continue to do demo rides when the opportunity is there. Some of my best "demo" rides over the years have been when swapping bikes with friends while out on rides.

Between my bikes, friends bikes and demo rides I rode over 20 different bikes this year.