Forza gripes!

I am back in Nevada and got my Forza out of moth balls. I love the little beast but I have a couple of complaints as to maintenance. Just sharing as I know people on here have switched to Forza's from the Silver Wing.

1. I brought up a new battery (old one was 5 years old). Changing the battery in the SWing is a snap but not the Forza; it is buried in the floor of the storage compartment and is a bear to get to... Nice design, Honda! Got it done but what a pain; what should have been an easy job on a necessary maintenance item  brought out a bunch of bad words from this owner!

2. Final drive oil. I change this on my Silver Wing every other oil change and it is an easy job. Since I bought the Forza used I figured I should do it to be safe...another pain. Instead of two bolt holes there are three on the Forza. TOP, CHECK and DRAIN. Strange, lower two are easy to get to but the top one not so much. UGH. In addition the filler hole is so small that it is nearly impossible to get anything in to refill it without spilling oil all over the place... I bought a tiny funnel, too big, broke my oil can in the process of finishing it.

Don't misunderstand the Forza is a fine ride and I enjoy it; very quiet and smooth but I think the engineers should have been supervised on the two above items! LOL

Remember Forza was sales slop in US.

Battery---ride often battery no need to hook up to charger. storage, take battery out.


Final drive oil should be changed every 2 years or so----am speaking from over 400,000 miles with maxi scooters---on 11th new one now.

The new 350 has easy access to the battery, and the transmission oil change is easier than the silverwing, in my opinion.It just took Honda a while..

Glad to hear that! Now if I could get my hands on a 350

I added Motobatt leads to my 300 as I'd taken them off the Silver Wing when I sold it, and it is in a confined space at the front under the seatWhat was interesting was when I was fiddling about and battery power was disconnected for a few seconds, It triggered a message to my iPhone from Scorpion, the 24/7 security company monitoring the Forza's tracker.

My only minor gripe is the stems of the Forza's frame mounted mirrors could be longer. Stick on blind spot mirrors sort that out. The Silver Wing's handlebar mounted mirrors weren't perfect either. I still have the mirror extenders and Magazzi replacement mirrors in the garage.

As for final drive oil fill and drain plugs, I wouldn't know how many my Forza has because I've never looked.

You know Meldrew I am glad you mentioned the small round blind spot mirrors as I had the same thoughts on the 350, not much adjustment bar looking at elbows.

Engineers don't care--- I'm sure some do but everything is done with computers and a price point. Find a way to do this or that in the space we have to work with.

All you guys still looking at your elbows buy some mirror extenders.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

All you guys still looking at your elbows buy some mirror extenders.

It's not as simple as that. Unlike the previous model Forza and the Silver Wing the new Forza 300 and 350’s are a more compact maxi and have the mirrors forward of the handlebars mounted on the bodywork. The backs of the new 300 and 350’s mirrors have large orange LED running lights/turn signals built into them.

We're not looking at elbows either, it's a shoulder thing and more a minor irritation than a gripe. So fitting a couple of stick on convex blind spot mirrors is an inexpensive and easy fix.

Not really relevent but my X9500 Evo had similar mirrors; stick-on blind-spot mirrors solved the 'shoulders' problem.

Blind spot mirrors ordered, as above it is a shame even though the Forza built into the bodywork mirrors look so good you cannot add the mirror extenders that worked a treat on the Silverwing.

It's not really a gripe, I had a look on the Honda UK website today and now that the dealers are open and the Forza 350 is now in the showrooms, they've dropped the Forza 300 from the scooter range.