its not new.

its really funny , I have people ask me all the time what my bike is and is it new , its strange that my bike is 2004 and I have people at my work say they have never seen one before. the cool thing about this is the s wing is still a good looking bike that people think is new model.

I have had a SWing for about 4 years now. My current one is a 2007. I stopped at a coffee shop yesterday, it's one of our usual stops, and a car driver looked over the bike very intensely and finally asked me all about it !
Jay.

I like riding something that nobody else in the area has. I have had the same questions asked and sometimes comments like...wow that is a big ass scooter...what is it? One of my favorites is when some youngun pulls up beside me at a traffic signal...looks over and asks if I will be sure to move way over to the right of the road so all can get by safely. It never gets old when I smoke them. The facial expression has changed by the next light. Ride Often !

When I tell people that I ride a scooter they tend to think one of those little Chinese 50 cc scoots. When I tell them it's a 600 cc and will do Interstate speeds all day without breathing hard they sort of scratch their head. 600 cc? They make them that big? Then when they do see it they go WOW! that looks nice. Then I show them the under seat storage and trunk because most of the little scoots don't have that.

Now I can't wait to see their faces once I can take the SWing Trike out. I have a few that I've shown pics of mine to them and they can't wait to see it in person. Although, one person around my age I know likes to flaunt what he has and likes to mention how much money he has. He said, "Well that's nothing. I have a Harley Trike!" The only thing is that as long as I've known him I've never seen him on it. Oh Well.

Dale I've had fun at the grocery store with that under seat storage people just stare when I start loading up.

I think you're exaggerating a bit about the usefulness of under seat storage on the Silver Wing. It may be 55 litres but it's awkwardly shaped, being deeper at the rider seat end, and with those useless spacers on either side half way along. It's only going to be useful for groceries or shopping generally if you ride with it almost empty.  

Wouldn't you be carrying at least a bit of underseat junk? In my case it would be a few tools and a tubeless tyre repair kit, small bottle of oil, spare bulb kit, first aid kit, large locking Abus chain, usually a storage pouch of waterproofs, and bag with extra Pertex windproof layers, LED lamp for underseat illumination, spare gloves, and a couple of sundry items.

So even moving stuff about and leaving items at home there's not much room for bags of groceries.


Neither is that warm engine heated under seat compartment an ideal environment to store perishable food items in that warm engine when you're a long way from home, unless you're carrying a cool bag and ice packs.

I don't find it useful for storing a helmet either, and when I it's my open face at the rear end where there's a bit more height.

Even carefully packed I've found that there's insufficient space under there to store two jackets and back protectors, or two jackets and riding pants, the usual stuff you strip off when visiting somewhere in hot weather.

So for this I put discarded riding gear inside a large Ortlieb bag secured to the rear seat with a Pacsafe steel mesh net and a couple of padlocks, Helmets go into the very useful Givi E55 top box.

The top box also is very handy for bags of supermarket groceries, bulky items like bags of flour or cans might go under the seat, just to save a bit of weight and space in the top box.


I haven't had anyone one looking at me putting stuff away on a maxi scooter since my Helix days over 20 years ago. Maxi scooters aren't a rare sight in the UK,  and smaller capacity scooters seem to be a permanent fixture outside any large supermarket, belonging to either customers or supermarket staff.

Meldrew I didn't quantify the number of bags nor items and the under storage was empty and the trip about 20 minuets, it was THE LOOK they had, more than likely thinking where the heck is he going to put that One must realize one isn't going to put a week or month supply under there and shop accordingly. Motorcycles are pretty common here scooters like ours ARE NOT so they tend to get that look.

@oldwingguy ,
Similar experience here. I've used top case previously. Have one on order for my current Swing.

Packing a scooter reminds me of this video of deaf guy that travels on scooters and ALWAYS over packs.
You can turn the sound off/down as his girl friend picks lousy music (my opinion).

carolina wing rider wrote:

..wow that is a big ass scooter...

Every time I pull into the garage and pull up behind mine I think about it's "BIG ASS". A lot wider than my Vulcan Drifter from behind.

" Dale, Since my GT3 conversion, there has not a day gone by ( when I was riding), that someone did not stop and start a conversation about the trike AND about it being a scooter.....(Maxi) scooter.

Dale N. wrote:

When I tell people that I ride a scooter they tend to think one of those little Chinese 50 cc scoots. When I tell them it's a 600 cc and will do Interstate speeds all day without breathing hard they sort of scratch their head. 600 cc? They make them that big? Then when they do see it they go WOW! that looks nice. Then I show them the under seat storage and trunk because most of the little scoots don't have that.

Now I can't wait to see their faces once I can take the SWing Trike out. I have a few that I've shown pics of mine to them and they can't wait to see it in person. Although, one person around my age I know likes to flaunt what he has and likes to mention how much money he has. He said, "Well that's nothing. I have a Harley Trike!" The only thing is that as long as I've known him I've never seen him on it. Oh Well.

I hope you expressed your sympathy for his misfortune.

Lloyd193.