|
HYOSUNG GV650 AQUILA: It's the Korean scootermaker's first mainstream cruiser. |
Hyosung moves into cruiser country
January 22, 2005
Hyosung's new GV650 Aquila is the company's first entry in the lucrative cruiser market – and, unlike some of its more expensive rivals, it looks the part straight out of the box/
There no need to spend extra money on aftermarket components top get that custom look.
It's also got enough grunt to get up the national speed limit with commendable alacrity and cruise there all day, with or without a passenger.
Like its sporty stablemates the Hyosung GT650, GT650S and GT650R, the Aquila is powered by a derivative of the Suzuki SV650 engine, a Ducati-esque double overhead camshaft 90º liquid cooled L-twin with four valves per cylinder.
The motor is cradled in a tubular steel frame styled very much in the mould of Harley-Davidsons' V-Rod |
In deference to the laid-back cruiser lifestyle, however, its tuning has been revised slightly; peak power is down from 59 to 58kW, still at 9 000rpm, while torque has been boosted from 67.9 to 68.5Nm at 7 500rpm – placing it in the same performance category as current 800-1000cc cruisers.
It drives through a five-speed gearbox with rather more widely spaced ratios than the six-speed transmission on the sportsters and final drive is by a quiet and clean-running toothed belt instead of a chain.
The motor is cradled in a tubular steel frame styled very much in the mould of Harley-Davidsons' V-Rod chassis; it tries very hard to looks as if it's been hydroformed like the Milwaukee waterbus but in fact it's just a cleverly bent and welded conventional frame – albeit a very neat one.
The 1700mm wheelbase is designed to give it the rocklike stability you need for cruising the boulevards |
The bike runs on neat three-spoke cast alloy wheels with a 120/70 - ZR18 front tyre and a huge 200/70 – ZR17 gumball on the back. Braking is taken care of by twin front discs with very ordinary two-piston floating callipers in front and an even simpler single-piston unit on the back wheel.
The 1700mm wheelbase is designed to give it the rocklike stability you need for cruising the boulevard at not much faster than walking pace – after all, what's the point of riding something this pretty unless everybody gets a good look at you? – while the low saddle and wide bars should make this 220kg (ouch!) bike easy to manoeuvre, no matter how femorally challenged you are.
Unlike the V-Rod, the Aquila's fuel tank is in the conventional position above the motor; it holds 15 litres, which should give the Aquila a range of nearly 300km.
The Aquila's instrument panel is neat and is uncluttered with a central analogue rev-counter flanked by temperature and fuel gauges and a digital speedometer, once again strongly reminiscent of the V-Rod.
The price of the GV650 will be set as always when it gets here in mid-2005 but, like the rest of the Hyosung range, it should be substantially more affordable than anything else in its class.
|
