hey good lookin'; not much cookin!
Written: Jan 31 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: style and price
Cons: engine stumble, comfort
|
|
|
| tsegnit's Full Review: 2000 Suzuki MARAUDER 800 |
Bought a '97 Marauder brand new; knock-out looks, low price and known Suzuki dependability prompted purchase. No demo rides allowed, but I figured, what the hey! Well folks, by the time I got home (about 24 miles), I placed an order for the one piece gel seat; talk about uncomfortable!
Once that item was fixed, things were looking up. The lack of a tach on a motorcycle always bothered me, and this one was no different. The V-twin (which I had experienced on a friends' Intruder) disappointed me. Carburetion stumbles, lack of basic "grunt". After investigating the situation, it seems that Suzuki strangled the twins' intake and exhaust a wee bit too much. Jet kit and drag pipes helped, but could never get rid of the stumbling after numerous trips back to the dealer. Besides that, who was the genius who made such unequal length exhaust pipes?
During handling maneuvers, the 16 inch front Dunlop felt firmly planted, partially in part to the inverted fork set-up. The forward placed foot controls dig into the pavement and take some getting used to) before the tires and suspension are used up. But this is a cruiser, not a corner carver. Use it for what it was intended and all will be forgiven.
Styling is pretty much an all around thumbs up; a few niggling aesthetic goofs that don't work together, but not enough to really bother your admiring public.
At around the 1500 mile mark, the clutch started to go away periodically. Checked all adjustments, couldn't find anything out of whack. Went to dealer (with an attitude)... "you must have been driving in sand or oil to make the rear tire slip and that's why it felt why the clutch was slipping". Yeah right, and I just bought a bridge in Brooklyn real cheap.
After digging for some dirt on the subject, an "official, unofficial" bulletin came to light. Seems that on some Marauders, the back torque eliminator for the clutch was installed backwards. The dealer didn't want to know anything about it; I got tired of the engine hiccups and clutch slippage. The Marauder has gone down that long lonesome road of unwanted motorcycles.... sorry old girl; you were good lookin' but didn't have much cookin'.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tsegnit
|
|
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.