Like the 550, the 650 was overweight at 500lbs, most of the difference in mass coming from the bigger bike’s shaft drive. The bike was a bit of a bitch to manoeuvre at low speeds, especially against a steep camber but at higher speeds the stability is excellent, if at the expense of sheer flickability. The shaft drive must be one of the best in the business, most of the harshness and intrusiveness apparent on other bikes is just not present on this machine. A friend on a BMW is always complaining about the way the direct shaft drive does nasty things on snow and wet roads, but the Kat behaves itself in a commendable manner.
I think part of the security I find from the bike comes from the excellent ergonomics. OK, if you’ve got short arms I can believe that the riding position is a bit of a strain as it’s a long reach to the bars over the lovely lines of the tank, but for me everything falls so easily to hand that even the thin seat doesn’t intrude too greatly into the long distance equation.
I feel the bike falls into a rather unique category. It looks like it should behave like a racer but is very civilised to own and ride. The engine is an old style four with a mere two valves per cylinder that runs out of steam come ten grand. With the heritage of the ultra tough 550 and 750 fours behind it, it’s not so surprising that reliability and longevity are its main hallmarks. Hard used engines do occasionally burn out the valves and there may be problems with some gearboxes (although, check the gear change linkage first because the joints wear fast and make the box appear jerky). The gearchange on my bike was a bit clunky, but I think that this was probably the one effect of the shaft drive rather than a direct consequence of the gearbox falling apart. Otherwise, I’ve had none of these problems.
The bike averages 40 to 45mpg under hard use or around town but the Kat returns about 50 to 55mpg on longer runs. Oil consumption was not too high - a little topping up needed every 500 miles. Engine cooling was aided by a built in oil cooler which must have helped the motor as it’s quite heavily tuned.
My main problem was with pillions who tended to complain at being stuck up in the airstream, thanks to the raised rear seat, itself not so comfortable for pillions. A few minutes at 80 to 90mph will have young ladies looking for anew boyfriend with an XRi. The brakes are the kind of thing you either love or loathe. Depending on your point of view, the front discs are either wonderfully powerful and rescue you from the craziness of blind car drivers or they are ultra sensitive things that promote excess dive and make the front wheel leap up at low speeds when the machine is leant over. I’m well used to them and think they're great.
The rear is also a disc but doesn’t intrude so viciously into my consciousness. All the disc actually work in the wet without any lag. Tyre wear can be a bit frightening, the rear cover down to the limit in less than 4500 miles, although I’ve found pad wear quite acceptable despite making a couple of emergency 100mph stops.
The GS range is well known for going through chains at an appalling rate, partly thanks to tiny gearbox sprockets, but the 650, of course, has a minimal maintenance shaft and I have a good laugh at mates who find they have to dismantle the whole rear end of their superbikes just to change the chain because there aren’t any split links in O-ring chains. Once used to a shaft, you just don’t want to go back to a dirty, noisy, troublesome chain.
I find I can do just about anything that I want with the Kat. It’s an excellent 100mph tourer if you can find the roads (it'll purr up to about 120mph), but it’s also quite nifty down the back lanes when the excellent stability compensates for the slowness of steering and excess mass.
The suspension is reasonably taut and, along with the steering geometry, makes sure that there are none of the weaves or wobbles apparently endemic to older Honda fours. I’ve ridden the thing over bumps and holes in the road when leaned over without the bike throwing a wobbly. Yes, I’m impressed with the way the thing handles.
Maybe I’ve been lucky, but I’ve had no problems with the electrics. The latest theory on why GS engines burn out their alternators is that the oil isn’t changed regularly, allowing the engine to overheat and melt the windings. Perhaps the fact that the 650 has an oil cooler helps. It’s a great pity that such a tough range of engines should be ruined by such a simple fault - all it'd take would be thicker wire or uprated electronic coma Test ride with the lights on and check the alternator and regulator/rectifier connections to see if they have been tampered with.
While on the electrics, the lights were more than adequate, the beast roared into life at the gentlest touch of the button whether we were in the depths of winter or the rare heat of a summer day, but the combined high/low indicator switch wasn’t a clever idea, as use of one function tended to operate the other as well.
Such are the looks of the Kat, that it must have gained instant classic status the moment it hit the showroom floor, the fact that those looks are backed up by a strong, powerful motor and usable chassis means that if I hang on to mine for ten years I’m sure it'll be worth a lot more than the £750 I paid for it. My only problem is that I’ve just received the insurance renewal (imagine, the 673cc Kat is vastly more expensive than the latest 600cc superbikes) and think I'll have to console myself with the thought of once having owned one of the more interesting Jap fours.
Martin Peters