I bought another new motorcycle last week! And it's.... CHINESE

So yeah... I'm at 12k miles on this bike now. I actually found that while it's a cafe style... the ground clearance and suspension travel and stock skid plate and tall handlebars and upright seating position made it really fun on gravel roads. So... I un-did the cafe look. I swapped out the 15" rear and 17" front rims and put on a 17" rear rim and 19" front. Some hand guards, a custom seat (I did all the foam and made the cover), gearing changes, a new exhaust, and this is what I ended up with.

As you can see, I've even done a little touring on it. First pic has Kenda big blocks, second and third are running Conti Escapes.

Charles.

I put 10k miles on this Buccaneer with only minor issues. The LED turn signals liked to vibrate themselves to death at the beginning. All were replaced under warranty. Eventually they redesigned them and now I've been running the same four signals for 7000 miles or so. But I did have one major issue. If you look at the first pic above, look behind the "20" number plate. Then look at the next photo and look at the same area. That aftermarket luggage rack was not a good idea. The passenger section of the frame has no support underneath it, and the frame broke about 3 months out of warranty. The frame was redesigned in 2018 for all markets (Southeast asia, europe, uk, and china) to add those support bars, but SSR only imported the first model year - 2017. Apparently a lot of them because they're still selling those 2017s. That tiny brown tailbag is all I ever had on the luggage rack, and even then it only ever held sunglasses, earplugs and gloves most of the time. The heaviest I ever carried in it was a 6-pack of beer. Well.... even though I was out of warranty SSR replaced my frame completely on their dime. I've got the new style frame with the support bars, and now I can actually carry real weight on the luggage rack. It took several months to wait on the frame, and then on the dealer to have time to do a complete frame-off, but they did it and I didn't have to pay a cent. So I'm greatly impressed with SSR. They earned my repeat business.

Also, i've really been flogging this thing. The rev limiter kicks in at 9000 rpm, and I've geared it down so it does 81mph right before the rev limiter kicks in. And then I've been riding it on the interstate at 70-75mph, very close to max revs, for hours and hours on end. I love this thing. It cost me $3200 brand new and it's just a blast to ride.

Charles.