Well Mark we never seemed to be able to find you even though you were
staying a block down the road. I met John George who is lurking around the
list hopefully to join soon, he's from Rock Hill SC. That's the only other
GTS I saw. According to the local paper there were 16,000 people in
attendance. Reason it didn't appear so is the spread out nature of Knoxville
and the Hoot in general. Our opinion was it wasn't nearly as much fun as
Asheville because of this, it sort of lost the "charm" of being in a smaller
city. Also missed was being just a few minutes onto the Parkway, but there
are some decent roads around the area.
AS for a recap for Peter (BTW glad to hear you'll mend up ok), the first few
days Tues-Thurs were very hot, 90+ with high humidity. Friday the rains came
about 1pm ish and lasted the evening. Saturday was wonderful weather wise,
wish it could have been like that the whole week. As for the vendor area,
part was inside and semi airconditioned, and part was outside. Plenty of
parking with some covered parking. Demos were Honda (only Wings and VTXs),
Yamaha (crusers only), Kawasaki (everything), Suzuki (no sportbikes), Ducati
(everything except what Jay just bought but they had one on display),
Aprilia (everthing), Triumph (everything), and Buell (everything). The
Aprilia Futura was interesting, not quite as bad in person as the pictures,
my wife liked it best from the pillion of those we demoed, but I thought the
throttle was very abrupt and not as smooth as other V-twins I rode. The
funky mirrors however were very functional so a thumbs up on them. Rode the
SV650S, very fun bike, like it much better than the regular version. Would
be a great second play bike (Hey Shawn wasn't that what you bought?) Seat
sucked on it and the suspension was a bit soft but what do you expect for
the price, good buy for the buck.
Had an interesting conversation with the Yamaha reps, actually 4 of them at
the same time after they heard me say I was on a GTS. IF anyone is thinking
of the FZ1, they will have bags for it, probably not until Sept-Oct and they
will be soft bags with a plastic inner shell. Givi will have a rack for it
as well but not the Wingrack, the rack will be tubular on the side, no big
plate. They are only going to recommend the E21 bags for the saddlebags
though because Yamaha complained of headshake with larger saddlebags. I also
got to see a blue FJR up close. For those of us in the USA though I think
you can forget it. It definitely won't be here next year ('02) and the gest
I got was it isn't coming ever. Basically what it seemed to boil down to is
Yamaha is convenced that the sport touring market is soft in the USA and
also that the USA will be unwilling to spend the $'s they will want for the
bike. I personnally think they have missed the boat and are still paying for
the failure of the GTS in the USA. They admitted to being questioned about
the FJR alot at the event, but they seem to think that the FJR would get the
same result in the USA that the GTS did, being considered overpriced and not
selling. So for those hoping to get an FJR anytime soon, you better plan a
trip to europe to get it because it doesn't look like it will come to the
USA.
As for the previous comparo between the K12RS and the GTS, we did the K12RS
demo ride (again) and again both myself and the pillion think the GTS is
still far superior. Kevin, if you had done it you would have hated yourself
later.
All in all it was a good event, but we think it should have stayed in
Asheville because the Hoot seemed to lose it's character in Knoxville.
Simply my opinion but I've been to all 8 of them, first one probably just
1000 or so people at best.
Bob B.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark C Evitts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 7:59 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Honda Hoot
Damn Peter!.....Thats terrible you had that car wreck....Knoxville was OK
it only drenched me on Friday after the Ride for the kids poker run (great
ride BTW)...seemed like there were fewer people at the "hoot" .And only two
of the "slower red GTSs " were seen by yours truly. One of which owned by a
guy named Ron from Jacksonville FLA.will be joining the the list shortly.
Get well soon
Mark Evitts
