The Suzuki AN400 Burgman the Alternative Ride

A few eyebrows were raised when I announced what long-term bike I was going for this year. I think few of my friends where expecting me to go for something expensive, exotic, fast and fantastical... and who could blame me if I did? I am, after all, somebody who had in the past the most dangerously fast bikes you could possible think off. Well, as you've hopefully gathered by now, there's a lot more goes into it than simply looking for means of transport.

As nice as it would be to have the latest adventure-hyper-sport-touring-megamoto to play with, it just wouldn't make much sense for me really; I use a motorcycle like I use a car, as an everyday method of getting from A to B. I ride on a variety of roads, from busy city work to rural highways and A and B roads, and at all times of day and night. I need storage capacity, weather protection and comfort a lot more than I need radial brakes, 170 horsepower and carbon fiber body panels...

Fortunately, motorcycle manufacturers seem to have realized that a fair few people share the same needs and desires for their two-wheeled conveyance, and as a result there's a seemingly endless choice of practical alternative out there. Not one to follow convention, I went for the alternative to the alternative and opted for what many conceive as the next best thing to the car.

So, my first month with the Suzuki Burgman? Not a bad one actually; I'm rejoicing at the fact the weather protection kept me out of the worst of a completely unexpected rain shower; amazed at the amount of things I can stuff in the underneath storage bay. I'm positively overjoyed at the ease with which I can negotiate the Bangkok traffic with that continues variable transmission. And wondering just how I managed to live without things like a charging socket for my mobile phone (as we all know the use of our Bluetooth devices is draining the phones battery most of the time faster then the journey from A to B.

So far, the Suzuki Burgman and I have clocked up just over 2,000 kilometers - all trouble free I might add - so needless to say, we're well past the 900 kilometers first service; done just up the road at RedBaron Bangkok for just a fraction of what it would cost me to service one of our other motorcycles