Faults:

Blew rear tail light bulb at 17000 kilometres.

General Comments:

I love the design philosophy behind this bike; easy to maintain, economical and tough.

It cruises happily at 100-120 kmh at 30 km/litre fuel consumption. Tops out about 130-140, and with a little tweaking would go faster if I could be bothered.

Good handling and ground clearance.

Extremely reliable.

Comfortable riding position. I have fitted lower, wider handlebars as a personal preference.

The seat is at best adequate, although it has improved as it moulds itself to my butt.

Faults:

Err, not a thing. The fact that I can't ride it 24/7. Maybe a slightly different handlebar bend? I'm struggling here. It's a lovely little bike.

General Comments:

I had to change from my Honda CB400 Super Four, coz the wide tank caused my groin to ache (stitches from an operation years ago - don't ask...). I found this Scorpio at a good price, and it fits my lifestyle (such as it is) very well.

First, it is incredibly light (basically a lowered trail bike) and effortless to ride around urban roads. It has a nice spread of torque, with a little push of horsepower from 80 kph to about 120 kph if overtaking. It actually gets smoother from 80 kph to 110 kph or so, with the minor vibes returning over 120 kph. The vibes are no more annoying than a 4 cylinder bike's.

I've lost a third of my income since buying the Super Four, so the lower fuel use (85+ mpg vs 56 mpg), and general cheaper maintenance cost long term, will be important.

Although principally a town bike, I have ridden the Scorpio for rides of several hours at our highway speeds of 100 - 110 kph, which it copes with well. I have only had to use full throttle against strong headwinds maintaining 100 kph, and overtaking at 120 kph. Otherwise it uses 3/4 throttle at 100 kph, which mirrors good air cooled aircraft cruising practice.

The suspension does firm up at higher speeds (i.e. you feel the bumps more) but it maintains good stability over potholes etc., with only longitudinal grooves disturbing the steering - but I found this happened even to the Super Four due to its smaller 17 inch wheels.

I feel there is a more linear relationship between throttle and performance with the Scorpio, it doesn't suddenly wake up and take off, like the Super Four does. The lesser performance allows you to relax more, and just take it easy.

The seat and riding position are great around town, and I was happy after 2 hours of riding, but the last hour was probably an hour too far. I was fine the next day, though.

The forks are a little sensitive to the brakes and dive too much (but never bottomed), while the rear serves regular mild boots up the backside, but keeps the whole show on line satisfactorily.

Overall, I feel very happy about my Scorpio. It gives me a capable, fairly comfortable, economical and incredibly easy to ride bike, that lets me commute, shop and cruise about in a fun, easy manner. It takes me as far as I'm capable of riding, and gives me a lot of riding pleasure while saving me heaps of money.

I would ideally like a bigger engine (a Honda XL 350 was my all time favourite bike), but the lower petrol use is definitely an advantage in these times.