Earlier this year, I was doing my homework on the Burgman 200 and Honda Forza, and had just decided I would get a Forza when the announcements came about the Xtown 300i and Xciting 400i. My Xciting 500 was apart in the garage, waiting for parts which were needed after I did the stator replacement.
Well, the Xtown and 400i are finally here. The Xciting 400i was pretty high on the list, but the only one available anywhere near me was black. I don't want people to cut me off because they didn't see me, so that one was scratched off right away. Its a shame too, because it ticked ALL the other boxes I was looking for and would have been the clear winner. Maybe next year they will have the bike available in colors other than Invisible, we'll see what happens.
The Xtown was available in both white and gray. White is much better for visibility. Looking at the specs between the Forza and Xtown, there was a whole ton of overlap; it seemed that they would both meet my requirements.
In the end, I got rid of the Xciting 500i. For the 3rd time since I've owned the bike in the last 18 months, it mysteriously died while idling at a stop light, requiring a restart. (Engine warm, everything). I was hoping that after the battery/stator/regulator replacement, the bike would be good. But I now always have that reliability issue in the back of my mind, so it was time to get a different bike.
Of course I still have the Xciting 250, which seems to be bulletproof - but I know enough that I want to have two bikes so that I don't miss riding days because of repairs.
The new bike was, for sure, going to have ABS, and I also wanted to be able to do 70mph without red lining the engine. I don't do a huge amount of highway, but when I do, I don't want to be stressing the engine.
Two things caused me to choose the Forza over the Xtown.
1. The Forza runs @ around 7200rpm, with a redline of 9000, @ 70mph (NOT GPS VERIFIED YET). The Xtown (per the dealer) redlines (which I imagine is @ 8000rpm) at 65mph.
Its important to note that this probably means that the bikes are tuned differently. Both have around the same displacement, and compression ratio. It is quite likely that the Xtown will be faster accelerating up until around 70mph, and will lose less speed on uphills (see below about the windshield). But I want reliability on my bike, and running the Xtown at a likely 8500rpm (based on my experience with the XC250, which I'm assuming is the exact same engine as the Xtown but with an overbored cylinder head) is going to detract from the motor's reliability.
2. The Forza has an 8000 mile oil service interval. The Xtown 300i has an 1800 mile oil service interval. I put ~ 10,000 miles per year on the bikes. When the XC250 was the only bike I had *(which has a 1200mile service interval), it seemed like I was changing the oil all the time.
Well, I drove the Forza home from the dealer yesterday (130 mile trip). I noticed that above 65mph, the Forza drivetrain seems to be a little bit "buzzy" than compared to lower speeds.
Acceleration or top speed wasn't tested, since the motor is being broken in.
When I got home, I noticed that the seat isn't staying up, even though it seems to have some sort of mechanism at the front hinge which suggests it should.
Also, this is a big annoyance for me, my helmet (a Bell Revolver EVO) does NOT fit under the seat in either location (even after consulting the manual). That in itself isn't much of a surprise (and not really the knock against the bike), as the only bike I've found which can do this is the Burgman 200. However, the Forza's helmet hook system is CRAZY stupid. You are required to find the loop of steel wire under your seat, thread it through the helmet's D-hook and back over itself, then hang the other end of the wire around a post under the seat. Seriously, was a helmet hook too much for Honda to muster? Looks like a 50L top box is going to be a mandatory accessory.
Finally the windshield on the Forza is NOT. It is decorative only, and I think that I'll be going deaf from the wind noise @ 70mph. The Xtown has the same tall windshield as on my '06 XC250, which does a decent job of protecting everything but the top of my helmet. The windshield is likely to be the only thing differentiating the top speed of the Forza from the Xtown. All other things being equal, I'd rather have a 75mph top speed with wind protection, than an 85mph buffeting machine. This is one place where the Xtown definitely wins out on.
Addendum: The rear suspension of the forza is VERY harsh, much more than the Xciting suspension dialed in to the highest setting.
