After 455 miles riding the AK I think I can give a little bit of an assessment of this scooter. I say "I think" because 90% of those miles is highway so not a lot of slower roads traveled yet.
Starting from the top:
The shield is plenty for my needs and comfort. There is more protection than it would seem just looking at it. Most of the miles so far have been with the shield in the lower position. In this position I do get a stream of wind over the shield and maybe a little around it. But I want that during the warm and hot months when I would have the shield in the low position. I wear a full face helmet (not a modular) and like having the air stream flowing to the vents at the top of my helmet. The wind hits just above the visor on me so that's perfect. I only just recently moved the shield to the upper position and went on a 20 mile ride with it that way. There was plenty of protection with the air stream going over my helmet. This upper position is 1.5 inches higher and not angled back as much as the lower position so that bumps the air just over my helmet. Maybe, just maybe, I feel a little air on the very top but that's to be expected since I am after all on a motor-scooter (If you really want NO wind on you when you ride then stay inside your fully enclosed cage and keep the windows closed).
The seat is comfortable. I was a little concerned about that since I've not sat on a really comfortable stock seat until my CTX1300. My Burgman had a Corbin seat which was very comfortable, much more so than the CTX. Even more so than the Gold Wing I had years ago. I was wondering how many miles before I started to feel like I needed to get off the bike to rest but I just kept going and never got to that point. Either I changed or the stock seats are getting better or this Kymco AK 550 seat in particular is really that good. At least to me it is. I was comfortable the entire 200+ miles of the first day riding back from the dealer as well as 200+ miles on the next day. 406 miles total for both days.
I mentioned before after I first had a chance to sit on one of these how the ergonomics worked out for leg/foot room. I still hold to that. My reach to the grips on the AK has almost just the same feel as my reach was on the Burgman 650. Not enough to really tell any difference, although I'm sure in a side view picture a slight difference can be seen it is so slight so as to be hard to tell.
On my Burgman I found the only really comfortable place for my feet was right at the bend from the level foot board to the slanted foot board. My knees and hips were bent too much to be comfortable for long with my feet fully on the level foot board and the slanted foot board was just a little far away for me. I could keep my feet on the slanted board but my knees were too straight so a bit of a strain. On the AK I find it comfortable to keep my feet on the level foot board for a long time since the seat is higher and the more I ride it the more I am convinced the extra height is between the seat and level foot board. I can also more comfortably put my feet fully on the slanted foot board as well. My feet do still tend to drift to that place right at the notch in between slanted and level foot boards with the ball of my foot on the slant and my heal on the level out of habit. But with the AK I find I just leave my feet on the level foot board more and more. Since there is more distance from the seat to the level boards my hips and knees are not bent as much so are much more comfortable. I used to be young enough when all this didn't matter so much but those years are way past. I do definitely find the foot boards on the AK are longer, but not wider, than on the Burgman 650. So I can slide my feet forward or back a little on the level foot boards, or up or down a little on the slanted foot boards, before running out of foot board. The AK foot boards have a notch between the level and slanted boards that allow my toe to slide even more forward when on the level foot board.
The seat height is more than on MY Burgman 650 and also more than the stock Burgman 650. Burgman seat height = 29.9 inches. AK 550 seat height = 30.9 inches. For my comparison my ST1100 seat height = 31.5 inches. I could flat foot both feet easily on my Burgman. I can also do that on the AK but not as easily. If I slide up a little on the seat I can flat foot both sides but if I stay back in the seat I can only flat foot one side at a time. But the other foot is solidly on the ground if not down on my heal. I am 5 ft 9 in. with a 32 inch inseam. I never feel any instability on the AK while coming to or holding at a stop.
The ride so far is very nice. The engine does rev higher while doing the same thing as the Burgman. The red line is the same on both machines. The low end power feels better on the AK and acceleration also feels better. Holding speed on the Interstate highways at 65 mph is the same even with the engine revving higher on the AK. It does not feel like it's revving too high at any speed once I become accustomed to hearing/feeling/seeing that it is at a higher rpm. Just another something to become used to as with any new bike. Sort of like keeping the Power Mode turned on all the time with the Burgman. So far the mpg is as good as with the Burgman. I wasn't expecting that with this being a NEW bike. Usually mpg starts out a little lower than expected with a new bike and improves as the miles add on. If it goes as is expected then I will be very pleased with the mpg. I actually already am pleased since so far I've been getting around 55 mpg with one tank that I refilled before it was half gone that was below 50 mpg. But that low mpg was expected also since the temps during that part of the ride were below 50 F and in my experience the mpg starts to really drop about there.
The suspension is as good as I've been reading and hearing about in reviews. Going down mildly bouncy roads, where the pavement is not bumpy but just not so flat, the bike behaves as any other bike does and follows the "wave" of the pavement. But on bumps and uneven cracks in pavement the AK front end makes those a little softer than the Burgman did. There is no shock at the front end when hitting those. And the rear soaks up the bumps and uneven cracks as well. The rear shocks are not adjustable on the standard AK 550. There was a special edition that came out overseas a few years ago that did have adjustable shocks but that has not been the norm for the entire run since the end of 2017 when this bike was first announced. Overall I think the suspension is really good.
Almost forgot to mention about the heated grips. I did have a chance to try those out on that one leg of the trip home where the temps dropped below 50 F. I never went above the lowest setting and my hands were hot! I'll be testing just how well they work with my hands and gloves when the temps get really cold, like close to zero F. I'm still skeptical if they will be enough for me at those temps but we'll see.
The built-in features are neat. It is very nice to do a quick check of tire psi using the integrated TPMS and also flip past the voltage dispay. I usually leave it on either the voltage monitor or average mpg display while riding. Someday I'll rig up something temporary to mount my phone to do a cross check compare of the speedometer with the phone GPS.
The keyless system is way different to use than having an actual key but I'm getting used to it. The keyless control is really not as complicated as it looks and doesn't really have as much complexity as it seems at first glance. It basically does the same functions as a standard keyed ignition switch but just without inserting a key. It turns on the bike, opens the seat storage, opens the gas cap cover, locks the handlebars. And that's really it. It is nice not having to find my key to put into the ignition switch, but I do need to make sure I know where that fob is located and that it is secure in a zippered pocket in my gear.
The Noodoe system is cool. It could be much better but still nice to have some of the features enabled on the bike. I've already experienced how the notifications work for missed text messages and missed phone calls. Those only show up when sitting at a stop light for a little while and then go away when I start moving. I've been playing with the navigation that is built into the app. There are many quirks to it but I think I work through those to make it usable for me. Still a work in progress. I have found that if I set a way point just OFF the road I actually ride on the nav tends to want me to keep circling around that point until I hit right on it. That's usually only when I set a way point on a business or landmark that I cannot actually ride exactly to. The only way around it when that happens is to stop and reset the route to start at "my current location" and then it will move on. The nav does recalculate as expected and gets me to where I programmed it to go. It even has voice prompts for turn by turn. I'm still getting used to where some of the settings are in the program. One of the issues that has been reported is that because the Noodoe system, and also the keyless system, is always on in the background then the battery tends to drain more rapidly than any other bike. I have found that this doesn't happen quite as much if I make sure to turn off BT on my phone and also put my keyless fob in a Faraday pouch so the bike isn't continually trying to recognize those when they are near enough to be detected by those systems. I also keep the battery plugged into my battery maintainer. The battery at rest seems to show 12.7 vdc. But after a day it drops to 12.6 vdc unless I keep it plugged into the maintainer. I have ordered a new Battery Tender Plus to use just on my AK and use my other maintainer alternately on my wife's scooter and the JD lawn tractor. There is a setting in the app to enable the bike to remember the BT connection for a set number of days. This plays into the battery drain. The trade off is if I set this to a short time I have to re-pair the bike to the phone if that time is past or if I set this to a longer number of days the battery goes down just a little more. But keeping it connected to the Batt Tender would solve that issue.
I'm having fun on this new scooter and will continue to report on what I learn about it. My first oil/filter change interval is coming up in about 140 miles. I think due to the temp trends of the next many weeks I'll be doing that maintenance a little before the scheduled 600 miles. 461 miles on the odometer right now. I'd like to get at least another 80-90 miles riding before I do that and also get the job done next Tuesday. I say that since that is the next and likely the last day this year that will have temps over 60 F per the current forecast. There are already several videos on YouTube that show doing the oil/filter change so I don't think I need to be redundant about that.
