650 manual gear change

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OldEssexman
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2017 9:14 am
Current Ride: 2017 650 Exec

650 manual gear change

Post by OldEssexman »

My 650 Executive is three years old next month and has now covered 52k miles. I am very happy with it, find it a comfortable ride and use it a lot on motorways/dual carriageways. This leads me to my question; I have seen on various forums comments like "put it into manual top on motorways to give the CVT an easier time".

Is there any sense behind this comment?

Davefirestorm
Posts: 93
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 12:58 pm
Current Ride: Burgman 650

Re: 650 manual gear change

Post by Davefirestorm »

You may find that the gear selected by the bike when in automatic mode isn’t always top gear when on a motorway/open road so by putting into manual mode you can be sure top is selected,whether this makes for better economy is arguable :D

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Data
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Posts: 3216
Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 6:43 am
Current Ride: 2016 Vespa GTS300ie abs asr
Location: North Essex, UK

Re: 650 manual gear change

Post by Data »

Usually it makes no difference at all by selecting top gear manually. It does depend on how heavy you are loaded and how fast you are going though, uphill or downhill etc. I always used the auto 'D' function pretty much all the time. For me, going manual never really altered anything. Fuel economy wasn't on my radar either at that time. All my 650 bikes broke their belts at either 35,000, 45,000 or 88,000 miles. The one at 88,000 miles was the actual mileage the belt had covered since I replaced the first one at 35,000 miles. The bike at that time had over 120,000 miles on the clock having had the first belt replaced at 35,000 miles. Had two of them, great bikes if you can afford the huge costs of fixing them. That for me was their only weakness. I went 400 Burgman after that and had no such issues. I would point out that the initial belt breakages were due to an idiot at my company doing the fast run in technique. That over heated the belts and caused them to break prematurely. It's well known if you go motoman, it can wreck the tranny on those bikes. So I don't think you need to worry about your belt for a good while.
Probably not ugly enough for the 'Ugly Bunch'! :lol:

Been riding for 54 years & owned too many bikes to list here...

OldEssexman
Posts: 25
Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2017 9:14 am
Current Ride: 2017 650 Exec

Re: 650 manual gear change

Post by OldEssexman »

The belt on my 650 failed at 33k miles. Forunately, the bike was still under Suzuki warranty and, after a bit of to and fro with them initially saying "these belts don't fail", they agreed to replace the whole CVT. This was fitted at their expense and, so far so good with the replacement. They asked for the old CVT to be sent to them, together with the broken belt but, despite my dealer making enquiries about what was found, no answer was the stern reply. According to my dealer, this is par for the course for Suzuki.

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