Let me get into the details of the Voge300 on this trip.
I have now had the bike for just over 1,500km of which 960km was done in two days (Friday and Saturday). In these two days I have ridden the bike in pretty much every terrain that you will encounter on a Dual Sport Adventure Ride. The terrain that I covered ranged from:
- Extremely good tar (N3, N5)
- Very good tar roads (R546, R50, R57, R74)
- Good tar roads with some patches (R714, R712)
- Twisty Tar Roads (Golden Gate)
- Bad tar roads (Tintwa Pass)
- ****** tar roads that does not know if it wants to be tar or gravel (R722 Verkykerskop to Memel)
- Extremely good gravel highways
- Looser, rocky dirt roads
- Badly corrugated dirt roads
- Bad dirt roads with big holes and missing pieces
- Dirt tracks wide enough for cars to pass each other slowly
- Twee Spoor (clean and overgrown)
- Single Track (clean and overgrown)
- ****** road like Bezuidenhoudt’s Pass
- Very strong side winds.
So, as you can see I did pretty much all the possible surfaces in these two days, apart from:
- Thick Sand
- Thick and slippery mud
- Deep, long and sketchy water crossings
- Snow / Ice
- I did not ride in any rain, so no wet roads
I spent a total of 15h 41m in the saddle during these two days and I was loaded with 2 x 10L Soft Luggage Saddle Bags, a tent/mattrass/sleeping bag on the rear luggage rack and a small tank bag and here are my thoughts:
I love this little bike, it does everything that I want it to do and I have had zero mechanical issues with it. I could cruise at 100 to 110kph all day long. On good dirt, I could do the same. At this speed the bike runs at about 7,000 to 7,500rpm. Red line is at 10,000rpm, so there is still a bit left in the rev range.
Power is obviously low, and I come off a 1090AdvR, so I notice the lack of power! But slowing things down makes the whole ride different and you need to change your mind about the ride that you are doing. Yes, I did miss sitting at 160kph on the long tar stretches, but I did not miss the 230kg going down Bez Pass, so everything is a compromise. I probably weigh 115kg with all my kit and camelback and the bike was loaded with gear, so this also plays a role in the power numbers. But I can live with it.
Wind protection is good for me (I am 1.78m tall) and because I am only going at 110kph, wind is not such an issue for me. The 20mm bar-raisers and the wider footpegs that I fitted helps with standing, and standing is comfortable. I also had no issue getting on and off the bike like a normal person, and not like I always used to do on all my other bikes, by climbing onto the foot-peg while the bike is on the side stand. The bike is the perfect height for me.
The built-in USB port is great and I could run my phone plugged in all the time while riding. Unlike some other USB Ports, this port actually charges your phone and does not merely keep it at the current level of charge. Would have been nice to have a clock on the dash as well.
The seat is OK, but any seat will chew your *** when you sit on it for 8 hours. Again, I can live with it.
Fuel consumption, well I do not care and I do not record or check it, but I assume it will be about 23 to 25km/L or thereabouts. There is no Fuel Guage, so you need to keep track of the trip meter to know your range. I filled up when I got to between 150 and 180km’s on the Trip Meter. The bike has a 12L tank, so you should be able to get 250km per tank. I will still test this with a small Jerrycan on the back and ride till I run out of fuel.
One place where you cannot get top quality components at this price point is suspension and it is what it is. The rear I find is actually not all that bad, but a little on the soft side and it will bottom out when you get some airtime. The rear is nonadjustable, but you can set the pre-load. I might increase the pre-load a bit when I do another trip, just to see if it makes any difference. The front suspension is where I feel this bike is lacking. I certainly found the limits of the front shocks. It is not that they are too soft or spongy, I actually found them the most difficult on faster speeds on dirt roads when you hit a hole or ditch or something at speed. It feels like there is no give at all and you feel the hits in your hands and all the way up your arms. Also corrugations are even more kak than usual! The forks are also nonadjustable. Not sure what can be done about this.
I found the front brakes to be decent enough for this bike, but found the rear brake very weak and I had to step on it full blast to get any bite out of it. This was not such an issue as I was not going all that fast, but I would like better bite out of the rear brakes. Maybe they just need a bit of adjusting.
Tyres were absolutely fine for a trip like this, no issues at all. I ran 1.5bar in the front and 1.7bar in the rear.
So, the only negatives I can think of is:
- Front Suspension
- Rear Brake
- No Fuel Guage
- Clock on the Dash
The positives far outnumber these few negatives, and this bike really inspires confidence and I had an absolute blast riding it!
