Ah bum, I only got to see this thread way late, Jim; I've owned an SLR from new in 1998, and used it daily for 18months. Its a perfect combination of handling and braking, but it has some problems. No matter what you do with the gearing there's no way you would EVER get it to pass 95mph - I tried them all! Fork seals are very rapid wear even from new, soon has oil pissing down the legs. There are some design funnies due to it being a Montessa design using Honda parts, so the main ignition fuse isn't in the fuse box its on the side of the CDI box....under the tail! Choke cable rusts up easily, and the choke plunger (an enrichener circuit :-( ) corrodes open or closed. The seat cover splits easily on segment joins, being a roadified trailbike.
However - I never threw it up the road though its well abused and mistreated. Reacts well to road tyres being fitted. A lot lighter than the Nx650 Dominator. Once the rear suspension is dialled up harder its a great handler.
The BMW however; you'll find the Funduro front brake very squeaky and moany. And the clutch. The clutch is the BIG weak point on these. The engine bottom end is very identifably a Rotax, and is shared with the first two models of Aprilia Pegaso. Only differences are the top end, the Pegaso had a FIVE-valve head, the BMW has a four valve head.
Anyway, back to the clutch. Its still pretty much the same unit as in all those air-cooled Rotax trail. bikes; weak as f*ck. It'll moan if you try to slip it, you'll get used to its on-off ways but use it as an on-off switch until you ARE used to it. BMW refused to sign off on the design - the original F650s were built by Aprilia for BMW for about 6 years, yours may be one of those - until extra mods were made to the clutch. There's an odd design foible in that the clutch is attached to the engine as normal....but instead of when you pull the lever you work a cam or pushrod to PUSH the clutch apart. on this design part of the cluthc mechanism is actually mounted in the side panel! So when you work the clutch, the mechanism to disengage works by PULLING the plates apart into the side panel section, if you see what I mean! The aircooled bikes were notorious for alignment problems and rapid wear - I had a Rotax-engined Jawa 500R also - the Aprilia Pegaso saw the alignment and rapid wear sorted, but the clutch was still on-off and moaned. And apparently the BMW is the same.
The ONLY other problem is very simple; the front end "washes out" VERY easily and can high-side you! Yet the identical geometry Pegaso using upside-down forks never did, and is the MOST amazing bike you'll ever ride! Whey the difference? Noone knows, just watch for it.
Performance-wise you'll get a genuine 105 out of the BMW.....but the 5-valve Aprilia head is good for a genuine 115! Where the Honda DOES score in performance is the almost-DECADES of Honda 4-valve 650 tuning parts and knowledge thats out there! Especially in the USA. So that 95mph barrier on the SLR would have been easily overcome.
