Here’s a question for you. When are you old? Are you old at fifty years or is it more like sixty? Many years ago you were old when you were thirty; nowadays we live longer so it appears to have moved backward. Let’s call it sixty…what happens on the day you turn sixty? You go to bed middle aged and shazzam you wake up old. That’s a bit rough. So why am I suddenly concerned with how old I am? Well I’m not really; I’m not old, not for a fair while anyway. It’s because I was doing some research on maxi scooters and discovered that as I thought the average rider is…old. In fact after more exhaustive research it appears the likelihood of a young person buying a maxi scooter is 1 in 9,899,9999,345,678. This is…not very likely then.

All this research has caused me to come up with my own theory, see I don’t think it’s quite as simple as ‘old people ride maxi’s’. I believe there’s far more to it than that. I believe it’s a conspiracy of withering proportions; something that could tear at the very fabric of our society. I believe that Maxi scooters actually make you old. That’s right, the very second you purchase one and ride out of dealer…OLD. Instant oldness. What’s worse is that you don’t even know it’s happened. This is why so many maxi scooter owners are older. It’s beyond your control entirely. Remember this as you’re drawn towards the latest super maxi scooter. It could be your last day as a young man/woman.

Large maxi scooters are something I’ve often thought made little sense. Take a small nimble scooter and make it neither small nor nimble. Now that you’ve added all this size and weight add a healthy increase in power and wallah you have an automatic motorcycle. Sadly this adding a healthy dose of power has been skipped so most maxi scooters until recently have just been large heavy two wheeled vehicles with weak and very unexciting power plants. That however is beginning to change, Scooter manufactures have realized this maxi scooter thing is no fad, there’s something to it.

Honda’s latest Silver Wing is a sign of things to come. The engine is no longer an oversized, vibration prone single, it’s a smooth and reasonably powerful in line twin. The 580cc engine in the Silver Wing makes 50hp and propels the Silver Wing to 100kph in just 8.2 seconds. The best part of this is it does it time and time again, just twist the throttle and wammo, you’re cruising at 100kph. CVT transmissions are the future and mark my words, all forms of two wheeled transport will run them twenty years from now. Why however it’s taking so long for manufactures to give us motorcycle performance in our maxi’s is beyond me. After riding the Silver Wing I was even more convinced of how fun a powerful engine and clever CVT combination can be.

The transmission on the Silver Wing is about as good as it gets in scooter land. Drive is smoothly engaged without the horrible wait some bikes make you endure. Once fully engaged at about 20kph the Silver Wing has a fantastic burst of speed until about 80kph when wind versus the large frontal area begins to slow down the acceleration. We had a Gilera Nexus 500 while test riding the Honda Silver Wing and the Honda simply walked away from the Gilera with its far superior engine and drive train. There’s no question the Silver Wing has one of the standout engine and transmission combinations in the maxi scooter world.

Handling wise the Silver Wing is all about cruising, you can try and hustle it along like a lightweight but this will only last a short time as it’s really not in this machines nature. The correct way to ride the Silver Wing is likes so; put your feet forward, sit back into the lumbar support and cruise. The low centre of gravity makes the bike awfully easy to roll from corner to corner. The suspension is on the soft side as Honda were obviously going for the touring market here and hard suspension may be sportier but sure isn’t fun over multiple days. The front shock could however be a little firmer as it does dive a little too much under heavy braking. Given the task of the bike; getting you comfortably and effortlessly to your destination, I’d have to say the ride and handling is a success.

The Silver Wing runs disc brakes front and rear with both an ABS antilock system and CBS; which is Honda’s fancy name for linked front and rear brakes on the left lever. Normally I’m not a huge fan of the linked brakes as they don’t allow you to trail brake into corners with the rear brake. Honda however realized that this is how most people ride and added a pressure and time switch to the linking of the front brake. So if you you’re only using a small amount of pressure for a short time; like when you trail brake into a corner, you’ll only get the rear brake. Clever. I’d still prefer regular brakes as I prefer to control them entirely myself. The last thing you want is too much front brake while turning into a corner on a damp day, with regular brakes that can’t happen.

Ease of use wise the Honda is a bit below average for a maxi, it does have a 55 liter under seat storage area which is good but no better than the Piaggio X8 400 and smaller than the MP3 400. Unlike most of its competitors the Silver Wing doesn’t have any kind of remote release for the under seat storage either. There are two glove boxes up front for smaller items and one of them is also lockable. This seems like the best compromise in my book for glove boxes although I wish they were a little larger. One ease of use issue that will affect most riders however is the massive effort required to get the bike off the centre stand. For smaller riders it almost impossible to get the bike off the stand on any kind of hill. It is however great fun watching somebody try and possibly a great alternative to training at the gym.

Summing up Honda Silver Wing. When it comes down to it, there aren’t a lot of options in the maxi scooter world. Sure there are plenty of different models but if you really want something you a enough power to tour on it really comes down to the Silver Wing or the Suzuki Burgman 650. We’re yet to test the big Suzuki but expect things to be pretty tight as on paper there’s not much in it. Yamaha also has the T-Max which a slightly sportier version of the maxi idea not unlike the Gilera Nexus. We’ll be putting them all head to head soon so we’ll have the definitive result. On it’s own though the Silver Wing is highly recommended, it’s got a great engine and transmission, it’s very comfortable for long rides and will likely last a lifetime as like most Honda’s it’s put together with great care. Oh and don’t worry about the old bit, old people are far smarter than younger people. Because…well old people are simply younger people who have lived longer and know more. So why do they ride maxi’s? Because they make a hell of a lot of sense. Definitely book the Honda Silver Wing in for a test ride.

A QUICK NOTE: Before you send me a strongly worded email or post an ANGRY comment...I don't actually think maxi scooters make you instantly old...that, if you haven't realized is currently science fiction, the article is what is sometimes called...a joke. It appears I may have to amend my story and add SENSITIVITY to the maxi warnings...that's a joke too...

Price USA $8499 - UK 5500 - AUS $12999

0-50km/h	3.1 Seconds
0-100km/h	8.2 Seconds
50-80km/h	3.2 Seconds
Fuel Economy	6.25L/100kms - 38MPG
Speedo Accuracy	50kph displayed = 45kph actual - 100kph displayed = 94 actual
Pros:	Great motor and transmission, very comfortable, good storage
Cons:	Poor gas mileage, Heavy, hard to get off stand, no remote seat release
Handling
Performance
Fuel Consumption
Value for money
Ease of use
Styling
Build quality
Overall Score	74%

Comments (12)

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written by digital dave , November 24, 2009

hi guys like your stuff even though you take the pee out of the maxi bikes. At present I ride a GS1200adv I have an old 98 Pan. I am 56 yrs old and like many other guys here don't give a rats arse that some people think maxi's are for old geezers. Theres a couple of guys in our club that run silver wings Father is 62 son is 38 they each have other high performance bikes. These are mostly covered in dust.As Terry (Father) say's it's not what you ride it's how you ride it. for practical touring is what these two guys use the silver wings for. The stickers on their top boxes showing countries visited would put most big touring types to shame. Europe all of it on a maxi, no problem .Most of the young guns I know do 50 miles max then have to stop to give their wrists and back a rest. no-where to put your ear-plugs, red bull etc. I,m off to buy a A bergman 650. I can put a case of red under the seat with enough kit for a week of jollies. Have done the plastic pocket rocket thing and laughed when terry got a burger, Did'nt laugh for long espesially when I saw these things go through switz Germany and France. Oh Nurbergring Great laugh. The guys on the continent don't have this mentality about scoots I think they are seriously good it's.. not all about posing and age> age has many rewards Like distance it's about perspective. As one retired American guy said to me "opinions are like arseholes everyone has one" look forward to your maxi test comparison. cheers Dave.

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written by vincel , October 23, 2009

Eric, I can only assume you don't spend a lot of time on here... I don't think there are any reviews on here that don't take the piss out of someone or something. It is comedy and meant to amuse... You cannot possibly think that a bunch of guys started a website dedicated to scooters because they were worried about proving the size of their organ?! I'm not a massive fan of Maxi's, mainly because noone has really done one right yet but for what they are they do a reasonable job. We did a decent open road run on the Silverwing and it was good fun for what it was. Like all comedy however there is a grain of truth... the vast majority of Maxi's are sold to... lets say... more mature gentlemen :D

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written by Eric Thompson , April 14, 2009

The silver wing is a great bike in the city and on the freeway, I get 50+ mpg not 38mpg like the reviewer got(infact I don't know how the hell he got such low milage rating maybe at 90mph to 100mph, any bike will do that) and I push the bike hard because it is fun to ride. Also I don't know why you have to be a old fart to ride this bike, I think the reviewer is messup in his head like most ADHD motorcycle guys are, who have some real thing about putting on a trough guy image and riding some bike that has 1800cc engine with very poor gas milage and say look at me I'm trough when infact these guy can't even take on a guy on a scooter! Enjoy the bike it is fun and has the power and a great transmission and good brake, don't let some reviewer or ADHD motorcycle guy make you feel like a dork for riding a maxi scooter, for whatever age.

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written by Ken , December 30, 2008

I had a Silerwing when they first became available in the USA. I loved it! But I kept hearing that Suzuki Burgman 650 were even better. But the Burgmans always had boring, low-visibility colors. Finally I bought a red 2007 Burgman Executive, trading in my black Burgman 650. I weigh about 200 lbs. and am in my 50's. In actual practice, my friends on much bigger motorcycles can't keep up. It is nimble in town traffic and a joy on the open road. In the power setting I can pass just fine going uphill. No problem with a passenger as well.

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written by alan mills , August 25, 2008

good review on S/Wing. but what do you guys want? Poor MPG? It does 55 unless you hammer it - which I frequently do, for the sheer joy! Yes, it could be better. But
storage - brilliant. Acceleration - excillarating (if not in CBR territory) Been there, done it - and yes,at 60+ we move on! With big H continued reliability, I am fulfilled! Who gives a s**t if it does 48?? The DN01 shows Honda's (odd) view of the future, but check out the new VFR - shaftie - at long last.1000 cc - ditto, and push- button shift! Next, and logically, we will have a mix of this techno + Suzuki progammable performance - to the inevitable logic of "tiptronic" on bikes. Go on, dispute my logic on" This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ""

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written by ketzals , August 04, 2008

dvschrtnbr

I'm in agreement, I really was expecting better MPG. Most Maxi scooters are pretty poor compared to what they 'should' be capable of. Given that most Maxis run fairly low power engines it's a a surprise they don't do better overall.

The result we received is what it is. On the open road the Silver Wing will certainly return better MPG. Some owners claim 50MPG. In future we are going to mention that our MPG is predominately a city based test.

The Silver Wing was also driven relatively aggressively as it's just fun too ride that way. :)

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written by dvschrtnbr , August 01, 2008

I'm interested in the fact that the Silverwing had such a low MPG rating compared to other Maxi-Scooters such as the Burgman 650 and the Gilera GP800. I would have thought that the Siverwing with it's smaller but respectfully sized motor 582cc, would have achieved a much better fuel economy.

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written by Ketzal Sterling , April 15, 2008

Cheers Paul, good spotting. Clearly I'm doing too much cut'n paste. Then I've never been known for my grammatical skills or proof reading either..

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written by paul , April 14, 2008

in the Manufacturer Specifications section you stated its a single piston. it has 2 pistions.

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written by Vince Lovrich , April 01, 2008

What specs do you need michiman? generally we take the specs listed for the area of manufacture, or the European spec info. But we may be able to add info if there is something specific...

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written by Michiman , March 31, 2008

Could you please include US standard specs also in your reviews...

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written by doug "kingfish" hum , March 27, 2008

"hollywood"--I am 75yo----had heart attack 10yrs ago--many operations--defib/pacer etc----HAVE NOT owned cage for11 years----ride nothing but bikes--30--35K a yr.---up till past summer owned and rode aprillia 1000---zx6R---ducati--888superbike---------honda F3.----------------practised every day with one or the other (i have owned 61 bikes over last 11 years)----I would have run with ANY amateur rider.----I volountarily stopped last summer because i did not feel my reflexes were up to snuff--------riding sportbikes DID NOT make me younger!!!!!----my burgie does not make me OLDER!!!!---best Kingfish

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