Like any v-twin sport bike, you can slightly feel the power pulses in the bars and the foot pegs. However, they are not unpleasant. Your hands and feet do not go to sleep like they do with the high-frequency buzz from inline fours. After the four hours of riding on the club ride I felt no discomfort from vibration.

The fairing offered good chest protection, and left my head in clear air. As a short person, I sometimes have trouble with the turbulent air coming off a sport bike windscreen impacting me right at the base of the helmet, causing a great deal of wind noise and pushing my head around. The Hyosung's windscreen was low enough to leave my head in clear air, and send the turbulence at and just over my shoulders, even at speeds above 100 mph.

Speaking of speeds, the speedometer reads high. At first I thought that I was feeling really comfortable on this bike right away because I was hitting some favorite corners at speeds approaching what I do on my own bike, and I did not feel like I was pushing hard. It seemed too easy, felt a little funny, and I began to get suspicious. Then one of those “Warning! Your speed is...” radar warning signs confirmed my suspicions. So I went home, got out the GPS, and did a speedometer calibration ride. It is way off. The speedo, not the GPS. In fact, I think this one is bad enough to be considered a semi-serious design flaw. The only redeeming feature is that you will never get a speeding ticket with this bike if you trust the speedo. Here are the results:

So at 70 mph (112 kph) indicated on the motorway/interstate, you are only actually doing 63 mph (101 kph) and risk getting run over from behind. I think Hyosung needs to step up to this one and fix it, especially since this bike has a digital LCD instrument cluster, so we are really only talking about software.

Past reviews of the Hyosung 650 lineup have had rather critical assessments of the brakes. The accusations and descriptions used words like “wooden”, and “no feedback”, and suggestions were made that Hyosung ought to be introduced to companies like Nissin or Brembo. Hyosung must have heard them, because although the brake calipers still appear to be “no name” calipers, the brakes worked well on this 2008 model. My only complaint was that I am used to steel braided brake lines and sintered metal pads on my own bike, so I am used to an initial hard bite and instant reaction with little effort. The Hyosung is typical of a bike that spends the first little bit of brake pressure to swell up the rubber brake lines, and then starts applying real pressure to the pads. I had to use more pressure on the lever than I am used to, but the brakes performed well. I was even able to do a stoppie. I am a habitual two-fingered braker (and two of our 2WF staffers are MSF Coaches who will no doubt chastise me for mentioning that), and that included a bit of two-fingered emergency braking to avoid a family of pheasants wandering across a blind apex. I simply never had any problems with the brakes. If I had to make a suggestion to Hyosung, I would suggest a caliper with a little bit larger piston diameter to reduce the required finger pressure.

I can safely say that the brakes are not dangerous, they work fine, they simply suffer from the same factory stock “rubber hose syndrome” that many budget bikes and a few more expensive bikes suffer from. As far as this bike is concerned, changing to steel lines and sintered metal pads is not necessary, and is more of a personal style choice regarding brake lever feel.

Before getting into the details of the suspension, let me make a few general comments. A new rider, or an intermediate to experienced rider who has no intentions of doing track days and canyon carving with this bike will find the stock suspension to be perfectly fine. The bike is stable, tracks well, takes the bumps without doing anything weird, and provides a feeling of solid confidence that belies the price of the bike. I pushed this bike over to some pretty aggressive lean angles, and there were no hidden frame or suspension surprises anywhere in the range. The bike is very flickable and nimble, even with a full fuel tank, and responds without complaint. I weigh 185 pounds (84 kg) and the ride is what I would call medium firmness. Not stiff, but not loose and bouncy either. Quite frankly I was expecting much worse, and the bike pleasantly surprised me. I was also a bit surprised about the flickability, because this bike is advertised as weighing 195 to 200 kilograms dry, which is around 430 pounds. It does not feel that heavy at all. Hyosung did an excellent job with mass centralization and keeping the center of gravity low. The bike has lighter weight multi-spoke wheels reminiscent of Honda VFR wheels rather than the big fat heavy three-spoke wheels currently in vogue, keeping the unsprung weight down. In its stock form, the bike handles well.

Now having said all that, if you are a weekend aggressive canyon carver, and ride in the “A” class on track days, a couple of things have to happen. If you are a newbie rider or a “B” or “C” class track day rider, ignore what I am about to say, and save your money.

The Comet has an interesting design approach to the front suspension. There are adjustments for the compression damping and the rebound damping, but you cannot adjust the spring preload. I have never seen this particular combination on a bike before, but if you think about it, this combination makes sense if you are trying to build a budget bike that will still appeal to more advanced riders. Once you dial in the right spring rate and preload on a bike, do you ever touch it again? No, most people don't. What do you mess with? The damping. So if you do not like the spring preload that comes in the Hyosung forks, take the front forks apart and install some sort of shims. If the spring rate bothers you, call up your friendly local after market spring provider, install some new springs tailored to you, and you will still have the stock damping adjusters for the minor tweaks. The front forks are the upside down type, and even under heavy braking and stoppie conditions I never felt a single wiggle or any chatter. How they did this in this price range is beyond me, but they did. The front forks on some bikes that cost twice as much do not perform as well.

Again for the aggressive canyon carvers and “A” class track day riders, a new rear shock is in order. The stock rear shock handles most everything reasonably well as long as you are not out deliberately approaching the ragged edge of disaster. I got into serious “pogo-stick mode” on a roller-coaster twisty road, things got a bit wiggly and exciting, but in all fairness to Hyosung I was pretty far out there and being a bit of a smart-aleck hooligan. If you are going to seriously push this bike, invest in a rear shock. Once you do that, you will be able to sneak up on some 600 super sport riders in the twisties and mess with 'em. For about half the price. But don't expect to stay with them on the straights unless they fumble a shift.

I did not take the bike down to Germany and try a high-speed test on the Autobahn, but I was a bit of a bad boy and snuck up on 200 kph, which is 125 mph. That was a GPS measured 200 kph, not speedo measured. The bike was perfectly stable and had more to give. I just cannot tell you how much more, although the advertising here in Europe says top speed is 219 kph, or 136 mph. The GT650R is a small bike, about the size of a CBR600RR or an R6, so it will feel light and a bit twitchy in windy conditions at high speed. But it is no worse than any other 600-class bike.

I measured the gas mileage over a two-day period that included my normal commute to my day job, plus the club ride that ranged from motorway speeds to playing in the twisties. The first tank of gas included the brief sneak peak at 200 kph (125 mph), and I got 18.5 kilometers per liter (43.4 miles per gallon.) On the second tank I measured 21.3 kilometers per liter (50.3 miles per gallon.) For our European readers, that is an average of 5.1 liters per 100 kilometers. I did not have enough time to do a maximum fuel economy test, but I am convinced that with a sensible rider who is easy on the throttle instead of a Two Wheel Freak, this motorcycle will reach 25 kilometers per liter (60 miles per gallon.) I was just having too much fun playing to be that sensible.

It is not possible to test the bike's reliability and one of the unknowns about Hyosung is, are they quality bikes? Will they last? I can only guess based upon past experience with similar design concepts from other manufacturers, and from what I can see the bike looks like a reasonable quality bike that should be reliable. It is definitely not a cheap chintzy copy of anything. The bikes have not been on the European and USA markets long, so there just isn't that much history from which to judge. There are a few tiny nitpicks like that minimal clutch cable holder, the dubious mirror quality, the turn signal innards, the lambda sensor location, but they all appear to be little things, most of which can be sorted out by any competent mechanic. Overall this motorcycle gives mostly positive signals with a few disappointing minor surprises thrown in, but in all fairness other manufacturers have been guilty of the same and only time will tell. As a data point, consider this: Germany, the home of BMW, is the largest European market for Hyosung. German Hyosung dealers have the factory's ear because the motorcycles sell so well there. In some places you see them selling Hyosung side by side with BMW. That ought to tell you something.

Although the GT650R does a respectable job in the twisties, it is not a 600 Super Sport killer. It is an entry-level budget sport bike that does a very credible job for a very reasonable price, and provides a great deal of fun in the process. Will it compete effectively against a SV650? I think it is initially at a slight disadvantage only due to the rear shock. Change that and you will have a SV650 killer. The Comet has 10 more horsepower. During the four-hour Sunday club ride, and despite my stupidity with idle speed adjustments, the GT650R hung with the likes of a GSX-R750, a Z-750, a GSX600, several FZ-6's and Bandits, and pretty much walked away from the sport-touring bikes like a ZZR 1400 and BMW K1200S in the twisties. This is not a motorcycle that anyone has to make excuses for. Commuting on this bike will be like commuting on any sport bike with sport bike ergonomics, and the gas mileage will be excellent. If you are willing to do long trips on a sport bike, this one is no worse than any other.

Would I buy one? Yes, I think so. What is going through my head is that I really really want to see the 1000cc v-twin first. The thought of riding something unusual and relatively unique appeals to me, especially if there is little to no risk of buying a money pit like some Italian bikes tend to be. The thought of kicking some Ducati's or Aprilia's butt on a track day with a “no name” bike is a bit of a tempting fantasy. Now after evaluating the 650, I am eager to see what the Hyosung 1000 will be like and I feel relatively sure that I would not be making a bad buying decision.

At the same time I am asking myself why I should wait for the 1000 when this GT650R is so much FUN! So yes, I just might seriously consider adding a GT650R to my motorcycle garage. To be perfectly honest I went into this review expecting a cheap chintzy motorcycle, primarily based upon British reviewer's opinions. I came away from this test suitably impressed with Hyosung, not so impressed with whiny British put-downs solely for the sake of finding something negative to say cleverly, and I would not hesitate to recommend a Hyosung as a serious alternative to the status quo. I can also say that the GT650R or one of its more upright siblings should be on any short person's short list (eewwww - terrible pun), and should get consideration from beginners due to its forgiving and capable v-twin motor and budget-friendly economics. A more experienced rider with a limited budget looking for fun on a unique motorcycle and a genuine conversation starter will get a big kick out of thrashing the Hyosung GT650R Comet / UM V2S-650R.

The Koreans have arrived. Don't be fooled by the price. It is perfectly OK to spend less, especially in today's economy.

From S&T Motor's web site, for the 2008 GT650R, with 2WF conversions to English Units: