I've Bought Another Maxi-Scooter, But I Reckon I'll Regret It

See the new Honda ADV 350 gallery here.

Hot on the heels of this post, where I talked about test riding the Aprilia SR GT 400, hating it, and deciding the Beverly platform is really the one for me. The plan was to replace the Northern Ireland-based Beverly 350 with a newer Beverly 400. Well, I am pleased to say I have finally bought a replacement.

Only it is not a Beverly 400. It is a Honda ADV 350, which I test rode back in May and concluded I did not like.

So why, you might well ask, have I bought a bike that is not the one I want, and is a bike I distinctly disliked?

Good question. Read on and I will try to answer those points. But will most likely fail.

The Italian Problem

First and foremost, I genuinely love the Beverly platform. It is just about perfect. It oozes classic Italian style, the build quality is as good as anything else on the market (better, even), and it is plenty powerful enough for my needs. But the 400 HPE model I have down in Spain is a high-tech EURO5 compliant bit of kit. That means it is a good idea to have a local dealer nearby for those times when you need to hook it up to a specialist diagnostic computer to decipher a fault code.

And that is its Achilles heel. In Spain, every other workshop is authorised for Piaggio. Here in Northern Ireland, we have exactly zero of them. That means if the 400 ever needs hooking up to the Piaggio PADS diagnostic system, I am shit out of luck. It means a ride down to Dublin and the acceptance I will be leaving an arm and a leg behind, or a trip to GB on the ferry. Neither of those are viable options.

For my much-loved and trusty Beverly 350, having no local dealer is not an issue. That bike is beautifully analogue. The only time I ever needed to hook it to a computer, a cheap DIY OBD scanner from Amazon did the job just fine.

Settling For The Honda

Now, the lack of dealers nearly didn't stop me. I had a lovely 2024 Beverly 400 model with only 600 miles on the clock lined up in England. But sense got the better of me. I delayed the purchase and figured I would check the used stock at GS Motorcycles one last time, just to see what they had. And there it was. A lovely grey 2024 Honda ADV 350, with low miles and the crucial tall Givi screen already fitted. It was a bit toppy on the price at £5k, but if I was going to settle for a Honda, that was most likely the one.

A few days later I was out on a test ride. Did everything I wrote about it in that previous post still stand up? Mostly, yes. The suspension is harsh, the power is lacking, and whilst the underseat storage is a weird shape, I do accept there is a lot of it (enough that I might not even bother with a top box).

My test ride consisted of some regular about-town riding, and also a lot of fast motorways. I have ridden a fair few ADV 350s by now, so I knew what they were like around town, but I had never ridden one at speed. I have to begrudgingly admit, they are actually okay on the motorways. I expected the roll-on shift from 70 to 80 mph to be painfully slow, but it was alright. Not on a par with the Beverly 400, but acceptable.

Long story short, I went back to the dealership and a deal was done. I did not pay £5k; they cut me a decent deal. I still feel I paid a bit more than I should have, but I guess that is the downside of buying from a main dealer. You always pay slightly over the odds, but hopefully, that pays back in aftersales service. Certainly, the lads at GS Motorcycles have always been brilliant in my few dealings with them, so I was happy to pay a bit of a premium.

The Verdict

So yes, I bought the bike I swore I would not. That said, I have not gone in with my eyes closed. I know exactly what I am getting. And for the type of riding I do now, on the type of roads I ride more often nowadays, the ADV 350 is arguably a better tool than the Beverly.

But that is all it will ever be to me. The Beverly is so much more than the sum of its parts. The Honda ADV 350? It is just a tool that does what it says on the tin.

I am entirely expecting to regret this purchase. I am entirely expecting to be listing it for sale next spring. But in the absence of a Piaggio dealer in Northern Ireland, I was left with very few other options.

I collect it at the weekend. Expect further posts steep with regret and remorse, or admitting I was wrong all along. amd that the Honda ADV 350 is actually a brilliant machine.