In his defense, he said the tranny was better, not the brakes. And it is.

but I can tell you the sealed drums are better than the 98 Cat I had with the unilever disc, and mechanical rear back-up (that didn't work). I lost the single pin that held the pads in the rear caliper. When I hit the brakes the piston traveled past the oring and I had NO brakes. Unified braking failure.

While your Vinson's brakes outperform the sealed drums most of the time (sub freezing wet riding may pose some problems after parking for a while (the calipers freeze)), that's less of a point with the 05s.

Those Vinsons (I liked the 5 speed a lot) are nice and I wish I had the money to buy both last year.