Buying a motorcycle is maddening...

[richhodg66]

Of all the bikes I have had, I liked the 1978 thru 82 Yamaha XS1100s. I have had three of them. As I got older the seat just didn't do the job so I the advise a fellow XS11 rider told me. I went to WallyWorld and bought a strap on pad that is made for a ATV. It really did the job on that flat factory seat.
Ole Jack

I put one of those on my KLR650, made a nice difference. Certainly a lot cheaper than a Corbin seat.

[Finster101]

The bike is transportation for me. I ride almost every day unless I need the truck to get something or they are really calling for rain. I do get rained on a bit in the summer but it's always on the way home here in Florida so I ride anyway. The bike and the truck both are 08s. The bike has more miles on it.

[NavyVet1959]

My Harley is a ex-police bike (FLHPI). Basically the police version of the Road King. I spent a couple of weeks in my spare time removing / replacing some of the police stuff (lights, radio mount, etc) and adding a passenger seat and luggage rack even though it ran perfectly as I bought it. I bought it off one of the government auction sites (govdeals.com) and it was probably $5-10K less than I could get a regular Road King at the time.

Here's what's currently up for auction:

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?f...=&category=94F

I would be hesitant to purchase any of the bikes that were confiscated or had come from a motorcycle training school, but I would not be hesitant in the least of buying another of the ex-police bikes. I've had very good luck with it and I probably spent less that $500 for the back seat, backrest, luggage rack, and replacing the police blue lights.

[osteodoc08]

I love to ride. I'm in the minority here and ride a big street bike. A ZX-14R to be specific. With risers and slightly lower pegs i can cruise a while before having to get off and stretch. The painful decision to give it up since I'm now a single parent was difficult but I can't allow some non alert cager to run me over.

[Lloyd Smale]

sold my last bike about 8 years ago. My back problems just made it out of the question for me.

[Hickok]

Attachment 196620

I love to ride. I'm in the minority here and ride a big street bike. A ZX-14R to be specific. With risers and slightly lower pegs i can cruise a while before having to get off and stretch. The painful decision to give it up since I'm now a single parent was difficult but I can't allow some non alert cager to run me over.

Mine is a somewhat more sedate version of yours, a Kawasaki Concours 1400 GTR. It is listed as a Super Sport Touring. With the ZX-14 engine in a milder state of tuning, she still puts out gobs of horsepower, and has a comfortable ride.

[Finster101]

I thought about a Connie years ago. They have a very loyal following.

[mac60]

I have an '04 Vulcan classic. One owner (me) 11k miles - kept indoors, excellent condition. I've been trying to sell it for a while now ($3,500 obo) - no takers. So, trying to sell can be as bad as trying to buy.

[Idaho45guy]

I have an '04 Vulcan classic. One owner (me) 11k miles - kept indoors, excellent condition. I've been trying to sell it for a while now ($3,500 obo) - no takers. So, trying to sell can be as bad as trying to buy.

There are a ton of those around here and all are around $3k. Some guys have nice examples with low miles and lots of gear for $3500, while another guy might have one with over 20k miles and some minor cosmetic flaws and still want $3500.

I've been reading a ton of reviews and I ruled out the Vulcan 900 due to lower HP than the other bikes I was looking at. It has around 48hp compared to others with 57 to 70hp in the same size/weight class, IIRC...

I'm 6'2" and 290lbs; I need all the power I can get in the mountains out here...

[cajun shooter]

JonB, You must not have ridden any Harleys since The Evo motors came on the scene. You could fill a Evo, Twin cam, with oil and fuel and ride for days with only stopping for more fuel every 120 miles or so. I started riding in 1962 and have owned several Cushman (scooter), Triumph, and HD's from panhead and up to Twin cams. The pans, shovels would mark their spots but have ridden (no trailers) from Baton Rouge to Sturgis and then on to other western states before taking the Southern route home with the Evo's and Twin cams and none of them leaked one darn drop of oil!!
My wife loved the 3 Road Kings that I owned. She would fall to sleep while riding and her helmet would hit mine and I knew she was asleep. Ha!! Ha!!
I lost my last Road King in August of 2016 in the Great Flood that hit us hard. We have only been back in our home for about a month now. Later David

[NavyVet1959]

I love to ride. I'm in the minority here and ride a big street bike. A ZX-14R to be specific. With risers and slightly lower pegs i can cruise a while before having to get off and stretch. The painful decision to give it up since I'm now a single parent was difficult but I can't allow some non alert cager to run me over.

My experience with sport bikes is that the seating angle is such that since you are leaning into the wind, you have to be going a speed that balances you weight vs wind pressure. That was usually well above the speed limit and I ended up with a few pieces of paper over the years informing me of that.

On the cruiser type bikes where the handlebars of of the pull-back type, I found those to be tiring on the arms and chest muscles during prolonged rides. It helped quite a bit if you had some sort of backrest to lean into. When I was in the Navy I had that sort of bike and when I was transferring between bases, I would just strap a full seabag onto the rear seat backrest (they were kind of high back then) and that gave me a full backrest that worked pretty good. The sitting position on my Harley is more straight up and the windshield keeps most of the wind from wearing you down. And, for us old farts, the sitting position is kinder on our knees than the sport bikes. It will supposedly only top out at 104 mph, but I can put up with that these days. I've had bikes that would get into a high speed wobble if you went too fast and I don't like that sort of excitement in my life these days. Nothing like the excitement of a high speed wobble when you're doing 140 mph. You're thinking, "Will it straighten out if I go a bit faster?" "Is it the bike, or am I just getting some cross wind?" "If I wipe out at this speed, how far will my body slide and will there be anything left of me other than a *long* red smear on the concrete?" ... and ... "I wonder if they give discounted burials if you only need a coffin large enough to hold your helmet?"

[gwpercle]

My last bike was a triple cylinder, 2 stroke , 750 cc , Kawasaki Mach IV. the one before it was a used Mach III , a 500 cc , triple cylinder , 2 stroke.
The problem was those machines had more horsepower than the car I was driving at the time and the need for speed caught up with me . I had to give them up or I was going to become a highway statistic .... But my Lord , they were so much fun to ride...too much I guess.
A car hit me and the 500 Mach III and being young and foolish I replaced it with the faster 750 Mach IV! Talk about eat up with a case of the screaming stupids....but we were young.
Gary

[MaryB]

I want a trike, seat with a backrest... comfortable driving position where I can stretch my legs out...

[richhodg66]

My last bike was a triple cylinder, 2 stroke , 750 cc , Kawasaki Mach IV. the one before it was a used Mach III , a 500 cc , triple cylinder , 2 stroke.
The problem was those machines had more horsepower than the car I was driving at the time and the need for speed caught up with me . I had to give them up or I was going to become a highway statistic .... But my Lord , they were so much fun to ride...too much I guess.
A car hit me and the 500 Mach III and being young and foolish I replaced it with the faster 750 Mach IV! Talk about eat up with a case of the screaming stupids....but we were young.
Gary

I used to hang out on Kawasaki web sites when I was working on that '83 KZ1100. A lot of the guys on there were old motor heads who were die hard Kawasaki fans and the stories they used to tell of those two-stroke triples made me shudder. Always sounded like suicide machines to me. I really like the Japanese machines from the '70s and '80s, but I think I'll stick the more conventional ones.

[NavyVet1959]

I want a trike, seat with a backrest... comfortable driving position where I can stretch my legs out...

There's trikes ... and then there's TRIKES...

[MaryB]

A trike that won't kill me LOL!

[NavyVet1959]

A trike that won't kill me LOL!

It's *only* 1000 hp...

OK... Just for you...

[koehlerrk]

OK, as some here have noticed, I tend to like things that are a little outside of mainstream. My current bike is no exception. 2004 Moto Guzzi EV California Titanium. Yeah... its a mouthful. But the bike is a beauty. 1100cc v-twin shafty. Smooth doesn't begin to describe the ride, she runs at 75mph in 4th gear at 3500rpms. I have over half my rev range and another gear... she's plenty fast!

But the big thing with that bike is the styling. Dang the Italians know how to make a machine that is so sexy I have a difficult choice... ride it, or look at it. Maybe its because I haven't had her in my garage two weeks yet, but I am in love with my Italian supermodel.

[NavyVet1959]

But the big thing with that bike is the styling. Dang the Italians know how to make a machine that is so sexy I have a difficult choice... ride it, or look at it. Maybe its because I haven't had her in my garage two weeks yet, but I am in love with my Italian supermodel.

When I was in Italy a couple of years ago, there were some Italian cops on motorcycles in this one town I was traveling through. While my wife was shopping at some of the small stores around there, I struck up a conversation with them concerning the bikes they were riding. I was expecting Moto Guzzi bikes, but they were on BMWs instead.

[osteodoc08]

My experience with sport bikes is that the seating angle is such that since you are leaning into the wind, you have to be going a speed that balances you weight vs wind pressure. That was usually well above the speed limit and I ended up with a few pieces of paper over the years informing me of that.

On the cruiser type bikes where the handlebars of of the pull-back type, I found those to be tiring on the arms and chest muscles during prolonged rides. It helped quite a bit if you had some sort of backrest to lean into. When I was in the Navy I had that sort of bike and when I was transferring between bases, I would just strap a full seabag onto the rear seat backrest (they were kind of high back then) and that gave me a full backrest that worked pretty good. The sitting position on my Harley is more straight up and the windshield keeps most of the wind from wearing you down. And, for us old farts, the sitting position is kinder on our knees than the sport bikes. It will supposedly only top out at 104 mph, but I can put up with that these days. I've had bikes that would get into a high speed wobble if you went too fast and I don't like that sort of excitement in my life these days. Nothing like the excitement of a high speed wobble when you're doing 140 mph. You're thinking, "Will it straighten out if I go a bit faster?" "Is it the bike, or am I just getting some cross wind?" "If I wipe out at this speed, how far will my body slide and will there be anything left of me other than a *long* red smear on the concrete?" ... and ... "I wonder if they give discounted burials if you only need a coffin large enough to hold your helmet?"

I've had this one up to 175 +- on a track and no wobble. The seating is between a true sport bike and a sport touring like the Connie. When the kids get older, I'll probably look at a Connie or cruiser. It's just hard to go from a 200hp bike down to one with around 100. This motor has plenty of torque too so the torque argument of cruiser vs streetbike doesn't apply here either.

The long red smear picked up by a flat head shovel has crossed my mind once or twice but typically only after some idiot turns left in front of me.

I did test drive a Street Glide with the new 107 motor in it and it was very pleasant and the smoothest HD I've ever ridden.