I have had a good read of this thread. Including the non ST bits. I always fancied a wing.... but I like going around corners to much and of course over here in England we have plenty of them. There is a lovely S bend about half a mile from my house which persuaded me to buy my Varadero When I test road it. It is interesting that a lot of the videos from the “mericans“ are people coming off Harleys and comparing the difference.
That is about as much as I know About wings.
I digress.
I am probably going to be buying a bike, it will be next year, money permitting and on paper the super ten is what suits me. So let me bore you with a little bit about me and my riding.
I don’t actually do much off-road, bit of green laning is all. Don’t get me wrong, I have been thinking about getting more into it This year soooo maybe see what next year comes up with. I have just discovered the trans European trail, thanks itchy boots, and that has really piqued my interest especially as it runs nearly past my house, go figure.
I use my bike for commuting and going on, mainly, tarmac roads. Weekends away, long trips, couple of thousand miles at a time on the linger trips. Last year I rode down to Portugal, The roads, oh the roads, you would not believe how good the roads were, no traffic to be seen for over an hour, fantastic bends, sorry getting carried away again. This year I was in Ireland, year before last I did another trip over to Ireland, I was supposed to go to France this year but, hey ho.
Back to bike.
I had a GS for 5 years, I have now had my Varadero for 6. So you can see I don’t change my bikes very often. I like the adventure bike style as I find it comfortable. At six foot two I just can’t get comfortable on the 'normal' touring bike. I also find the handling on the adventure style surprisingly good on the twisties.
So what do I want and why would I change a perfectly good bike for a new one?
Essentials,
I want 200 mile range minimum before hitting reserve. I can manage 245 before reserve on the Varadero. The Beemer wasn’t so good.
Shaft drive is a must, Varadero is chain.
Cruise control, yup, I want cruise control, haven’t had it on any of my previous bikes but when you are doing long motorway stuff or going through speed restricted areas it helps, a lot, somI want that.
Power, that is an interesting one, the big thing I missed was going from 1200cc to 1000 you don’t think you would miss that bit of extra but I do on the top end, not so much the acceleration.
Fairing. Adjustable screen please, easily adjustable as well. Low to let the wind flow when it’s hot and high enough to put me in my air bubble to keep the noise down when it’s colder.
LCD screen. never had one before but if I am going to have one can it have good contrast so I can read it easily enough and with big letters cos my eyesight is not as good these days. Lol.
Reliability. Very important, I have always been a fan of the GS adventure but when I look on the forums, all I see are issues with this and that and it just but me off.
I read the forum here and there is an awful lot less complaints about things going wrong.
ohhh, just remembered.
Keyless entry or whatever they call it. Don’t bother, stick with a key, reliability issues, insurance issues with the fob thingies.
Dct or the quick changer. The dct intrigues me but isn’t essential, quick shifter would be a nice have.
There is a few other things regarding panniers and brakes but hey, that’s enough to keep things going for the moment.