Sorry to say that I'm once again feeling the need to get something different. I hardly get to ride anymore. Since March I've put 2000 miles on the 2016 XSR900, and probably the same on the 2012 Super Tenere.
I'm stupidly feeling that I can get close to the buying price of a leftover 2018 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S if I offload both Yamahas now that KTM is doing end of year sales.
My gripe with the S10 is that it is heavy and the engine has never made me grin like a fool. I've owned it since new in August 2011. You all already know that it is a fundamentally competent 2-wheeler that can do just about anything.
My gripe with the XSR is that the suspension is bad and the layout is impractical in that it is physically small. Chassis is kind of weird. Unstable, and not just because it is sporty. It is very easily upset. Maybe I've just gotten used to the weight of the S10, who knows? Roads are bad all around here so the bumps are an issue. Upside to the smallness is the very low weight. The engine is truly a gem of thing in the motorcycle world. Pops the front end up with a half throttle twist over any rise in the road. Big smiles on those occasions.
Problem is that what I really want is a Tenere that weighs maybe 75 pounds less with an engine that is thrilling. I know that the Tracer 900 sounds just like that, but at $13k MSRP for the GT model, I'm pretty sure it will still suffer from the budget suspension and the suspension travel is small for the kind of crap pavement around here.
Since I can't really find time to ride anymore, and the good roads are several hours from my house. For some reason it is in my head that a KTM 1290 SA-S makes sense.
I do all my own maintenance and hate going to dealers. People like to bash KTM because of the 1190 series problems, but I'm not seeing so much with the 1290 bikes.
My kids are 2 and 4, so it will still be a number of years before I can get them to go on trail rides on crappy dirt bikes. Once they're at that stage, my bike budget will be blown on buying not only those bikes but a truck to move them.
Seize the day, roll the dice: buy the KTM....or keep the pair of Yamahas that both have drawbacks to how I ride nowadays? Talk me off the cliff....or not.