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What's your optimum ride?
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(Art by Alan MacDonald, see more at http://www.alanmacdonald.net/).jpg)
For some reason, Harleys have never appealed to me. I remember riding in my parents' car when I was a pre-teen, and seeing big thick motorcycles riding along on what looked like automobile tires. I immediately liked the idea of two wheels, but not those two wheels.
As I grew up in the Sixties and saw lots of choppers, they seemed ungainly, exaggerated, difficult to maneuver, unsuitable for a date, and simply didn't resonate with me. Later, when I saw lots of movies and TV shows with motorcycles, they were mostly lightweight bikes suitable for stunts like sliding under an 18-wheeler, or they were big and heavily-laden bikes like Ponch rode on CHiPs, and again they didn't resonate. In fact, now that so many motorcycle police are riding the BMW R1200RT(P), I'm glad they've got a good bike but I still don't like their ride's profile, or all those extra fairings and fenders.
Still later, when a friend of mine got a Husqvarna dirt bike and spent hours telling me about all his field maintenance procedures for brakes, chain, cables, and so forth, again it didn't resonate.
Around 1970, when a friend got a two-cylinder BMW, that one appealed to me. I liked its solid feel and I liked its renowned reliability. I even liked the size and shape of the tires. Of course, I went through a succession of Hondas, Yamahas, Triumphs, and BSAs before getting to my current ride, a BMW R1200GS. But I never liked the "jockey" riding position that most rice-burners seem to require. Sometimes my dealer lends me a sportbike when my GS is in for service, and those days just provide more proof that I don't like the racer's classic riding position.
A few years ago when I was deciding what new ride to buy, a friend of mine spent a lot of time touting the benefits of the BMW GS. Among the ideas that resonated with me was "lighter is better". Not absolutely, better, of course. But choosing between bikes with the R1200 engine, for example, lighter seemed better. Get rid of those unnecessary fairings. Junk the clunky fenders. Dump the built in stereo. I liked the riding position on the biggish frame of the R1200GS, and I liked its "go anywhere" capabilities, even if I didn't plan to go anywhere. I didn't like its looks, and in fact I still don't. But when I'm in the saddle, I don't see what I look like to others. More practically, I'm disappointed with this bike's relatively wide cross-section, which makes threading between lanes on the freeways here in Southern California a bit dicier for me than it is for my friends on the slimline sportbikes, who routinely zoom past me like I zoom past most Harleys.
Turns out I mostly like to ride on pavement. And I mostly like an upright riding position. I like to go fast, and I particularly like to stop fast when it's necessary. I like high technology, but not a lot of weight. I like some wind protection, but I don't want to be coocooned by fairings. Now that I know what I like, it'll be fairly easy for me to select my next bike. If you take the time and trouble to find out what you like in a motorcycle, it'll be easy for you, too.
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