Truck camper and a motorcycle

linnemj wrote:
Our condolences on your loss. I will not attempt to provide you specific model advice since you have gotten many good choices.

Four questions to ask yourself to help you decide are:

1. What kind of riding do you plan on doing? Many people buy dual sports bikes but spend 98% of their time on paved roads. A smaller road bike will do fine on gravel roads. If you are doing longer day trips you will probably want hard bags to carry some gear.

2. How much do you want to spend?

3. How much mechanical ability do you have and how much time do you want to spend wrenching? We have BMW and Honda bikes and the Beemers require much more maintenance such as valve checks every 6,000 miles. The Honda bikes are less demanding for service.

4. What is your inseam? That is more important that height since you want to be able to flat foot both feet at stops.

Thanks for the condolences - I have a hole in my heart but I'm so glad we had nearly 20 years together.
Four good questions about the bike.

1. I'm not a fan of big cities or crowds. I'm going to be in mostly rural areas but sticking largely to roads, mostly paved ones. I don't plan to "tour" - that's what the camper is for. My daughter lives on the CO/UT border & I plan to spend time in that area.

2. Less than 10k. I don't mind spending the money for a new bike since the technology advances so quickly. Things like fuel injection and ABS appeal to me. Flip side: I like the feel of light weight bikes. To me, a Harley feels as nimble as a city bus.

3. ASE Certified Master Diesel Technician BUT I want reliable starts-every-time-and-never-strands-me performance. That's why I dropped the Triumph from my list.

4. Inseam in boots, 35 inches.

Does this help at all?