kind of curious about the new triumph 400ccs myself. most of my riding is just basically in and around the city. when i leave the country for a trip i rent a bike anyway. and now that i dont even have to commute to work (work from home full time), riding here 'leisurely' is mostly pointless and not fun.
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The "Are you thinking of a new bike for 2024?" discussion thread.
- Thread starter PrivatePilot
- Start date
New to me?? Going to look at a 1983 Gold Wing Apencade tomorrow. Not sure my hip is up for another one especially after the AZ Heritage Softail rental went pear shaped but considering the cheap price for old Wings I can roll the dice. If it works well then back to the Smokie Mountains for a week. If not we can at least head to the beach with all our gear.....or go drag racing.....
Do you still have the drag wing?
Find a Honda VTX1300. You can find them out there pretty nicely farkled out by previous owners if you look around as well. They are the Timex's of the bike world. Just change the fluids and put tires on them and they just go go go forever. I put around 90,000km on mine inside around 4 years of ownership and the thing never failed me once.
Hard to go wrong with a Vstar 1100 either. They're just a slightly "tighter" seating position and the oil filter setup is downright stupid, you need to remove the exhaust to change the filter. There's remote kits out there for that, so if you're looking find one with that already installed by a previous owner. Tons of accessories available as well and also lots of previously farkled used bikes.
Boulevards are also nice but the accessories market is notably smaller.
I just sold my Vulcan Voyager. Also a great ride but the seating position feels cramped to many - that was my main issue with it. Also reliable.
Hard to go wrong with most metric cruisers out there honestly. And the prices are right - you can get into lots of the above for half your budget you posted.
Jay Alexander
Well-known member
Thanks so much for your reply. Crazy to hear you need to remove exhaust just to switch oil filters on the v star 1100. This seems to be the most common cheaper bike at the moment. The VTX 1300 is the first thing my buddy also told me when I was looking. Appreciate the feedback, and am hoping to find something decent for this season.
Sold it. Might have another if this doesn't fit that well for the long haul.
EDIT: Didn't buy a Wing yesterday. I'll keep looking.
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I have the '23 chieftain dark horse. Love it so far
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Holy moly $50K, they're firmly into Harley Territory there and are absolutely relying on the name to demand that price. HD got some legit competition now....
Like I said, hard to go wrong, and there's lots of garage queens out there as well. Mine was one of those, I bougth it at something like 10 years old with not even 10,000km on it, so it had averaged less than 1K a year. I whipped it hard, often put it away wet, and it just went, all the time, every time.
Only reason I moved on honestly was because, as you can see, the luggage situation on longer motocamping rides was a challenge - I got tired of trying to keep things dry.
Jay Alexander
Well-known member
Very nice, the batwing must really help with highway rides. Issue I'm having is the few available are now 50-60k kms, which I guess is to be expected. I'd get a 50k km Honda, but I've seen much higher, and don't think I'd want a used bike with 90,000km on it.
If the price is right, don't sweat the mileage...metrics go forever, especially a Honda. There are VTX's out there with 200,000km on them and still going with no issues.
Look at it from this perspective - would you consider a Honda, Toyota, or Subaru (also all Japanese made/designed cars) with 100,000km "end of life"? Most metric motorcycles are built the same.
I just bought my current ride with 50,000km on it and that's fine. I expect to ride the wheels off the thing and will likely be over 150,000km inside 5 years, and expect to own it until it's north of 200,000km.
Again, the price must reflect the mileage, but if you find a $2000 totally farkled out VTX with 100,000km on it, vs a $4000 one with 25,000km, I wouldn't discount the 100,000km one whatsoever.
There's a strong argument to be made that a bike that was ridden regularly and with highway miles has had a much easier life than one that was started, rode 10km to the nearest Tim Hortons parking lot and then revbombed all day to make noise, before being ridden 10km home again, repeat all summer. Short trips are far harder on an engine than long ones.
matt365
Well-known member
Agreed. People get scared off with "high mileage bikes"...
If the price is right...
My current new to me ride has 60,000km.
It needed some basic maintenance, but thats to be expected. Better than a 10 year old bike with 1,000km, that sat unused for 9... bad gas, plugged up fuel system, mice in the airbox, old tires, black brake fluid... no thanks. I'll take one thats been ridden.
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At 11am. on good Friday when it's not snowing, above freezing and relatively bright out? I expect he's done about 300km. so far today.
ifiddles
Well-known member
You bought an Indian Chieftain??? When??? How did I miss that!??? They're gorgeous bikes...an ex-boyfriend almost bought one...true story: I worked for Werner Enterprises (US based trucking company with a small office in Milton) back in 2002...they sent me to Omaha NE for a one week training course and while there, they had an Indian dealership on site...I asked why they had a motorcycle dealership on site and apparently every VP in the company, got one as part of their compensation package...too bad I didn't last long with them (couldn't take the BS from my boss, so went into teaching)...post up a pic please
About a month ago now.You bought an Indian Chieftain??? When??? How did I miss that!??? They're gorgeous bikes...an ex-boyfriend almost bought one...true story: I worked for Werner Enterprises (US based trucking company with a small office in Milton) back in 2002...they sent me to Omaha NE for a one week training course and while there, they had an Indian dealership on site...I asked why they had a motorcycle dealership on site and apparently every VP in the company, got one as part of their compensation package...too bad I didn't last long with them (couldn't take the BS from my boss, so went into teaching)...post up a pic please
ifiddles
Well-known member
Sweet looking ride...congratulations!
ty ty!
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