Help me pick my 3rd mid life crisis bike

So I have a 2007 GS500 which is more sport bike than I'll ever need and I love it. I also have a 2006 KLR650 which isn't the dirt bike I wanted but after riding it a bit it fits me fine as it really pushes me to be a better rider off-road and leaves plenty for when I want to ride it on the pavement.

Right now I really want to take a cross country trip on a bike and I'm not enough of a glutton for punishment to do it on either bike I currently own.

My budget is preferrably around $3k but I'd push to $5k for the right bike. So far what I'm looking at is:

Goldwing
Kawasaki concours or Voyager
BMW R1100RT (buddies bike he'd sell me super cheap)

Does anyone who's done that kind of riding have any other recommendations that I may be missing or any insight into what I'm getting myself into?

What's the story on the BMW is how long has he had it and how many miles are on it ? I'm not into any of those bike I do have a friend that use to run a Goldwing until he wiped it out he's on a BMW GS 1200 and loves it keeps bugging me to get one maybe someday.

Concours all the way. I'm looking for one also.

KrustyTJ said:

What's the story on the BMW is how long has he had it and how many miles are on it ? I'm not into any of those bike I do have a friend that use to run a Goldwing until he wiped it out he's on a BMW GS 1200 and loves it keeps bugging me to get one maybe someday.

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The BMW is around a 1998, a little over 100k miles, he's owned it for over half of those miles and has maintained if pretty well. He's eyeing a newer BMW 1600RT and would probably let his go for around $1k. I'll probably buy it just because but I'm not sure if it's the bike I'd want to take cross country. According to him it's not the most comfortable on long stretches but with a better seat it may be doable.

bdkw1 said:

Concours all the way. I'm looking for one also.

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They definitely seem like they'd fit the bill, I need to get my butt on one for some miles sometime and see how it feels.

I think I would pick up your friends bike at that price is it a K1200RS or K1200LT either way with your budget there’s money left for a new seat and whatever else it may need I’d probably do some suspension maintenance if it hasn’t been done and check out the wheel bearings also then rip it for another 100k

Also consider the Yamaha FJR in your choices. Since the FJR's had the gearbox recall I'd probably go Concours. On the other hand you can find some cheap-ish FJR's as a lot seem to be changing hands due to that issue, imho.

FlexyTJ said:

Also consider the Yamaha FJR in your choices. Since the FJR's had the gearbox recall I'd probably go Concours. On the other hand you can find some cheap-ish FJR's as a lot seem to be changing hands due to that issue, imho.

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I had not seen those. Do you know what years had the trans issue? Looks like 16 and up got a 6 speed.

I had an FJ1200 years ago, great bike, put a lot of miles on it.

bdkw1 said:

I had not seen those. Do you know what years had the trans issue? Looks like 16 and up got a 6 speed.

I had an FJ1200 years ago, great bike, put a lot of miles on it.

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Supposedly only effected ~2300 units between '16-'20, so not all of them. Yamaha notified owners and replaced the gear cluster in its entirety. 2nd gear can fail causing drivetrain lockup so the rumors go.

As of last year one of the shops in town had a couple new ones that had had the warranty done on them prior to sale. Sucks to think about a dealer splitting the cases on a new factory sealed engine for this :/ and there are some horror stories of dealers doping up oil passages with RTV and stuff later failing, so definitely do some due diligence if you go this route.

I've test ridden one and they seem very similar in performance, size, weight, handling to a Concours imho (in a good way). Many police depts that have motorcycle patrol vehicles use these in their fleets, fwiw.

KrustyTJ said:

I think I would pick up your friends bike at that price is it a K1200RS or K1200LT either way with your budget there’s money left for a new seat and whatever else it may need I’d probably do some suspension maintenance if it hasn’t been done and check out the wheel bearings also then rip it for another 100k

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It's an R1100RT, I'll probably pick it up just because the price is great and I do enjoy that bike, time will tell if it's a good choice for a long tourer but if not she'll still get used.

FlexyTJ said:

Also consider the Yamaha FJR in your choices. Since the FJR's had the gearbox recall I'd probably go Concours. On the other hand you can find some cheap-ish FJR's as a lot seem to be changing hands due to that issue, imho.

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Thanks, I haven't heard of those before, will have to check them out!

This one probably has 100k left in it, too bad about the title situation...

Nice, that looks right up my alley. I don't have a problem with salvage titles either, I never put full coverage on the bikes so it doesn't affect me at all.

A FJR is a damn good bike for long distances, with plenty of sporty ness.

See Covid Cannonballing bike choice

Have a look at the gsx-s1000gt. Think im gonna trade my fz1 in on one next summer.

bunk said:

Have a look at the gsx-s1000gt. Think im gonna trade my fz1 in on one next summer.

Suzuki Cycles - 2022 GSX-S1000GT+

The GSX-S1000GT+ is a Grand Tourer with sportbike level functionality.

suzukicycles.com

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Those are cool, have been eyeing one myself as a Tracer replacement. Basically an extension of the old GSXS-F (same engine (OLD gixr K5 dating back to 2005ish?), frame/swingarm, suspension) but with TFT dash, LED lighting, quickshifter, beefier rear subframe meant to carry some luggage (good upgrades imho). Can't remember if this one gets the cornering ABS/IMU..? Like it ALOT....

Another bike in this class if you are about to spend this kind of coin worth considering in the Kawk Ninja 1000SX. I've test rode this one and it is nicely refined, probably more so than the 'Zuk. But both are worth a ride.


Myself I'm going to try and wait until the supply chain issues resolve as either is hard to get a hold of locally and there is 0 room for bargaining which rules me out at the moment. More miles on the Tracer for me.....

Guess I'll update this thread, I've been getting close on pulling the trigger on a goldwing when after enough threats of buying my buddies BMW and enough threats of him selling it he finally decided to let her go.

So today I picked up a non running 1997 R1100RT with 118k miles for a grand. Amazingly the town of like 5,000 people I live in had a battery for it at O'Reilly's and after a few shots of carb cleaner it fired up, ran like shit for a couple minutes then cleared out enough of the 2 year old gas to run as normal as can be expected.

It took her for a 40 mile rip and she works well, engine tick, bad gas and all. The plan is to maybe fix the tick, put new tires on it and in a week hit the road for 2 weeks, wish me luck!

Well, one week of fixing what I knew was wrong lead into another week of fixing all the surprises like a clutch, hall effect sensor, fuel tank leak, etc.

I wanted a goldwing anyway so after the clutch went on the BMW I bought an 88 GL1500 as a backup. The shop wanted to give it a once over before I took it and that lead to them having it for 3 more weeks, I just picked it up today.

While I was waiting for parts on the BMW I helped a buddy get his Vulcan going and when that was back up we went for a ride with him on the Vulcan and me on the GS500.

Parts finally came in to finish the BMW and i had a week left to go on a trip, cruised up to the San Juans in Colorado then met some friends around Greeley and came back to Arizona via more good roads in Colorado. It wasn't the 2 weeks of freedom I wanted but was still a damn good vacation.

I haven’t been on a GS500 in years. Solid no frills bike right there

It's definitely a staple bike in the fleet, not much power but sure is fun to just chuck it into some corners from time to time