02-18-2016, 08:24 AM
I've had a bunch of bikes since the mid 60's. I started out on a Yamaha 250 two stroke. Since then I've had Italian bikes, German bikes, American bikes, and Jap bikes. The worse one? Hard to say, bikes since the 70's have been pretty reliable except for some of the American bikes. Most every bike requires some modifications to have it suit you. Early on it was weak suspension and rotten stock seats. Once you got those straightened out the bike was fine. The worse ones for me were the top heavy ones. Honda's were always great, a couple were top heavy but always very reliable. I've never came across the perfect stock bike. However I must say the closest to perfect right out of the box was the BMW K1600 GTL. The seat wasn't the greatest though. For me it is the best handling comfortable tourer I've had. Yeah it has drive train lash, but you learn how to shift it and the lash isn't bothersome. It's fast, handles well, and is pretty darn comfortable. I've got a couple different seats for it depending on the type riding I plan on doing and I really can't complain. The trouble with BMW today is they put too much high tech crap on them and out source the parts from some strange places instead of building all the parts in house. They have gone from simple reliable bikes to high tech machines that are only as good as the worst outsourced part. However they do have a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.