11-08-2016, 07:53 AM
(11-08-2016, 01:50 AM)feralchimp_imp Wrote: I considered ABS very highly desirable until I came up a '14 STD that didn't have it. Then I thought, "If I ride this thing in a way that makes me wish I had ABS, well I guess I f'ed up somewhere." Rationalization in the face of beauty.Precisely. I may be an old fuddy duddy but I don't see anything wrong with striving to become technically proficient at managing my machine myself. Taken to extremes, the line of thinking that brought us ABS leads to that crazy BMW future concept bike that can't tip over and can't wreck, supposedly negating the need for a helmet or protective gear! At that point, the bike is riding you, you are no longer riding the bike. What happens when technology eventually makes it impossible for us to make (and therefore learn from) mistakes? Is that really what we want?
Anyway, getting back to the original question here... I really do like the black STD model a lot, and if I didn't already own a DLX I'd probably jump on one of the great deals on STDs that seem to be popping up all around...I appreciate the DLX 6-speed gearbox and the extra fuel capacity, but I don't see those as deal breakers... Heck, I toured the US on an '07 Bonneville; a CB1100 STD could easily have blown it away in nearly every measurable category. It's all relative, I suppose.