09-19-2015, 12:45 AM
(09-19-2015, 12:15 AM)ClassicVW_imp Wrote: There are deals out there on better highway bikes. Prior to my CB I had a Honda NT700V. Integrated bags, fairing and windshield and not that heavy, but very comfortable.
My Road Comet saves me a little tiredness on the highway, but it still deposits wind, but higher up, near my collarbone. The NT I had had a smallish fairing built-in, and bikes like that not only keep the wind off you, but keep you drier than just a windshield on a CB will in a light rain. Something to consider if you are commuting to work and get caught in an unexpected shower.
Every cycle is a compromise. Either riding position; or wind; or reliability.
For comfortable riding-position, I'd pick the BMW R1200GS. GREAT ergonomics - once you get ON the tall monster. For those of us no-longer-so-spry, getting on and off was a project; and every stoplight a dread.
For quiet wind sheltering, it was a toss-up: my 1999 BMW R1100RT, very-intelligent fairing; and my Suzuki Burgman 650, where the Givi tall windshield completed the puzzle. But the R1100 was entering the high-priced maintenance stage that all BMWs get into in the 40,000 range. The Burgman, with its twist-and-go CVT: Also getting up in mileage. Those transmissions were known to grenade; and once it happened, repair was more than the value of the machine.
That, and the easy-chair riding posture was starting to hurt my arthritic tailbone...no sale.
So...everything is a compromise. The Japanese makers just don't GET that Germans or Americans are much, much larger than riders of their own countries - or they get it but the market is too small to design a frame for it.
Insofar as wind goes, the CB1100 was a nod to the past - not a cutting-edge cruiser. That they got so much that is good in modern cycles, in terms of handling...is amazing. But I cannot imagine a retro-faired model.
All of cycling is a compromise. But the CB with a removable full windshield...and some experimentation on luggage, perhaps hard panniers...can work for many folks as a single-rider tourer or long commuter.