One of Peter Egan's articles in Leanings is an answer to the age old motorcyclist's question: how many
motorcycles is right? Egan's list follows his own interests in the sport. His suggestions are:- a sportsbike for short, focused rides that are all about dynamics
- a sport touring bike for spirited long distance riding
- an off road bike (though this could be a bigger dual sport or adventure bike, not just a dirt bike)
- a Harley for long distance 'Merican Dream type rides
- an old nostalgia machine that takes you back to a bike you couldn't afford when you wanted it
He suggests that more than five bikes is too many and you end up with them going stale and getting covered in dust or getting so few miles they get musty. Collectoritus is another thing,but if you're a rider with a working stable, five's the limit.
I've had a crack at the
bike stable before, though
Ontario's craptastic insurance system makes that more frustrating than exciting. There are a couple of Peter's choices that are very specific to his interests that I think I can cut or clump into efficiencies.
The easy drop for me is the Harley. I'd combine the touring with sport-touring in a Kawasaki Concours 14 that is big but athletic and can carry more weight two-up than a Harley anyway and with suspension and serious performance.
Shaft drive means it'd be a low maintenance device and, being a Kawasaki, it would run more or less forever. We rode a previous generation one
in the Arizona desert and it was brilliant; powerful, comfortable two up with luggage and surprisingly agile in the twisties, just what I'm looking for.
I figured that the sportsbike thing would get sorted with the Concours, but the Fireblade has changed
my mind. I don't need a brand new digital weapon. Something light weight and minimalist would do the trick.
The 'sportbike' is more a 'cornering dynamics bike' - the point of it is to go on engaging rides where you're riding to ride rather than get somewhere, so a naked bike could do the job too. To that end, if I had my choice I'd look for a naked alternative as it'd be easier on my old bones, though for anything up to 90 minutes I'm fine on the 'Blade, so I'm not in any rush to swap it out. The naked bike I've always had a thing for is the Kawasaki Z1000 with it's anime like
sugomi styling. If it was a cost-no-object thing, I'd have a Z1000 in the most lurid orange I can find in the garage.
The dirtbike thing is another one of those opportunities to splice together a bike that'd do many jobs. If you really wanted to condense things you could take the sports touring, touring and off-road categories and combine them together in something like the spectacular new BMW 1250GS that I rode last summer at
SMART Adventures Off Road Training.
But as I get better at off road riding I realize what a compromise a big adventure bike is in really doing it. Like the SUV that proceeded them, ADV bikes are so expensive and heavy nowadays that, while they might handle a bit of gravel, they aren't useful for trail riding or anything like off roading in more than an unpaved road kind of way. I like the idea of getting deep in the woods and I like things that aren't so special that you're always worried about scratching them. I wouldn't want to think about one falling on you in the woods.
This Honda 600XL came up last week on Kijii for under two grand. I'm a sucker for that colour scheme and the gold rims - very 1980s. Having something that old and simple would be nice to work on and straightforward to maintain, even if I wanted to get down to complete engine rebuilds.
It might be a bit too old for what I'm looking for as its function would be to get beaten up in the woods so something newer would be better, but that colour scheme...
Back in 2019 I went and looked at a Suzuki DR650 that had been purchased by a local farmer as a field bike. He had a heart attack and died shortly after bringing it home and it sat in his barn for four years with no kilometres on it. His wife was selling it for $4000 and I still regret not picking it up, basically a brand new machine (albeit one that's sat for a while) for 60% the price of a new one.
Something like that would be light and capable of trail riding while also being dependable and not so precious that a scratch would wind me up.
At the end of the day, if space wasn't an issue in my wee garage and Ontario's insurance system wasn't so nasty, I think these would be my five:
- Athletic Distance Machine: (Kawi Concours14)
- Dynamic Rider: (Fireblade, Z1000, or another light weight sport or naked machine)
- Adventure Bike for Canadian Exploration (roads suck here, even if they're paved, and they often are suddenly not. An ADV bike will cover the rough over long distances)
- Dirt/Trials Bike (a pedigree machine for intentional deep woods trail riding)
- Revolving Door Bike (project, by and sell, experience something new bike - sometimes even a Harley!)
