Looking For the best Sport/Touring bike

I snag my buddy's k12s every chance I get. It's fantastic.
I'm not a big two-up guy, but my buddy's thrown a few chicks on the back of the K and says NOTHING handles 2-up as well as the K bike (thanks a lot to the ESA) does.

 

The '99 / Gen 5 at 208kg's dry is the lightest VFR since the Gen's 1/2 203kg's, the Gen 6 at 212kg (non ABS ) is a little heavier and from my expirience on both Gen's was a fraction better on cross winds.

The Gen 4 at 210kg splits them in the middle and your gen 3 is a little heavier at 216kg dry, in the real world nothing much in it and I probably vary ( mostly upwards :frown: ) that much in weight over the course of a year.

 

If I were to trade in the VFR ( not ) and it had to be a BMW I would look closely at the new K1200R Sport as a possibility.

 

I have actually owned several of the bikes talked about here

98 BMW K1200RS, bought new, put about 50,000 miles on, including one track day, no mait. issues really, although cruise control and the heated seat were not availible then, sold
98 VFR, bought used, put 20,000 miles+ on it, stolen at about 45,000 miles total, would still probly own it otherwise
05 FJR 1300, bought new, put about 7,500 miles on it, sold
04 VFR, bought used, about 3,500 miles since, still own

 

Spike, did you like the the FJR; by mileage I'm guessing you had issues with it.

MD, What are the heat issues?

Just curious A) So this post is more informative B) Because the FJR is also on my short list & I will be upgrading next spring(keeping my VFR of course)

 

I can't imagine buying a MC with "electric shift" anyway... seems boring. If you want an electric shift, buy a moped/scooter.

 

More personal issues than anything. The only real complaint I had about the bike was the heat issues. There was/is just a tremendous amount of heat that comes out between the tank and seat, and off the right side of the bike onto one's leg. Some people seemed to be more affected than others, maybe due to slight differences in bikes and/or seating position and/or personal tolerance for heat. I don't think of myself as especially sensitive to heat, but on a warm day in slow traffic, it was pretty bad. Starting with, I beleive '06, besides some other small changes, Yamaha went to great lengths to address the issue. Supposedly the newer version is much better, but I haven't ridden one myself, so can't say for sure. But I have heard that from several sources.
I only got rid of it, because it seemed silly to have a $13,000 bike, with such capabilities, for commuting, which is all I was using it for. I used to put about 15-25,000 miles a year on my bike(s), after having the FJR for about a 10 months it only had about 6,000 plus miles, and not a single one a "just for fun" mile. The problem was that not even a week after I picked it up, my son was born. The desire to spend the day riding the twisties was gone, replaced by a desire to stay home and just watch. I no longer was jetting off to do overnight trips, and certainly not weeklong trips anymore. Not that I couldn't certainly, but just something better to do with my time now. So I thought about giving up motorcycling all together, didn't ride for a bit and decided while I didn't want to give it up, I could go cheaper and smaller for what I was mainly doing. Sold the FJR, bought a FZ6 and that was too small and lacked ABS, and more expensive to insure than the FJR, although it was perfect for what I said I wanted, cheap, easy to maintain, simple, not a gas and tire hog, more than capable of getting me to work. But then I got to thinking I really wanted ABS if all I was doing was commuting in heavy traffic, so it came to a VFR again or a BMW F650, the VFR won. Wife was about to kill me. Then about 6 months later I saw the new BMW F800ST, and thought about dumping the VFR, but I thought if I did I would have to find an apartment, as the wife would have kicked me out.:tongue:

 

Most, if not all of them are either CVT or automatic; not electric shift. Little different, but certainly a good point. I certainly don't see the need for it.