MO Readers Ask Which Bike to Buy...

"Renato" writes:

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for a bike with low maintenance, that's easy to ride, good for taking a passenger, and for week-end rides.

My choices so far are the: Diversion 600, Bandit 600, CB 500 for a naked bike, or a Pegaso or BMW F650 GS for a trail.

I think I like a trail bike better but my main concern is my height: almost 6.1 feet, and that will influence the most my choice. Wich bike is more apropriate for my height? Of course you can suggest other bikes not on this list.

Thanks,
Renato
(Portugal)

and "JavaDragon" writes:

The first 3 years of driving that I did were upon a ’85 Honda Shadow. Between the ages of 16 and 19 I logged just over 60K Km’s (that’s 56127.22 miles for you yanks). Unfortunately when I went to school I could no longer afford the bike so I sold it. Now I’ve been out of school for threes have a decent job and am looking to get back in the saddle. I’m a little nervous about relearning to ride again (it’s been about 6 years) but am confident that most of my knowledge will come back fairly quickly.

The problem that I’ve run into is trying to decide which bike I should pick up to get back into game? I’m willing to spend about 10K CAN (or 6,389.52 USD) on the machine (new or less than 5 years old). Of course I’ve also budgeted for some riding gear on top of this. I’m not really set on any style of bike (cruiser, sport, street, or sport touring) but I have to be able to ride it for long distances at a time (like 6 – 8 hrs a stretch) so a sport is probably out.

So here our my requirements:
1)Must be comfortable enough to ride for 6-8 hr stretches at a time. I live in a remote area and have to go about 6 hours just to reach civilization. Looking for something that can carry 2 in comfort. Reliability is also on obvious consideration.

2)First gas station is 250 KM (155 miles) away. So obviously this is the absolute bottom limit for distance on a tank of gas.

3)Doesn’t have to be the fastest machine on Earth! I like to cruise at about 130 KPH (about 81 MPH) with some oomph left over in case I have to pass. The roads in my area are pretty twisty (with trees eliminating visibility around the curve) with short straight-aways for passing. Even though there are lots of twisters the road surfaces leave something to be desired (cracked pavement).

4)I don’t want a traditional land yacht cruiser (aka gold wing). I would like to keep the weight/size down as much as possible since I’m a pretty short guy at 5’ 7”.

5)I don’t really care what brand I buy since I’ll be buying it from the city that is 6 hours away, so no matter what it wont be local. We actually have a HD dealer here but I don’t think I’m interested in paying the HD tariff.

I’m not looking for a starter machine; I want something that will keep me happy for a long time. I’m willing to take it slow with a bigger bike at first and feel that I have experience to know my limits.

What do YOU think? let us know below, you know the drill.