(10-29-2021, 06:20 PM)Grumpy Goat Wrote: I think you guys are *previous* K bike lovers and I would have been one too since they are smaller and probably had more specific power than the current models. The current K bikes are too large for me also BUT if I were to get a land yacht like that, it would probably be a Goldwing.Keep the mind open, Grumpy.
The biggest I would do is the R1250RT which I do like a lot … sight unseen. It is on the short list to replace my RS if ever I decide to do that with another BMW. The other is the model I have been resisting for years … the GS.
Haven't ridden a Gold Wing in more than a decade, but I have ridden the modern K1600 GT (2019). It handles really well! (And it goes on the centerstand fairly easily.) I thought it handled better with more power than the slightly overloaded and flexy RT.
Haven't compared it with a modern Gold Wing, but willing to bet if you did the head-to-head comparison, you'd change your tune.
(Still have flashes of of that big K1600 a close 2 slots behind me, carving up the rear of the group ride to breakfast at the Ozark Cafe in Berryville, Arkansas a few years ago.)
A pitch for Mitch Boehm (one of my favorite writers, who contributed to Sport Rider and former editor-in-chief at Motorcyclist), who has been writing as Editor-in-Chief for AMAs American Motorcyclist. In the recent issue, he helped pen an article on the GS, which included the nearly simultaneous decision to go introduce the K75.
"A good man always knows his limitations...."