Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Touring motorcycles....

Anyone here ride a touring motorcycle? Wife and I are toying with the idea of getting one and traveling on it. Just nor sure its really "all that". I rode when I was younger (dirt bikes mostly). Just not sure if its worth it to buy a touring bike and ride it. Is it really that much fun?

Buy you a used Honda gold wing and give it a go and see if it's still something you want to do after giving it a riding season.
Used low mileage gold wings are usually easy to pick up and easy to sell if you decide that two wheels are not for you.

Rent one for a weekend and decide for yourself if you like it, before investing in one. If you like it, shop for a clean used one.

Renting is the way to go give one more than a test ride give it weekend test ride.
Have had had more than few Road Glides I like the frame mounted faring especial in windy country.
The good they are Big and Heavy, the bad they are Big and Heavy.
Not much better for touring and long trips than Big and Heavy.
The new rubber mounted v-twins are very nice, smooth even power band, Linked brakes lots to like.
They are what I ride there are lots of other great bikes as well.

Buy a 2 seater convertible.

Give one of those three wheelers a look. Super easy to ride, with the advantages of a bike.

they're great. until you put somebody on the back. then it becomes work. a fully loaded bagger is not a beginner bike. if you have only ridden dirt bikes a long time ago, i'd probably look for something else less deadly. and this is from a guy who has been riding for 40 years.

Yep. Partner on the back and loaded for travel is a different animal. I've had Harley's and BMW's, thinking about a used Gold wing 1800. My favorite is an early 90's BMW R100RT.

As an older rider, it isn't the actual riding that is challenging. The challenge is putting up with the discomfort. Even a big bike is cold in the winter, wet in the rain, hot in the summer...you get the idea. They are a bit large for errands, though it's nice to have the storage. A nice sport tourer is more nimble, almost as much protection, and more useful, all around. Just my opinion.

Gold Wings still seem to own that niche. I've had 3 older Gold Wings and thoroughly enjoyed them. Still have one, but need to ride more. Good luck.

My opinion,....if you have to ask, you're not going to enjoy motorcycles very much.

Motorcycles are a passion to you or they're nothing.

I've done motorcycles until I'm done with them. But for many decades of my life, motorcycles were my primary entertainment.

Nothing made me that way. It's just how I was wired.

As someone has already alluded to, motorcycles are lots of fun until you put another butt on the back.

A lot depends on that butt........

Get a Jeep ... more fun

Put the girl beside you instead of behind you. Get a convertible car, no helmet, you can roll up the top, plenty of space for luggage and you can’t drop it on it’s side.

Try a Can-Am Spyder- - - -two wheels up front, handles better that a rear wheel trike, and you can even get side by side seating on some models. I'm building a two front wheel trike from the Gold Wing I crashed five years ago and nearly lost my left foot. I ride a Harley soft tail now, but one of these days I'm going to get too old and feeble to be comfortable on two wheels. Construction cost on the Honda 3-wheeler should be about 1/10 of buying a Can-Am, and I've been building dirt track race cars for over 50 years. Figuring out steering geometry doesn't scare me at all.
Jerry

I would think if you have to ask that question it prob'ly ain't for you.

Up until recent years there was a steady stream of motorcycle fatalities locally; guys in their fifties and up who had got into Harleys and whatnot as midlife crisis/retirement toys. That is less often now as the Boomer demographic is fading.

You didn't have to look very hard nationwide to find cases of those guys who had killed or crippled their wives in motorcycle wrecks either.

I was an eccentric, after getting back from Africa in my late twenties I didn't own a car myself until age 44, before then a motorcycle was my only transportation, 250,000 miles total, was all over the US. Long distances with women on the back.

Its been nine years since I crossed the US on a motorcycle. There's another one in my future but I'll ride it for a good while before I'd presume to carry a passenger on the back.

You started out on dirt bikes, that's a plus, but ride an 800lb behemoth for at least a season before riding the Missus on the back.

JMHO

If you haven't mastered a two wheeled bike you probably shouldn't be riding a three wheeler.
Living just off one of Florida's most popular roads for motorcycle riders I see a lot of crashes. On any given weekend I'll see a couple hundred bikes, typically there will be 2 to 3 good wrecks a month.
Over the last few years the three wheelers are becoming the most common to see upside down beside the road.
They can't corner like a regular bike and when you combine that with a rider that isn't even experienced with a normal bike it appears to be a recipe for disaster.

My neighbor bought a touring bike because riding across the US on a motorcycle was on his bucket list. He got to Florida from CA thought hard about selling it and flying home. He ended up making the return trip just because he didn’t want to quit. Upon getting home he sold it . Said it was miserable, climate control is whatever the weather is.

On the other hand my step son has ridden across country numerous times on very uncomfortable hardtail choppers. Apparently it’s not for everyone, but it is for some. If you end up with a Gold Wing and don’t like it maybe you can turn it in to something you do like. This is what my step son did to a Gold Wing.

Toying with the idea? Then it’s not for you two. People who travel long distances on bikes usually dream of it for years before succeeding.
Your either on the bike or in a hotel room with limited amount of gear.
Ditch the idea and try a RV instead.