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Hello everyone,
I am new to this NESR. I live in burlington vermont, have been riding on and off for the last 5 years.
Bikes I have owned:
1967 Vespa sprint: used it for riding within a 20 mile radius of country roads for commuting to school when I was living in thetford VT. Bought it for 1k, sold 2 years later for 2k. Should have kept it as a collectors item in my living room but I needed the cash.
1972 Honda CB 350: used it around town, and for fairweather commuting 100 RT from Montpelier to Milton on back roads (avg speed limit 50 mph). Never on highway. Learned how to tinker on it thanks to my friend Dave, who was living in strafford at the time (maybe he's on NESR, I've lost track of him) with this one Had it for 2 years, sold it to a girl who did a ground up restoration on it.
2005 Ninja 250: my current bike. Bought it for a song with 4200 miles here in burlington about 2 months ago. I've put 1000 miles on it. Mostly rides to middlebury and down to strafford. This is the first bike I've ridden on the highway. In all, I am totally pleased with it except:
-it gets blown around a bit in cross winds on the highway. I try to avoid the highway now unless I have a good tailwind.
-I'm 6'2" and weigh about 190. The bike feels really small when I am trying to tuck behind it's tiny windshield at highway speeds. Below 60, I don't tuck. Past 60 it's pretty neccessary to avoid the wind. My back and shoulders burn like crazy after 20 minutes or so.
-the tires (or maybe it's the shocks) seem small to me at moments when a) I hit things like expansion cracks on overpasses at 75 mph, b) riding on various back roads parallelling 89 with their tar snakes, bumps, cracks etc. To be fair, the roads are in pretty bad shape since the hurricane. Actually, I've only had one or two bumps or longitudinal cracks where I really felt like, "oh shit, I'm gonna die." That said, I feel every little imperfection in the road. I don't recall having this experience on the CB 350 which had an enduro wheels on it.
Some of the above is less of an issue as I get comfortable riding longer distances ie. the 160 mile trip to and from strafford. Still, I can't stand more than about 40 miles at a time on the highway in the current setup, due to lack of comfort described above.
Also, when you live and ride the back country of Vermont you inevitably will stumble onto dirt roads. I have ridden a few on the ninja, and actually it bike handled it fairly well. That said, there were a few bumpy moments...
So, in short, I am looking to upgrade to a sport touring or dual sport for my next bike. I begin my 3rd year of medical school this march, and my first rotation will be down in west palm beach. My plan is to buy the new bike before I leave and ride it down to West Palm 2 up with a friend of mine who wants to make the trip. I am considering the vstrom 650 or the ducati ST2. My budget is between 4-5k.
Vstrom 650: from what I've read, it will handle anything I throw at it. Actually it seems like a great bike for me considering my riding and my size. My major beef with it is that it's pretty freaking ugly. Looks better outfitted for touring but still, resembles an ant eater.
Ducati ST2: in my opinion, one of the nicest looking bikes I have seen. Ride reports are all seem to glow. Good reputation for reliability considering it's a ducati. My major concern is it's ability to handle the sort of crappy backroads and ocassional hard pack dirt roads that are all over my fine state.
I am not an agressive rider. Acually, I would like to be a little more agressive, and if I can find the time, I may sign up for a track day somewhere (are there any in the burlington area btw?). I probably push the speedlimit by 10 or 15 max, when safe, but I am generally not in a rush. Admittedly, the ninja has made me love high lean angles...
Any opinions? Displacement and max HP are a huge step up. Maybe too big?
Thoughts about handling the road conditions I face in VT?
Also what about a KLR 650??