Geekboy posted:

Your first bike is to teach you what your second bike should be, right?

Well, as much as I like the idea of going across the country and into the hinterlands and all that, my income and my available vacation time means I'm never going to be more than maybe 3 days from home. That won't change for years unless I have a serious career change and I'm too old to want to change careers (again).

So I think that whenever it's time to trade in my Roadster, it's going to be for a Bonneville. I keep debating between the T100 and the T120, but one of those.

I keep looking down when I'm out and expecting that to be what I'm riding, so that seems like a sign it's what I should be on.

Keeping in mind that I'm months or even a year out from paying things down enough for it to make sense, what am I not seeing? What am I going to be sad about on that bike? Lack of locking storage is the main thing I'm seeing (though it's easier on a Bonne than on a Roadster).

Maybe something like an NC750X or a V-Strom is in my future too, but the Bonne has been loving calling to me.

Slavvy posted:

In your case your first bike is teaching you what your first bike should have been

Remy Marathe posted:

.

-The wrong sorts of people will approach you to talk about your motorcycle.

Russian Bear posted:

What does Triumph do really well?

Remy Marathe posted:

Ways in which the Bonneville makes me sad:

-The FSM is a digital-only monthly subscription at $8.33/mo

-There's a maintenance reminder light that will prompt you every 1 year or 4k miles to bring your motorcycle to a Triumph dealership and spend ~$600 USD for an all-day service that probably includes mostly things you can do yourself (Oil change, coolant, brake fluid, fastener tightening, spark plug checks etc. ), plus hooking it up to an expensive proprietary machine that goes bing. The interval can be changed by the shop I believe.

-The chain is a pain in the rear end to clean & wax with the exhaust in the way.

-Do you hate cleaning rims? How about rims with spokes?

-Don't even get me started on the turn signal button.

-The wrong sorts of people will approach you to talk about your motorcycle.

-It's not what I'd call nimble in the twisties, which is OK by me at the moment

-Fake Carb Shame

Otherwise I have zero regrets on the T120, and there's nothing I've read or watched that would make me consider a T100 over the T120 once you're preparing to pay the Triumph fancy lad tax. I will say if I was riding the longer distances and twisties that I used to on the GS500, I'd be migrating toward trying something with a slightly more aggressive riding position with more nimble handling and hard side luggage, yeah FJR, I'm comin' for you when I'm 60.

Russian Bear posted:

What does Triumph do really well? Is it like Ducati but British?

I think i remember that the 1200RS has a suuuuuuper flat torque curve all the way to redline from some review I saw at some point.

Slavvy posted:

They make phenomenal Just A Bikes that look acceptable without being super flashy.

They make a phenomenal 600SS/midsize sport that is always broken.

They make a great big naked and decent middleweight naked, both of which are fast enough but not actually fast, and always broken.

Can't think of much else they do well.

Geekboy posted:

I ride a Harley and I don’t think it’s possible to be approached by worse people than I already am.

This is not a challenge to the universe.

Nitrox posted:

A triumph is not a cafe racer by default?

Slavvy posted:

Idk man what does a d675 look like to you

Nitrox posted:

I actually don't know what that is, do you have a link?

TheBacon posted:

MSPain posted:

i've been riding at least a little just about every day and i'm getting to the point where I'm a little sick of city riding. i'd like to take some trips farther afield. here in seattle that pretty much means going on I5 for a significant distance, and my darling little tu250x isn't quite up to the task. going south through seattle there are several spots where you need to merge or exit from the left side of the highway and it generally feels a little unsafe maxing out at ~75mph with a long runway and a tail wind. I want to go to portland or canada, both of which will take about 4 hours of highway riding.

the closest dealer to me is triumph. would it be really stupid to get a bonneville or a thruxton? i have also had my eye on the royal enfield 650s they sell.

also i really want this old bmw https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/751932659188195
it's so dreamy

Captain McAllister posted:

Sitting on bikes at a dealership for a few minutes won't give you a sense of what will start to ache on longer trips (I'm willing to bet lower back and wrists would be the first on something like a Thruxton, though).

T Zero posted:

One of the things that's surprised me is how much my legs, particularly my upper thighs, get sore over long distances. This has been true across multiple bikes. I definitely prefer narrower seats and on my next bike I will spring for more padding.

Captain McAllister posted:

This is an interesting link to enter your height etc. and see what bikes may 'feel' like. You could put yourself in on your TU and see what may be causing the upper thigh issue. I'm pretty sure you can use it to compare bikes side to side.

MSPain posted:

yeah i've been planning to do that, too. i have some reasons to go to portland, though, and i don't have access to a car.

right arm posted:

the R is cooler

builds character posted:

Seconding take the ferry and go ride, but also, the train to Portland is quite nice.