I’m not terribly interested in less than 1 litre Japanese motorcycles. Not sure need enters the picture, but, that is about where I want to be for size. I could deal with a current 750 GSXR, if my neighbor was a chiropractor and could help me off the thing when I got done riding.
Daily use of a serious Sport bike would be a bridge too far, for me. A couple of track days gets it out of my system.
I ride a somewhat classic 37 year old FJ1200. The magazine wags were lamenting that it was the best two up sport touring machine, and, unavailable, new, 20 years after production ended. This is the second version I have owned, I bought a 1991 “Pink Stripe” brand new, and rode it to both coasts from here, before moving onto a 1995 750 GSXR. I rode that bike to both coasts as well, and in Jersey I stopped at the BMW dealer to replace the rain pants I split the crotch on, and when the owner asked, “who’s bike is that out there with Minnesota plates on it”? I got a free T-shirt at his insistence. “Any nutcase that rides a Gixxer to Tom’s River from Minnesota needs to be in one of my T-shits”. That was when you could buy a BMW in Tom’s River, if you were into that kind of thing. He sold me just the bottoms of a set of Hein Gericke rain pants, too. It rained all the way there and back.
Current bike is a 1989, the version closer to “Sport” than “Touring”, aluminum swing arm, etc, and find that the design and I have aged well together.
Thanks for the tip on Barber, never been, but, one day I will.
Ride safe.
Best,
Ted
