Hello all,
Not new to motorcycling, I’ve been riding since I was 18 and I’m in my 50’s now.
Currently riding a 2008 Honda VTX 1300 and love the bike but recently I’ve been doing more all day/all weekend rides with my buddies and I am finding the cruiser is exhausting at the end of the day.
I recall when I bought my fist cruiser that it took more effort to steer then the more upright sport touring bikes I was used to. Most of my riding at that time was commuting and a couple hours with my riding group.
I’ve been researching different types of bikes and seem to have landed on the Versys 1000 as the bike that will best suit my needs.
I don’t think I’ll buy new, but I don’t want to go too old either. Any years or models to avoid?
Here’s my X, she’s currently tucked away for the winter.
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Smurfy, I just went through a similar thought and decision process. i sold my 2003 VTX 1300 because I didn't love riding it and was tired of walking around it and dusting it off. I bought it because I thought it would be more comfortable than my previous Nighthawk 650 and Suzuki Intruder 800 were.
Anyway, your bike is way nicer than my VTX was, very beautiful. But if it's the same bike underneath that mine was, then it is slow, porky, and ponderous to steer. Sure, big comfortable seat, but I actually was less comfortable on it because it wanted to go straight, and as you mention was a chore to pilot.
In my case, after the X was gone for a while, I got the itch and bought a new 2019 Yamaha XSR700, a little naked streetbike, because I wanted the performance the V lacked and a smaller package. Well, the bike was hella fun and I liked it, but it wasn't as relaxed a riding position as I wanted and there were no reasonable baggage options. This bike had no windshield (to speak of) and no cargo capacity. It was in my budget, but it turns out I wasn't budgeting correctly.
I quickly realized that I sorely missed those things, needed a more standard-like riding position, and even the sporty 700 had left me wanting more at times, mainly highway-speed passing. It was the first bike I topped 100 on. Anyway, decide to cut my losses and sell it, again not knowing if I'd get back into riding. Well, before the season ended, I got the itch. I researched 5x what I did before, sat on more bikes, watched more vids, I really didn't want to mess up again and have a loss on selling a new bike with 800 miles on it. . . You can see the backstory in my other posts here.
When I considered all I'd learned through 25 years of riding and several bikes owned and many ridden, I decide I'd that even though I'd never been exposed to sport/adventure/tour kind of bikes, they looked like they'd fit my bill. I'm from a small town in the
South, so I came up with pretty much exclusively the "cruiser guys" and the "sport bike guys" and the very few "weird adventure bike guys" were viewed as rich weirdos. There just weren't many bikes like this when I was coming up. Some BMWs. Out of our league.
Well, I'll cut to the chase- When I finally made up my mind based on my needs, (Windshield, Cargo, Power!) and there was one more feature I really wanted, Cruise Control. When I went looking for what had all that plus cruise, naturally I found myself in adventure bike land. I came to this and the other forum asking "Which Versys models have CC?" and that led me to learn about the Gen 2s and Gen 3s. Gen 3 Versys 1000 bikes (2019 and up) all have CC and al the rest I mentioned. I rode one at the dealer, and then I knew- This bike is awesome!
Only downside is the high seat. There are no differences between the earlier and later Gen 3s. That being the case, I bought a 2019 with low miles, and I love it. I would never have considered buying something that expensive, but I still had the cash from the previous XSR sale, so it softened it a bit and in the end I'm glad I bought the Versys 1k, it is a hell of a lot more motorcycle than I've ever had.
TLDR- Get a 2019-Up V1K, you will never look back.
Your X is very nice, but it will only take one ride to realize what you've been missing!
Good luck. Hope to se you here with your new V soon!
