Less than a year after buying my first bike, I have decided I would like something more. That first bike was a 2006 Honda Shadow Spirit 750. It has been a great beginners bike, but it had a few downsides to what I want to do with a bike. First, I want something I could take on a road trip without any hassles, primarily the carburetors and having to adjust them for higher elevation. Second, I am a pack rat who tries to be prepared for anything, so I needed some storage room. Third, I wanted some comforts… cruise controls and a stereo. A touring bike would take care of these needs.

The biggest reason for my initial decision to buy a Honda, was the reliability factor that Honda is known for. This factor alone, was the biggest reason to start at the local Honda dealer for a touring bike. Honda has two touring bikes, the Goldwing (GL1800) and the ST1300. Aside from the obvious difference in engine size, these bikes serve two separate functions of this market. The Goldwing is the bike of choice for those that want to 2-up tour, it has size, power, comfort, and even towing capacity. The ST1300 is based more from the sport bike market, making 2-up touring a bit more difficult, but the ST1300 has agility, a bit more fuel economy, and believe it or not it offers long distance comfort because of where your feet are perched under your hips (which will take the strain off your lower back).

In my opinion, the Harley-Davidson touring bikes are out of the question based on three reasons: air-cooled engine, reliability issues (I know that they are better now, but they still have issues), and the antiquated styling of their bikes (note to H-D: you can update this styling more than once every 30 years).

I also have a metric bike shop (Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Yamaha) nearby, so I went to check their offerings. Yamaha has a bike that is similar to the Harley-Davidson Ultra Glides. So much so that the styling looked like a Harley down to the visible push-rod tubes on the v-twin engine. This knocks out the Yamaha as a possibility for the same reasons for the H-D. I took a quick look at the Victory and Triumph bikes, but neither offered a bike that would suit my needs. BMW, who has nice touring bike options, but are 70 miles to the nearest dealer. The BMW bikes are similar in styling to the Honda ST1300, which would classify them as sport touring bikes, but I really wanted a larger carrying capacity than the sport touring offered. Which is the same reason that I have a long bed pickup truck… you rarely say that this just carries too much.

While I have pretty much made up my mind to go with the Goldwing, I do have a problem spending more than $20,000 on my next bike… after all, I am still paying on the one that I bought last year. This means, ideally, I will sell or trade in the Shadow, and I will find a good used Goldwing to make my daily driver. In 2001, Honda updated the Goldwing to a more streamlined form that I prefer. Additionally, since I plan to put many miles on this Goldwing, I would like a fairly new bike with low miles. So the search is on for a 2001 or newer Goldwing with low miles.