Maybe sell/trade my Monster for a cruiser?

So... :ban: lol.

First of all I'm getting discharged from the military soon on a medical (Depression and "significagant autistic personality traits", which is a way of saying "we think you have Asbergers, but we're not going to label you for no benifit").

I have a pretty solid job offer in Houston, TX. I mean, they're flying me out and paying for a hotel/flight/rental for a follow up interview... I've already done 2. and I'm likely moving there. My family will eventually follow, but I have to ride there first myself.

Not to mention there'll be a lot of riding/driving the first 6 months or so. As soon as I'm done with their school, they're giving me a company truck. Until then, I'll be riding across several states in my own vehicle.

A two up sport bagger wouldn't be terrible either.

Anyway, my bike is... kinda... up for sale/trade if anyone from the FL/GA area wants to pick it up. Book is $6690 private party and $4685 for dealer trade-in. So the dealer route is out. I'll post some pics if somebody wants some although there is another thread with them already. 5240 on the ODO as of today and I'm putting new tires on today. PR2's probably.


And well, even though this kinda a "for sale" thread, it's kinda not. I'm also looking for ideas on good travel bikes besides cruisers. Hopefully one that I can afford. Those Shadows are tempting. Just saying.

go for a proper sports tourer, something faired, and probably japanese

i'd consider somethign without a chain too if you are doing a lot of miles, if you want economical then something like a honda deuville would be perfect.

FJR, Concourse, Honda ST or even a Goldwing (expensive), any BMW Sport Touring bike.. I'd rather have any of those than a cruiser :don'tknow:

Quite honestly, I'd rather have any of those than a cruiser myself. The problem is finding them in trade. It seems like they're either for sale only, or still worth 2x my bike.

Of course there is this squid at work who is dead set on getting a monster for his first bike. I kind of feel that as a responsible superior petty officer I should sell him my 696 so he doesn't buy that monster 1100...

But I feel bad for the bike doing that. Poor bike getting sold to a squid. And it is really one of my dream bikes. I don't want to sell it. I just don't see touring on it working out well, honestly. Plastic tank, no cargo hooks, it burns my wife's legs cause of the silly pipe arrangement, etc.

Seriously. Who thought that using the exhaust for the heel plates was a good idea?

I just picked up a cruiser myself as a second bike to the FZ6. I needed something to take 3-7 day camping trips with my uncles and cousins who also ride cruisers, something that could really be loaded down with all the gear that was also super comfortable for the long haul and had the ability to ride comfortably on the days when my wife will join me for an 8 hour ride.

I ended getting the most reliable American made motorcycle you can get, A Victory Kingpin Tour


Although it won't go through the curves as quick as an FZ6 it rides so nice on the open road and around town it makes up for it. Belt drive is so much easier than chain drive, no silly cleaning and lubricating in the middle of your touring trip. I can probably pack about 2 times as much gear on this bike than I could on the FZ6 and it still gets 45 mpg even with 1635cc's! The riding position makes the FZ6 feel like riding a fence rail, I did a 2.5 hour trip on the cruiser without a single stop and never felt the need to shift my body around to get comfortable and my back and legs felt great when I dismounted. If I did that on the fZ6 I would feel like I had my legs run over by a truck and my ass pounded by a gorilla. It makes me wonder how you can do the "Iron Butt Ride" on a cruiser and feel like you really accomplished something. It is like sitting in an easy chair for 1,000 miles.

A Magna is inexpensive, is a cruiser, and has decent power and 4 cylinders like a motorcycle should. A little hard to find, though.

FIZZER6 said:

I ended getting the most reliable American made motorcycle you can get, A Victory Kingpin Tour

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OK.. I'll give it to you.. that's a seriously nice ride!! I rode Victory Hammer S and loved the ridiculous abundance of low end torque and intoxicating exhaust note! :thumbup:

Erci said:

OK.. I'll give it to you.. that's a seriously nice ride!! I rode Victory Hammer S and loved the ridiculous abundance of low end torque and intoxicating exhaust note! :thumbup:

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Thank you. I got a great deal on this one as it's a 2007 and has 19K miles ($6,500!) worth at least $9,000 from a dealer in this condition so I couldn't pass it up. I love that it comes with all the touring add ons: windscreen, throttle lock, touring hard bags and trunk but in 20 minutes I can strip all those off and it is a mean looking badass. The seat height is only 26.5 inches so it's really easy to handle at stops and parking lots for a short guy like me. This bike is only 650 lbs dry weight which isn't bad considering it's size. 85hp/115ft lbs stock, full torque is at about 2,800 rpms, it's so different compared to the FZ6 on the power curve. The pipes and K&N with re-map probably added about 10hp. As for Victory's reliability; My uncle has a 2001 Victory with 106,000 miles...the engine has NEVER been opened up and valves on these are self adjusting...still runs like a champ! Try that on a Harley or even a Japanese cruiser.

mikw73 said:

A Magna is inexpensive, is a cruiser, and has decent power and 4 cylinders like a motorcycle should. A little hard to find, though.

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Hmm... Where does the engine fit on this thing? Magna :: Home

Looks comfy tho. :BLAA:

I did eventually find it though. I can see how a bike last made in 1988 would be hard to find. lol.

EDIT: If I do swap to a cruiser, I'm looking at those shadows. I did a shadow phantom with bags and it came out to 9k brand new. So, I could probably get out the door for 10k. Still not sure what I want to do though. If I can find a victory in my price range, I'll jump all over it. They've always been on my bucket list of bikes.