All this discussion of motorcycles interests me. It matters not to me what someone rides as long ads they enjoy the ride. Back in 2013, I made a purchase of a Harley-Davidson Road Glide Ultra. It is a lot of motorcycle, a little over 900 lbs when fueled and ready to go. It has been a real fun time riding, mostly for short trips locally, maybe a couple hundred miles in a day. I did take one long trip from NW Pennsylvania to Milwaukee for Harley's 115th Celebration. Had a fun time riding there and back not to mention the fun of the celebration and riding with my eldest son, and two grandsons.

In the past I've owned smaller bikes and enjoyed them, but they did not compare to my HD. The largest bike before getting my RG was a Yamaha TX500.

I mostly rode the big bikes. I had four Gold Wings, two GL1500’s and two GL1800’s. My last one was an ‘05 Wing I bought new, and when I sold it in January of ‘12, it had just over 85,000 miles on it. Last I heard, the fellow who bought it from me reported having close to 120,000 miles on it, and that was a couple years ago. He’d converted it to a trike. If I had to go back in time, knowing what I know now, I’d keep the Gold Wing and sell the Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Classic and bring the Wing up to Alaska. As much fun as the Vstrom was, traffic is such, up here, that I think the bigger, brighter colored bike would be a safer way to ride. It’s more visible. Drivers up here are rude, aggressive and prone to road rage, and we don’t have a road system like in the “Lower 48.” It’s limited, and both major highways end up in the same
place—Fairbanks. However, what’s done is done, and I was happy with my Vstrom. I just felt a little vulnerable in traffic.

The yellow one was mine, the red one was my wife’s. This was taken at the top of Galena Summit, north of Sun Valley in Idaho.