Mo's DR 650 and my KLR
If I knew how much fun these bikes are, I would not have purchased my Victory. The Victory is great on long road trips but these bikes are just a romp.
I had to lower Mo's DR quite a bit but we got it to a point that she is comfortable with it.
Here is a picture of the Victory as we were getting ready to take off on a Northwest tour. We covered a lot of pavement miles and we made most of those miles two lane roads. With the weight of the bike, the two of us and all our gear, the bike was over 1400 pounds and it was very wearing on long curving roads (the roads that I like). Though I don't think that the thumpers would be a good choice for such a trip, I am wondering if I would be better off with two bigger dual sports for such trips. I am very new to motorcycles and have never driven anything other than big cruisers till we bought these two DS bikes. I thought all bikes handled the same but that is certainly not the case. Cruisers are great for highways but miss the mark on small paved roads and I am not comfortable at all on dirt roads, probably more to my limited skill, than the bike's abilities.
I just might have to add a bigger DS to the collection.
Mikey