After much discussion and a back injury that's lasted well over a year I am in two minds whether to change my blade for something else. I bought the blade out of selfishness as prior to that the missus and my lad used to enjoy coming out with me, neither will come out on the blade (good thing for some) and I want them to be able to enjoy what I enjoy. The back injury is getting no better and I'm finding it hard to move about on the bike as I used to. To that end I've been looking at a few tourer / adventure type bikes. I've only got my bike and around a grand to play with so guessing somewhere in region of 5k. The bikes I want to go try are. 1. Triumph sprint 1050 st 2. Honda VFR 800 3. Suzuki v-strom 1000 4. Yamaha FZ1 fazer 5. Aprillia SL750 I've heard good things about the triumph, suzuki and the VFR and have owned a fazer 600 in the past, but know nothing about the aprillia. Any thoughts would be appreciated, don't want the blade to go but I know it makes sense as I won't ride it as much as I should.
If you want something comfortable for pillions then you need to take them out for some test sits/rides. A while ago me and the missus tried some at a bike show, she hated the back of the Viffer and IIRC the one she liked best was the crossrunner.
Have you looked at bar risers and vario pegs? Could make a world of difference and means you could keep the blade. I've got vario pegs and they have eased the discomfort I get in my knees
No experience with any of the above but hope you find what you are looking for. Just make sure you take long test rides with both you and pillion
Sorry to hear your backs not improving Glynn. I came to the blade from a Fazer 1000, and it's all day comfy with not a single niggle of pain as far as I'm concerned. I had the carbed detuned R1 engine version and never felt down on horses against any other bike really. Travelled two up from Bastogne to Leeds on it when my mates Triumph Sprint went u/s in Belgium, hardly noticed him there. The 1050 is a bit top heavy in my opinion at low speeds, the v-strom is dull, a properly looked after Vfr is a great bike, it's never gonna light any fires under you but solid and quick enough when carrying a pillion, I did a couple of courses at TVP using the vfr800's pre vtec and I had a great time on them. The Aprilia I know nothing about, don't see too many of them about, but the place next to padgetts in Batley, the name escapes me, is an aprilia dealer. Edit: the bloke who had the sprint px'd it for a 1050, on last years trip he made it as far as the petrol station near Goole at the end of the 62 before it fell over on him on the forecourt. The year before that he dropped it whilst turning in a little town in Luxembourg, he's not a weedy bloke, does triathlons etc, but the bike did seem to have a mind of its own if you were trying to slow manoeuvre it.
