• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

What is the most popular touring motorcycle?

I feel compelled to disagree a little with you, but it is a minor point. I don't know what an average HD rider is. There are some who only ride on weekends and on sunny days but … most of the Harley riders I know ride the damned wheels off their bikes. I have been on plenty of cross-country trips and the predominant bike I see on the road is a Harley bagger. And when I check into a hotel somewhere, the most common bike in the parking lot is a Harley covered with mud and dust. I personally believe "real" Harley riders get a bum rap because of the few that we see around urban areas and in front of bars on weekends.

That is my experience as well. Honestly, I am just not attracted to cruiser bikes in any way, but it's my experience that there are a lot (certainly numerically and also percentage) of very serious over-the-road Harley riders. I'm met lots of them and had some great conversations and beverages. Two wheels good - any kind of two wheels. :thumb
 
I also see a few posts of guys buying a twenty year BMW with only a few thousand miles.

I don't think the brand of motorcycle has anything to do with miles ridden. It is the rider. I grew up with a guy that put 10,000 miles a year on a Puch moped.
 
The last time I compared annual numbers HD out sold BMW 20 to 1. So it stands to reason that folks may see more HD bikes out and about than BMW bikes. But 20 times more? I suspect that a larger proportion of BMW riders do long distance touring than the proportion of HD riders that do. But that is only a hunch and pure speculation on my part.
 
When I first showed up on this form I noticed the annual riding contest. I forget the miles exactly, but a couple guys were burning up 30,000+ a year, some were 2,000-3,000, and the average was around 9,000.

I also ride with a fairly large Harley group, over 400 riders at one point. We have annual mileage contests too. Funny how one or two riders were running 30,000+ miles a year, some were running 2,000-3,000 and the average for the group was around 9,000 miles.

I would have expected BMW riders to pound more miles, but it doesn't appear so. IMO, most riders have jobs so they get one or two big rides a year, then a bunch of short one or two day week end rides. Same with the Harley bunch I run with.
 
When I first showed up on this form I noticed the annual riding contest. I forget the miles exactly, but a couple guys were burning up 30,000+ a year, some were 2,000-3,000, and the average was around 9,000.

I also ride with a fairly large Harley group, over 400 riders at one point. We have annual mileage contests too. Funny how one or two riders were running 30,000+ miles a year, some were running 2,000-3,000 and the average for the group was around 9,000 miles.

I would have expected BMW riders to pound more miles, but it doesn't appear so. IMO, most riders have jobs so they get one or two big rides a year, then a bunch of short one or two day week end rides. Same with the Harley bunch I run with.

In the 6 months contest (April to October or so) the high mileage male usually hits 50,000 or so most years. In 1999 Voni rode 77,000 miles and then a couple of years later Ardys Kellerman rode 81,000 in 6 months and after we did a little fund raiser so she could keep riding she topped 100,000 in the calendar year. Ardys was well in her 70s at that time. On the last day of the year she had arrived home with over the 100,000 miles and was gassing the bike one last time for the year and a guy came up to her aand said, "Aren't you a little old to be riding that thing." Amazingly, she let him live. :)
 
In the 6 months contest (April to October or so) the high mileage male usually hits 50,000 or so most years. In 1999 Voni rode 77,000 miles and then a couple of years later Ardys Kellerman rode 81,000 in 6 months and after we did a little fund raiser so she could keep riding she topped 100,000 in the calendar year. Ardys was well in her 70s at that time. On the last day of the year she had arrived home with over the 100,000 miles and was gassing the bike one last time for the year and a guy came up to her aand said, "Aren't you a little old to be riding that thing." Amazingly, she let him live. :)

Thx for the reminder of Ardys and Voni. I haven't thought of Ardys in a while. Her end was tragic but her life was amazing. I met her once at Engle's (same place I met you and Voni once, but you probably don't remember me; I was the one wearing Aerostich.):wave
 
Well, I know of a rider that put 50,000 miles on a Harley in a bit over three months, so there are serious riders out there on all makes.
 
ALCAN and points north

A couple of years ago I did the Alaska Highway (ALCAN) over a six week trip. There HD were very rare, only seen around larger cities, almost never on the highway itself. BMW and KTM dominated, I was on an 2007 F650 GS and because of that trip, when the F850 was released I was an early owner.
 
Back
Top