Hello from the Midwest! I am from Southern Illinois, which is actually southeast of St. Louis and about 350 miles south of Chicago. I am closer to Mississippi than Chicago. Southern IL offers some beautiful riding, rolling hills through the Shawnee National Forest, and less than an hour from the land between the lakes area of Kentucky and the Ozarks of Missouri. I have been an HD rider for over 20 years, but after owning 2 BMW SUV's I am interested in the BMW bikes. I'm a long distance rider and comfort is the utmost of importance. I hope to learn a lot and make some friends here. The new 1600B coming out is something I'm very interested in.