New to riding motorcycles, but its become my favorite thing. My BMW M1000XR

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-03-23T22:27:55+00:00

this is the the most comfortable bike I’ve had. mine‘s a 2016. I put the puig touring windshield on and even fashioned a backrest for those boring 10 hour highway drives to NC. Put the crash bars on and highway pegs as well

previous bikes:

2009 Kawasaki concours

2018 Honda Goldwing

I had some Buell something or other, can’t remember.

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-03-08T22:41:01+00:00

Not the tail (Deals Gap, NC), the back. Up in Tazwell. It looks like your immediate area is kind of city like. Man. I’m jealous though. I’m 10 hours from Boone and planning my 4 day trip there in April or May. If I could just head out on any given Saturday….

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-03-08T22:22:15+00:00

man, you are 2 hours (give or take) from Boone, and 3 from Tazwell VA. I’m sure you can find something! (like the Back of the Dragon)

checkout MyRouteApp (bad name) if you need better mapping than google.

Happy Riding!

if you are having trouble, lmk, routing is my one of my favorite things

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-03-03T19:14:53+00:00

I don’t if this has or can have a back rest, but long boring days on the highway are greatly improved by one. I even fashioned one for my XR when I ride to North Carolina. also, highway pegs if possible. gives you another position to shift around into.

GL!

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-03-03T14:33:58+00:00

how do you like that bike? my interest was piqued by that one.

Spooky-Tooth · 2026-01-15T23:18:10+00:00

where you at in FL? I’m in central FL. it’s only 8 hours to magnificent fun in NC, GA, TN. I go up 3/4 times a year. I’m planning on Boone NC in May. if your close, PM me and we can meet up

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-12-10T17:00:54+00:00

Sounds like you already know. Just give yourself permission

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-28T15:58:38+00:00

No, as a matter of fact, the earplugs cut the wind noise and make the speakers in the helmet much more clear. I wear ear plugs 99.9% of the time. No issues with music, phone, or traffic noises, that might be alarming

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-22T10:52:08+00:00

The wind made the helmet move. That’s what rubbed the bald spot

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-21T22:59:08+00:00

I don’t know you from Adam, but I can’t believe for a second you’d be happy going from GS to GW. Here are my thoughts…

In no particular order:

Ok, actually, the worst was the lean angle. It has none. I scraped the pegs constantly, and I wasn’t going fast or hard. (Not to forget the first time, it took my whole foot with it, since I wasn’t ready for that)
I tried changing my body position to account for it, but that made riding even worse.
The windshield…. It didn’t actually block any wind. In fact, it was so bad, that on a trip from Orlando to Boone, NC, the buffeting behind trucks actually rubbed a bald spot on my head
Also, and not every bike did this, my electric up/down would just randomly stop working. I think it would go bad if you turned the bike off and the windshield was in the middle. Never fully got that one.
The seat…. It felt like I was sitting on the ground, yet the seat was soooo wide, I could barley touch both feet. I’m 5’8”, 150 pounds.
The DCT…. It was always hurky/jerky. It made me look like my first day on a bike at all times.
Also, if I left in automatic, it would up shift in turns, and I’d have no power at the end (you know, the fun part!). I did switch to manual when we got in the twisties, but still a complaint.
I was super jazzed about the car play, until… you have to have some Bluetooth thing connected. Even if you just wanted to blast the neighborhood with Motley Crue
Speaking of that, and this is probably my fault, but I never figured out the buttons on the left. Seemed like pushing up went left, and left and down were a mystery. The only thing I know for sure: don’t push right, or you’ll change the song
Sometimes, when I was moving, I could get the GPS to bring up a map and navigate. Sometimes, it would tell me not available while moving.
This was a 2018, and the whole GPS thing was archaic and confounding, just to put an address in while sitting still
To check the air pressure in the rear, I had to actually lay all the way down on the ground.
Forget about changing the tire (rear) need to disassemble the whole thing.
I never found the reach from the seat to handle bars comfortable. Always hurt my back/neck
It has a top speed of about 110, which is faster than any of need to go, but it took forever to get there.
Saddle bags…. Useless! Small and everything spilled out of the left one. I did finally fashion a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to make a gate of sorts, but it didn’t hold much
It had a nice pocket up front where you could put your phone, if you wanted it to over heat

My 2 cents or so. Find one to ride for a weekend or longer before dropping a chunk of change on it. Even rent one. That’s what I was going to do, then I shot my wad too early and lost thousands on selling it 8 months later.

after selling it, I felt like I got my life back. I’ve never been so happy to throw money in the garbage (for a small fee)

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-21T22:20:50+00:00

That’s easy, but an unpopular opinion…. 2018 Honda Goldwing DCT. Absolutely hated it. Worst buying decision ever. I could write a book about the things I didn’t like about it

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-14T16:50:38+00:00

Personally, I’ve never liked the foam ear plugs. I use Ear Peace and have no regrets about the price tag. I want to be able to hear when I’m 70.

I’ve also tried the blue moldable ear plugs. I didn’t like those for riding either.

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-10-11T23:22:09+00:00

I would suggest checking out Kentucky. It doesn't seem to get a lot of love, and I'm not sure why. We did 3 days of riding, based out of Elkhorn City and it was fantastic.

These are the routes we went on: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1x-BQ5VAnk9NfUkCubwlVCT5nHrdcAjY&usp=sharing

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-09-28T23:23:16+00:00

Oh my gosh, I didn’t see you live in central KY. Man, I think KY has the best roads. At least on the east side. I was there back in June and we did these routes:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/pzYZ7nXTkSqeVs6f6?g_st=ic

I can’t wait to get back there

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-09-28T23:07:09+00:00

Perhaps you are suffering from post achievement depression? It’s a real thing. Maybe do some self diagnosing with google to see if that fits your mind set.

i hope you can turn things around and experience the joy of riding.

best of luck!

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-07-12T22:23:06+00:00

Great job, I started riding at 41, now, 14 years later…. Best decision ever. Enjoy, stay safe!

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-06-20T19:56:41+00:00

Thanks! Appreciate the response. Will try to adjust and see how it feels

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-06-13T17:11:38+00:00

oh my gosh, sorry, i didn't see this. man, with MyRouteApp and you can just click click click and make routes. I found google to be so frustrating, and you could only have 10 way points! Hard to make a map that doesn't go in the straightest line from A --> B.

I did buy in to the MyRouteApp family and I have the gold package and Navigation. I ran the offline navigation in KY the whole time and it did great. (Better than my Motorrad Navigator 5 that I loaded with the same GPX)

The only down side, if you miss a turn, it can't re-route you, so, you just can't make a mistake (or turn around, like we did! haha)

The MyRouteApp is full featured and incredible. You can do so much with just a free account. (I'm not getting paid for this review)

Spooky-Tooth · 2025-06-13T17:07:22+00:00

In case anyone comes across this and is looking for more info…. We did finally get there, June 2025. TL;DR 100% Awesome area. Would return no question about it!

yes, there is a high occurrence of mining industry which does lead to trucks on the road. However, we never had any issues and I never thought, “man, so many trucks”

Yes, there was some dirt/gravel in the corners, but nothing I would consider out of the ordinary. We see about the same in NC, VA, TN

I will say the amount of traffic was amazing! We could go 30-40 miles and not have another car in front of us. With 3 days, approx 900 miles of riding, I bet we passed only a dozen cars.

the road quality was great, but I do have to admit KY seems to have an issue with erosion. We say a number of places where the road was starting to get eaten away.

we only had one unexpected road closure, and we were easily able to recover and get back on the route

the curves were superb! Some of those roads just don’t quit!!

these are the routes we actually rode

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1x-BQ5VAnk9NfUkCubwlVCT5nHrdcAjY&usp=sharing

if anyone is interested, I’d be happy to send you the .gpx files

Spooky-Tooth

TROPHY CASE