My two concerns are: lack of a radio on the sport touring bikes, and foot position.



When I get off my Harley my knees hurt from not being able to stretch them out (this being from 2+ hrs).    I do not have highway pegs on my crash bar, but being able to move my feet around on my floorboards sure is nice.  Am I going to hate a sport-touring bike?  The two main bikes I am looking at are the BMW K1300GT and the Kawasaki Concours.  The kaw looks a ton better!



What radio options do these have besides ipod and headphones?  I usually do not wear a helmet, but I might need to revisit that choice.

I have rode my buddy's K1200, ergos look pretty close, it's not for me. I felt bunched up, w/ foot pegs that were too far back. I ride a FLHR, highway pegs help me. I would like to take a ZX14 or Concours for a test drive, that Connie is supposed to be an excellent machine.

You can also look into a BMW R1200RT R1100RT or R1150RT.  all 3 are sport touring.  I know the R1100RT and R1150RT will be used and they do have radio on them.  I like the R series more than the K series.

Your knees will hate the CrotchRocketBagger more.  MUCH more.  My roommate has an FJR, no radio but its like an FZ1 and a Gold Wing had a child. Its what got me into my abortive attempt at owning a crotchrocket, an FZ1.


Your feet will be under your knees on the sport tourer, and cause more discomfort than your feet-forward position now.

Don't discount the ST1300. They are very nice, torquey bikes and handle way better than a bike that big should. Also you can get retractable highway pegs for them that are pretty trick.

A guy at my office is 6'4" and rides a Kawasaki Concours every day.

Concours 14

Test rode one in the spring, and they are amazing bikes. Get a 2010 or newer. ABS models have traction control that works quite well.

Lots of power (I can only imagine what the motor is like in the lighter zx-14), excellent handling, and good comfort. I like my feet back a bit though, so ymmv.

You can mount an aftermarket radio to it like this one

or these

That's about the smartest thing you can do. Modern helmets are very good, and the protection to your ears is almost as valuable as the rest of your noggin. Good noise-isolating ear plugs will cancel out the wind noise, you'll still be able to hear traffic and your engine, and even sneak in some tunes. It's how I ride, all the time.



 

I've never heard the phrase "crotchrocketbagger" before. Sounds dumb.




If you want the feet forward position you'll need to look into touring or ADV bikes, sport tourers are going to have a "sporty" seating position.

I LOVE the Connies, but my Triumph Explorer does all of those things and more, and highway pegs can be added to the engine bars (that I don't currently have). She is comfy as hell, has tons of power, carves corners very well, "can" go "offroad" and the electronic cruise control is an amazing thing.



Don't discount the Goldwing or big BM's, or even the new Triumph Trophy, those bikes handle better than they should.

And please for the love of God start wearing a helmet, I refuse to throw a leg over any of my bikes to even move them across a parking lot or something without a full face lid.


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I just made it up.  But how else would you describe this in a way that creates a proper mental image?




Like I said, its like a FZ1 and a Gold Wing had a child.

I owned one of the Connie C14's.  Decent bike, but it wasn't with me for long.  I guess I just did not take to it.

One major issue in moving from a cruiser to a super sport tourer.  On a cruiser, when you drive 60-65 mph you feel like you are doing 60-65 mph.  It's a happy cruising speed.  You feel the vibration, hear the engine, feel the wind, and generally are content cruising along.  On the C14 this is dead boring.  As in 'I feel like I could walk faster and get me off this totally frigging boring machine before I have a stroke" kind of boring.  65 mph on the C14 feels like 15 mph on the cruiser.  I never got out of 3rd gear at that speed.  This is a bike that will do 79 mph in 1st, a low to mid 90's in 2nd.  No, you do not have to ride that way, but the bike simple does not 'come to life' until you hit mid-70's.  

My first ride on the C14 I ran it up to what the seat of the pants told me was probably 55 mph.  I looked down, and the speedo was 87 mph. And it felt like 55....

I ended up getting rid of the C14.  I did not want to drive 75+ all the time, and found anything like 60-65 was boring.  I'm limited to almost exclusively 55 mph roads here, so 65 is pushing the ticket envelope.  The C14 is a great bike, but its one that begs either for a very aggressive rider (who does not give a shit about tickets) or one who does a lot of four lane super slab.

Other complaints:  The Kawa OEM front brake rotors are garbage.  Complete crap.  Mine went at 7,000 miles (warped).  They put new ones on.  Those went about 6,000.  A buddy has an identical c14.  He wne throuhg several rotors on warranty too.  Kawa knows they are trash, but keeps installing the same shit.  Once its out of warranty, its your dime.  My kawa also was a HOT mofo.  On any day over 70 degrees, by right ankle would roast.  Airflow coming through the panels/rad was channelled directly to my ankle.  I'd be shifting my foot trying to find a position out of the heat.

OEM tires are COMPLETELY unsatisfactory.  Mine had bridgestone 021's and the sidewalls were totally not up to the job.  They gave the bike a vague, undefined, squidgy , uncertain sort of feeling,  Michlein Road Pilot 2's took the bike up about 100% in terms of a secure planted feeling.

I replaced the connie with a BMW f650gs.  Went from the c14's 158 hp to the bmw's 71 hp.  totally happy now.

I went from a cruiser (VStar 650) to my ST1100 a couple years ago.  I love the sport touring class, although I do find most of them to be quite big.  The largeness helps on long trips and at highway speeds - more stability, less vibration, less wind-blowing-you-all-over-the-road.  I also love being able to take things with me, without having to carry them ON me.  Panniers fucking rule.  I added a top case, and it's like a trunk.  I can stash my helmet and gloves in there when I go somewhere.

I do, however, find myself kinda wanting something a little smaller.  I'm only getting 37mpg out of my bigass bike, which is 10 LESS than my car gets, so I'm not saving any money by riding.  I'm going to try to have the car paid off by the end of next year, then I may look at something else.  I like the DL650, but would want the lower fairing on it.  The Honda NT700V appeals to me too, even though it doesn't get reviewed that well.  (most people scoff at it because it's not "really good" at anything.  Saw a video review a guy did after putting 5000 miles on one over a few months.  He said he loved it, even though it didn't do anything "really really well", it was good enough at everything)

We'll see how it goes.  Keep us updated, OP.

I have a Harley Road Glide and a Honda VFR800A (Interceptor) and can say that if you are having some knee pain, I doubt that going to a sport touring bike will be anything but worse on your knees.  However, I don't have any experience with the bigger sport touring bikes that have highway peg options.  Other things you may give up from the harley are some storage (depends on luggage), easy cruise control, and significant stereo options.  With regards to the stereo, most of the add on items for sport bikes are cheesy chicom made kits that have dubious power ratings.  There is one kit I'm iterested in adding to my honda, however, and that is a amp/ipod control with keypad made by Kicker (PXi50.2).  It claims realistic power output and seems very compact for a descrete installation.  It will never have the potential output that your street glide can do, though.  

In addition to headphones, some helmets have built in speakers and even blutooth for wireless music if you would rather not wire something up to the bike.  I added a blutooth intercom to my helmet and have used that to stream music while maintaining phone and intercom capability.

The biggest advatage of the ST bikes is that you'll get so much more performance out of them.  Better brakes, Significantly faster acceleration, and vastly improved handling, will make the experience vastly different than your harley.

The power? Absolutely stunning...and addicting.

I turned my '14 into a proper ST bike, with Givi bags, Corbin seat, and Genmar/Heli bar risers stacked (raises the bars about 1.25")

As for a radio, I use a Sena SMH10 Bluetooth headset...probably one of the best motorcycle gear related purchases I've ever made. I can listen to music from my phone, make and receive calls, intercom, etc.

If you don't already have the SR10 hub its pretty nice. It lets you patch in your radar detector.  Also make sure you are doing your firmware updates.

QFT From another VFR800 rider.
If your knees bother you on a cruiser, they will kill you on a sport/tourer.
Rode a buddies concourse, and its closer to a adventure bike than a  sport bike, you might be ok, Might. . .
May want to Consider a ADV bike, the ones Ive tried have a pretty long seat/peg distance

Both bikes you mention are nice.
I rode a FLHRP for years.  On a BMW now.

how about the new KTM 1190?  Looks like a great bike.

Im really wanting a Concours 14 myself. Having only really ridden sport bikes in the past, I'm done with getting beat up by the wind. I am torn between the Harley Road Glide, and the Connie... obviously 2 very different bikes. I just don't feel 22k worth of bike on the Harley..

Hey if those recliners with wheels aren't comfy enough for you maybe it's time to retire the bike and drive the cage from here on out...

Probably a good bike, but you couldn't pay me to buy a first year KTM (and I've owned a few KTM's). They typically don't figure their reliability out on 4-stroke motors right out of the gate.



It's a powerful SOB for an adventure tourer, tho. I think I'd just buy a Multistrada if I had that kind of cash to burn.



 

I guess I'm not the only one.

I bought a 2012 BMW S1000RR this year, and I've come to realize that riding the sport bike isn't what it used to be.  I'm in good shape too - just the wind, vibes, uncompromising position, etc get to me after about 50 miles.

I went to the local HD dealer the other day and was eying a  Road King Classic ( I think - I suck at HD models ).  I thought the bike looked cool, and would be fun to tool around on.

The other bike I'd consider, like you, is the C14.  After dealing with BMW on my bike, I think I'll stick with either metrics or try a HD.