I've owned my BB for 2 years now, but I still don't get it. (I've been riding for about 17 years, mostly on cruisers).
Before I bought the bike, I've read numerous online reviews citing it as a comfortable bike. Two years on and I still can't see how a BB is comfortable, especially for long distance touring. BTW my heights is 1.75m.
The worst aspect of it all for me, is having to crouch to reach the bars. The correct riding position is a crouch in order to get the forearms parallel to the ground. How can a riding position that demands that you hold your upper body weight up with the strength of your abs and back muscles be considered comfortable?
How long can you folks do that for before feeling pain? For me it takes no more than 10 mins for my back to ache. Am I not getting something, or is there a different posture for touring?
Then there's the legroom. Even though I'm not very tall I find it a little cramped.
I'm finally going to change to VFR bars this weekend so I hope it'll be much better.
So what am I missing, or not getting? Feel free to tear me apart.
Funny as this may sound, the most comfortable bike I've toured on was a dirt bike, with its upright sitting posture. Granted I couldn't go very fast, but the riding position was very comfortable.
After sitting on an ST1300 last week, a light went off in my head. To me, a comfortable bike needs to have your legs positioned below your butt so you can stand up on them (rules out cruisers with forward controls as all the bumps are absorbed by your spine and not your legs), and a nearly upright sitting posture so your weight is mostly on your butt and not held up with your back or stomach muscles.
Which leads me to wonder, why do bike manufacturers make sport tourers (like the VFR) and even standards and nakeds which require you to hold up your upper body weight with your back muscles? I slight forward lean is good to counter the effect of wind but most of the riding positions lean forward (to me) excessively.
That ST1300 is looking very, very tempting to me now......