Strongly considering the F6B, have a few minor concerns

[Circle-5]

I agree the linked brakes on the F6B (and other Goldwings) are well-designed and have very good stopping power. However, you'll never know that you really needed ABS until that rare occurrence where it will save you from a nasty spill. It's like the ejection seat on a fighter jet: you hope you'll never need it, but it's there just in case.

I doubt that weight-savings is the reason for the absence of ABS on most U.S. Goldwings, including the F6B – the weight of these components is minimal. Rather, the blame rests squarely on American Honda, who is trying to hit a price point to increase sales (or profit) at the expense of safety. I believe the U.S. is the only country where in the world where F6Bs are still sold without ABS, simply because ABS is not yet mandated here by law. All other major motorcycle manufacturers thankfully include ABS as a standard feature on most U.S. models. American Honda is the exception, other than with the ST1300, now discontinued.

Your hesitation about the ABS issue is warranted. However, when I saw the 2016s still did not have ABS, I bought an F6B anyway. And so far, I'm having a blast!

[Brewdog]

Leaving the mechanics aside, my reason for NOT buying BMW K1600 or R 1200RT were the huge cost of service and support. Go visit their forums and you discover nagging service issues. BMW certainly has their share of issues. German bikes are great until it fails, then it's your fault. The R 1200 RT is the more reliable of the two. After visiting two dealers and listening to their arrogance and then looking at their stack of backed up bikes needing service work, I felt positive that combination would show up on my bill. So I thanked them and moved on! Glad I did. People say Harley are unreliable, but they have been extremely reliable for me with zero service issues.

[Old Ryder]

Leaving the mechanics aside, my reason for NOT buying BMW K1600 or R 1200RT were the huge cost of service and support. Go visit their forums and you discover nagging service issues. BMW certainly has their share of issues. German bikes are great until it fails, then it's your fault. The R 1200 RT is the more reliable of the two. After visiting two dealers and listening to their arrogance and then looking at their stack of backed up bikes needing service work, I felt positive that combination would show up on my bill. So I thanked them and moved on! Glad I did. People say Harley are unreliable, but they have been extremely reliable for me with zero service issues.

Reminds me of a trip I took with some friends a few years ago. I had my Fatboy and I was getting all sorts of grief about parts falling off and noise, etc... One guy was on a Shadow and 3 others were on BMWs. Two of the BMWs broke down during the 3 day trip and the one that did not only had 1,000 miles on it.


I seem to remember on one of the other forums that if you ride a BMW motorcycle 10K per year and have the dealer do the required scheduled maintenance it adds up to something like $1,700 per year---without any breakdowns. I don't know that to be a fact, but just what I read.

And yes, after owning Victory for a while, the available parts and maintenance free reputation that is Honda, figured into my decision. Honda motorcycles and autos set the benchmark for low cost dependable and maintenance free miles.