[gcfishguy]

<Edit> I rambled too much, nobody seemed to understand what I was trying to ask...that's on me.
No, I would not buy a VTX 1300 to take off-road....?
Anyway, thanks for the input, apologies for the rambling, I have the information I was looking for.

 

[gcfishguy]

It is not clear if you want to take the VTX1300 off road. If that is a goal, do NOT buy one. It will not do well off road.

My bad. Possibly didn't explain that well enough. I'll be keeping the street/trail (the TW200) for the dirt/gravel/trail riding and the 2nd bike will be road only, still used for trips, camping, etc...

Thanks for the clarification on the models...I had read somewhere that the R stood for Retro...so I made the assumption that must be the model with the spoked wheels.
The one I was referring to is a 2004, large fenders, spoked wheels..so it would be the S. Thanks!

I'm just looking around Facebook marketplace and seeing what's out there currently. And since it's below freezing and riding season won't be for many months, I'd imagine that the amount of bikes posted for sale is pretty low...as most people selling would be waiting until spring now.

 

[gcfishguy]

I'm going to butt in here and throw some things out at you: Fuel injection, hydraulic clutch, dual front discs, linked brakes front & rear.

So...a Goldwing. Sorry..I had to.

I wasn't really looking at anything bigger than a 1300...but I totally see your point. One issue would be that displacement (around here) is one of the biggest factors in the price of insurance.
It would likely be at least a $100 difference.
For example, my 1999 TW200 is $170/year. That's the bare minimum coverage to be legal to drive down the street. No fire, no theft, no collision. Adding fire and theft would bring it to around $300/yr.
My 2 Vulcan 900's were pretty close to $500 each...bare minimum plus fire and theft. No collision.

Lots of new riders go out and take their (equivalent of the MSF) course, then find out that they can't even find an insurance company that will insure a new riders, at any price.

It ain't fun.....

Pricing around here is silly too. Canada so everything's automatically 30% more expensive.
I can't find an 1800 on Marketplace, but I'd assume that it would be out of my budget. It wouldn't be if I was to sell my TW, but I'm going to keep it.

And I hadn't even seen an 1800 while browsing. Even searching FB marketplace for a VTX 1800 brings up nothing but 1300's.
We have a fairly short riding season, so it's not a real bike-dense area unless you're willing to drive 12+ hours.

But yes...totally get your points.