{"id":13586,"date":"2026-07-16T11:52:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=13586"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:01:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:01:54","slug":"im-convinced-i-want-a-bigger-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/im-convinced-i-want-a-bigger-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Convinced I Want A Bigger Bike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>


\nA stop on the recent Utah trip.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I’m down to only one motorcycle now and it’s the smallest one I have ever owned. This Suzuki V-Strom is a 650cc machine and it has done very well by me. That said, this recent trip to Utah<\/a> convinced me that having something just a bit bigger and more powerful is desirable.<\/p>\n

On the way out we blasted across Colorado on I-70 and the guys up front were running about 10 miles per hour above the limit. The limit is 75. So my V-Strom was working hard. I kept up, there’s never any issue about that. But it was working.<\/p>\n

Then we got into Utah and the speed limit went up to 80. So we were doing 90. Or more. Now that little 650 was working hard<\/em>. But I was keeping up.<\/p>\n

Later in this trip we climbed some pretty high mountains, often on some particularly steep roads. That was when I really felt it. There were a couple times when I wasn’t sure we were going to keep up. I had to shift way down low to get the oomph to make those climbs. That was when it really gelled in my head that yes, I do want a bigger bike.<\/p>\n

Not a lot bigger. I really don’t miss my old Concours. It was 1000cc and it weighed a whole lot. It had the power to carry that weight and on the highway it cruised just as smooth as glass. It was a nice<\/em> highway bike. But oh man, at slow speeds in a parking lot you better not let it lean too far or there’s nothing on this planet that you can do to keep it from dropping.<\/p>\n

So I’ve looked around a bit in recent years and I have identified the Yamaha Tracer 9 as just about the ideal bike. It’s 800cc and weighs around 450 pounds. That’s almost exactly the same as my V-Strom. The Connie weighed 600 pounds.<\/p>\n

Weight is not the only thing; there’s also handling. But weight influences handling, particularly at very slow speeds. I’ve mentioned before how when the RMMRC went on a New Mexico\/Arizona trip<\/a> a few years ago I watched all these other guys wrestling their big machines around these tight curves, and meanwhile, on my V-Strom, I was dancing.<\/p>\n

But I hate the idea of buying a motorcycle without having ridden one at least once. Last summer I heard that the Yamaha dealer in Cheyenne was hosting a demo days event. I had it on my calendar and a sure thing. Then, a drunk driver altered all my plans<\/a> for the summer.<\/p>\n

There was no Cheyenne demo days event listed on the Yamaha site this year but there was one set for Boise. OK, that would mean a road trip. That works. But then we ended up going to Alaska at that same time. We got home and I looked again, thinking I might need to go on a long trip. But apparently these events get added during the summer. And it turned out there was a demo days at a Denver dealership . . . the day we left for Alaska. Dang!<\/p>\n

But then, oh my gosh, there it was: Cheyenne. The very next week. I’m going. And that’s the answer to the question you may have had, why was he going to Cheyenne<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

I couldn’t find the right man, so I settled for a motorcycle. I’ve never been so happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m down to only one motorcycle now and it’s the smallest one I have ever owned. This Suzuki V-Strom is a 650cc machine and it has done very well by me. That said, this recent trip to Utah convinced me that having something just a bit bigger and more powerful is desirable. On the way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[349,439,818,517,518,626],"tags":[36,906,1016,1594],"class_list":["post-13586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kawasaki","category-motorcycle-clubs","category-rocky-mountain-motorcycle-riders-club","category-suzuki-motorcycles","category-v-strom","category-yamaha-motorcycles","tag-kawasaki-concours","tag-rmmrc","tag-suzuki-v-strom","tag-yamaha-tracer-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13586"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13590,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13586\/revisions\/13590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}