Most comfortable ride for a PASSENGER

[DC]

I've only had one of my wives on my Drifter.  She says the Corbin with backrest is comfortable enough for her.  I don't know if the other wives would like it though.  I haven't had them on the bike yet.

[chief]

My wife has MS which causes her legs to cramp severely and rather quickly. I spent a lot of money trying to get the Drifter comfortable for her. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of... believe me, I covered all the bases. Seats, pegs/floorboards, backrests, etc. etc.

Our local bike shop had a harley trike for sale, so we went to have a look. Next to it was a Goldwing with 3500 miles on it. It was 4 years old and still under warranty. The first owner bought it, his wife got pregnant and he sold it. The second was a State Trooper, diagnosed with MS, couldn't ride alone anymore. She sat on it... loved it. We bought it and I changed the seat, added some "stuff" - floorboards, extensions etc to make it more comfortable for us both.
In  that year, she made a trip to SC, then one out west... 5000 miles, 14 days. She can literally fall asleep on the thing. She still loves it, though she is now having problems getting on and off. So we are considering selling it.
Now, understand. I am a cruiser guy. This thing is YELLOW. I bought it planning to give her a year, then buy a trike of some sort. Well the thing rides like dream, it's low center of gravity makes it feel like half the weight of the Drifter. It can power a small city. Heated seats, power windshield, GPS, ipod player, CRUISE... REAL CRUISE CONTROL. And it will run rings around the Drifter... it is fast and responsive. I fell in love with it! I still love to ride the Drifter, but sometimes I prefer the GW. And, yellow?  I like this shade now... it's visible and different. I'd like some more black on it... may change out some parts if we keep it.
Reliable! I have had ZERO problems with this thing. It's a 2002 with only about 25K or so on it... that's what happens when you have two or more bikes. I do like this bike. My wife loves it. We might try to trike it, but I am afraid her bike days are about over.
Different bikes for different purposes!

[pcarrell]

Remember, the Honda Valkyrie was made from 1996 - 2003, and they had an Interstate model that had a fairing and luggage.  Since it's based on the goldwing platform you get all the benifits of the goldwing in a slightly different package.

[LarryInSeattle]

As you can tell.... I loved the bike....    More creature comforts translates to fun camping.

[LarryInSeattle]

Oh.... Yea.  I shopped for quite awhile as I only pay cash for my motorcycles and I wanted to keep my initial costs down.  I paid $3500 for this bike and immediately put $500 into it with new fluids, new timing belts, new tires and some handlebar goodies.  Then comes the GPS, the luggage.... yada, yada, yada.

[LarryInSeattle]

You can never go wrong with a mid 90's Goldwing.  Usually the previous owner bought their bike with 2 up riding in mind, so there is always gear available from the seller.  Intercom headsets transfer easily to your helmets.

Most maintained 1500cc Goldwings will go 300,000 miles with just routine maintenance.  If you buy a 88 or newer Goldwing, (1500's were made from 1988 till 2000, and the 1800 came out in 2001) it will have an exterior alternator so no more stator replacements.  The Goldwing uses a modified car alternator, so it is easily rebuilt in Corn Butte, Iowa.  There are parts available all over the place and many people know how to work on them.  The GWRRA Goldwing Road Riders Association has chapters all over the place and they post a book with all of the members contact information in it.  These folks will come out and haul your bike in to town on a trailer, offer free camping and provide tools and a shop.  They list what they are wiling to provide in the directory.  I met some great people this way.

A car tire on the back of the wing will go 35,000 miles.

I loved my wing.  I went the other way, as my girl friend has decided that she has had enough long distance motorcycle traveling.  We did 35,000 miles in 4 years and I was always ready to go again.  My 94 Wing had 30,000 miles on it when I got it, I put 35,000 miles on it and the only thing I did to it was change the battery, the fluids and some tire replacements.   It never let me down.

A good place to start looking would be the local GWRRA meeting.  They meet once a month, and those members would welcome you to the meeting, and perhaps have a good lead on a motorcycle that has a solid history and is just sitting in a garage waiting for a new owner.  Things happen to older Goldwing owners that keeps them off the road.

I recently had a friend refer me to an 78 year old guy who was looking to trade his 97 1500 Goldwing (one owner) for a Drifter.  I talked with the guy but I was not ready to trade my bike for a Goldwing.  If you are interested in talking about it, he is in Idaho and I could put you in contact with him.  It is a white SE (special edition) that is not lacking for any add on.  It has a trailer hitch and includes a trailer.

PM me for more info if you are interested. 

[greenbarn]

I'm looking into the possibility of perhaps getting something more comfortable for the Missus to ride.  We went for our first ride of the season, a little over 200 mi, and honestly she does not enjoy it near as much as I do.  200 was a bit far for our first ride of the year, I know, but we were with a group, so we were kind of stuck tagging along.....

I thought, perhaps, if I could get something she would be more comfortable on and enjoy more, she would enjoy riding more.  SO I'm looking for opinions and experience you might have had on the bestest most comfortable passenger riding bikes out there.  I don't want to spend a lot of money so a new HD/ GW/ Spyder/Indian are all out...   But something "value" priced, maybe mid-90s might be do-able....    SO, I'm looking for comfortable seating, good aerodynamics, low center of gravity, easy on/off, nice back rest,  luggage room, etc....

Background:
She has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and also has an optic nerve/spinal fluid pressure issue which causes headaches, on top of her life-long migraine issue.    So the biggest issue is the wind turbulence on her helmet, which inevitably causes her a head ache.  The second issue is the suspension; the bumps and dips in the road cause further head and body aches over the period of the day.

My Corbin 2-up puts her head above mine, which is great for the view, but where she's picking up the turbulence.  I figured if I had a taller windshield, or a shaped w/s like on a GW or something, maybe it would cut down on the turbulence.  Then there's the shock thing - I still have the stock shocks, so I know it would improve things if I got some progressive rear shocks, but not sure this would make a big enough difference to make it work all around.

SO, I thought if I could get some ideas of stuff to look at, we could always find something at a dealer someplace and maybe go for a test ride.