Capitalism, redivivus.
This is *exactly* my biggest single beef by far with the industry. I wouldn't buy a house I haven't walked through (or talked with the architect and builder of). I won't buy a car without a test drive. Heck, I won't buy a computer without mashing some buttons in the local CompUSA, ya know?!
And by the way, Dodge would not have gotten my business last year if they had said, "Well, Mr. Romano, we're pleased to offer test drives at our plant in Detroit, twice a year, for ten minutes, on a closed course that in no way approximates the conditions under which you will use the truck, following fifteen other test-drivers, at 60mph, behind a glorified salesman we call a 'road captain.'" What utter bee-ess.
And don't give me that crap about the bike industry not being as big as the auto industry. It's not that they're less big, it's that they are by and large, less professional. And they get away with that in this country. The bike business would stop dead in its tracks if they tried to pull ANY of this crud on the Continent, or in the UK.
And as a matter of personal preference: Sure it makes 99lbs/ft. of torque, when the motor is spun up half to the moon. My Road King made peak torque at rpms of, like, four. Which is much more useable. And those FJR bags are *not* 'cavernous', 'voluminous', 'commodious', 'gear-inhaling', or even 'sizeable'. My GS (which I test-rode for an hour and a quarter, on my roads, near my house, in my traffic--along with three other BMW models) has Jesse bags, which give more space in the small side than most bikes give in a top-box.
And I also got killer financing. So the asian makers are not the only 'good deals' to be had, primarily because I *know* what kind of deal I'm actually getting.
**Single girls and twin sisters forever**