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Lap of Luxury
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One loop around California on the world’s most opulent touring rigs
Paul Dean
March 2006
It was a thankless job, but somebody had to do it: Round up the three most lavishly equipped overthe-road motorcycles on Earth, get a couple of that same planet's most experienced and entertaining
riders to accompany you, take along your significant other to serve as Official Evaluator of
Passenger Accommodations, then lead the group on a week-long loop around the Golden State.
The route will lead to countless postcard-quality destinations, including the highest and lowest points
in the continental U.S. (Mt. Whitney and Death Valley, practically across the road from one another),
the glorious Sierra Nevada range, beautiful Lake Tahoe, picture-perfect Mt. Shasta, and not just the
scenic Pacific Coast Highway but hundreds of miles of the magnificent Pacific Coast coast. Think
you could handle that?
I certainly could. And before I had a chance to refuse (as if), I was motoring across the Mojave
Desert with girlfriend Rosanne on back, accompanied by two of motojournalism's acknowledged
superstars: Peter Egan, longtime CW staffer/contributor, high-mileage two-wheel traveler and one of
the great storytellers of our time; and Beau Allen Pacheco, larger-than-life world trekker and
founding Editor of our late, lamented Adventures bike-travel magazine.
Nothing shabby about the high-line bikes we were riding, either: BMW's K1200LT, HarleyDavidson's Screamin' Eagle Ultra Classic Electra Glide and Honda's Gold Wing. All three reign atop
a class of motorcycles purpose-built to fulfill this nation's time-honored touring philosophy: If you
can't take it with you, don't go. We 'Mercans love to travel with lots of Stuff, and we want to be
entertained along the way. So, these big rigs roll off the assembly lines equipped with a plenitude of
road-trip accessories, including spacious three-piece hard luggage, powerful sound systems,
protective fairings and windshields, and electronic cruise controls. We also asked all three
manufacturers to fit our test bikes with certain other accessories on the factory option list, specifically
GPS navigation systems, heated handgrips and heated seats.
Though this excursion around California was sure to provide plenty of over-the-road enjoyment, it
was a test first and foremost, intended to reveal which of these two-wheel luxury liners is the best
companion for the long haul. To that end, we explored the Golden State on everything from bustling
urban freeways to remote backroads, from the stark isolation of the desert to great expanses of lush
farmlands, from well below sea level to the rarefied air of mountain passes, in dry heat that
approached triple digits to all-day rain just a few clicks above freezing. It's amazing that anyone can
experience such a variety of conditions within the boundaries of a single state, especially in the short
space of a week, but that's just one of the many factors that make California such an incredible part
of the Great Southwest.
The motorcycles we rode were pretty incredible in their own right, starting alphabetically with the
BMW K1200LT. At the time of our test, the U.S. branch of BMW had not yet received any 2006 LTs,
so we settled for an '05 instead. No big deal, since the '05 and '06 models are identical in every
respect.
BMW K1200LT
H-D Electra Glide
Honda Gold Wing
and Conclusion
Though now in its eighth season, the big Beemer comes off as neither outdated nor long of tooth. Its
styling remains crisp and modern, and its list of standard features is long and impressive: servoassisted, linked ABS brakes; electrically adjustable windshield; reverse gear; two accessory power
outlets; computerized information display; and an electro-hydraulic centerstand that deploys with the
push of a button. No matter who was riding the LT on this trip, lifting the big, fully loaded bike up on
its stand with the tip of one finger never failed to put a smile on the button-pusher's face.
Also earning warm fuzzies all around was the BMW's 1171cc, inline-Four engine. Despite having the
smallest motor of this trio by far (the H-D's is a 1690cc V-Twin, the Honda's an 1832cc flat-Six), the
LT managed the fastest top speed (125 mph), the second-quickest quarter-mile ET (13.06 seconds)
and the best terminal speed (104.74 mph) at the strip. Credit some of this stellar performance to the
15-percent power boost the dohc engine was given in 2004, some of it to the LT weighing-in as the
lightest (822 pounds) of the three.
On the open road, the K-bike's engine is velvety smooth, with enough available torque at cruising
speeds to provide reasonably quick top-gear roll-ons. “You only sense a need to downshift a gear or
two if you really have to hustle around something,” said Pacheco. Egan agreed. “I thought that for its
size, the BMW had excellent power, even on the steep hills we climbed in the Sierras. It's not quite
on par with the Honda, but it runs circles
around the Harley.”
In many ways, the BMW behaves a lot
like a sportbike—or at least more like a
motorcycle designed for fast cornering—
than either the Harley or Honda. Most
touring riders don't give a rat's posterior
about such qualities, but for those who
do, this bike can be a fun ride. With its
light, responsive steering, excellent
suspension and rigid chassis, aided by
way more cornering clearance than on
any other big rig, the LT rails through
corners like it means business, even twoup.
The K1200LT behaved most like a sportbike compared to the
others.
This capability proved amusing when
arcing around the endless curves near the base of snow-capped Mt. Shasta or on Route 20 leading
out to Ft. Bragg on the coast. “It handles brilliantly,” was Egan's take, this from a man who has
owned a succession of Ducatis and other serious sporting weapons. Pacheco, whose riding style is
more laid-back, wasn't so rapturous but still complimentary: “It steers and corners nicely.”
Everyone also had good things to say about the LT's suspension, praising the way the Telelever
front and Paralever rear soak up the bumps. Only when the road surface turned exceptionally rough
did anyone feel any harshness. We weren't so pleased with the front half of the seat, which is
tolerable if not comfortable. Everyone reported that it caused them to start squirming around after
just an hour or so, a trait that earned it last place in that department.
Rosanne, meanwhile, deemed the BMW's rear seat her favorite, though she wasn't entirely pleased
with the passenger compartment. “The seat is wide and nicely padded,” she reported, “and I could
sit on it comfortably a lot longer than on the other two. But there isn't much front-to-back room, so
even though I'm not very big (5-5, 130 pounds), I always felt like I was jammed in behind the rider.”
Pacheco and Egan had other ergonomic
issues with the BMW. A big man (6-1,
280 pounds), Pacheco felt inexorably
locked into one position. “I couldn't move
around at all, so I got tired after a short
while, and the footpegs are too high and
far back for me.” Six-one, 180-pound
Egan felt much the same. “Even with the
two-position seat adjusted to its highest, I
felt cramped. And the reach to the ground
on this bike is the longest.” Evidently,
endowing the BMW with exceptional
cornering clearance necessitated a high
footpeg location and tall seat height.
Peter Egan felt cramped on the BMW.
In all fairness to BMW, we three riders are taller and/or larger than average (I'm 6-2, 210), and none
of our shorter staffers who've ridden an LT have ever complained about tight ergonomics. If fact, I
didn't find the seating position as bothersome as did my two cohorts, even if it wasn't my fave.
Besides, just about everything else on the LT works so very well. Its luggage is spacious, easy to
use and seals tightly enough to keep our spare undies and such dry through all of the rain we
encountered. The adjustable windshield gives excellent weather protection almost equivalent to that
of the Honda and far superior to what the Harley provides. The ability to adjust the shield from
sportbike-low to touring-bike high with just the touch of a button is a genuine advantage.
“Great heated grips, too,” said Pacheco, “much better than the Harley's or Honda's,” a sentiment
shared by Egan and me. Ditto for the heated seat and passenger backrest, which get noticeably
warmer than their counterparts on the other two bikes.
So, if you have a sport-riding bent and don't want to sacrifice all your cornering pleasures to go longdistance touring, the K1200LT just might be right up your backroad. If not, you may want to look
elsewhere.
BMW K1200LT
H-D Electra Glide
Honda Gold Wing
and Conclusion
Like, maybe at the Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle Ultra Classic Electra Glide. When outfitting this
model, The Motor Company went “whole Hog,” excuse the pun. Built on H-D's special small-run
Custom Vehicle Operations (CVO) assembly line, the FLHTCUSE (its official model designation) is
equipped with enough bits and pieces from the Screamin' Eagle and P&A catalogs to start its own
accessory store. The bike's standard-feature list comprises some 60 separate items, way too many
to describe here.
Most of that equipment consists of chrome and dress-up items, but some is quite functional,
particularly the 103-inch motor. It's based on a standard 88-inch Twin Cam engine but with big-bore
pistons, a stroker crankshaft and a beefier clutch. Other notable goodies include a high-end, fourspeaker Harman Kardon audio system with XM satellite radio; a leather-covered Tour-Pak with a
chromed luggage rack atop the lid; a factory security system; and an upgraded instrument cluster in
the handlebar-mount fairing that features spun-aluminum metal-faced gauges, a leather dash pad
and a dark-tinted mini windshield with matching air deflectors. Add the optional navigation system,
which tacks on another $1100, and you're looking at a motorcycle with a $33,100 price tag.
Yikes!
Which is what Peter Egan exclaimed when he learned the Harley's price. “I really liked the Electra
Glide,” he said, “but I liked it a lot more before I learned how much it costs. It does a lot of things
really well, and it moves down the road with a hard-hitting but soothing quality. And it's fun to listen
to, whether you're on it or behind it. But 33 Large? The value just isn't there.”
It's not hard to see why he feels that way.
In engine performance, the air-cooled,
103-inch V-Twin falls 25 horsepower and
25 ft.-lb. of torque short of the Wing; even
the 519cc-smaller BMW out-horsed the
Harley by 25 and only came up about 4
ft.-lb. shy on torque. Not what you'd
expect for a bike that costs almost 50
percent more than its competition.
Most of the time, that power deficit is no
big deal; the H-D rumbles along easily
and casually, with enough poop to scoot
around the majority of slower-moving
The Harley-Davidson FLHTCUSE. But you can call it the Screamin'
vehicles without a lot of histrionics. That,
Eagle Ultra Classic Electra Glide.
in fact, is Pacheco's preferred riding style:
“The Harley lopes along nicely—something the BMW and Honda don't do as well—and I love to
lope. It lets me be part of the scenery rather than focusing on the operation of the motorcycle.” Fair
enough. But put a passenger on back, then try to pass on an uphill grade at higher altitudes—as
Rosanne and I frequently did when cruising the mountains between Alturas and Redding—and the
Electra Glide's comparative lack of power is much harder to dismiss.
Then again, touring is about more than power, and the Harley holds its own in most—but not all—
other categories. For one, thanks to having the shortest wheelbase, the lowest seat and the lowest
center of gravity, it feels much lighter than the other two, even though it's the second-heaviest. “It's
the easiest to maneuver in parking lots,” said Egan, “and less likely to tip over if your foot slips in a
gravel driveway or on wet pavement.”
That light feel also translates to easy, neutral handling in the twisties, even if there's less cornering
clearance than with the LT or GL. The steering geometry is configured for straight-line stability,
making the Harley less prone to wandering off-line if you divert your eyes away from the road for a
few seconds to check out the scenery. The bike occasionally exhibits the infamous “FL hula” when it
hits a bump while heeled over in a fast corner, a side effect of its rubber engine-mounting system,
but it's more disconcerting than dangerous.
Thanks in part to those same rubber
mounts, which quell virtually all engine
vibration, the Harley is a very comfortable
ride, even though its suspension ranks
third in this field of three. The handlebar
bend positions the grips naturally, and
the footboards keep the rider's knees at
about a 90-degree angle. The Glide's
seat allowed me to ride for hours on end
without the need to squirm or hunt for
another position, which is why I declared
it my favorite. Ditto for Señor Pacheco. “I
can move around on the Harley more
than on the other bikes,” he said, “so I
The 'Glide leads the way on style and sound.
can ride it longer without getting sore.”
Egan voted the seat second, just
marginally behind the Gold Wing's.
For Rosanne, the H-D's passenger perch was the worst. “This seat is hard!,” she wrote in her notes.
“The backrest is nicely padded and supportive, but the seat makes my butt sore much more quickly
than on the other bikes. And front-to-rear, it's even more snug than the BMW.”
We all appreciated the Harley's heated seat and grips, even though they were slightly less effective
than the Honda's in maximum BTU production and no match for the Beemer's hand and butt
furnaces.
There's similar good news/bad news regarding the FL's weather protection. The smoke-tint
windshield is short enough to be almost meaningless, and there's a wide gap between the bottom of
the handlebar-mount half-fairing and the top of the crashbar-mounted lowers. In hot weather, the air
that rushes over, under and around these pieces can be a pleasant relief; but in cold and wet
weather, it's about as welcome as Howard Stern at a church social. Rosanne and I rode all three
bikes in a steady rain for the better part of a day and a half, and we got wetter in the first six miles on
the Harley than we did in six hours on either of the other two. Even Pacheco, who liked the Harley
more every time he rode it, grumbled about the lack of weather protection.
Despite its shortcomings, the Harley nonetheless has a powerful, unmistakable quality that seems to
appeal to just about anyone who rides it. Perhaps it's the bike's simplicity—a rumbly, beautifully
styled engine in plain sight; the complete absence of linked, servo-assisted or ABS brakes; no
electric windshield or magical centerstand; no computerized wizardry.
BMW K1200LT
H-D Electra Glide
Honda Gold Wing
and Conclusion
“Simple” is not how you would describe the Honda GL1800 Gold Wing, a big, complex, sophisticated
piece of touring equipment. The baseline GL is essentially the same as the '05 model except for a
new sound system—a six-speaker package boosted by an 80-watt amplifier. Our top-of-the-line ABS
testbike also came with Honda's first navigation system, heated seat and passenger backrest,
heated handgrips, foot-warming vents, fog lamps and CD player.
There are no significant changes in the Wing's sohc, flat-Six engine, aluminum twin-spar frame or
single-sided swingarm that expedites rear-wheel removal. The non-detachable luggage is spacious,
watertight and easy to access. Controls for electrically regulating shock preload and headlight
adjustment are on the left fairing panel. The tall, wide windscreen also is adjustable but, unlike the
BMW's, it has to be moved up-and-down manually—not a safe maneuver when you're moving.
And trust me, moving is never an issue with the Gold Wing; its 1832cc Six cranks out awe-inspiring
torque at any and every engine rpm. You wanna speed up? Just give it more stick and suddenly,
effortlessly, you're bombing down the road a lot faster. Doesn't matter what gear you're in, if you're
alone or two up, on the level or going uphill; twisting the rubber thingie on the right handlebar sends
you on your way to Somewhere Else in a hurry. “It's fast as hell and electric-motor smooth,” said
Egan. Pacheco likened it to “an artillery shell on a flat trajectory. Its power is irresistible.”
It also handles amazingly well for
something so big. At 895 pounds, it's the
heaviest of the three and, at 66.4 inches,
has the longest wheelbase by almost 2½
inches. But it also has a very low center
of gravity. “When you're on the seat, you
look down and practically the whole bike
is beneath you,” said Egan. “The control
panel is low, the opposed-Six engine is
down at your feet and the gas tank is
under the seat, so there is little sense of
top-heaviness, making the bike easy to
handle at low speeds.”
The Gold Wing handles amazingly well for something so big.
At higher speeds, too. The Wing can arc
around faster corners willingly and gracefully, without wallowing or attempting to high-side. “It's like a
big sportbike,” said Pacheco, “a really big sportbike.” Much like the engine, the handling doesn't
seem to know or care if there's a passenger on board; the bike is just as well-behaved when
cornering two-up as it is solo, except that the footpegs hit the ground a little sooner.
In overall comfort, the GL marginally bested the other two. It had the second-most comfortable
rider's seat (Egan voted it first) behind the Harley, the second-best suspension and passenger seat
(both outranked by the BMW) and the most spacious passenger area. Egan and I both felt the
Honda had the best riding position, while Pacheco ranked it second to the Harley. We all agreed that
the GL offers the best weather protection and the second-best heated handgrips.
That brings us to the Gold Wing's curious
heated seat, which we rated second—
behind the BMW's and ahead of the
Harley's—when it worked. For some
inexplicable reason, Honda decided that
the degree of heat the seat radiates
should be dependent upon ambient
temperature: more heat in cold weather,
less when it's warmer. To accomplish
this, the heating circuitry is linked to the
Engine Control Unit, which receives
ambient-temperature data in its
management of the fuel-injection system.
Interesting concept, except that the seat
The Honda ever-so-slightly bested the other two bikes in comfort.
gives off so little heat when the
temperature is much higher than the
middle 50s that it's difficult to feel any warmth, even if the five-position seat-heat knob on the
dashboard is turned to the max. The seat becomes proportionately warmer as the temps drop but
still doesn't get as hot as the BMW's saddle. In presuming that a computer knows what the bike's
occupants want better than the occupants do, Honda has come up with a system that creates a
problem in an attempt to solve one that doesn't exist.
Okay, enough of the preliminaries; which of these three moto-motorhomes takes home the gold in
this Golden State comparison? The envelopes, please.
The Harley-Davidson Screamin' Eagle Ultra Classic Electra Glide has boatloads of charm and
charisma, but if you want one, you'd better load up that same boat with cash. Even Pacheco, who
favored the Harley in most areas, said that $33,100 (or even $31,999 without the nav system) is way
too much. Price is a factor that cannot be ignored, and when it is figured into the equation, the $33K
Ultra finishes third.
Next comes the BMW K1200LT, a terrific motorcycle that offers unusually sporty performance for a
touring rig. It's faster than it ought to be and handles far better than anything so massive should; it
could give some sport-tourers a run for their money on a backroad. Plus, it has a few features the
others do not: electric windshield and centerstand (the Harley has no centerstand at all, and almost
no windshield), and two electrical accessory outlets (the others have none). But its ergonomics will
displease some riders, particularly if they're larger than average or can't tolerate having their knees
bent at a sharper angle than on other big-rig tourers. So, the K1200LT comes home in second place.
But only by a hair's breadth behind the Honda Gold Wing. That's a flip-flop of our previous ranking of
the Honda and BMW, in which the LT came out on top by the slimmest of margins. Both were
thought to be more-or-less equal in overall performance, with the Beemer edging ahead on the
strength of its heated seat, heated grips and GPS, features not available on the GL. Honda has
corrected that imbalance for '06, even if its heated seat and grips are not as effective. When those
elements are combined with its earth-moving motor, spacious cockpit and all-around over-the-road
competence, the Gold Wing stands on the top step of the podium.
Truth is, based on your riding style or preferences, you could make a strong case for any of these
three, as evidenced by the riders in this test. If you're like Beau Pacheco and prefer to lope along to
the soulful beat of a big V-Twin, the Screamin' Eagle Harley (or a less-expensive version) could be
your bike of choice. If you're anything like me (if you are, God have mercy on you) and eschew
interstates for the wiggly lines on road maps, the BMW could very well be your long-range cup of
cornering tea. And if you're anything like Peter Egan (which would place you more in the realm of
“typical”), the Gold Wing gives you more of what you want and need.
BMW K1200LT
H-D Electra Glide
Honda Gold Wing
and Conclusion