Whay we Ride, Instead:

Excerpt from a post on a motorcycle mail list:

Ah! You're in my wheelhouse now! Yay!
Don't misunderstand me here guys....the idea of hopping on a motorcycle and
heading for the horizon thrills me to no end, but from time to time I have
to wonder if an old CJ-5, 60's Bronco or even a resuscitated Suzuki Samuri
would be a better platform for some of the heavier loads, worst weather and
gnarliest terrain we ask the KLR to deal with. (Before we go further, I
want to say I've never been on a multi-day ride - I've always made it home
to my warm bed after a day in the saddle so I AM NOT qualified to, or wish
to, make any judgements of those intrepid souls who do real motorcycle
touring without bliking an eye. My hat's off to you guys.)

So the answer regarding a CJ-5, Bronco, or the most important vehicle you
left out, any older Toyota Land Cruiser:

Not necessarily.

Are they better platforms for the heavier loads? Sure, and so's a
K-whopper. But what it comes down to is an aesthetic. I've now done
multi-day trips both solo and with passenger in the following vehicles:

KLR, Saab 9-5 Aero, FJ-60 Land Cruiser, FJ-40 Land Cruiser, F-150 Death
Trap, and then a number of boring cars (e.g., Corolla). All of these
involved some form of off-roading while doing the trip (yes, even the Saab).

While I enjoyed all of these trips, and was able to do different things in
all the vehicles, I remember the KLR trips the best. Motorcycles have the
ability to focus your memories on what you are doing at each specific moment
of a trip. The car that comes closest is my FJ-60, because anywhere you go
in that thing it's an adventure. Sometimes the adventure just comes from
wondering whether you'll get there and being pleased that something
catastrophic didn't happen. It's a bit troubling that one of my most vivid
memories of the Cruiser is gutting a seized air pump in the middle of the
woods.

But cars, even fun old classics, dole out their pleasure in discrete
lumps. A car trip eventually gets remember as packing, arriving at a little
restaurant, arriving at the campsite/hotel, doing something fun like
four-wheeling, packing again, then returning home. The KLR trips don't
feel like a series of places I stopped, or a series of places where I took
advantage of the vehicle's capabilities. The entire trip comprised elements
of adventure. Added to that is the unquantifiable feeling of success when
you complete the trip. Again, I can sometimes have this feeling in the
Cruiser (the best 4-wheeled analog for a KLR). But that feeling is not one
of physically overcoming something.

Every week my friend and I go to play a trivia game in downtown Chicago,
about five miles away on city streets. It usually takes about half an hour.
Last week, for the first time, we considered driving because of the weather.
It snowed recently, the KLR's ignition switch was loaded with ice, and it
was 15 degrees out with the requisite horrible wind chill--awful riding
conditions. So after warming up the bikes and bundling up like the kid from
A Christmas Story, off we went. The trip was not comfortable. But not only
did we make it, both of us felt like we had accomplished something. If we
took the car, it certainly would have been more comfortable, but there
wouldn't be a feeling of success.

I think the KLR appeals to this sense of being an intrepid adventurer,
whether we actually are one or just want to be. Indeed, the only
motorcycles I've seen riding around Chicago now that winter has set in have
been another KLR, an R1150GS, an old Harley with a sidecar, and my friend's
Triumph Scrambler--all quite individual bikes. In an of itself, the KLR has
obstacles to overcome such as luggage, comfort, or the inexplicable lack of
development.

Bikes teach us lessons about what we need and what we can handle, and
usually the results are we need less than we thought, and we can handle more
than we thought. That can make any trip worthwhile.