I am thinking of trading in my Vee after 5 years of ownership. I have really enjoyed the bike but following my friends recent mishap (see Romania ride report for details) i have decided to upgrade and get ABS. I have a KLR650 as well and this bike is for touring in Europe on paved roads.

I looked at the riumph Tiger 800 XRx and Yamaha MT 09 Tracer, dismissing the latter since whilst it is getting rave reviews I think it is stunningly ugly.

I took the Tiger for a test ride today, thinking this would be the one. I loved the engine - plenty of go and so much more flexible around town than Vee. It also felt really light. On normal roads and smaller back roads it was great. On the motorway however it was a total disaster. At 80mph (125kph) the wind was trying to rip my head off and the bike was all over the place in the (not that significant) wind. I need to be able to ride 500 mile (800km) days on the motorway, as well as play on the twisties, but you wouldn't want to do more than 30 high speed motorway miles on this.

Is this fixable with a different screen - seems a big ask? I came back thinking maybe i need to be considering an agile tourer (BMW R1200RT?), heavier adventure bike (Crosstourer?) or even the new DL1000.

I don't use my bike day to day. It gets the odd weekend blast and one or two big tours a year. Needs to be comfy, do big miles on the motowary in relative comfort and be fun to play, whether in the alpine passes or Welsh back roads. No true off road capability needed but i want it to be managable on crappy roads.

Any suggestions?