Cheers John.
Yes, it will be mainly used for two up with luggage, and fast. We tend to do 4 to 7 day trips, rarely use motorways, and the only scenery I usually see is the grass strip either side of the road and the beer gardens in the evenings
It will be a replacement for my ST4S ABS too, if I can bring myself to sell it
I like the idea of a big trailie, tried the 990 adventure, nice bike but poor brakes when two up. We also had the panniers on the deck (plastic box type)without trying particularly hard
We have tried the GS too, and like its design but I don't like the engine.
I hope this bike arrives early next year, and at a half decent price (similar to GS is acceptible but top of our budget).
I have a call in with a couple of dealers, just awaiting their return calls now
[update]
have spoken to one of the chaps, who has informed me of the following:
sales manager has seen the bike so it does exist,
expected to be released tail end of this year, so first deliveries this side of christmas,
S model most likely to be released first as with other models recently,
1098 detuned engine (more grunt at lower revs), so unlikely to see 160bhp,
designed for use with luggage,
good tank range too.
All in all it sounds great, I can't wait
Other snippet of info was the level of bike sales at present are still very high, mainly due to lots of mainland europeans popping over here to buy bikes. This is meaning second hand prices are quite good too, which is handy