After riding both bikes for a while, the Bagger was the bike to get. The Classic’ thin seat, lack of fuel gage, tachometer and the wind buffeting around my 6’3” frame was too much. It felt like an accessorized pure and wouldn’t do for overnight trips and would be good just around town. I couldn’t ride the classic to Florida with a 175 mile range and those tiny foot pegs. The bagger needed very little. Some leg rests would be nice, maybe a taller windscreen for long distance riding and a soft bag behind me if I wanted to do some camping. It was fully loaded, black, pine striping, automatic cruise control (which I’m so happy I got) and all of the features you needed. It was $1000 more than the bike in St. Louis but after travel costs, it was the same cost and had more features. No it wasn’t purple but the purple bike they had in stock didn’t have the features of the Bagger I was going to buy.
What about the TransContinental? If I didn’t love my GS, I would have bought it. Just $1500-$2000 more than a Bagger and you are in a wind bubble and doubling your storage and seat height. I don’t have a pillion and I’m not planning a cross country trip on the R18 so the Bagger is all I need.
Because this is the 4th new BMW I’ve bought from this dealer, they hooked me up with shirts, mugs, thermoses and a lot of R18 swag. They also included the first running-in service parts for free so I left home with the fluids and filters I needed to do my first service. I’ll pay it off sooner but all of the R18s qualified for .9% interest through BMW so I took that deal as, to-term, financing will cost me just $250 in interest. .9% interest is a rare thing these days so I took it.