I'm shopping for a new bike - my V-Strom was stolen and I got the settlement check from the insurance company this week (the story ends well - I got more for insurance than I paid for the bike two years ago. And now I can go shopping.)

A friend at work was excited to let me ride his 2014 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic, for which he paid $28,000 earlier this year. Who was I to say no? You don't get many chances to test out a pricey motorcycle like that. Even though there was no way I was going to buy one, I took him up on his offer. Plus, my girlfriend works for him so I thought it would be good to get her some extra face time with the boss.

I've always known Harleys are overpriced and that you're paying for the name and their marketing efforts. I had no idea how much that was the case though.

This bike sucked. Three blocks into the ride, I wanted to turn around and bring it back to him and say, "Yeah, no." It shakes like a sonofa... at idle. It has no power (70 horsepower! according to my friend). It's fat and heavy and difficult to get off the kickstand. Your feet are really close together on the floorboards - I felt like I was on a scooter. It's slow and sluggish and feels like its going to fall apart at the seams at highway speeds. The buffeting was far worse than I thought it would be considering the size of that fairing. I liked nothing about this bike. I don't even need all of the electronic gizmos - I'd rather hear the wind and the road noise than music when I ride.

I'm simply amazed that anyone would pay this much for a substandard motorcycle. For $28 grand I could get three great bikes - say an America, a V-Strom, and a Yamaha FZ-09 - and have a versatile stable of bikes for any mood.

On another note I also test-rode a 2009 Moto Guzzi Stelvio 1200 which my local dealer has on the showroom floor for $9,200. It likewise was a really bad ride - way buzzier than I expected for a bike like that.

So, if I had to wager a guess, I think I'll end up buying the bike I've always wanted in my stable - the Tiger 1050. There are a bunch of nice ones available for sale with accessories and low miles. The Tiger 800 and the Scrambler are also under consideration. I'll keep ya posted and post pics when it's in my garage alongside my America.