After I sent my Vmax down the road, I was on a variety of sport nakeds and sport-tourings. Despite being considerably more relaxed than a supersport, none I'd really call "comfortable", at least not for multi-day touring. Buzzy inline fours, leaned-forward ergo's, and limited storage. Good for a sporty day trip romp, not so much crossing the country. I then dipped my toe into the cruiser pool with an Indian Scout- dynamite engine, but some nagging quality issues and a thimble for a gas tank soured me on it for a while. But I appreciated the relaxed riding position and did a couple multi day trips on it.
I ended up on a 1998 Valkyrie I bought for the princely sum of $2000. That was running, riding, titled. It was even the Tourer edition with the factory hard bags and windshield, the latter was quite beat up though and was quickly sold off via an owner's forum. Almost immediately I knew this bike was "the one". I'd ridden late model Harleys. Great cruisers, can't knock them there. Comfortable, the M8 engine is far smoother than the older ones, they are pleasant to ride. But when you get a twitchy wrist the motor has no stomp to it and the handling wasn't any better than the wobbly crapshoot that my Vmax was, despite being 25 years newer. The fancy in-dash navigation was hilariously awful, I couldn't believe they actually put such utter shite on a bike they have the balls to ask $25k for , I had a $99 TomTom 15 years ago that worked better.
The Valk, while not Vmax fast, has some serious stomp to it for a bike of it's size. For a big engine, it's fairly revvy- redline is marked at 6500, but the limiter doesn't step in until 7500, and it very eagerly pulls up to it- not out of breath at 4k like most HD's I've ridden. It's also far and away the smoothest bike I've ever owned. The "parlor trick" of putting a dime on it'd edge on the valve cover and starting it is absolutely true. It won't fall over. It's also torquey everywhere. Lug it around in fifth at 1000rpm and it'll smoothly pull away. Hold it in 3rd on a curvy road and ride it from 4-6000rpm, it still has a pleasing top end pull. And it has the size, stability, comfort, and luggage that touring is a pleasure, not a chore. It'd also rank it right up there with my Supertrapp equipped Vmax for best sounding bikes I've ever heard (the Valk has the Cobra 6-into-6 pipes).
It still easily walks away from anything similar Harley makes (I ran against a 114 equipped street glide, with the owner having paid the "harley tax"- i.e, exhaust, tune, airbox, ect- and while I won't say it was no contest, I still readily walked away and had probably 10 bike lengths on him at 100mph. He also had pretty easily $30k wrapped up, I have maybe $2500 all in after some tires and TLC. My bike is smoother, faster, arguably more reliable, and cost 1/15th as much. I also don't lose it in parking lots, and it still turns heads. People are shocked to learn it's old enough to buy a beer, and it's by no means a pristine example. It spent most of it's life out in the sun on the Gulf coast, so oxidized engine cases and somewhat dull paint, although the latter cleaned up nicely with some compound.
To me, the Valk has the muscle car personality of the Vmax, but it's a little more "mature". You don't get quite the tire smoking hooligan antics (yes, I Darksided the Valk shortly after getting it and never looked back once), but you do get a comfortable touring partner. It can hustle when you want it to, and smoothly cruise when you don't.
I don't know if a "perfect bike" exists, but the Valk is the closest I've found. Considering it was also one of the cheapest I've owned, the bang for the buck- and smiles per buck- is really hard to top.
