Howdy, everyone!
I bought my 2012 Connie on Leap Day. I only have about 60 miles on her so far, but I'm simply enthralled by this machine. I traded my 2008 Rocket 3 Touring for her, on which I had ridden about 15k miles over three years. The Connie is the first non-cruiser style bike I've ever ridden. Now I know what I've been missing! The Connie handles like a butterfly in comparison to my Rocket, which I've compared to a pissed-off rhinocerous. It's just so easy to ride! It enthusiastically does exactly what I want it to, without protest or delay. Although I had grown to be pretty comfortable on the R3, I was always a bit trepidatious about its sheer size and weight and reluctance to deviate from straight-line travel. It's lack of a sixth gear was another big complaint. There's just no reason a 2300cc bike needs to flirt with 4000 RPM at highway speeds.
I have to rave about the dealer a bit, too. I bought the Connie from Dillon Brothers Motorsports in Omaha, Nebraska. The salesman actually knew the sport-touring segment well and was very knowledgeable about the specific product in which I was interested. It's also nice to visit a multi-brand dealer when shopping bikes. I was able to sit on and kick the tires of new and used alternatives by Triumph, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, BMW, and even Harley. Before going to Dillon, I went to another Kawi dealer in the area and the salesman there had never even heard of a Concours! The deal-making was just so easy. They gave me their best out-the-door price of $15500 up-front, and gave me the Kelley Blue Book trade-in value for my Rocket, which was $7800. No haggling. No attempt to tack on the usual destination charges, building charges, and so on. They even offered to let me test ride the Connie. This was by far my best experience buying a new vehicle, motorcycle or otherwise.
Anyway, I'm extremely happy to have found and joined this community of Connie riders. I spent quite a bit of time reading threads in this forum in the weeks before I bought. There's a ton of great info here.
Nico
