......It is a predominant trend. Not universal of course. But there's no doubt to fact that those that tend to ride more covering longer distances end up doing it on bikes built more with that in mind. Not good or bad or right or wrong. Just is.
I believe that the Touring category continues to grow, although as one would expect, there are exceptions to every generality. I have a friend with a ‘96 883 Hugger that had 83,000 + miles as of 9-2006. Her goal is to break 100k with it before she considers another machine.
I have another friend in his late 50’s that put 90,400 miles on a ’97 FXD. He currently has a ’06 FLSTFSE2 that he put 12,200 on last year; I believe that he picked the ’06 up in July.
My wife has a ’02 Heritage with 40k on it; I put about 6,300 of those on. I guess the Heritage is really a bagger; call it Bagger Lite.
I personally have ridden a Bagger since I was 25. I put 50k on my ’02 Road Glide, but with the chopped windshield it feels like something more than that; wouldn't have it any other way.
djkak