I ride in northern Ontario. We also ride long distance although I don't do the iron butt kind of stuff. I just passed 60 and am not a little guy so I have all the lower back issues that come with a tall guy in his sixties who has done a lot of dumb stuff getting there. I don't find the Concours hard on my lower back but I do find it hard on my inner thighs and crotch. We also have cruisers and took an 8000 km trip earlier in the year and took them even though the Concours and my wife's ST1300 would have given us better range. The Concours has given me as much as 4 and a half hours on a tank on some of the roads I've been on but my *** still seems to draw the line at about 2 hours. The upright riding position seems to be OK with my back but, depending on the pants I wear, I slide forward into the tank and my crotch gets sore or the squarish configuration of the tourer style seat bothers my inner thighs and I need to take a break. I don't find the same conditions with the saddle type seat on my Nomad and my wife finds the same with her VTX so it isn't a brand thing but it's more to do with limitations of the particular ride designs. No regrets with the C14 though. It's just that while we may ride past gas pumps we still end up making coffee stops.
Back not an issued but us guys have other designe problems to consider.
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