If someone gave me a blank check & said "Here, go buy the bike youll ride till you cant ride any more" Id get a Kawasaki W-650. NOt for their beauty & styling, but the engineering. I Like the looks okay.BUt I really prefer STandard seating, over cruisers, so, it wins there.The drifter is classy looking, but, I like the W for all kinds of reasons, so. Thats my BIke..

wambr that's a very nice bike and well thought out in the details but it is way too fancy for me! My ideal bike would more likely to be the Triumph Speedmaster with a few mild modifications and subtle paintwork.

Now Now NOW!,, Dont lump ALL V-twins into the same pot.
A Guzzi is a 90* V twin, they sound like a V8.

Want for what purpose?

Generic beat the snot out of it, throw it away with no great loss and get another for a song? Savage or Sportster.

Long term keeper? Easy, pre-65 HD Big Twin in a rigid frame with a springer. Any pre-50 Chief or 20s/30s Scout. Maybe a pre-unit Brit bike.

Have to be metric? 1999 VN1500J (Drifter) or VN1500 Classic (factory black out model only since I truly despise chrome and would black it out anyway), ANY year VN800A or VN800 Drifter (had a Classic, not impressed but would get another if it was cheap enough and 100% flawless, it would get a 21" front wheel conversion for improved handling).

What else? 100% original and flawless WW2 BMW WITH all of it's Wermacht or (preferably) Waffen-SS stencils intact. Wouldn't likely ride it, seeing as my last antique (1951) BMW broke in half going down the road...  

I know you like it, but the 1500 Drifter with a blending of Plains and Aztec motifs really needs to be repainted in ONE theme. And, the 1500 Drifters, while nice to look at, are nightmares to work on. Trust me, there's one at our farm... a first year at that. It decided it doesn't want to play anymore with just shy of 85K miles on the clock... waiting for an 03 Mean Streak clutch spring set to get here, apparently a Barnett carbon fiber clutch and an 85K mile factory Drifter spring set are NOT a good match...

So, where are all the people who'd vote to keep only their Slowpokey Salvage if they could in fact have any other bike... ? Hmm... ?

One of the biggest fan sites for the model, in the world... and not many would have one...  

It is rather nice to be able to get out of your own way for a change, isn't it? My Savage is generally a back up bike, on the rare occasions it still comes out to play instead of being a high rise for spiders. The electrical system failed about 3 years ago, bike has been in pieces ever since. I'll work on it a bit, get bored, push it aside in favor of something else. Still like it, just don't give a dam (I hate the filters on this site) if it gets done any time soon. It's an interesting toy, but a miserable excuse for a motorcycle. Has been since the day I bought it brand new in Feb 1998. Should have bought something a bit bigger, the way I ride, and my height/weight versus the bike's height/weight isn't exactly fair to the machine. I'm used to 74 inch or larger engines, a just shy of 40 incher doesn't cut it...

No, every rider needs SEVEN bikes, minimum, one for every day of the week so you don't get bored riding the same one day after day.   My personal best was 15 at one time, not counting dirt bikes or street 2 strokes (which don't count because the only thing I hate more than chrome is 2 stroke engines).