I'm very partial to air-cooled engines: generally tougher than nails and leaner in looks they just suit my aesthetic sensibilities better. My current favorite in the Yamaha line up is a very curvy number called the V-Star Custom which comes in all black and has the bare minimum in bells & whistles, and all for under $7k. Admittedly it's only a 650cc but if you're not size-ist and when it's delivered by a refined Japanese powerplant it's very often all you need for most applications. It has nice hardtail looks with softail comfort, a decent saddle for two-up and a neuvo-retro headlamp that I kinda like. I would probably stick a pair of 16" apes on it (or a drag bar) and pop out the muffler end cones before I rolled it off the factory floor but that done I reckon you'd have a mean dependable chop that'd garner envious looks and get you around in style. Having ironbutted this fair land of ours and visited almost every state in the saddle, I can tell you that rock-solid dependability is my mantra. This bike delivers that and enough cool factor to earn you street cred too.
