I really think the Touring model has come with panniers as standard from the very beginning all over the world.

Someone is not being honest with you.

I don't think a Multi would be any worse in the winter than any other bike, and no better.

My biggest concerns in the winter have to do with the fact that tires, when ice-cold, perform poorly and that both road salt and road sand can seriously interfere with traction.

I have ridden (a Monster 620 ...

I moved from a Monster 620 to a Monster 696 to my MTS1200S.

The assumption that there needs to be an intermediate, inferior bike as some sort of transition between a Monster and a Multi makes no sense to me.

rays wrote:do you like the monster?

Lots of people think it's madness to get a Monster as ones first bike. It's all relative.

Is your wife planning to ride the Multi? My wife loves her Monster but can't get her feet on the ground sitting on the Multi.

As others have said, you should plan on dropping your first bike. I crashed my first Monster within a few weeks of getting it and again a year later. My wife totaled her ...