I just found a website created by Dale Borgenson who has some great advice on choosing a touring bike on his very opinionated and useful website, along with a very nice section on motorcycle maintenance, a packing list, gear selection, and lots more advice even for experienced tourers. I could pull any number of likeable quotes from his site but I liked his introduction to trip planning: Trip planning can either be a big deal or trivial depending on your style. Some people need to plan every detail and pick every nit. I think these people are anal but they seem to enjoy it. I spend the winter pouring over maps and spend a lot of time running proposed routes through various PC trip planning software packages. I don’t know why I do this because by the time I leave I pretty much ignore all that stuff and just ride. I think I spend so much time playing at planning because it gets so cold, snowy, and generally motorcycle hostile in Minneapolis during the winter that trip planning is the only substitute for actually riding. Go to Dale Borgenson’s Motorcycle Touring For Beginners.