Ok….whew wow…. my question… you work for your local paper?
I can only tell you from a Vulcan 500 stand point.
From the sounds of it the V500 would be a high contender for you .. it has enough low end torque to give you some security on the take offs. You won’t have to feel to much on the nervous side about having to hear the engine wind up to get going. It will be a touch short for your longer legs though I am 5’10” and never had my knees come close to hitting the handle bars at full lock. You can find many adjustments from it from Scootworks.com. Really the only few places that can make things for them. You can get Handle Bar risers to remedy the knee knocking…. forward foot controls for the stretch. You can go to any company for saddle bags. Both Kawi and Scootworks make the brackets to safely keep the saddle bags away from the wheel.
The V500 has more of a standard foot position at stock and is as nimble as most any sport bike out there. The engine is based off the Ninja 500 motor but “tuned down” a touch for cruiser like feel. It will get you up and above highway speeds easily and still leave room for passing. IT can stay at 90 all day long. Riding 2 up tends to slow it up a little bit. Barring full boar hellion riding you would get close to the upper 50’s in gas mileage. Heck I would probably still have mine if the woman and kids weren’t constantly wanting to ride with me.
My only dislike really about the V500 was it’s chain driven. Living in NC it constantly rains here and I am lazy. I hate felling like I have to re oil the chain every week end. There are some Vulcan boards where I frequent that even has a couple older 500’s go well beyond the 100k mark. So the reliability is definitely there. Resale value… well when I traded my V500 for my V900….. the bike was gone in 2 weeks. I had already put the saddle bags on it which is why it went so quick.
Now prepare yourself for alot of sport bike recommendations as us cruisers are far outnumbered here …lol.
Good luck on whatever you chose and relax! Enjoy the ride but ALWAYS keep your head in the ride and your body in the gear.