10 Best Budget Touring Motorcycles For Cross-Country Trips

Oh, the things we could do if we had an unlimited amount of money! Sadly, though, real life doesn’t allow us everything. It gives us a finite number of resources to accomplish whatever we want. In this case, the resource is money, and what we want to accomplish is obtain a motorcycle that is comfortable enough for days on end without emptying out the bank account.

This doesn’t seem like an easy exercise in the beginning, because all the marketing you will encounter will tell you that it is impossible to do a cross-country trip on anything but the biggest and best. Which, coincidentally, also happen to be the most expensive products. We’re experts, though; we know how to maximize the potential of both motorcycle and wallet. It’s true, what they say. It’s not the size of the bike, it’s how you use it. Here then are the ten budget touring motorcycles for cross-country trips.

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10 Touring Motorcycles Under $20,000 Worth Considering

The most affordable touring bike in this list is also the cheapest bagger you can buy today.

10

Moto Morini Calibro 700 Bagger

Price: $6,799

The Calibro 700 Bagger is based on the Calibro cruiser, and they both share a bunch of things, including the driveline, chassis, suspension, instrument cluster, and jaw-dropping value, when you look at the price and the displacement of the engine. The Bagger adds a Batwing fairing for wind protection and hard luggage over the cruiser for an extra $800. It’s still such great value that despite being the cheapest touring bike you can buy in the US in 2025, it feels like anything but, with its ABS and Gates carbon final belt drive.

9

Honda NC750X DCT

Price: $9,499

The NC750X DCT is one of the strange tourers of our time. It isn’t a cruiser-type tourer, and it isn’t an adventure-type tourer, and it feels nothing like anything else. The engine is canted over at 55 degrees like a BMW K 1600 motorcycle, and it uses the ‘fuel tank’ as storage space. The actual tank is under the seat. It is available only with the automatic transmission, and with the recent update to the TFT screen, is one of the most complete all-round motorcycles for city and highway if you don’t intend to ride like your pants are on fire.

8

Triumph Tiger Sport 660

Price: $9,695

The Tiger Sport 660 takes the ‘sport’ bit of its name really seriously, with a high-revving but flexible three-cylinder engine that makes riding hard a joy. It keeps the price down while offering features like a TFT display with Bluetooth connectivity and turn-by-turn navigation by using innovative solutions like a part-reverse LCD for the instrument cluster. The 2025 update made it even better value, making cruise control and a quickshifter standard to go with the ride modes and cornering ABS and traction control.

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7

Honda Rebel 1100T DCT

Price: $11,499

The big Rebel has all the things that make a Honda motorcycle desirable: it is comfortable, reliable, and has an automatic gearbox, which makes it the only cruiser anywhere near its price range to offer one. It isn’t just any old gearbox, either. This is a proper 6-speed dual clutch, one shared with the Africa Twin. This being the Rebel 1100T, you get a fairing and hard luggage like the Calibro 700 Bagger. Unlike the Calibro, the 2025 Rebel 1100T has been equipped with a 5-inch TFT display with Bluetooth and navigation, which should help with the touring.

6

Honda NT1100 DCT

Price: $11,899

The NT1100 is a relative newcomer to the Honda family in the US, and it occupies an empty space between the Africa Twin Adventure Sports and the Rebel 1100T. This is a crossover sports tourer, complete with 17-inch alloy wheels and road-biased tires. It uses the same driveline as the Rebel 1100, but has the Africa Twin’s 100 horsepower tune. It also offers its touchscreen TFT display with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, ride modes, traction control, and ABS.

5

BMW F 900 XR

Price: $11,995

The F 900 XR is BMW’s middleweight crossover touring motorcycle. It has the engine and gearbox of the F 900 R/GS in the same state of tune, and fits it with long-travel suspension and alloy wheels with sticky tires to extract maximum long-distance pace from it. However, at the base price, you need to think of it as a blank slate, even though it has standard features like an adaptive headlamp, adjustable windscreen, heated grips, traction control, ABS, and riding modes. Cruise control, electronic suspension and keyless ignition are all on the options list.

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4

Triumph Tiger Sport 800

Price: $12,695

The Tiger Sport 800 is a step up from the Tiger Sport 660, and competes with the likes of the BMW F 900 XR and Yamaha Tracer 9. Like the Tracer, it uses an inline three-cylinder engine to great effect, offering a great blend of power and torque. It also gets some great standard features – although the combination TFT/LCD color display isn’t exactly what we’re expecting from the modern middleweight crossover. Still, you get the second-most power in class, a European badge, and all the benefits of a new model with the Tiger Sport 800.

3

Yamaha Tracer 9 GT

Price: $12,599

The Tracer 9 is one of the most fun motorcycles you’ll ever encounter. It might seem like a tall crossover, but it has every bit of the Yamaha DNA that has a voracious appetite for corners. It also gets a six-axis IMU, which isn’t common at the price. So you get cornering traction control and ABS, slide control, back slip regulation, and wheelie control. A huge 7-inch TFT display has Bluetooth connectivity and navigation. The Tracer 9 might actually be a little too sporty for some from a touring standpoint.

2

Kawasaki Ninja 1100SX

Price: $13,699

The Ninja 1100SX recently replaced the Ninja 1000SX, and the increased displacement has given it more torque thanks to a longer stroke. Kawasaki has focused on making its flagship naturally aspirated sport tourer easier to ride, rather than chase power figures. It comes packed to the gills with features as well, including a six-axis IMU.

That means cornering ABS and traction control in a twin-spar aluminum frame with Showa fully adjustable suspension. If that isn’t enough, you can spring for the SE version, available for $2,000 more. It offers goodies like an Öhlins S46 rear shock, Brembo front discs and calipers, stainless steel braided front brake lines, and heated grips.

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1

Suzuki GSX-S1000GT+

Price: $14,299

If the Kawasaki isn’t your speed, then you need to try this, the GSX-S1000GT+. It is based on old GSX-R1000 chassis and drivelines that have been put together to make a sport tourer that is quite a bit sporty than the Ninja. You get ride modes, ABS, and traction control, and hard luggage is standard as this is the variant with the ‘+’. However, even though it is more expensive than the Ninja, it lacks a six-axis IMU, which means you don’t have cornering functions for any of the safety features.