I do nearly all of my biking off the motorways, mostly on old abandoned D roads here in France. But.... I would want a bike that gave me the option to cope with the motorways as sometimes that is far the best way to either negotiate a bottleneck or allow you to guarantee an arrival time, such as when you have to catch a ferry.
Years ago I used to ride a Triumph tiger cub 200cc single with 10bhp. I could happily go anywhere in The UK with it. Then they built the motorways... I would not be happy cruising at 45mph on a motorway. Times have changed, and the bikes have largely changed to match the new roads and also changed from cheap transport to recreational vehicle. Also a major change is complexity of bikes and communications that were undreamt of back in teh sixties. Now it makes sense to have a modern bike, know nothing about it, take out breakdown insurance. and carry a mobile phone and just ride and not worry about it. You might have to pay a lot in case of breakdown, but that is it, that is that package.
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