End of story. Nothing to see here, folks.. move along. 
But he doesn't need to be mechanically inclined, since he has a dealer available...

:thumb, at least that's the way I read the initial message.
For other issues - cruise control - Throttlemeister (I know they are out of business, but potentially could find one on Ebay), or other throttle lock systems people use to "simulate" cruise control.
Sounds still like pillion comfort is an unknown, I guess it depends on how small or large is the pillion to determine if the Norge is better or worse than the BMW from a wind perspective.
Didn't Jeff have an RT for a while after having a couple of Norge's and then went back to the Norge after selling the RT? I"m sure his perspective could be helpful here too.