After the disappointing trip to the Suzuki Dealer I walked up the road to the big shop in town, the Harley, Yamaha, Honda, Buell and Ducati Dealer. I got chatting to a salesman who was interested in selling me a bike, mentioned my budget and sat on some bikes. I sat on a Yamaha Tourer, knees didn't fit under the contours in the tank,
I decided to take a quick lunchtime look around and examine some bikes in more detail. Research not riding. I'd had a look at the new Kawasaki Vulcan on trip 1 to the bike shops and during a visit to the local Suzuki Dealer, that missed a mention in the blog until now, I was told that an aquaintence of mind had bought a new Suzuki Boulevard
After my first big day riding bikes to get a feel for what was out there I decided to hit the net again and broaden my search. Looking in the sub 15k market I'd seen most of what was there and selecting cruisers didn't really deliver anything that excited me. I'd been spoiled by the 26k Rocket III so I decided to see what was in the
OK, riding the Rocket III and liking it allowed me to completely review the inventory at the local bike shops. On hand at the BMW dealership was a 1300cc 2004 Yamaha Royal Star with 58,000ks on the clock for 14k. In the budget and I haven't got any prejudices against jap bikes, so I took it for a ride.
After riding the GS my confidence that I wasn't going to make a complete dick of myself test riding I was up for something new. I had a look around to see if there was anything else of interest. The BMW dealership is also the Triumph Dealership and I remarked that I had never ridden a "cruiser" style bike before. He said, "Why
After some research and a few days of building up to the fact that I'd need to ride something soon, I decided to revisit BMW and take the R1150GS for a ride. To say I was a little nervous is an understatement. I put on some jeans, my sturdiest joggers, grabbed the old but pristine Bellstaff jacket out of the cupboard (the only bit of motorcycle
First chance I got to look at what bikes were on offer was a Tuesday afternoon. I took the kids with me so I wouldn't be tempted to ride anything on that occasion, I just wanted to test the water. Where I live all the bikes shops are in one area. I went into the "biggest one" first, the Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Harley-Davidson
I've always ridden Japanese bikes before, in the 70's I kicked off with a borrowed Yamaha CT175, moved on to a little 250 Yamaha Roady, next came a lovely red and while CB900F2B Honda and other 4cyl road bikes including a Suzuki GS1000S, a CB750 Honda and more. The last bike I owned was a Honda ST1100. I was thinking it would be great to get
The walk had begun, a fear, a sense of dread, a little hysteria (fuelled by a couple of double shots of coffee before we left) it was the day to make the announcement. About 2ks into it and after quite a big hill and a nice chat the time was right. I said "I don't want to wait until I'm 50 to get another bike, I'd like to get one
The decision made to get myself a motorcyle, I had to let my lovely, understanding, caring and sharing wife whom I love very much, know that the long term plan for a bike when I was 50 had been moved forward. I needed a plan, a budget, and a justification that would fly in the face of superior logic.
