I have two bikes
already. One is my pride and joy and the other is my joy and pride
that my mate is borrowing for the summer. I’m going to make
mistakes; some of them will probably prove to be quite costly and
perhaps Italian exotica is not the best place to start a fledgling
career in home motorcycle maintenance.
Now to the fun part,
the part I do best: research! I can while away days sat in front of
a screen looking for the right bike, I’ll log onto the owners fora (get you with our fora!) and get a feel for its triumphs and its foibles and what the going
prices are. However, in the space of three weeks I change my mind
three times. As I'm acutely aware that I have a very tight budget
to play with and a very unsympathetic wife to negotiate, this is
whittled down to two and then the deciding factor is what I can find
at the right price, in the right place. Whilst I am prepared to
drive the other side of the country for the right bike, it’d be
much more convenient if it were within a 50-mile radius.
The one thing I am sure
of is that it needs to be a Honda. The Japanese marque’s
reputation for solid built quality, unrivalled reliability and
thoughtful engineering meant that all other contenders fell by the
wayside. I wanted something simple so an air cooled single cylinder
bike seemed best. I wanted to ride all year round so something with
a fairing and hand guards. I wanted to be able to spend all day on it
(with the occasional pillion), so something with a comfortable
riding position and saddle. So my perfect bike was a Honda NX650 or
the Dominator to use its more popular moniker. Which is why I ended
up with something a bit different. No matter how grown up I think I
am, when it comes to buying bikes, all rhyme and reason goes out the
window as soon as I leave the house with a pocketful of bank notes on
my way to view a potential purchase.
Entertaining, informative and well written. Looking forward to the next installment.
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