03-12-2020, 01:32 AM
Thanks folks for the well wishes for my wife...and sorry, perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned her being sick here, but I was a bit frustrated last night. I'll just say this about the testing: I think Portland area medical offices may be flooded with test requests and so Kaiser (our insurance co.) has developed an on-line testing procedure to deal with possible cases. They ask all the symptoms questions, but apparently hers didn't tick off enough boxes (?), and so they say stay at home, call back if it worsens at all. For the moment she says it's like any other cold/flu she's ever had.
Haha...it would be interesting to start a thread "bikes we've owned for less than 3 months" or something like that, explain the reasons why. It might help people think about future purchases.
I had the Honda CGL125 in Costa Rica as a commuter bike--it was kick-start. I loved that. So easy to kick start you could probably do it with your hand. I don't know, got back to the USA and wanted a kick-start bike--looked at the Yamaha sr400 that was just coming out at the time, but they wanted $5500-6, for them. Too pricey for that bike I thought.
Nearly bought a Kawasaki W650--two times they sold before I could go see them. Thought I'd try my hand at a humble restoration of a '77 xs650. Realized it was a bit far gone for my mc repair / restore skill set (not very high), sold it after 2 months.
Then I found another xs650, '83 I believe. It was actually in really nice condition with only about 6k miles and I put about 1500 miles on it over a few months, very fun. Got my kick-start thrills for awhile.
But...that would be about when the CB1100 '14 Standards were piling up at the dealerships and not selling. So I thought why dump more and more money into a 30 year old bike when I could get a new bike and be free of mechancial issues. Suddenly the kick-start feature wasn't enough to stay with the xs650 and I moved on. Sold both of those 650s for just a bit less than I bought them for, learned lots working on them, and they satisfied a curiosity I had about them so I don't regret time with them at all.
I think what I learned is that, while I love working on motorcycles when I can actually do the work, I really enjoy riding them much more (duh, for many of you).
(03-11-2020, 11:47 PM)Ben70_imp Wrote: Montgomery Ward Riverside (Benelli) 250 single, new 1969, 4 months, crashed. I was young then, and immortal. That's why they taught 17 year olds to fly P-51's.
Yamaha SR500 new 1979. 4 years. Put it in the class of 3 or 4 cars I have owned, wish I still had it.
Yamaha XS1100 1981, bought lightly used in '91. Sold when our son came along, 3 years.
Honda CB1100 2013, 3.5 years and counting.
So an average of just under four years, but the current bike will continue to drag that average up for the foreseeable future.
pdedse, why the short tenure for the SR 650's, and why two? Inquiring minds want to know...
And best of luck with the illness, whatever it is.
Ben
Haha...it would be interesting to start a thread "bikes we've owned for less than 3 months" or something like that, explain the reasons why. It might help people think about future purchases.
I had the Honda CGL125 in Costa Rica as a commuter bike--it was kick-start. I loved that. So easy to kick start you could probably do it with your hand. I don't know, got back to the USA and wanted a kick-start bike--looked at the Yamaha sr400 that was just coming out at the time, but they wanted $5500-6, for them. Too pricey for that bike I thought.
Nearly bought a Kawasaki W650--two times they sold before I could go see them. Thought I'd try my hand at a humble restoration of a '77 xs650. Realized it was a bit far gone for my mc repair / restore skill set (not very high), sold it after 2 months.
Then I found another xs650, '83 I believe. It was actually in really nice condition with only about 6k miles and I put about 1500 miles on it over a few months, very fun. Got my kick-start thrills for awhile.
But...that would be about when the CB1100 '14 Standards were piling up at the dealerships and not selling. So I thought why dump more and more money into a 30 year old bike when I could get a new bike and be free of mechancial issues. Suddenly the kick-start feature wasn't enough to stay with the xs650 and I moved on. Sold both of those 650s for just a bit less than I bought them for, learned lots working on them, and they satisfied a curiosity I had about them so I don't regret time with them at all.
I think what I learned is that, while I love working on motorcycles when I can actually do the work, I really enjoy riding them much more (duh, for many of you).