Today was probably the last nice riding day of 2005 and in anticipation of this my buddy Joe Dirt and I went for a short breakfast ride. It was about 40 deg. at 8:00 this morning and sunny. Not bad for the 12th of November. The Honda was on the battery tender overnight but was a bit hard to start in the morning. Nothing new. Gassed her up and put some winter air in the tires and we were on our way. Now a little backstory-I don't ride as much as I should. There are several reasons for this but they are all just excuses. I'm not a morning person so I get up at the last possible second every morning and the extra time spent dragging the bike out of the garden shed (this was pre-garagemobile), warming up the cold- blooded beast, the whole helmet/gloves ritual, etc... would make me late as hell for work. This is a bullshit excuse and like my old man always said I should just drag my ass out of bed on time. In February my wife had a little baby and free time is quite scant now that "Dad" has become my new job title. Getting time to whip the Honda into tip top shape has been quite difficult. Joe Dirt actually did alot of the work as I posted awhile back. O.k. I guess I need to make my point here. It was a beautifull day and warmed up quickly. Joe was riding the KTM Duke which has gobs of torque-a really fun bike to get tickets on. Anyhow - we went up to the local twisties and enjoyed the fall leaves and dodged the hedge apples blah blah etc etc.... Everytime we hit a straight piece of road Joe pulls away like I'm dragging an anchor. The Honda is not being all it can be but that's mostly my lack of wrenching. Can't blame the bike for that. It is however a 28 year old 550 Honda and not what you'd call fast. Then it hit me. The other day Lucky posted that he was looking for a new bike that he and Lady Luck could ride together. I told him not to buy a V-rod because they are so ugly. As I'm riding along on my Honda with the bad coils and slapping timing chain and sputtery carbs and my buddy on the modern bike is a diminishing dot on the horizon -I realize that if I had a V-rod it would really be a much nicer deal than my current (but loveable) piece of shit.
I still think the V-rod is one of the ugliest motorcycles ever made but they do what they are supposed to do. If I had a big pile of cash to drop on a new bike I dont know what I'd buy, but I would not buy a V-rod so I stand behind that. That being said, who the hell am I to tell someone not to buy a motorcycle that works when I dont ride half as much as he does and my bike is a steaming (but loveable) pile? Luck says the V-rod is out of his price range, and to be fair he's never even met my dumb ass, so it's not really an issue. I still think it's ugly.
So Mr. Dirt and I had a nice ride and a tasty Denver omlette (I decided not to have the Western Union breakfast). I also decided I really need my SRX back. I am planning a post about some of my past bikes so I wont go into further detail but suffice it to say there is a lot to be said for owning a modern bike and the oldie but goodie.
That's all I've got to say about that.
V-Rods are ugly.
3 comments:
I may have opted for the food stamp special. That said, I have to agree with the V-Rod being ugly. It’s not a bad thing to advise a fellow rider to steer clear of this machine. I used to have an SRX too, and I miss it dearly. Like the blog, keep up the good work.
Later, Gymi
I go back and forth on whether or not the V-Rod is ugly. As a "Harley," yep, definitely ugly. On the other hand, as a "muscle bike" it's not too bad.
Doesn't matter, I sure can't afford one.
And now I'm going to have to find out what the hell an SRX is. To google!
That goofy sign with the western union breakfast is actually at the gas station I used to work at when I was in high school. It had a car wash and a mechanic named Rick. A tire machine, a huge steel safe the size of a garden shed and it was run by a cool hillbilly named Lloyd. Now you can get four hundred kinds of soft drinks but your fucked if you have a flat.
Thanks for the kind words Gymi-your in an upcoming post.
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