 | I've decided to go the easy, more expensive route. On account of a gut feeling, mostly. There's something to be said for perseverance, but this time I decided to take the hint. The first Ninja we test drove could only be limited for the cost of excessive thousands because it's a '98 model, the second drive fell through because the seller was disagreeable, and the third machine I looked at - well, the would-be seller never answered my request. I wanted a Ninja. Heck, I still want a Ninja. But my little streetfighter will be better for the winter anyway, safer, surer - and come summertime, I'll be ahead of everybody in the curves. The bike is ugly as heck. I'm not saying I don't like pitbulls, and I'm not saying I don't like the Buell, but they're both ugly - so ugly they look mean and ornery in a show-offish sort of way. The Buell is short and heavy - 205 kg; I'm hoping I can lift it - pretty weak for having 1000 ccm (only 84 or 92 HP, depending on who you ask), but it's got great torque. It's expensive to take care of and insurance is almost 600.- per annum, but hey, I can afford it. The only thing that's a bit of a setback is that as soon as I'd decided on the Buell, reserved and ordered it, some guy on the Swiss Biker's forum said he was selling his completely tuned XB9SX for 8000.- And I'm paying 10'300.- for mine. Oh well. Mine has only 5000 km on it; his has 24000 km. Mine is arriving gedrosselt, vorgeführt and eingelöst - I'd still have to go through all the rigamarole on his. Is that worth the extra 2000.- I'm paying? It'll have to be. I'll just save his pics and use them as guidelines for tuning up mine... Last night after work Löchen and I went shopping for my gear. Good thing the store stayed open until 2000 hours - we needed the two hours we spent there. First we found me a helmet. Figures my head is so small the only one that fit properly was an expensive Shoei, but that's okay. It's safety class E6, great for winter because it won't fog up, and it's got a blue dragon on it. Yay me. After that we found me a black lady's jacket. Löchen says the big shoulders look goofy. Meh. I'm just glad for extra padding and protection. I tried on a pair of leather biker pants. They'd be fine for the summer, but in the witner, for driving to the office, uh-uh. There's no room for a second layer underneath, so I bought some matching black synthetic pants that I can wear over my own and take off when I get the office every day. I got a good deal on the clothes - about $300 for pants and jacket. Which is perfect, because I laid down another $150 for the back protector. Finally, we found a fairly decent pair of gloves for me. They had very few options for small gloves suitable for winter. I'll still get cold hands, even with the liner, but it could be worse. Yet to be bought, at the later point when my funds have recuperated, are real bike boots - for now I'm using my tennis shoes of combat boots - and a tinted glass for my helmet. And of course various tuning components for the Buell... Man, I wish it were next week now.
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It's a good thing I didn't buy that guy's Buell. It's an '05 model that he roundly abused with wheelies and stoppies and letting it stand too long, and it had a lot of problems. 8000.- was way overpriced for that bike. And in comparison to what I ended up with, his "customizing" wasn't much of anything.
As I said, I had no clue...
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