Wretched XS

[noodlenoggin]

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[noodlenoggin]

What Is The F, Dude?

It's snowing here. Again. After Easter. And by snow, I mean whiteout-blizzard-blowing sideways-hard'n granular snow. 2 to 5 inches of the stuff forecast by 2pm. It s^cks, because we've had some days in the 40's, the roads had cleared off, I was seeing some grass and we had some bulbs starting to send up shoots next to the house. I even saw a foolhardy biker or two out on the road.

And today I had an out-of-control, spinning Toyota pickup truck miss the back of the car by 8 inches or so. I've been at work for a half-hour, and I'm just starting to settle down.

Carry on, y'all.

[AZRider]

Hmm

You are the perfect candidate to be a reentry rider.
Sometime down the road, when the kids are older and self sufficient, you have the house in order and you have whats called discretionary income, I can see you sitting around and wondering why you dont have a bike. You will go down to the Harley or BMW store, and you will be riding again.

Sell the bike. You dont need the aggravation haunting you while you take care of the family,work thing. Later, buy a newer one.

[noodlenoggin]

Are You Off Yer F--'in Meds?

First, re-entry rider my @$$, Mr. Arizona. I'm clingin' to my bike even if I can't ride it. I may be able to tear it down and rebuild it during the hiatus. Now, if something like a Kawasaki ZX-14 were to show up on my doorstep with valid tags...I may reconsider.

Anyway, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and the net result is that my cholesterol is down to 201 overall, 40 "good" and 135 "bad," and I don't need to go on any drugs like Lipitor. Even better, my blood pressure is staying down without meds, and after spending the last few years on a couple of BP meds, I don't have to take them anymore! There's nothing to make me feel old like "I have to take my blood pressure pill." So...yay me!

What prompted the visit was our vacation a couple of weeks ago. We rented a van and drove to Williamsburg, VA. Or we tried to, but in West Virginia I passed out while driving at about 8:30 in the morning, and went to the ER, and spent the night in the hospital while they ran a gazillion tests on me with no real answers.

Later that week, after we ALL felt sick and woozy and bad, we figured out that our rental van was blowing carbon monoxide in through the vents and poisoning all of us. We had the rental company bring us a replacement van out in the middle of nowhere and we started working the CO out of our blood -- which honestly took about two weeks. So I had a doctor's appt. when we got back, and yesterday I had my 2-week follow-up.

Oh, we got the van for free after we complained, and we're probably going to talk to a lawyer -- get the "free consultation" and see if it'd be worth our time to go after the company to at least pay for our vacation, so we're not paying off a ruined vacation for the next year.

But hey...I lost 10 lbs. in a week, my BP and cholesterol are down, and I feel better now than I have in years. Maybe part of that is that spring has finally come to northern Michigan -- the grass is greening up, the trees are starting to bud up, and there are flowers blooming next to our house. Hooray!

[AZRider]

Hey, dont yell, Im tryin to help
Look, I got an idea.
Sell the bike and make the wife happy. Then every spring and everytime in the summer you see bikes, kinda sigh and lament on how you wish you had one. But dont do anything. dont get one, just wait. But secretly start saving. save your spare change, save a buck here and there. Whenever you get a chance save, but dont let on.
How olds your oldest rugrat? When he starts getting around 8 or 9 start hinting how youd like to get the kids a dirtbike. Now here comes the rough part. You might get in trouble for this, and you might be in the doghouse for a little while for doing this. But, it will be worth it.
Go out and buy the kids a small little dirt bike. Get them the gear, teach them to ride, then when they get it down, you will have to go out and get yourself something like this





Yes I am currently on a KTM kick

[noodlenoggin]

Still Nosing Around...

AZ, a KTM kick, eh? So I should get this:


or maybe this?


I dunno, I'd rather have this:


or maybe this:

[AZRider]

You like the old Iron huh?
I mean, ya, you could get those, but dontcha think my suggestion is better?

[sv-wolf]

Still Nosing Around...

AZ, a KTM kick, eh? So I should get this:


or maybe this?


I dunno, I'd rather have this:


or maybe this:

Hi nn


Aaaaaarrrrgh!

I admire you for your tenacity, but are you sure you haven't got some colour blind lunatic hanging around with a spanner and a welding torch?

[noodlenoggin]

Yes, I'm Still Around Here.

My apologies to anyone who reads this and comes away miffed at the lack of actual motorcycling...and to anyone who points their finger at my red minivan avatar and screams "Poseur" well, all I can do is shrug and look sheepish and say, "No, I'm not...really, I'm not."

I know that this would be the (I think) third year in a row that I haven't gotten the old XS650 on the road and ridden it. I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is on this sort of thing...after how long do I drop from "motorcyclist" to "lapsed motorcyclist," and from there to...what..."nothing?" Is it amplified by my use of the total antithesis of the motorcyclist: A Volvo? If one goes from motorcycle to Volvo are they stripped of all motorcyclist mojo and considered to be excommunicated?

All I can really do to defend myself is point to the bike sitting in my garage; the kids' bicycle helmet hanging on the headlight, and garden hoses coiled up underneath it. I can't bear to part with it. We have the garage space, and it doesn't cost us anything to sit there with the lawnmower, snowblower, bicycles and all the other stuff piled on my half of the garage. As long as I have the motorcycle, I still feel like a motorcyclist, even if I know that I'm clinging to that quasi-status with sharpened fingernails.

I admit, I could probably be a real a$$hole to my wife and bully her into letting me insure and plate it. But I don't. I'm a father of four, and a fairly responsible one, I guess. I (un-coerced by my wife) rank my family's needs above my own -- I've always let my wife have the "nice" car to carry my kids around, and she gets to park in the garage so it's easier to to load the kids in and out of the van, and so on. I do believe that spending $$ on improving our newly-bought home is more important that spending $$ on my motorcycle.

And I'm infuriatingly logical enough to realize that in Michigan, the riding season really only goes from May through September (with May and September being pretty iffy) and that it rains on a LOT of those days...and that on even more of those days I have to carry a couple of kids with me when I leave for work. Even with gas above $4.00/gallon here, I'll never earn back the insurance and registration through gas savings.

But those are all the reasons I don't ride and don't deserve to retain my motorcyclist status. Logical reasons. Responsible reasons. All of the things that put motorcycles in the Classified Ads with text like "having child, must sell," and "wife says the bike must go." Well, I say the bike must not go. I have a strong feeling that if I sell the XS, I'll never own a motorcycle again. Big purchases like that have a way of being put off... "maybe next year" is really easy to say, until it changes into "maybe after that hip replacement."

Maybe it boils down to the mere fact that I still feel like a motorcyclist. Forget having the bike in the garage; the helmet and scuffed leather jacket in the closet. I still look when a motorcycle rides by. I still hear the difference between V-twin and inline-four motors, and I still admire a nice flame job, and I still feel a pang at each and every motorcycle that rides past me while I drive in my Volvo. Maybe it's like alcoholism...never cured, always recovering.

So. Well. Yeah. Having said all the foregoing, I'll recede again, and try to refrain from rehashing my vague plans to rebuild the bike, or retelling the story of any rides I did in the 1990's, or waxing poetic about how it feels to ride...but I still enjoy reading what people here have to say, and plan to keep lurking around, living vicariously through all of your exploits.

"Hi, My name's Nick, and I'm a Motorcyclist. I've been dry for three years."

[cdillon23]

Nick, you should be a journalist if you are not already. That is a great post you made. As for when you are or are not a motorcyclist that is not for us to decide but for you. Don't feel bad because your putting your families needs first ( I don't think you are feeling bad for it). You are being responsible and doing what you feel is best. That is all you can do.