Wow, I just realized how long it’s been since I’ve posted anything here. Jeez, Lisa’s posted more on my own blog lately then I have - LOL! But now I have something really cool to say - I bought a bike! Motorcycle, that is.

I’ve been harboring a desire for a bike for several years and have finally pulled the trigger. A couple of my friends took their riding course 4 summers ago and bought their bikes, and that really amp’d up my desire - but I still couldn’t bring myself to either spend the money or take the risk of riding.

Now with gas prices getting ridiculously out of control, it actually makes some financial sense (at least, that’s how I’m justifying it to myself in my own mind - haha!). When another friend and two other acquaintances this summer went through the riding class and bought bikes, I couldn’t resist any longer. I scheduled my own class through the state for a whopping $25, but since I waited until June to do that I can’t get in until October.

I figured that gave me plenty of time to pick up the essentials (helmet, gloves, jacket, etc.), get my license moved over (I was still licensed in Florida and hadn’t moved it to Ohio yet), and take the written portion of the riding test to get my 1-year permit for the course. Then I thought I’d look for a bike over the fall/winter in the hopes of picking up a good deal, given that the off-season is historically the best time to buy a bike.

The final straw and the best part of all this was that Lisa was behind me with getting bike - with the stipulation that I raise my life insurance policy!

So off we went to pick up the essentials. I had also already picked out my bike - the Buell Blast. In fact, I even had a Buell catalog from 2004 when I was looking at the Buells. They’re pretty unique looking bikes, have a great maintenance history, and have a great story behind them.

We figured that even though I was planning on waiting until fall to purchase, that shouldn’t stop us from visiting the only two locations in greater Columbus that carry Buells. For those that don’t know, Buell is now 98% owned by Harley-Davidson - in fact, the engine in some of the Buells is essentially a modified Harley Sportster 1203cc. Columbus also happens to be the home of the oldest Harley-Davidson dealer in the nation - A.D. Farrow.

They now have two locations in Columbus: the original location in downtown Columbus and a new location just north of where we live. We headed to the new location and found that it was a very upscale looking place, with somewhat of an attitude to go along with it. In fact, we were there for 30 minutes with not one sales person willing to help provide us with any information about the Buells. We left pretty disheartened by that experience.

Then last week over the holiday we decided to take a drive downtown and see if we could find the original location downtown. We walked in to a very friendly atmosphere, completely the opposite of our experience from the location up north. I mentioned that I was looking for information on the Buell Blast, explaining that I really liked everything I researched about the Buell line and it seemed that the Blast was a great little starter bike. The sales person kind of laughed a little and asked how tall I was. “5′11″ and 190,” I said. She then explained that the Blast is a pretty small bike and probably would simply be too small for me. She mentioned that I would probably like a Sportster much better.

This I was prepared for, as I’d already been forewarned by my friendly neighborhood motorcycle accessory store (Iron Pony) that when trying to buy a Buell, they almost always try to sell you a Sportster instead. But I was pretty adamant about the Blast. She then mentioned that if I was set on the Buell, they had a just gotten in a Buell Lightning XB12Ss and I might be more interested in that.

Then she asked if I’d ever seen one - a Blast, that is. Well, actually no.

So off she took us to another building where they actually keep all their stock bikes. She didn’t have a Blast on hand, but they did happen to have one in for repair from a customer. One look at it in person and it was immediately apparent that this was a very, very small bike. She then showed me the Buell Lightning that they just got in. Only 102 miles on it with the full factory warranty still intact. It looked like what I expected the Blast to be like - big, powerful, and unique. Sitting on it Lisa smiled and thought I looked good on it, that it looked like my bike. She even thought the Blast was far too small. We started it up and….rumble, grrrrrrr….what a beautiful sound! Sounded like a throaty Harley crossed with a Ninja and they begat the Buell.

I left my name on a call list (basically if someone else came in and wanted to buy it, they’d have to call me first to allow me the opportunity to buy it first) and we left to give it some thought.

Not two days later I called and made an offer over the phone and…that afternoon this beautiful bike was sitting in our garage!

I immediately went out and changed my license to Ohio, took the Ohio motorcycle test, obtained my temporary permit, and started riding around the neighborhood! In addition our high school is right here in the neighborhood and has their driver’s training course / cones all setup so I’ve made my way up there a few times to practice as well. I’ve had my permit since Saturday and have put 32 miles on the bike just around the neighborhood. I’m getting more and more comfortable with it, enough so that I’ll probably try venturing up to the road just a bit probably by the weekend - with Lisa directly behind me in her SUV (hey, I may be a risk taker to some extent - rappelling, motorcycling, etc - but I still practice as safely as possible).

So far - the Buell Lightning is proving to be an awesome bike! And unlike most first bikes that people trade-in after a year or so, I’m pretty convinced that this will be more then enough bike for me for a few years.

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Posted: July 14th, 2008 at 9:19 pm.
Filed under: Fun Stuff.
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