Friday, January 6, 2006

I Need A New Bike

My wife's off playing in India for the month. So what else is there to do but shop for a new motorcycle? I've narrowed it down to four options. Perhaps both my readers can cast their votes (all of which are subject to the negating effects of Susan's single Mega Vote).

Here are the options:


BMW K-1200S


Buell XB12X Ulysses


Honda Interceptor


BMW K1200R

Or, of course, I could follow the inevitable Mega Vote and just keep the bike I have:


But my Rockster, in spite of being the favorite of the dozen or so bikes I've owned over the years, is now three years old. Three years! That's an eternity, and a full year longer than I've ever kept a bike. (I'm so conditioned that even I'm starting to find my arguments unconvincing.)

Votes, anyone?

17 comments:

Lizzie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Lizzie said...

None of the above! Those things are dangerous! Get yourself a nice safe station wagon or something instead.

p.s. I'm jealous that your wife is off playing in India for a month!

p.p.s. the deleted comment was mine (stupid typo).

wstachour said...

You be nice or I won't give you a hair-in-the-wind, live-on-the-edge ride! ;-)

Chairborne Stranger said...

well they're all nice. 1 looks good to me. will you be able to beat that mega vote?

wstachour said...

Fingers crossed, CS! I'm not sure if my half-vote can win out over the Mega Vote or not! I also think I lean towards #1--I've ridden it three or four times, and I've been stalking it for almost a year--but I'm also mighty impressed with #2 and it has a couple advantages: it's about $4,000 cheaper, it's easy and cheap to have serviced, and it's designed and built less than two hours from my house. I'm oddly moved by the idea that real, honest innovation is still possible by a relatively small company, and that SOMEONE in America is building an honest-to-god respectable motorcycle.

No doubt, an update will follow!

Lucy said...

I'd rather help pick a new helmet. Mayve something winged, a la Hermes.

My brother, S-in-L, and nephew just came back from a month in India.

That said, my word verification ends in bmw. Is it a message? But I've no idea what qoqgj means.

Lucy said...

Oh, I just now saw your question re: L&O on my blog and replied to it!

wstachour said...

That's it. Any WV ending in BMW narrows it down to the K1200R or S model (of course, I can hear my wife saying "it MEANS you keep your current damn bike, which is a BMW!")

Isn't that always the way it is, tho? You get a "sign" but nobody knows what the hell the sign means!

Lucy said...

Maybe it's not about bikes at all. Maybe it means Blog More Wunelle.

Still no idea what the qoqgj would be, though.

wstachour said...

Hahaha! Still no help on interpretation, tho! Does "Blog More" mean more posts, fewer words? Or just more of the same (god help you all!)? Or maybe more time reading others' blogs and less time writing my own stuff?

The qoqgj part sounds Middle-Eastern, tho. You're not a terrorist, are you?! ;-)

God, this is hard work!

Back to the road (I answed the L&O comment over yonder)!

Joshua said...

BMW is just a superior machine. The last one is amazing.

That being said, I think if you are really serious about biking, you need to look into schwinn, or huffy. Tassles, maybe a banana seat, nice.

Lucy said...

Whatever you decide, you should put spinners on your wheels. They're dope.

wstachour said...

Tassles on the handlebars? Fringe on the saddlebags? Don't laugh--Harley riders do these very things! (THIS is why, in part, I'd rather drive a car than ride a Harley.)

Chairborne Stranger said...

Tassles, spinners, a little bell on the handle bar. Deck it out!

Esbee-are you a terrorist? you left that hanging?

wstachour said...

I think she's sleeping. Cheerwine can only do so much!

motoblogger1203 said...

Well,

what about a Ducati Multistrada? The perfect italien machina for twisting roads and comfortable enough for the long distance haul...

Best regards from Hamburg, Germany
See: http://moto1203.blogspot.com

wstachour said...

I've owned a lot of bikes, but never a Ducati (nor any Italian machine). I know they engender a fanatical following, kind of like the Ferrari of motorcycles, and I greatly appreciate the passionate attachment to the small nuances and the intangibles. Motorcycles are all about this.

The Buell (which the Multistrada--a bike I'm kind of familiar with--most closely among my group resembles) is an oddity for me, in that I'm not an SUV / off-road kind of guy. The Buell (and I suppose the 'strada too) is saved from my scorn because it's such a damn good street bike regardless of its marketing and peripheral talents. For example, I'm not interested in BMW's GS, even though it kind of invented the genre and remains one of the best of its kind. The Buell also interests me because it's a product of my home state of Wisconsin, and this kind of local phenomenon is quite rare these days.

I'm also put off by air cooling, though my current R1150R is so equipped! I think the ST4S would be more my speed!

Thanks for the suggestion, tho. I'll take a look at one!