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Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater Sat, 28 May 2005
The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it seems to keep the In the last three months, I've pulled the Le Mans out to ride four times. Three of those were in the last week, as I started feeling guilty about how long it'd been sitting there, unused. That doesn't seem right, particularly when the Le Mans is the only bike on which I'm making payments, and has the highest insurance premium of all of them. Part of the thinking is that if I'd done this trip to Kent (which is not a real trip-worthy place, if you're not familiar with it, it's just where I happened to be going today) on the Ninja 250, it would have worked just fine. The bike's a little light on weight and horsepower to make a really good freeway cruiser, but it does the job very well in any case. What I would have missed from the Le Mans is mostly the ease with which I could pass any traffic I wanted to. The thing is, I very rarely go long distances on the freeway. I got the Le Mans to be the long-trip bike, but have so far taken exactly two longish trips on it: one to Ocean Shores (for which the Ninja would have admittedly been marginal) and one to Portland (for which the Ninja was fine when I did the trip on it a few months earlier). Now that I have the Goldwing rig, I have far more carrying capacity with the sidecar than I ever could with the saddlebags on the Le Mans, and the Goldwing is certainly a capable distance bike. It's not "riding a motorcycle" in the sense of being able to lean gracefully through curves, but it has its own joys. Bottom line is that after today's ride, selling the Le Mans sounds like a better idea than it has in a while, where I had thought the opposite would be true. That surprised me. I had expected that taking a trip on the Le Mans (even a short trip to an otherwise unremarkable destination) would remind me just how much I like it, and how worthwhile it would be to keep it. Sure enough, I was reminded how much I like riding it, but I was also thinking a lot during the trip, "gee, this would be fine on the Ninja." If it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself, that's partially because I am. Logically, I should probably keep the bike. It would lose me a fair whack of change to sell it, not to mention the tens of hours I've invested in working on it, installing new handlebars and intercom/radio, etc. But emotionally, every time I see it sitting there, thin layer of dust covering all the bodywork, I cringe a bit and wonder why I'm still holding on to it. I'm trying to work the logical and emotional together into the same place. I thought I'd done that earlier, when I decided I'd hold onto it through the summer and see again what I thought then. Now I'm not so sure that's the right plan. Jesse mentioned that something I could do would be to post an ad on Craigslist listing my "ideal" price, and if I got any action from that, go ahead and sell it. If I didn't then it's probably still worthwhile to hold on to it. That's a pretty good idea, and I have a feeling I'm going to pursue it. *sigh* "Motorcycle angst." That evening.... I just sat down and made a rough draft template for the headlight bracket I'd like to put on the Goldwing:
This is my first try, so I don't know that it's what I'll finally go with, but it's probably close. The height has to remain at least that large, unless I switch to a side-by-side design, which is unlikely. The vertically stacked design is just too convenient as far as attaching the whole assembly to the existing bracket. Since I don't have extensive metalworking facilities, it's got to stay pretty simple or I won't be able to make it. Although it's tempting to try to find someone who can make something prettier, that sounds beyond my (very meagre) budget. Also, I really want to get it done soon, so I can drive the sidecar rig again. It's been sitting for far too long. I also took some detail pictures of the EML front wheel brake carrier and caliper for someone who requested them:
Posted at 20:53 permanent link category: /motorcycle Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net. |
