Ok, so maybe it's a mid life crisis...But I already have had the red convertible for almost 20 years...
For the last year or so I've been living a bi-coastal adventure. Living in upstate NY and working in the Sunny San Francisco Bay area. This has lead to new entries in the vehicle collection.
First was a 1986 Toyota MR2. Always wanted one, found one on the street near the new office...
After a few months of sharing that with my girlfriend, I decided alternate transport was required. Being as how I was in California, the price of gas was climbing fast and there were at least 10 more months of summer coming up, it was time to take the plunge. I bought a used bike. A 1989 Kawasaki EX 500.
The Kawi is a nice learner bike. Just the thing for a guy who hadn't ridden in over 20 years. I expected to ride it back and forth to work for 6-8 months, get my license, and then trade it up for something more fun.
Eight months later I'd had enough of the Kawi. Nice bike, fun, but a bit anemic and old enough to have a few things wrong with it that I didn't feel like getting fixed. Time for a new bike.
Off to the Honda dealer we go...I picked out a nice bright yellow bike for visibility. I like being seen. And is it hard to miss...
I've had her for about 5 months as I write this. This is a great bike. Handles wonderful right out of the box. Easy to ride, fast, more power than I know what to do with, 150+mph stock. In short a great ride.
I've done nothing but add a set of frame savers and a rear hugger. It struck me as odd that this bike doesn't come with more rear protection to keep the grit out of that pretty shiny shock, but who am I to debate the wisdom of her designers. But I put an aftermarket hugger on to do the job anyway...
Anyway, enough of that...
In the time since I wrote this, I've moved back to New York full time and had my CBR shipped home. I would have ridden it, but the schedule just wouldn't allow it. I have two phrases to sum up the difference between riding in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco area and upstate New York:
But the CBR sure does look good in with the rest of the vehicle collection.