Bite Me, Doldrums

It’s been a rough summer. Lots of little things seem to have been conspiring against me in one way or another, and I just haven’t been able to get into the swing of summery-type things that I usually live for. Add in the oh-so-typical employment stress of being an adjunct professor in perpetual search of a full-time teaching gig, and the result has been me sequestered in my little basement man-cave not really doing what I want to, or know I should be, doing. I haven’t been depressed, mind you, just… blah.

But then that proverbial final straw fell upon the camel’s back.

One of the things I look forward to most is riding my motorcycle. I got my first bike – a Yamaha YZ 125 dirt bike – back in the ’80s, and I’ve been hooked ever since. Since then I’ve owned 2 Hondas, another Yamaha, and my first true “dream bike” – a 2000 Indian Chief. That Chief has seen me through a freak early-August snowstorm high in the Rockies, tar-melting June heat in Indiana and Missouri, nickle-sized hail in Utah, and floodwatch rain in Pennsyltucky and Maryland. It’s been to the top of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks and circumnavigated each of the Finger Lakes. I love that bike.

But the last few years have been difficult ones, and it’s spent a total of 15 weeks in the shop for various ailments over the last 36 months… not a happy ratio considering the limited riding season I get here in upstate New York. Then, last week, it had to go into the shop again when one of the slider covers on the front forks sheered off. I’ve known I needed a new bike for a while now, but have been putting it off. When the mechanic told me last week that I was foolish to trust the bike for anything more than a brief day trip, well, my summer pretty much bottomed out.

I’ve had my eye on the BMW R1200GS for a while now, but it’s an expensive bike. Having recently unburdened myself of all debt, I had no desire to jump back into it, especially since I knew the BMW dealer here (Country Rode Motowerks) probably wouldn’t accept the Indian in trade. Plus, I just don’t want to get rid of the Indian! Even with stuff falling off it, I still think of it as a great bike.

Not expecting much, I stopped by to see what they had in stock last Tuesday. I’ve been popping in on and off for over a year now. Not enough to be a pest as I dreamed and test rode various GS bikes, but enough to become, I think, at least a somewhat familiar face. They are great folks at Country Rode, riders all, and host rides in the summer and various events all winter long. Anyway, I stopped by mainly to see what they thought the chances were of finding a used GS, one maybe a couple years old.

“Not very good.”

Pretty much what I expected. But then I noticed a 2009 GS on the sales floor. What’s more, they had just uncrated it! It was brand new, and there was a big ol’ promotion going on for all 2009 bikes. So I sat down with Ron, and for the next 45 minutes we ran numbers through various spreadsheets. And then I went home and built my own spreadsheets and ran my own numbers. And I sat on the decision for a couple days. I’ve learned (the hard way, if the truth be told) to sit on big financial decisions for at least 48 hours, and the weather helped me out.

Wednesday it rained.

But Thursday it didn’t rain.

And Friday, June 11^th, I picked up my cure for the doldrums:

I only put about 100 miles on it today, but I’ll easily triple (and then some, in all likelihood) that by the end of the weekend. Regardless, I am already in a better mood than I have been for the last 2-3 months. Even Griffin, my nephew who never really cared for the Indian because it was so loud, likes the GS and is already bugging me for a ride (which he never, ever did with the Indian).

As for the Indian, it’s still in the shop. I plan on turning it into a project bike, a bike for cruising around town and showing off. Or, perhaps I’ll end up getting it to a point where it’s trustworthy again and then selling it come springtime.

But after my brief riding today, I absolutely love the GS and am looking forward to taking off this weekend and just disappearing somewhere into the Finger Lakes region and leaving those damned doldrums far behind.