Motorcycle
It has been a year since I sold my R1100S. I don’t regret selling it but it would be nice to have something to ride once in a while. Especially now that we have a garage where I could park it.
Rather than going off and buying some sexy new bike, which I would’ve done in the past, I’m working on a plan that will save some money and be much more rewarding in the end:
- Start saving a little money every month
- Read a few books on motorcycle maintenance and repair
- Sell my car and put any money I “make” into savings
- Decide on an inexpensive and simple retro bike
- Find a good deal on such a bike on Craigslist when I have enough in savings
Ideally, I’ll find something that is about 500cc, gets 50 MPG or more, and will basically serve as a glorified scooter when I want to zip around town.
I’d love to learn how to fix motorcycles. The idea of keeping an old vehicle in good shape and on the road (instead of a new vehicle being built) is very appealing. It would be nice to be able to fix cars, but that is way beyond my abilities right now.
I worked on bicycles quite a bit a couple years ago and enjoyed it. I eventually lost interest because I don’t ride bicycles very much, so I never had anything to fix.
One example of the type of motorcycle I like is the Royal Enfield Bullet Deluxe:
They are only $5000 new and they’ve been making them for decades (over 50 years, actually) so there are occasionally good deals on used ones from 10-20 years ago (ones not old enough to be classified as antiques). Any old British bike (Triumph, BSA) would be cool, though they seem to be more expensive. A medium sized Japanese bike from the 70s might work, too.
Note: I definitely won’t turn any old motorcycle into a cafe racer. I just don’t get that aesthetic. Besides, most of these bikes are small to begin with, so I’m going to look a little silly on one… I don’t need to make it any worse with ridiculously low bars, a crappy dull black paint job, and an exhaust that is loud enough to draw everyones’ attention as I ride by.
Update: neat article on converting a Royal Enfield to diesel and getting > 100 MPG:
(though the diesel engines seem to lower the power quite a bit, and these bikes aren’t too powerful to start…)