gijoe1313's Blogs

Well my fine ladles and jellyspoons, it is with a mixture of trepidation and exhilaration that I actually post up something! This has been a long while due to the onerous exertions of reality (yah! boo! hiss! )

Anyhow the meat of the matter is that my friend Greentea has been pining for her own bike to call her own, to love, to throw hard earned cash and to call it by it's own name. The tale of this saga begins last Friday past (20th Aug) when she piped up she wanted a bike definitely.

I had previously already looked at a MC14 CBR since it was going for little money (but to her, it was much money!) DONOR and I rode out to the hills of Hibiscus and I test rode the little filly and pronounced it worthy. Of course, I did not take into account the mercurial and capricious mind of a female biker-to-be!

Turns out cosmetically it wasn't good enough for her!

Trying again, Friday night I discovered a vtr250 for the bargain price of $2995 ... only problem it was down in Masterton! With her interest piqued, I rang the number ... at 9pm! So smitten she was with this, she somehow made me agree to travel at 5am down to Masterton to view it in person on a Saturday!

Common sense out the window (I wanted to phone in the morning to see if it was sold or not), in the bracing chill, we drove down to Masterton (I had chucked my riding gear into the cage). At Taihape, for a comfort stop, I rung the Honda dealership and talked to Andy (he is a right good sort as will be revealed later).

Turns out the bike has been bought already on Friday arvo! by someone from Pakuranga! Tch! Typical! However, Andy did say there was another VTR250 to view. Since we were already 2/3rds of the way to Masterton, might as well!

The bike turned out to be a little ripper, I test rode it out to Carterton and knew it was a good’un! The bike was going for $5995, but Andy quick as a whip said … “for you, $4K cash, cheque all good!” DEAL! Or so I thought …

The little lady was dithering and dallying and she would think about it. Well, on the way back to Auckland, just as we hit her home – she changes her mind (woman’s prerogative doncha know!) and states she does want the bike now!

Anyway back on the blower back to Andy, and he picks up at 9.30pm and we have a quick natter, which basically went along the lines of “bike being looked at by another couple, they have first dibs, will know on Monday morning whether they want it or not – if they don’t want it, you can have it if you want it”. DAMHIK

Crestfallen the little lady is, it’s all my bloody fault it is, if you knew it was such a good bike, why didn’t you buy it then? The usual ra-di-ra-ra! Anyway I said to her, you don’t really choose your bike, your bike chooses you, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be innit? I asked her cat Pearl to do her magic cat thing and said “well Pearl, if you want your mistress to own that bike, make it happen okay?”

Well you wouldn’t believe it, come Monday, I phone to Andy and he gave me the good oil. “Bike is yours for the $4K if you want it!” Bloody marvellous! I do the internet banky thing and exchange details over the phone and arrange to come down Tuesday to collect it! Huzzah! Road trip!

This is where DONOR comes up to the plate and since he and I are off work, we shall cart ourselves down to Masterton and come back with our purloined ill-gotten gains, a prize snatched from the jaws of defeat to be squirreled away to D’orkland!