Decided to go and test ride a few bikes today, make some more notes, plan what I wanted next. Was at Holseshot and they had an '05 VTR1000, bright red and freshly polished. Rob (the guy with the awesome wizard beard) was there and offered a ride on it. At this stage I was just endulging in a bit of a hoon on a fun bike, hadn't really made my mind up yet. I had test rided a Hyo 650, Suzuki SV650 and a Bandit 1200 lately, all nice bikes, but didn't really put a grin on my face. The Honda sounded fantastic, has Scorpion pipes on it so makes a thunderous sound in the little alley way beside the bike shop. I took it around the block, then out onto the motorway. With nobody behind me at the on ramp, slowed down to about 30 in second, then gave it a good twist of throttle. The sensation was epic, a rush of noise and speed and excitment. The speed was epic too, had to test out the brakes just incase Mr Plod was about. Took the next exit, looped back round then blasted down the onramp again. Once I had decided that yes, this bike was fast enough, I got off the motorway and hit the streets around Takapuna. Despite being a big and heavy bike compared to my usual ride, I found it very easy to nip around the back streets on. I went around the block several times just to see how fast it can go around roundabouts. I was just that comfortable on the thing that I pulled a couple of u turns and did some slow crawl just to see if I could find any flaws in the handling at lower speed, but couldn't. I took it back to the shop and parked up. I didn't really want to get off it as I didn't want some other grubby biker fondling my new girl.
Yes, I decided to buy it. I know very little about the VTR1000 other than that they are thirsty but that didn't bother me. I hadn't riden a SV1000 or a CB900 or any other number of bikes yet to compare, but I just didn't care. I didn't care that I hadn't weighed up all the pros and cons of buying this bike. I just had to have it.
Bikes are funny things. I had no desire to buy a bike today. I've never bought anything without reading lots of reviews and comparing all the options and taking time to consider my purchase. But today I did. Because this bike did something special for me, and it had taken less than half an hour to completely fall in love with it.Money and work and debt and stress - for that half hour they just disappeared. Only the bike mattered.
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Originally Posted by trailblazer
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