Wait, I haven't gone stupid and traded the Connie, she's still tucked up safe & warm in my shed. Over the last few months I've been thinking of getting something to ride to work on and take on shorter rides. Yeah something to do with petrol costs (leave the car at home), the speed with which the Connie is racking up the k's and also just because I wanted to.
When I first dreamed up this crazy plan I thought of getting a 250 or a dual-purpose bike but they both had there negatives. Firstly, a 250 still costs the same to register as a big bike so why bother except for the fuel thing. Secondly, if I got a dual-purpose I'd probably have a bit of fun but as I don't know anyone else with one (Dad's sold his Beemer) then I'd be riding alone most of the time and I'd rather have someone along with me in case I did something stupid and needed rescuing etc...
So what to get? Well I decided to get something a bit more on the sporty side but not a total death machine (say a 1,000cc 4 cylinder rocket ship). So I pretty soon settled on a Honda VTR1000 and all I had to do was find one. I spent a bit of time on trade-me watching for them and checking out prices etc. In the end one of the local bike shops was having an auction and I managed to pick up an '03 with 16,000kms on it for a pretty nice price and today I picked her up.
I've only had a wee ride out to Ashhurst & back but I can certainly say that she is a different kettle of fish to the Connie - surprised, surprise. obviously the bike is a heap lighter, the ride position is more aggressive and the v-twin a lot more lumpy than the Connie's 4. It's gonna take a wee while to come to grips with the lighter feel and handling so here's hoping the weather improves for the weekend...
More soon...
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