Don't you love this time of year?The manufacturers are trotting out new bikes and all kinds of improvements to current models, and the riding season is still in full swing. It makes you want to jiggle the ol' finances just to see how much change falls out. If you're like me, it's usually not enough to cover one of the cool new bikes on my dealer's floor, but I can dream, right? This year my pick of the new cruisers would be a shiny new Suzuki Boulevard M109R. I fell under this bike's gnarly spell when we compared it with the other big guns du jour in the last issue. It has all the attitude I'd want in a cruiser, and the big power I crave.
But we're talking perfect world. In a perfect world, I'd have the Boulevard, along with many, many other bikes in my garage. Certainly it wouldn't be my only mount. I do love style and horsepower, but I'm also a fairly reasonable person and grow even more so with each passing year. Thinking about which bike I'd buy this year led me to thinking about which bike I'd buy if I could only have one. Additionally, our new series about the used-bike market (the first installment appears in this issue) sent me down memory lane, conjuring up some of my favorite short-term relationships with test bikes. Eventually, I came up with the one bike I'd own if I could only own one: Triumph's Thunderbird Sport.
Why? It's the ideal everything bike in my opinion. Small and agile enough to be an inner-city commuter, large enough to take me across the country. Plenty of power for a nice rush, with just enough torque to let me dash through the twisties without constantly stirring the gearbox to maintain ideal rpm. Lastly, the bike is simple enough to suit my aesthetic tastes, yet unusual enough to stand out. It's a bit of everything, yet nothing but itself.
Some of you might remember how I almost bought a Thunderbird Sport in 2002, the year after Triumph removed the nostalgic standard from its U.S. lineup. I was banking on there being a bit of a log pile sitting at some dealership somewhere, and I might get a screaming deal. I waited too long. There simply weren't many of the triple-cylinder Sports circulating showrooms to begin with, and with the news of the model's discontinuation, the existing supply was scooped up. Luckily, the bike showed up back on Brit OE's import list just the next year, and I relaxed, thinking I had plenty of time. Of course, the bike went away for good in 2003, along with all the nostalgic triples: T-bird standard, Adventurer and Sport. Sad, indeed.
Why did I give up wanting to own one when it went off the market? Why couldn't I buy a used T-bird Sport and be just as happy?
Although I've bought a couple of vintage cars and bikes throughout the years, and with mostly good results, it's not something I do regularly. But thinking about the Sport made me wonder why. Sure it's nice to have a new thing-something completely unaffected by someone else's lack of attention, bad habits or negative karma. I mean, of course, a new bike is great, but was I so caught up in the sterility of it that I'd give up on owning a bike I loved because I couldn't get it out-of-the-crate fresh?
So I thought I'd have a look on good ol' eBay, and what did I find, but a totally bitchin' T-bird in black and yellow with only a couple thousand miles on it-but the auction was ending in nine minutes and 36 seconds...and counting! Talk about pressure. I'd only just realized I'd wanted to shop for one, and here it was. Maybe it was meant to be. I chewed my fingernails for the whole nine minutes just to keep them from the keyboard, and then-poof!-it was sold for $5600 after 16 bids.
There were no more. That was three weeks ago, and I haven't seen another come up for auction since, even though I'm listed for an alert. A couple plain-Jane T-birds floated up, but not my beloved Sport. Waiting has given me time to talk with friends and readers who have bought used and had great experiences. In the past, I've heard a lot of horror stories, but only because that's what gets people talking. I'm pretty sure that if I take my time and do my research, I can buy used without being used.
What about you? Are you feeling used?