After the disappointing trip to the Suzuki Dealer I walked up the road to the big shop in town, the Harley, Yamaha, Honda, Buell and Ducati Dealer. I got chatting to a salesman who was interested in selling me a bike, mentioned my budget and sat on some bikes. I sat on a Yamaha Tourer, knees didn't fit under the contours in the tank, a Ducati tourer, felt to small for me and went inside to the newies. I had a good look at the Yamaha XVS1300A - V-STAR 1300. I sat on it, my knees seemed a little high, the price at between 17 - 18k was good though.
Then I had a look at the Honda VTX 1800C. This was a sexy bike. Red tank 20k plus onroad. I liked it. Ironically this bike was positioned right outside the dedicated Harley Davidson area of the store. I looked in but wasn't quite game to venture in. I'm not really sure why, I guess I wasn't really ready to consider one or find out how much they were. While I was chatting to the guy the topic of finance came up and I was asked if the bike was for private or business use. I rushed straight home and called my accountant.
I had a feeling I was getting close.
Honda has the rep. I own and have owned a number of Hondas, and they are good bikes, well eneengired, well-made, durable and sensible to work on. But right now, most of my bikes are dirt bikes or dual sports, and I find that most of them are Suzukis. I didn't set out with the idea that Suzukis are better, it just turns out that they build bikes that suit my needs. They are also durable, well-finished and easy to work on.As a long-time BMW rider, I used to consider their bikes the best on the planet, and I could make a convincing case. I no longer think that is true, however. BMW makes excellent bikes, but the rest of the field has caught up; BMW's current offerings are just expensive, without being any better.A company that builds very interesting, nicely-finished bikes is KTM. They haven't yet come up with the bike of my dreams, but they have come close. If they did, I probably could not afford it.
Posted by Shim, 26/07/2012 9:15:52 am