Yesterday … I took a decision … to buy a motorcycle … an old one, to commute to work on. I desperately need an alternative to the Jeep, as its going to be out of action for a while this summer.
And we do not have the space in our driveway to store a third car. Nor do we gave to money to buy / insure / repair a third car.
I spent two thousand dollars on car parts and tools last summer, but was unable to get all the parts into the jeep ( which has to be done soon).
The last straw is the pool of oil in our driveway … where the jeep parks … and the same at the office. After jump starting in on Monday. After waiting 15 minutes for it to warm up so its transmission will go out of park ( for each and every journey).
So, I bought a very old (1999) BMW F650 (with twenty-two thousand miles on it), which will show up this coming Friday.
I haven’t ridden a bike in thirty years (but rode one from standard eight ? Everyday , for five or six years) , this one is so old , it has nearly all the same stuff as when I was a kid (i.e., no electronics). And I’ve bought a workshop manual for it too.
I hope that it will be an easy transition. It does not solve our car problem, but I hope that it will ease our car problem (for eight months at least )- as I can’t ride the bike in Dec/Jan/Feb/March.
So the up-side is …
- Easy to park in the garden.
- Can park it in the shed in the Winter, with some shed insulation and some minor heating.
- Gets 70 miles per gallon.
Downside is:
- Car drivers are halfwits in the US.
- Falling off would not be fun.
So to limit that risk I am going to …
- ride slowly, pay attention.
- wear a full face helmet ( in Wisconsin nobody has to wear a crash helmet, everyone is free to be a body part donator)
- Wear high visibility (luminous) jacket ( look like a dork, but a hospital free dork).
- Replace all the lights / indicators with annoyingly high intensity led bulbs.
- Limit my miles ridden.
So … I think I can make it work.
If I can fix the jeep late spring early summer, then I will use the bike and the jeep. Adam will share the Honda with Marge, and I will share the jeep with Marge.
So between the three of us we will have three vehicles except for winter when we will share two. I don’t know that will work but its the only plan I could come up with.
This week I will learn the bike theory and take the bike learners theory test before the bike gets delivered on Friday.
So there we are … hopefully … it will all work out. Who knows maybe I’ll ride to South America on it one day 🙂
