Buying the Bike I don't want a pickle. I just want to ride on my motorcycle.

The long wait between May and August gave me lots of time to do my homework. I spent most of the summer finding as much information as I could on the subject of motorcycles and how to buy, ride and maintain them. There's a lot of good information on the Internet and elsewhere, and I'd swear that by August I'd soaked in most of it.

Selecting a bike was an interesting exercise. I really liked the Nomads Rusty and Don were riding, but I didn't figure they'd be a good first bike for me. First, they tipped the scales at 725 pounds, a figure which, as Rusty pointed out after his first weekend of riding, tends to accumulate on your leg when you're trying to hold it up at a stoplight. I also didn't want to start on a new bike, especially one where the price tag extends into five figures. Crotch rockets were ruled out first because I don't care for the riding posture and I didn't think learning on a highly-capable bike would help me learn to find and manage my scoot's limits. Full-dress tourers and big-displacement cruisers were out because of size, weight and the plastic accouterments you find on the former. This left standards and smaller cruisers.

Having selected what type of bike to buy, I then had to select a brand. Now for some reason that I can't rationally explain, Kawasakis do it for me. I have the same problem with Chryslers, but I think that's because they were the only thing my parents drove when I was growing up. I'm not sure what in particular about their bikes that I like, but Suzukis and Yamahas just seem like Fords or GMs to me. About the only quantifiable thing I can think of is that Ponch and John rode their police cruisers on CHiPs.

Initially I'd decided that 500-600 cubic centimeters was probably enough displacement for a beginner and set that as my target. Probably the best-known cruiser in that range is the Yamaha Virago 535, which is reported to be a really good bike and was on the top of my list of candidates. (Strange for someone who claims to like Kawasakis, huh?)

I spent quite a bit of time exploring my options for used bikes, and one day while digging through the on-line classifieds in The Washington Post, I ran across the following:

KAWASAKI--'94 Vulcan 750, teal blue/blk w/saddlebags,
incl helmet. Must sell.  703-xxx-xxx

So on the evening of Friday the 13th, I dragged my buddy Kent Larson down to Manassas for a look-see. We gave it a good once-over, Kent took it out for a spin and pronounced it roadworthy. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the bike was a '93 and not a '94. For a '94, the asking price would have been incredibly good. For a '93 it was still very reasonable. So I bought Kent dinner for his troubles and went home to think on it.

After a bunch of thinking, I called Dave, the previous owner, and told him I wanted to buy the bike. One cashier's check and one day later, he dropped it off with 21,130 miles on the odometer. He was really sorry to see it go, but he had a new Harley-Davidson on the way in September and couldn't afford to keep two bikes. Or at least his wife wouldn't let him. But whatever the case, I now owned a motorcycle.