Gas Prices "Drove" me to it...

...and, for the last time, she didn't LET me.....

If you are a regular reader, you know that I bought a motorcycle last week. The reasoning behind the purchase was twofold...I love motorcycles (I had one a lifetime ago, when I was too young and too dumb) and gas prices.

I drive both a minivan and a Dodge Durango. The minivan gets decent mileage, but the Durango sucks gas like Monica Lewin...you get the picture. I get about 14 mpg on the highway with the Durango, about 22-24 mpg with the Grand Caravan. Although the Caravan is better on gas, the wear and tear that is a byproduct of both my wife, Karen, and myself driving it to work every day (we work different shifts) is going to put it in a n early grave. Thus was born my decision to buy a motorcycle.

And it wasn't a knee-jerk decision...I'd been toying with the idea for some time now, looking on the internet and at private sales for over a year. I did spend most of the time researching an old school Harley Davidson "bobber"



style of chopper, but finally decided on a cruiser-class bike.

The cruiser I was most interested in was the Truimph "America",

but quickly cast off that pick as the engine wasn't powerful enough to withstand my 6'4" 275 lb frame. I had come to the conclusion that I was destined to be a quadro-tyre drive, when I saw a beautiful, white cruiser class bike in the Plymouth Square shopping center. I was lucky enough to engage the rider in conversation and he quickly extolled the vitues of what he called "metric cruisers", which is politically correct speak for "Jap-Crap".



Anyway, almost 9 months later, I proudly own a "metric cruiser". I've driven it for a week now and it gets around 44 mpg. My lovely wife, Karen was instrumental (emphasis on the mental) in our decision to purchase the bike, with the normal reservations, of course.

She asked me this, two days after I bought the bike: How did spending (dollar figure withheld) save us money? Well, pretzel logic or not, we will see a significant decline in our monthly credit card statement, as I purchase all of our gasoline on my VISA rewards card (and I get to redeem the points for cool hunting and fishing gear!).

My promise to her was that, although I am an experienced rider, I had not ridden a motorcycle for 25 years, therefore I have signed up for the DOT Motorcycle safety course (advanced rider) and will take the course on July 6th.

So, there is the story of how your humble blogger came about buying his motorcycle. It was a mutual decision between my wife and myself, with over a year of research and comparison shopping.



So, when you see my wife out and about, please don't feel the need or urge to ask her why she let me get a bike...