Cuttin' Down the List

well, we took a trip to aurora suzuki today, in hopes of pricing out some accessories and getting some advice. my little bro pat and i took the explorer, since the weather wasn't the best and pat had just ridden across the state yesterday in a downpour, and his gear was still all wet.

we stopped by ride west bmw first, since pat needed some bolts for his radiator cover and, well, why wouldn't you want to stop by ride west bmw? we wandered around a bit, looking at the cool new bikes (the bmw s1000rr was pretty sweet, but actually very small, pat's knees were practically in his chest). i decided i may actually like the r1200r better than the gs at the moment. perhaps my tastes are shifting to more road-based bikes? plus, the seat was far superior. the best bike they had was a ducati monster 1000, with bar-end mirrors, a chopped back end and some sweet custom paint. since i don't think a post is complete without a picture (and since this bike was awesome), i found the picture on the dealer's website. here ya go:



very pretty. anyway, pat found out they didn't have his bolts in stock, but he could pick them up at any hardware store. he also drooled over some fancy helmets with built in flip-down sunvisors. i wandered around wondering how anyone can afford to fully gear up on bmw stuff. after doing some detective work for my dad (top secret, sorry), we headed to aurora suzuki.

i actually struck gold at the suzuki dealer, since the guy in the parts department actually rides an '05 sv. he could speak first hand to my windshield questions, and answered a lot of questions i had. i may be leaning a little more toward a givi screen. tried and true, reviewed well and actually not much of a price difference to the national cycle screen i was looking at. he also answered some questions i had on gel seats and textile pants.

as a result, i have decided i need neither a gel seat or textile pants. the seat just seems superfluous, especially since i've never had any problem with the stock seat. the pants, well, they just looked and felt exactly like my snowboard pants, with a few pieces of armor (in fact, a lot of the winter gloves were exactly like my snowboard gloves. so far, i could just wear all my snowboard gear and save a lot of money). it seemed like they would be just as bulky and hot as my chaps. so that answers that. leather it is. so, cutting out the gel seat and textile pant saves me around $250-300, plus leather is sexier. he also recommended just putting together my own tool kit from a hardware store, as opposed to buying a fancy kit for more money. also makes sense.

all in all, i'm looking at around $700 for gear and classes to be trip-ready. totally doable, in my opinion. unfortunately as far as timing goes, my first maintenance class will have to be put off until november. transferring the title ran me a cool $320, and i'm a little spent this month. but overall, things are still on schedule, and i'm still psyched about the trip. now i need to solidify my route a bit more. find some good roads, avoid some freeways, and find some couches to crash on.

the moral of today is: i like saving money, and you don't really need that much to take a trip if you do it right. and salesmen will also try to sell you things (the suzuki guy tried to convince me i needed a locking top case, which requires its own mounting system. at almost $300, i think i can do without). but good planning was done, and i'm that much closer to being ready for my trip.

til next time, rftc.

scott