Part 2

2009

Interesting story about the buyer I found for the Honda 250cc scooter, he called me the next day after I had posted the ad for the scooter and he wanted me to hold it for him because he lived in PORTLAND….lol, of course one of the great Craigslist rules is

CRAIGSLIST RULE #2 NEVER HOLD ITEMS FOR PEOPLE,

So he came that weekend and picked it up paying me my asking price, SWEET…I was excited to get on the hunt for a motorcycle.  I researched for a bit and narrowed down my search to the Honda Shadow 750cc or the Suzuki Boulevard 800cc.  Both got good reviews and both seemed to be around my price range.  During this same time is when I joined the Army reserves and received a nice little bonus.  Also during this time I had been laid off my job and was looking for a new one, so my funds were tight but I knew that the great land of Craigslist had my bike out there.

I was driving an old jeep at the time so I would need to rent a trailer whenever I found my next ride. I had recently started working at a car dealership, (good story there also, almost a reality show) one of the managers was a motorcycle guy but not a crazy Harley guy like some, so we talked about bikes and I told him about my scooter history and all this and he wished me luck on my search and he said when I found one he would help me clean it up or do anything it might need.

So….the day came….a Saturday I found my next motorcycle…..it was a 1998 (Year I graduated High School) Honda Shadow low miles good condition at the right price, all day I emailed back and forth with the owner with questions, he said it had been sitting for a couple years and might need the engine cleaned out and the tires replaced, so I knew it would be some work but it was a great great deal.  The biggest issue was it was in Seattle, actually it was located North of Seattle and I had to work the next day at the dealership, but really I had made arrangements with my boss to come into work in the afternoon after church….yes I know ditching Church to go see a motorcycle isn’t good but it was such a good deal.

But I got up super early went to the local U-Haul and rented a motorcycle trailer and headed north.  Oddly enough this was one of those fluke days in Washington when the weather doesn’t know what it wants to do and it started snowing on me, I got up to the guys house and knew I had very little time before I had to head back down to go to work.  I looked the bike over it was what I was looking for I couldn’t start it because of the issues but I took a gamble on it and worked my magic and got him to lower the price well below what he was asking, “You can have cash in your pocket or you can have a motorcycle you can’t ride taking up space in your carport.”  I loaded it up and headed to work, when I got there I couldn’t hold in my excitement and I told my manager what I got and he shared my excitement and we walked out to the parking lot and looked over the bike.  He told me I could bring it over to his house after work and we could work on it the next day.  So I dropped it off that night and had a list of supplies to get for us to work on cleaning it up and getting it ready for the road.  The next day we worked on it and shined it up he looked at the tires and thought they looked good no cracks so I didn’t need new ones, then he looked in gas tank and put some fuel stabilizer in and WABAM it started right up, I must have jumped in the air with excitement, we did a little happy dance and called it a night.

The next day I registered it got the tags and insurance and headed back to his place to find out what was next, I got there and it was all cleaned up and looked amazing.  He had worked on it well into the night in order for us to be able to ride.  I got on the bike and came to a quick realization; I had never ridden a motorcycle before…….