New Addition

Ace and I have lately been discussing, in between "what's next for the house", when to get a new motorcycle and what to get... After his ride to the coast over the holiday weekend, it suddenly became more of a necessity; the wind during that 2 hour drive made it a lot less fun than it could have been if his bike were heavier.

We talked to T, Ace asked questions on his M50 forum, and we hunted the internet to find out what was available. We had it narrowed down. The two major selling points for him were (1) big enough to not be affected by the wind so much and (2) a big enough engine to not require an upgrade in another year and a half (the amount of time we had the M50).

Monday before his birthday, we headed up to Washington to look at a couple they had. On the way, we stopped at another dealer who had a C109r in black listed on their site. Seems that one was sold over the weekend, but hadn't been removed from their site, yet, darnit! Oh, well; we didn't want that one. We just wanted to look at it and see if it was worth going up to WA for the other one...

We got up there at just after 130p. Ace looked at two models -- the C109r and the C109rt. The "rt" model had a lot of mods we didn't like, so it made more sense to go over the "r". They let him take it around the building and in the parking lot for a test drive (2008 model, but only had a couple hundred miles on it). Then, the negotiations started.

We decided to go for trade-in for our M50, and give it to them stock (we can sell all the after-market parts that we can't/won't use on the new bike), but didn't have it with us (we weren't planning on buying that day, so had the car with us), so they had to go with sight-unseen and work up the paperwork based on that. Our M50 was only 2 years old, so it was in perfect condition, and of course Ace kept all the stock pieces for this reason. After a lot of back and forth, we settled on a price, signed some paperwork with our intent to buy, and headed home.

We didn't leave until almost 4p! We were STARVING (thank goodness I bring water and snacks when I go anywhere), so we got KFC Snackers on the way home, since we were going out to eat that night. By the time we got home, the older two were buggin'; wanting to know if we bought it, where it was, why we didn't bring it home, why we were gone so long, etc... He spent a big chunk of that night removing the after-market parts and putting back on the stock ones.

Tuesday, Ace got up a little earlier than normal, had his coffee, and went to the bank to get the title out of the safety deposit box. He came home, we took a couple of "goodbye M50" photos, and he left. Three hours later, he arrived home on our new ride. I reminded the kids that the same three rules apply: (1) He rides alone until he is ready for a passenger; no bugging him about it, (2) All riders & passengers will wear proper gear or will not ride, and (3) I ride "bitch" before anyone else; wife's right.

We are now the proud owners of a beautiful maroon Suzuki Boulevard C109r. So far, mods include: new seat/backrest set, passenger floorboards (it comes with floorboards for the rider, but only pegs for the passenger), grips (held over from our M50 mods), and a lightbar (instead of the one front lamp, this one has three). Future mod will include some sort of gear bags and possibly a windshield; especially if we tour (as we're planning) with it...