Meet...uh, well, we don't have the name settled yet, but here he/she is, in all his/her glory.
It is a Suzuki DL650 V-Strom and it is rapidly taking my place in Mark's affections. We bought it on Saturday after about three weeks of research. It was kind of the out-from-nowhere contender, since until about a week ago Mark was pretty sure that he wanted a BMW F650GS or possibly, if we couldn't find a BMW in our price bracket, a Honda Transalp. (He really would have wanted one of the new Honda Transalps, but those are definitely OUTSIDE Team Vallentine's budget, so he was going to have to have one of the boring older ones that didn't have all the neat-o improvements that the 2008 model has.)
Mark had sort of dismissed the V-Strom as a contender until it was recommended by Dad. He then started keeping an eye out for them and on Friday one appeared on the web site for our local BMW dealer. It was a new listing of a used bike that had come in as a trade-in. Mark went up on Saturday for a test ride and was sold before he even got back to the shop.
I went out for a ride on it on Sunday, and it was pretty cold even though it was sunny, so we just went up to Portishead and back. It's really comfortable, and once we get a top box for it, will be pretty much as comfortable for a passenger as Smedley, the Varadero we had previously. I think we could actually tour with it, and we talked about maybe going over to France with it. (Until we saw how much ferry tickets cost....but maybe some day!)
Mark rode it to work today and walked in this evening smiling and going on and on about how versatile and responsive it is, so I think it will probably be a long time before it loses its appeal...especially now that summer is coming! So now all we need is the name...
3 comments:
Do you have a name yet?
How about Travis?
I'm not good at naming vehicles. None of ours have names except "my car" and "Tony's car." I'm not sure if that's sad or normal... Could there be a whole new aspect of life I am missing out on by not having a closer relationship with "Hondo the Honda?"
I think you're both not sad and normal. I've known some people who name their vehicles, but I think those who don't are far more common. (There you go, Jenny and Jeff - a poll for your blog - "Do you have a name for your car?" or something like that).
I think I tend towards naming things, but haven't always. The first was the Grey Honda Accord that we had - not the 1990 one that mom drove from new, but the older one, that was newer than the beige one, but older than Mom's. I think I inherited it from you, Julie. It was called "Brown Shoes."
Mark's first motorcycle was just referred to as "The Bandit" (which was the model name) and same for "The Mazda"...but the Honda CR-V we have is called "Noddy" because it's license plate is V5 NOD...so it was kind of inevitable.
Basically all the names we've been discussing are based on the premise that the bike is kind of a cross between the Bandit and the Varadero...so my favorite so far is Antonio Bandero...but that shortens, of course, to Tony, and I don't know how Mr. Penna would feel about having another Tony in the family...especially an inanimate object...Dad had some good ideas though.
I love Antonio Bandero! That's very funny!
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