Here it is!

Another reason for Dad to come visit.

We went for a walk on the seafront tonight after dinner and came face to face with Weston Bike Night.

Apparently, it's organized by the Royal British Legion Riders division as a regular fundraiser. There were A LOT of bikes and all kinds, not just cruisers or just sports bikes and lots of people. Lots of different models and ages - same goes for the motorbikes, too.

I just looked at the web site and tonight was the "Japanese Power" theme night - but I guess all bikes can still come, it's just some get special attention.

Meet the newest member of Team Vallentine.

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...