corey872
05-18-2008, 10:02 AM
Greetings gents – and ladies (?)
Well, I guess I am the newest member of the Versys crew. Picked one up yesterday afternoon. So as is customary with most of my vehicles – I have to go out and find the forum where everyone is hanging out. So, here I am!
I won’t bore you with all the gritty details here, but I will fill out some things in my profile so anyone interested can take a look.
Briefly - I’m not new to motorcycles, but let’s just say I haven’t ridden in this century. I bought an ‘81 KZ 550 soon after I graduated college and rode that for 2-3 years until I had to move to follow my job in ‘98. I always thought about getting another bike, but always seemed like one thing after another popped up to spend money on before that.
So a couple of weeks ago, the wife and I are talking about riding bicycles (which we both do and love) and the topic of distance came up. I made a comment about, “You’d have to ride a motorcycle if you were going that far” She said something like, “that would be fun - I’d ride a motorcycle if I had one”
So that basically put the wheels in motion. Initially, visions of a hot chick slung over a street bike filled my head. But then I thought about how we both like mountain biking, camping, hiking, etc. So I discussed the dual purpose bikes with her. We both agreed that those might be a better fit and decided to find something that could at least handle gravel roads and very light off road use. I remembered the seeing the KLR and research on that led me here and eventually to the KLE Versys. I really liked the look of the Versys and the reviews seemed to be pretty positive. So I started searching for a dealer.
I called around and no-one seemed to have them, and/or were asking straight MSRP. A little more searching and I decided to check e-bay. In some strange twist of fate, the only two bikes for sale on all of ebay were both in Kansas, not more than 150 miles from me.
After talking to both dealers, I scooped one for $5999 + $85 documentation fee + $438 tax, but got them to throw in a free helmet. (God, I’d love to be in the documentation business…$85 bucks to spend 10 minutes signing papers!!)
Anyway, that is my story. I love to mod things and get into DIY projects – I can already see a few things I’d like to do to the V. I'm 6'4" tall w/ 36" inseam and definitely need some more height/length in the seat area. Wife is 6'1" so we'll have to make something work for both of us.
I would definitely like to expand on the ‘versatility’ and make it a little more geared toward light off road use. Maybe in the future, his & hers versys's ? versi? So I look forward to learning and sharing lots of things on the forum!
Corey (Technically borrowing the wife’s bike!)
Well, I guess I am the newest member of the Versys crew. Picked one up yesterday afternoon. So as is customary with most of my vehicles – I have to go out and find the forum where everyone is hanging out. So, here I am!
I won’t bore you with all the gritty details here, but I will fill out some things in my profile so anyone interested can take a look.
Briefly - I’m not new to motorcycles, but let’s just say I haven’t ridden in this century. I bought an ‘81 KZ 550 soon after I graduated college and rode that for 2-3 years until I had to move to follow my job in ‘98. I always thought about getting another bike, but always seemed like one thing after another popped up to spend money on before that.
So a couple of weeks ago, the wife and I are talking about riding bicycles (which we both do and love) and the topic of distance came up. I made a comment about, “You’d have to ride a motorcycle if you were going that far” She said something like, “that would be fun - I’d ride a motorcycle if I had one”
So that basically put the wheels in motion. Initially, visions of a hot chick slung over a street bike filled my head. But then I thought about how we both like mountain biking, camping, hiking, etc. So I discussed the dual purpose bikes with her. We both agreed that those might be a better fit and decided to find something that could at least handle gravel roads and very light off road use. I remembered the seeing the KLR and research on that led me here and eventually to the KLE Versys. I really liked the look of the Versys and the reviews seemed to be pretty positive. So I started searching for a dealer.
I called around and no-one seemed to have them, and/or were asking straight MSRP. A little more searching and I decided to check e-bay. In some strange twist of fate, the only two bikes for sale on all of ebay were both in Kansas, not more than 150 miles from me.
After talking to both dealers, I scooped one for $5999 + $85 documentation fee + $438 tax, but got them to throw in a free helmet. (God, I’d love to be in the documentation business…$85 bucks to spend 10 minutes signing papers!!)
Anyway, that is my story. I love to mod things and get into DIY projects – I can already see a few things I’d like to do to the V. I'm 6'4" tall w/ 36" inseam and definitely need some more height/length in the seat area. Wife is 6'1" so we'll have to make something work for both of us.
I would definitely like to expand on the ‘versatility’ and make it a little more geared toward light off road use. Maybe in the future, his & hers versys's ? versi? So I look forward to learning and sharing lots of things on the forum!
Corey (Technically borrowing the wife’s bike!)