miguelito
06-18-2008, 08:11 PM
Soooo… I’m a 55 year old guy who hasn’t owned a motorcycle since the mid 1980’s. Haven’t really thought about it for years. Then my bud, Atom bought a 650 KLR last fall and started a campaign to get all his friends to buy bikes. I resisted general offers to ride his KLR through the fall and spring, then a couple of weeks ago while I was up north kayaking and staying over at his place in Dixon, NM, he offered me the bike to ride up to the local breakfast joint where he was meeting some other friends to kayak the Rio Pueblo, near Taos, NM. I had no intention of boating the Pueblo, as it is gnarly class V rapids, so I agreed to ride the KLR to the Yacht Club for breakfast. After breakfast, I rode up to the Rio Pueblo and after a further invitation from the tempter to ride his bike wherever I wanted, I decided to forgo kayaking and took off on a three+ hour ride.
I returned in the afternoon with a big smile on my face. I decided that if I sold my Mini cooper, I would buy a motorcycle. But what motorcycle? I wasn’t quite sold on the KLR, not because of the bike, but because of the style of riding I thought I would do, which seemed likely to be road oriented. I began to look around at available bikes. Liked the way the cruisers looked, but didn’t like the riding position, or the general responsiveness. I decided I did not want a big, (900-1600 cc), bike. I felt more comfortable, (and nimble), on a bike in the KLR displacement range. During my search on Craigslist for used bikes, I came across a post from someone who was selling his cruiser as he had just bought a new Versys. I googled “Versys”, to find out what he was changing to. Hmmmm….. This bike seemed to be pretty much what I was looking for....
I found a Versys at a local dealer, but test rode a V-Strom first, as the salesman said it was a comparable bike. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t win me over at first ride. I then took the Versys for a brief ride of less than a mile. It was responsive, and pulled strong throughout the rpms. When I returned, I told the salesman, that the Versys was the bike I would buy. The sales manager did the usual song and dance, quoted me a price above MSRP, ($7,000 ), and asked that I get back to him when I got a quote from the other local dealer, who he surprisingly said would probably come in with an offer below his offer by $250-$500. (You gotta wonder what these guys are thinking, and why they don’t just make you a bona fide offer right from the get-go!) So off I go, and when the other dealer, who is a smaller dealer, and located closer to me, makes an offer below the first guys' offer, ($6450 for those who want to know), I decide I want to deal with them regardless, and within a few days I sell the Mini, and close the deal on the Versys.
That was yesterday. I picked the bike up about 11 AM after getting a ride to the dealer from my munificent neighbor, Brick, so named because he’s built like one. Afterwards, Brick, (a seasoned rider and instructor), on his KLR and I on my Versys took a three hour ride on a picture postcard, perfect, twisty, windy mountain road. We rode conservatively the first half of the ride, (I am breaking the bike in after all). At the halfway point, we stopped to take a break, and I commented that I would probably take the bike out on the highway when we returned to town as I hadn't gotten it into top gear yet. Brick took the lead on the return leg, and,(reading my mind), stretched the lines out, as we swooped our way back through the twisties at speeds well in excess of our first leg. At the exit from the canyon he stopped and looked amazed that I had kept up with him. As I pulled up beside him with the biggest sh#t-eating grin I've had in a while, I just kept saying, "that was fun!". When we got home, he commented that the Versys must be an exceptional handling bike for me to have had the confidence to be able to keep up with him at the speeds we were travelling given my dirth of riding experience for the last two decades.
Anyway, I know this is a long post, and I forgive you if you gave up some time ago, but I love this bike! I’ve had it two days, and have put over two hundred miles on it. I’ve averaged about 58 mpg so far, ( that is with relatively gentle riding during the break in period).
Thanks for all of the posts on this forum. They helped push me over the edge on actually buying the bike.
I returned in the afternoon with a big smile on my face. I decided that if I sold my Mini cooper, I would buy a motorcycle. But what motorcycle? I wasn’t quite sold on the KLR, not because of the bike, but because of the style of riding I thought I would do, which seemed likely to be road oriented. I began to look around at available bikes. Liked the way the cruisers looked, but didn’t like the riding position, or the general responsiveness. I decided I did not want a big, (900-1600 cc), bike. I felt more comfortable, (and nimble), on a bike in the KLR displacement range. During my search on Craigslist for used bikes, I came across a post from someone who was selling his cruiser as he had just bought a new Versys. I googled “Versys”, to find out what he was changing to. Hmmmm….. This bike seemed to be pretty much what I was looking for....
I found a Versys at a local dealer, but test rode a V-Strom first, as the salesman said it was a comparable bike. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t win me over at first ride. I then took the Versys for a brief ride of less than a mile. It was responsive, and pulled strong throughout the rpms. When I returned, I told the salesman, that the Versys was the bike I would buy. The sales manager did the usual song and dance, quoted me a price above MSRP, ($7,000 ), and asked that I get back to him when I got a quote from the other local dealer, who he surprisingly said would probably come in with an offer below his offer by $250-$500. (You gotta wonder what these guys are thinking, and why they don’t just make you a bona fide offer right from the get-go!) So off I go, and when the other dealer, who is a smaller dealer, and located closer to me, makes an offer below the first guys' offer, ($6450 for those who want to know), I decide I want to deal with them regardless, and within a few days I sell the Mini, and close the deal on the Versys.
That was yesterday. I picked the bike up about 11 AM after getting a ride to the dealer from my munificent neighbor, Brick, so named because he’s built like one. Afterwards, Brick, (a seasoned rider and instructor), on his KLR and I on my Versys took a three hour ride on a picture postcard, perfect, twisty, windy mountain road. We rode conservatively the first half of the ride, (I am breaking the bike in after all). At the halfway point, we stopped to take a break, and I commented that I would probably take the bike out on the highway when we returned to town as I hadn't gotten it into top gear yet. Brick took the lead on the return leg, and,(reading my mind), stretched the lines out, as we swooped our way back through the twisties at speeds well in excess of our first leg. At the exit from the canyon he stopped and looked amazed that I had kept up with him. As I pulled up beside him with the biggest sh#t-eating grin I've had in a while, I just kept saying, "that was fun!". When we got home, he commented that the Versys must be an exceptional handling bike for me to have had the confidence to be able to keep up with him at the speeds we were travelling given my dirth of riding experience for the last two decades.
Anyway, I know this is a long post, and I forgive you if you gave up some time ago, but I love this bike! I’ve had it two days, and have put over two hundred miles on it. I’ve averaged about 58 mpg so far, ( that is with relatively gentle riding during the break in period).
Thanks for all of the posts on this forum. They helped push me over the edge on actually buying the bike.