Went Shopping For A New Bike Today

 Shirley, set up a round for the house. And tell that new wench over
there to wash her hands, cause I'll be wanting a cheeseburger.

As stated in the title, I went shopping for a new bike today, not for
me, for a friend. His situation is as follows: he is in his 40's, rode
some as a teenager and young adult, but not much lately. Average
height. He got laid off about a year ago and ended up finding a job
teaching in China. He is back for two weeks, leaving on 7/7. He is
looking for a city bike, as well as something he can tour the Chinese
countryside on. It must run on regular gas, the bigger the tank the
better, and should be able to handle the occasional gravel and dirt
roads. He doesn't want to buy a Chinese made bike because,
well...they're made in China. He also said it's cheaper to buy one
here and ship than to buy one over there.

Our first stop was the BMW place. I'm not familiar with their bikes,
but had a salesman show him the R 1200 GS series. Nice bikes, but at
18 to 22K they were a bit out of his price range.

Next we went to the local HD shop and looked at the Buell Ulysses. It
looked to me like it was very well suited for his needs, priced at
about 13K, but the salesman seemed VERY willing to deal. He liked the
hard bags on both bikes.

Finally we stopped at the metric shop and looked at a Suzuki V-Strom
650. It too seemed well equipped, priced at about 7.5K without the
bags, but with ABS. He was very interested, price being a major
consideration. When I got home I read some reviews on the web, and
most were favorable. The size and weight of the bike seemed more
appropriate than the first two we looked at. I also saw some on eBay
that were considerably less expensive, but time and logistics are not
in favor of anything but buying locally.

He wants to make a decision in the next week. Does anyone have any
other suggestions as to what bikes we should consider?

If you've read this far, you're probably thirsty again, so set 'em up
again, barkeep.

 "Bluffalobob" wrote...

Suzuki DR650SE
Kawasaki KLR650

 
Yup, Frito seems to like his KLR.

--
Old Crow
'82 FLTC(P) 'Mistress Pearl'
'87 FLTC 'Fugly'
'61 F-100
BS#133, SENS, TOMKAT, SLOB#13, MAMBM

 Old Crow wrote:

Aren't those thumpers?

I'd rather have a Vee configuration

I vote for the Vstrom with his choice in size.

 

"Old Crow"  wrote in message

Yeah, I'm liking it.  It's a great garage companion for the bagger.
It doesn't do anything really well, but a lot of stuff good.  One of
the things that drew me to it is the Harley-like aftermarket support
and ease of maintenance.

--
"frito"
Fred Snetzer
'01 FLHT, '09 KLR-T
TOMKAT
IBA #10549  BS #162
http://eddiekieger.com/