Cherry

Me and My Victory

Photo by: Karl P.

I said I would post pictures of my new bike, whom Suna has named Cherry. One of my uber-conservative friends snapped the picture this weekend when I stopped by his house.

I had to ride the bike through gusty winds on an overpass today. The crosswinds were almost unnoticeable. The bike cut through them with little or no effort.

So far, I only have two complaints:

• It is belt, not shaft, driven.
• The shifter is toe-only. (I got spoiled to a heal shifter on the VTX.)

Now I promise I’ll stop going on and on about the bike.

So that brings me to what I am grateful for this week, and it’s not the bike. This week I am grateful again for Suna. She encouraged me to get the bike even though she generally dislikes them. She then blogged nice things about the bike, even making it her Wednesday Wonder! She makes me happy in thousands of little ways, just by being the nice person she is. Thanks for being so nice to me.

Victory

Victory Vision Tour Photo source: Victory: The New American Motorcycle

I bought a new motorcycle this week. Just earlier this year, I was thinking about selling my bike and giving it up, but now I’m glad I didn’t.

I looked at Harleys last year, but I couldn’t make myself turn loose of the money for one. Again. When I bought my original Honda VTX 1800r, I bought it because it was so much more motorcycle for the money than a Harley. This year, I didn’t even look at a Harley. I know what they look like. They haven’t changed.

I wasn’t even going to buy a bike. I had decided to keep my old one another year or two, and took it in for new tires and a state inspection sticker. I was fed up with the larger dealerships, so I took it to the Victory dealership near the church. That was a big mistake, at least so far as my wallet is concerned.

You can’t go to a dealership without looking around. It’s like eating one potato chip or stepping on the same piece of water twice. It just can’t be done. So I looked.

And I saw the most beautiful motorcycle I have ever seen in my life. I made myself leave it alone. Suna and I stopped by on Saturday to see if my bike was ready. It wasn’t, but she got a look at the bike, to. She said, “You can park that in front of my house! It’s so pretty I might even get on it.”

Monday, I called the dealership and asked the to prepare an estimate for trading in my old bike on the new one. I test drove the demo and fell in love with the bike all over again. It’s as if it were made for my body. It’s powerful and big, but it still has a low center of gravity. It turns like a dream.

We came to terms, and I picked it up on Tuesday. I’ve been driving it for a couple of days now, and I just get more impressed. I was buffeted by strong side winds going over an overpass on my way home from choir practice Wednesday night. I would have had to wrestle my old bike under those conditions. The Vision just shrugged them off as its aerodynamics seemed to adjust the bike to the turbulence automatically.

Have I mentioned how good it sounds? Not too loud, it has a deep, throaty rumble than Suna calls manly. It is the perfect motorcycle.