My New Hog
Well I've done it... I've officially become as cool as any one human being can possibly be. I now own a motorcycle. Team that with being a drummer in a rock band, a comedic genius (some say visionary), and having a hot girlfriend and I don't see how my, or any other human's coolness level could possibly get any higher. This is quite the departure from the scooter I just sold yesterday. There was something very gorilla-on-a-bicycle about seeing my reflection in the windows of buildings as I passed by at a tentative 35 mph.But I sold the scooter yesterday to a nice girl on Capital Hill. Her offer of "$1,500 and some free burlesque shows" was too good to pass up. So this morning I took my newly acquired wad of cash and even more newly acquired motorcycle endorsement to the good people at Lynnwood Cycle Barn. The bike I wanted to look at was listed on the website but not even on the floor yet. I took it for a test ride and was hooked.
It's a 1998 Honda Shadow Aero 1100. Only had about 6,000 miles on it and was in excellent shape. A couple of small dents in the front fender, but nothing too traumatizing. It's pretty fuckin' tough looking though, and it sounds pretty burly too.
So, I bought the bike (talked them down about $2,000 on the price) and decided to ride it home. About 10 miles into my 20 mile ride home the back tire starts to feel a little squirrely. I remembered how the previous weekend my motorcycle safety class instructor had said how rare it was for a motorcycle to get a flat (or did he say blow out) so I didn't think much of it. Finally when I was within a mile of home I looked back and saw that my rear tire was almost all the way flat. Turns out I picked up a nail somewhere along the way, so that sucks.
So instead of cruising around on my new ride I'm sitting at home. I'll have to figure out a way to get the tire fixed tomorrow. Turns out the only motorcycle shop around that is open tomorrow is the one I bought it from, so I'm going to need to get it over there somehow. Flat tires are distinctly UN-cool but it's going to need to do better than that if there's any hope of me being even remotely close to regular coolness ever again.
