Let the Good Times Roll

I think that I am friends on Facebook with most of the folks who read this blog and therefore this won't be surprising news, but if you haven't yet heard I finally made a decision and bought a new motorcycle on Saturday April 8th.

The new addition to the family is a 2017 Kawasaki Versys 300x ABS in graphite grey.  I just couldn't do the green. It has been a long process deciding between the Honda CB500x and the Versys300x.  We had to wait for the Versys to actually hit the showrooms here in Oregon.  In the end, the Versys won due to the 19" front tire, gear indicator, rear rack, and all for $1200 less than the CB500x. And it actually weighs about 40+ pounds less than the CB500x.

For the past two weekends we visited our preferred dealer a total of three times.  The first was to make sure they did in fact have them in stock.  They did have a green one in ABS that was on a test ride and promptly sold and also a grey one just being prepped that was non-ABS.  For $300 we figured we'd opt for ABS if we chose to purchase.

(2017 Kawasaki Versys 300x in non-ABS)

(First time sitting on a Versys 300x)

(Felt pretty good)

The second visit was on Friday to see if they had unpacked a graphite grey with ABS yet for a test ride.  They hadn't but they did volunteer to bring one in for us from their warehouse in Salem and prep it for Saturday afternoon. 

Saturday morning we went to coffee, had lunch at Marco Polo in Salem, then drove out to Sublimity to the dealer for our third visit.  Our weather had been iffy with a huge storm going through on Friday. Mary's Peak saw wind gusts of 91 mph (146 kph).  Luckily the weather was a little better on Saturday.  Still windy, but at least there were sunny breaks between the squalls.

We arrived sometime after 1 pm and the grey ABS model wasn't quite prepped so Troubadour took the non-ABS model for a wee test ride while the sun was shining. Well it was shining for part of the test ride, then another shower came through.

When he returned to the dealer he noted the only thing I might have issue with is the short gearbox and having to shift more frequently on take off than I was used to with Max.  We talked about it and discussed things and determined that this bike was best suited to how we planned on riding.  The suspension is enough to smooth out the bumpy roads, it has the 19" front tire so we can put a more dual sport/gravel oriented tires on it, it has a gear indicator (which I was used to from Max) and it also came with a rack.  The dealer offered to throw in the Kawasaki hand guards and gave us 10% off on the center stand order.  We did not pay any freight or PDI charges, just MSRP.  We also chose to do the DMV paperwork ourselves which also saved us their $115 documentation fee.

A few years ago Lori, aka BeemerGirl, told me that she believed it was bad luck to ride your own bike home from the dealer.  I believe her after my own experience with the 2009 Bonneville back in 2012.  I rode it home from the dealer and just couldn't bond with it.  So with that in mind Troubadour was nice and suited up between rain storms and rode the Versys home for me to ward off any bad ju-ju.  He stopped part way home and snapped a few pictures with his phone.

(2017 Versus 300x on the way home)

(I was following along in the Fiat 500)

(Outside an abandoned building)

We arrived home with exactly 40 miles on the odometer.  There was less than a half mile on it when he pulled away.  A few more pictures were taken as it sat in the driveway on Saturday afternoon.

(Mission control - 40 miles on the odometer averaging 57.7 mpg)

(2017 Versys 300x in the driveway)

On Sunday we managed to go out for a ride before the rain returned.  I'll post up a trip report and first impressions in my next post.

Max is for sale if anyone would like a gently used 2009 Suzuki Gladius with 11,000 miles on the odometer........... just saying'.

- Au Revoir

" I went to a general store but they wouldn't let me buy anything specific." - Steven Wright

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