Blue, Red & Green

March 12th was a good day! I woke up that morning in the "Tilton Hilton" at the Denver Airport and made my way out to gate B47 where a 757 was sitting there waiting to take me home to Seattle. After arriving in Seattle I made my way south on I-5 until I connected to westbound Hwy 16. A few minutes later I found myself at Tacoma Motorsports and staring at the bike I've been waiting since September for. After some paperwork and whatnot, I was the proud owner of a new, blue 2008 Yamaha WR250R! I was driving my little Mazda so I had to zip home to get the ol' pickup in order to bring the bike home.

When I got home my parents were there after just buying their brand new red Toyota Prius, which in a way is also "green"... (pictures soon). I hung out with them a bit and checked out their new car but then had to be on my way if I was to get back to the bike shop before closing. I cruised over the bridge again and loaded up the new toy. Erik, the sales dude helped me out with loading and also gave me a set of tiedowns as well.





After getting the bike home I unloaded it and proceeded to tear up the property a bit just to see how it handled. It wasn't much in terms of riding but it was a total blast and I can't wait to get out on some real trails and enjoy the new adventures that await!

Normally I hate Chicago...

...but this evening as we were sitting in the O'Hare "penalty box" waiting for our gate to open up, I turned my phone on and noticed I had a voice mail waiting. So while I was monitoring the radios waiting to hear our gate open up, I checked to see what the message was. Lo and behold, it was Erik from Tacoma Motorsports just letting me know that my bike is in and I can come down to take 'er home anytime!! I was kind of shocked considering it'd been quite a while ago they were telling me "any day now". Well, any day has arrived and I can't wait to get home and ride the thing.

Pictures and more words to follow...

Ride on!

Stringin' me along

I called the dealer yesterday to inquire about the whereabouts of my new WR250R and after a couple phone calls to his distributor, the dealer told me that it was at the warehouse and should be on the truck and in the showroom in about a week. I am not optimistic that this time frame will hold true but what other option do I have other than to just wait? Patience my son...

Sometimes being rowdy can be fun

This is a post that isn't really directly related to motorcycles or riding, but more about someone who has many interests, including riding motorcycles.

I was reading a few posts on a forum at Thumper Talk (dot com) and one of the posts was from a guy in San Diego. He recently bought the WR250X which is the supermoto version of the bike that I want. I noticed that he had a blog so I decided to check it out. After reading his various posts about a myriad of subjects, I decided that he seems like a cool dude. Therefore I am officially recommending that you check it out for yourself and see what a positive mental outlook on life can do for you. If you're interested in reading about a guy who is dealing with a debilitating disease yet is able to ride motorcycles, surf, and do just about anything, not to mention the fact that he's very successful in his career as well. Just move the little cursor with your mouse to HERE and press the left button. I am also going to include a link to his blog on my "links" section. Enjoy.

On a more personal note... I still haven't heard from the friendly folks down at Tacoma Motorsports. I put a deposit down on the WR250R and they said they'd call me as soon as it's in. This was a couple weeks ago now. Here it is March already! I'm beginning to wonder if it'll ever get to the showroom. I'd like to ride it a bit before some of the organized rides are held this spring. Maybe I'll have to do a nationwide search and have it shipped to me???

A $10 head deserves a $10 helmet.

Since I was unable to ride home the other day on my new Yamaha, I decided I'd possibly pick up some needed equipment for riding. I braved the weather and traffic and ventured over to the other side... of the Narrows Bridge. My destination was Cycle Gear, and as I sauntered in I was determined to not just buy something for the sake of buying something. After a bit of browsing I found myself in front of the helmet racks. I tried on a few and I settled on the one that felt the best. I know from wearing aviation headsets that if there are any pressure points when you try it on, they'll be very painful after wearing it for a while. I found this one (pictured above) and I liked the way it looked and felt. I even got it on a clearance price of $60!! I actually felt that the retail price was reasonable but I'm always happy to save $40. Either way it was a great deal considering I only have a $10 head.

Pulling the trigger...

As I may have mentioned in the past, I have decided on getting the Yamaha WR250R for my riding adventures. I have been patiently waiting for the right time to head on down to the local Yamaha dealer to purchase said bike and I think I've done pretty well at fighting the Burris inclination and not just rushing out and spending the $6k immediately. I had visitied Tacoma Motorsports just before the end of last year and the kid working there told me that the WR should be on the showroom floor by the end of January.

Fast forward to today...

So this morning I get up and shortly after my wife left for her 4-day trip I was faced with the question: "what am I going to do today?". My answer came out of nowhere but I heard myself blurt out "I'm going to get my motorcycle today". It was almost like someone else had said it but I thought it seemed like good advice just the same. So I called my dad to shoot the breeze and among other things I mentioned my decision to get the bike today. After a little discussion we determined that dad should drive down and bring his motorcycle trailer to help haul the WR home.

The wheels had been set in motion and nothing could stop me from getting my bike today... unless of course the bike hadn't been put in the showroom floors of america's Yamaha dealers yet. Doh! Yep, I walked through the doors of the bike shop and immediately had a feeling that something was missing. I did a quick scan of the showroom floor and noticed there wasn't a WR250R anywhere in sight. I asked the salesman dude about it and after a few minutes of phone calls and keyboard clicking, he told me that the factory hasn't actually released them to the dealers to be sold yet. I'm not exactly sure why it's not "released" yet but bottom line is, no bike. I called dad to make sure he didn't drive all the way out here for nothing and I headed home.

You might say I "pulled the trigger"

...but it was a dud.

Seattle Int'l Motorcycle Show

Well, the Seattle International Motorcycle show came to town last week and I couldn't miss it. I was home alone last Friday so instead of going to the show alone, I decided to see if my dad wanted to go. It turned out that he was interested so he drove the 1.5 hours down from Sequim and off we went. The show opened @ 4pm and since we were a little early, we stopped by Pyramid Brewing and decided to see if their beer was as tasty as we remembered. I assure you, it was. After an early dinner and a tasty beverage, we walked next door to the Qwest Field convention center and entered a world of shiny new motorcycles.

The first display we saw as we entered was the sea of blue known as Yamaha. I immediately spotted the bike I've been interested in, the WR250R. I have been a little concerned about the tall seat heights on most of the dual sport bikes and I was curious how it would feel. As you can see from the posted picture of me on the WR, I had to tippy toe it a little. I still really liked the way it felt and I'm still hoping to take a test ride as soon as they're in the showroom floors. After I drooled a bit we headed off to see all the rest of the goodies. We went to the area where all the accessories were being hawked and neither one of us saw anything we absolutely couldn't live without. There were some cool vintage bikes scattered around the showroom and they were pretty interesting to look at. I kept thinking about how guys would race these old machines and it just looked to me like you'd have to be nuts to do it. I guess it was state of the art back then. What will people think about the bikes we ride now in 20 years?

We looked at cruisers and motocrossers and there were some cool bikes but every display we went to that had a dual sport machine, it was almost always surrounded by 3 or 4 people. It became evident that the dual sports must be the hot item this year. I know that I like them but I didn't realize that it was such a popular market. I was able to throw a leg over a couple other bikes like the Suzuki DR400 and the Honda CRF230L. I wasn't really impressed with the DR. The Honda was very comfortable due to the lower seat height but I'm wondering why they still have all the old school stuff on it??? I'm sure it's a great bike and I haven't ruled it out but the Yamaha is liquid cooled, fuel injected and has a nice digital speedometer/tripmeter that has features that can be used for enduro racing. The CRF is air cooled, carbureted and has the old analog speedo. I guess that's why it's about $1000 cheaper. I'll definitely have to ride them both to help decide which one I'd rather own.

After the show we headed back to "the Harbor" and hung out. It was a good afternoon with ol' Dad.