Passes & Canyons Blog

I got a lot of good riding out of this bike and it hurt to sell it, but I’m not unhappy that it’s gone.

As all regular readers of this blog are aware, I sold my 1999 Kawasaki Concours back in March. It was the first time I had ever parted with a motorcycle that I owned. Riding for 35 years, I have owned three bikes and still own and ride two of them. Selling the Connie really brought mixed emotions.

It didn’t help, of course, that I ended up letting it go for a pittance. But after problems at the end of last year’s OFMC trip, and months spent waiting for the shop where I took it to do . . . nothing . . . it really was something of a relief to be done with it. But it was still sad and a bit wrenching.

During this time I looked around and found a used Yamaha FJ-09 at Vickery Motorsports that I was very interested in but until I could clear space in my garage I had nowhere to go with it. By the time the Kawi was gone the FJ-09 was, too.

So now whenever I get together with friends the question always comes up, are you going to get a new bike? My answer is as surprising to me as it is to them: No.

No, I really kind of like only having two bikes. I like having room in my workshop to use it as a workshop, rather than as a garage. I like having one less vehicle to maintain, pay taxes on, and pay insurance on. And it had gotten hard to find someone to work on such an old bike.

I also like not jockeying around this really heavy machine. Both my other bikes are much lighter than the Concours and I had been aware for a long time that the day was going to come as I get older when I was not going to feel up to handling that heavy thing. I’m not at that point, but already being free of that feels good. I also don’t miss having to deal with all that bodywork–the plastic panels covering the engine and forming the fairing. That stuff makes any work you do on the bike twice as much of a hassle.

Still, having finally sold a bike, I now feel a new freedom to think about doing so again. My main bike now is my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650 and I like it a lot but truth be told, I really would not mind something just a little bigger. Like that FJ-09, or the newer Yamaha Tracer. When I’m riding the V at highway speeds that little engine is very busy. An 850cc or 900cc engine would not have to be working quite so hard to hit those high speeds. Plus, the V-Strom is old enough that it’s now an issue to find someone to work on it.

I’m in no hurry, but what I foresee is to find an FJ or Tracer, buy it, and immediately turn around and sell the V-Strom. But right now I have not looked at bikes for sale at all, and I have no inclination as yet to begin. I’m just enjoying the two bikes I have.

Biker Quote for Today

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a motorcycle.

I’ve loved this bike but I’m ready to let it go.

The latest on this idea I’ve had to swap out my 1999 Kawasaki Concours for a 2015 Yamaha FJ-09 is that the status quo seems to be reclaiming the momentum.

I really have made up my mind that I would like to let go of the Connie and replace it with something more modern, but as I said, I have to get rid of the Connie before I can do anything else. And that has been complicated by the presence of a mechanical issue, making the sale of the Connie extremely questionable.

Well, I talked with Mark at Rowdy Rocket Garage about what it would cost to fix the Kawi. I just didn’t want to spend $500 or more only to turn around and sell the bike for something less than the repair cost. It turns out, Mark said diagnosing the problem would take less than an hour of shop time, at $90 per hour, and then that would clarify what the fix would cost. Probably not a lot, he said. So now I’m looking–maybe–at having the Connie running well again for maybe as little as $200. OK Mark, when can I get the bike in to you?

As usual, for Mark it’s a matter of having to get a bike out before he can take another in. Check back in a few days. I did. Check back in a few days. Here we go again.

But now I’m totally onto the idea of fixing the Kawi. That way, I can just keep riding it, and enjoying riding it, and during next year’s riding season I can put the bike up for sale and hopefully get a decent price for it. Then, and only then, I can start looking for a bike to buy, and just be patient, take my time, and wait until I find a really great deal.

Yes that means that I’ll miss out on this FJ-09 over at Vickery, which is really too bad because it already has all the extras and is at a good price now. But they won’t have that bike come June or whenever I might manage to sell the Kawi. And wherever I find another one it probably won’t be five miles from my house. Although that could be OK; if I have to fly to Seattle and ride the bike home, oh, please don’t throw me in that briar patch. (Do people today understand that reference? If not, see Br’er Fox and Br’er Rabbit.)

The flip side is that maybe sometime next year I’ll be able to find a newer bike of the same sort for the same price. That would suit me fine. One thing I’m good at is patience. And maybe by then I’ll be willing to spend even more and get something even newer than that. To quote Irma Thomas, via the Rolling Stones, “Time is on my side, yes it is.”

Biker Quote for Today

Life is short, so grip it and rip it.

I want this motorcycle. Anybody want to buy a 1999 Kawasaki Concours really cheap?

OK, I’ve made up my mind and I really do want to buy this Yamaha FJ-09 sitting over at Vickery. But I have one big problem.

The problem is that I have the space to store three motorcycles, and I have three motorcycles. If I buy a new one I have got to get rid of one of the old ones. Which of the old ones to get rid of is not a problem, it would be the Concours. But how do I get rid of it?

They had told me at Vickery that they would do a trade-in but they also told me I would not like the price they would offer me. I understood that but I rode the Connie over there on Tuesday so Brent could look it over and give me a number that would at least enable me to process the whole matter further. Bill Vickery was there and the three of us went out to the bike. Bill expressed surprise at how clean it was and agreed that it was in very good shape.

Then he and Brent conferred and Brent came back with the number: $200. And they would put it on the floor with a $900 price tag. He urged me to put it on Craigslist or take it over to Steele’s to see what they would give me for it. Steele’s, of course, is a salvage yard, but they do sell used bikes, too. Maybe they would offer more than $200. Worth a shot.

The best thing, though, Brent said, would be to put it on the market asking about $700 and hope that some young guy who wants a nice bike but doesn’t have much money would fulfill his dream.

I looked on Craigslist nationally and found five of the old-style Connies. With one exception they were listed for prices well above $700, even one that’s older than mine. None of them have as many miles on them as mine does. The one exception had a price tag of $100 and the posting explained that it had an issue that the owner didn’t know how to fix so he was offering someone who could fix it a terrific deal. The post also was marked “Sold.”

Well, mine has an issue, a sticky throttle that Brent says is caused by an intake issue, which is a little different but related to what Mark at Rowdy Rocket Garage told me was a vacuum-related issue. No one is going to pay a lot for a bike they know they’ll have to turn around and spend more money on.

Sure I could pay to have the issue fixed and then ask more, but still, who at this time of year is going to be buying it? And sure, I can wait and sell it come spring but Vickery is not likely to still have that FJ-09 come May next year. And it’s a nice bike at a very nice price.

I went over there Tuesday in part to check out the seat height and although it is higher than my other bikes it still is no problem at all to get my feet down. Brent credited the bike’s narrowness for that. And the general riding position felt really good.

So how, in November, am I going to sell my Concours? I will take it to Steele’s and see what they offer. But if they offer $300 what then? Really, the bike has no financial value. But if I put, say, another $500 into it to get this issue fixed, it would then continue to give me years of riding. But at this point I have made up my mind that I would like a newer bike, with some of the newer features, lighter, and something I could take to a dealer if it needs work.

I want this Fj-09 and maybe the answer is to just accept that the Kawi has no value and take anything I can get for it and be done with it. Anybody want to buy a very nice 1999 Kawasaki Concours really cheap?

Biker Quote for Today

Buy a motorcycle because money returns and time doesn’t.

One reason it just seems wrong to get rid of this Concours is that I finally have this top bag.

OK, thinking out loud again.

I took two bikes out back to back this weekend, the Concours and the CB750. On the Connie first I was constantly aware of how the throttle will not back off instantly as it should. It got better later in the ride, I don’t know why, in that when I would come to a stop it would back off right away. But while moving, whether up- or down-shifting, the engine would race as I pulled in the clutch. Plus, it was like cruise control in that I could release the throttle entirely and the bike would just cruise along.

Mark over at Rowdy Rocket Garage swears it has to do with the vacuum mechanism and I have no reason to doubt that. But until it’s fixed it is extremely annoying.

Then I took the Honda out and it was so much fun to ride. The bike just ran, doing everything it ought to do. It was so nice. And that made me think: I would not put up with issues like this on my car. If something isn’t working right on my car I take it in and have it fixed. Time was when I was poor and I would live with such issues for a long time, but those days are past.

And so, OK, yeah, I could just take the bike in except it isn’t that easy. I’ve gone through all this hassle I’ve been having trying to find a new mechanic and/or find a slot to get a bike in. So it’s not that easy.

Meanwhile, I haven’t forgotten that fully dressed Yamaha FJ-09 sitting on the floor over at Vickery. I went over and looked at it at one point and I was very tempted. Did they still have it?

I checked their website and yes, it’s still there, and the price is just $8,000. I had been thinking $10,000. Is my memory wrong or have they dropped the price? Thinking 10 and seeing 8 makes it just that much more appealing. Now I want to go back over and check it out some more ASAP, like probably Tuesday.

Plus, Bill Vickery said they would take my Connie as a trade-in, so that’s good considering that it would probably be extremely hard to sell unless this throttle issue is fixed. And if it were fixed why would I want to sell the Connie anyway? Yes, I know they would give me peanuts for it but it would be off my hands. Talking with Bob at last week’s RMMRC meeting he told me he had a bike he just gave away because he couldn’t sell it. He tried to do a trade-in but the dealer said he would give him a better deal without the trade-in because they just didn’t want that bike he was getting rid of on their floor–they wouldn’t be able to sell it.

But if I would keep the Connie if the problem were fixed, why not just bite the bullet and get it fixed? For one thing, even if it cost a bundle it would still probably be a good bit less than $1,000, and that is versus $8,000 for this FJ-09. And that’s not even factoring in taxes or higher insurance rates.

I don’t know what to do. That’s why I’m writing this, to try to figure out my own mind. It works much of the time; it does not work all the time.

I’m just going to have to go to Vickery and check out that FJ-09 again on Tuesday. For one thing, it has a higher seat height than any of my three current bikes. When I got the Kawi it took me a long time to get used to that high seat. Then I got the V-Strom and it was even higher and it was just no big deal because I was already used to the Kawi. But now we’re talking 32 inches and my inseam is 29.

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. But at some point I will know and I’ll tell you all about it then.

Biker Quote for Today

A new bike can make you excited as well as emotional.