While I was waiting a few days for the deal to go through on the Kaw I scanned Craig's List with a hurried but eagle eye for just the right bike to snap up at just the right price on the day after I had cash in hand for the Nomad. Normally I might spend a week or three browsing, e-mailing sellers, and looking at bikes in person, but plans had been made and I didn't want to disappoint my old friend by delaying the long planned trip. Browsing bikes for sale on Craig's List is great fun, I even do it when I'm not shopping for another bike. It's like looking at pretty girls except that you know you stand some chance with the bikes. Here's some of the bikes that came into serious consideration:
I had a Kawasaki 1500 Drifter back in 1999 when they came out and it's on my list of all time favorite bikes. This one looked promising but memories of lousy storage possibilities and worrying about patching tubed tires on the highway steered me away from my old favorite.
A Kawasaki ZRX1200 seemed like it would be fun and my old VW colleague Jac would like me even more. But I suspected that while ZRX might prove plenty fast, the bike might otherwise not offer the panache that I was also seeking.
A Suzuki VStrom 1000 appealed because my brother had one and loved it, both sizes of the VStrom enjoy a great reputation for performance and longevity, but the 30k on the odometer still concerned me a little. I'd rather have had it's classmate, the Aprilia Caponord, but I couldn't find one at a price I could afford or within a reasonable distance.
The object of my perennial moto-lust, the 2006 Triumph Scrambler, was located over in California. Clean, unmolested Scramblers are not that easy to find unless you're willing to travel. The miles were low, the pictures the owner sent showed the bike to be in great shape, the color was red and I like red bikes, and best of all, Keith could stop on the way over to AZ, put the bike on the trailer with his VFR, and bring it with him.
Sadly, as the deal heated up, the owner finally told me he didn't have the title in hand, it was with a credit union. Ack! No, I wasn't going to give him cash, take the bike, and then wait for some credit union to mail me the title after the seller paid off his loan. I did a deal that way once with a friend and the bike sat in my garage, un-titleable for two months because of a credit union screw up.
![]() |
yes, those are the real pictures from the ad |
One ad for a Harley caught my eye again and again, apparently it came with options I'd not thought of looking for. Who wouldn't like an extra set of jugs for their bike?
I bought a new Harley back in '86 and enjoyed the bike a lot and I've never discounted the possibility of getting another one. I could be part of the gang again and dig out all my old black t-shirts, maybe become a 60 year old prospect for a club.
The Ducati Multistrada, another cousin to the VStrom and the Caponord, had the exotic appeal of all Italian bikes. I pondered it long and hard and worried that I wasn't up to the exotic shop prices for Ducati service and repair work.
And so it went, bike after bike looked at and the the possibilities discarded based on a clue in the pictures or an e-mail from the seller. But the batch above made the final consideration for one reason or another, none of which were necessarily logical.
Oh, there was a 2001 Kawasaki Concours that I liked and it had lots of farkles but the pictures in the ad were all upside down and it seemed like too much of an omen or at least and indication that seller might not be into paying attention to his bike.