New Motorcycle Day

I've been planning off and on to get a new motorcycle some time this spring. In fact I was planning on getting one last spring in order to keep with my new bike every 18 months tempo, but life kinda got in the way and I ended up deciding to spend more time on my new mountain bike instead.

Fast forward to today and I catch wind that a dealership down in Monterey is being shut down and clearing out all their inventory. Some deal with the owner of the place (and apparently a bunch of dealerships across the US) getting out of the game and selling off some dealers, shutting others down. I'd been to the dealership once before when I was shopping around for what would eventually turn out to be Rabbit Season / Duck Season; I test drove a Ducati Multistrada there and decided I wasn't fond of it. Long story short I figured it was worth a trip down to see what was what, so I ducked out of work early this afternoon and did just that.

Now I'd had in mind that I wanted to try out a Kawasaki Z400, but that model is new for this year and not even in dealer showrooms yet (never mind dealers that are going out of business), so I wasn't going to find that. I was also interested in a Kawasaki KLX250, and they did have one there that was really tempting me to take it home. However they also had a Honda CB650F, and a while back I had considered getting the bike, as I was quite fond of the looks and the fact that it's a Japanese I4 bike, which I had yet to own. I also kind of just wanted to find a Honda that I might actually want to own. It's a bit bigger than the Z400, and more powerful, but sits nicely in the midsize range, smaller and less powerful than Rabbit Season which is what I was looking for in the Z400.

So I figured this was just the opportunity to push me over the edge into finally getting a Honda, and I signed on the dotted line.

I'll be bringing it home tomorrow afternoon, by which time I hope to figure out what I'm going to name it. That's the most important part, after all.

The fun part about it is that it's essentially free. Since having the bike loan will boost my credit score, I'll be able to apply for a better interest rate on my home loan, the savings from which will pay for this bike many times over. Funny how that works, I could just pay for it in cash right now, but it's cheaper in the big picture if I don't.