Kove Crisis Fun

Category: Motorcycles

This is purely related to motorcycles in general. I will probably have more specialized sub categories.

  • Investing in the Dream:

    Living in the Columbia River Gorge

    You might have guessed. The mid-life crisis idea continued to fester over the weekend.  I had visions of riding down our gravel lane, turning left instead of right, and finding myself in the middle of nowhere. I would be exploring the mountains, rivers, and streams that I haven’t seen yet. 

    Mount Hood Sunset
    Sunset over Mount Hood

    I have lived in the Columbia Gorge for 20 years. There is small subset of the wonders here that I have been able to experience.  I often envy those that vacation because they come with the full intent of experiencing the gorge.   In the rat race of being able to live here, I’ve at times lost the wonder. I end up focusing on the hard parts.  The whole adventure bike idea was an opportunity to “carpe diem” up and change that. 

    Not Getting Old

    Another aspect of desiring more adventure in my life at the age of 47 is that I still feel young.  Most days… OK sometimes… Don’t ask my kids. If I am honest with myself that first day at the dealership when I threw my leg over the Kove, which is a rather tall bike, my calf decided to cramp up something fierce.  It took 2 days to stop aching. I try to tell myself that I was probably just dehydrated. I’m not getting too old.  In truth this has been something nagging at the back of my mind.

    The thought of, if I wait to retire to have adventure in my life then I will never be able to mount such a stead.  I would probably have to relegate my adventure to what I could see from a Honda 90 or a Bandit scooter.  When I look at my family history for the last couple of generations I have a 50/50 shot of even being around in 20 years. I mentioned this idea to my co-worker. He thought idea of doing something before you get too old was the most justifiable justification he had ever heard of.

    Buying Stuff

    With these doubts and aspirations bumping around in my head I figured out how to transfer around some savings. I headed back into the Mid Columbia Marine and Motorsports the next week when they opened on Tuesday.  I once again rode the Kawasaki and the Kove. We then worked out a deal for me to take the Kove home that day. This included a hook up for a bunch of accessories.  They helped me load up the new bike, helmet, and oil change kit into my truck.  I left the dealership with less money in my pocket, but as the proud owner of a Chinese motorcycle designed to race the Dakar Rally. 


    What could go wrong?

  • Crisis Emerging

    Crisis Emerging

    In the days of AI generated web content for people scrambling to generate a buck online I am going to embrace my retro tendencies and start a good old fashioned blog.  The reason behind my blog is mostly to give me a forum to express my ideas and experiences and hopefully create something interesting or useful to share with the world. 

    The story begins a few weeks ago when I found myself at the local powersports dealership.  I had intended to look at a Kawasaki KLX 300 dual sport dirtbike.  I really didn’t intend to purchase anything but the idea of a motorcycle to commute down the windy road across the Hood River bridge into work then back again had entered my mind again.   A random online article had planted a daydream in my mind that morning and a web search indicated that Hood River Powersports had one in stock which inspired action during my lunch break. 

    You might be able to predict how this story goes.  The very helpful and effective salesman showed me the KLX which was almost exactly what I had expected, but then redirected my attention to the 2024 Kove 450 Rally which he was very motivated to move.  This was not something I would have even entertained before, but after a ride around the parking lot and a discussion of what it might set me back I extricated myself from the dealership and got back to work.  The idea of a rally bike that is somewhere in between a dirt bike and an adventure bike started to work on my psyche.

    The youtube videos I watched probably didn’t help anything either.  Here are the three of the offenders that had influence over my thoughts: 

     

     

     

    That night I floated the idea of getting a motorcycle around the dinner table.  As I expected it floated about as well as a lead balloon.  So if this was something I really was interested in I knew it would generally be met with the head winds of family disapproval.  To illustrate this point the question I got from one of my teenagers was,

    “Dad, are you having a mid-life crisis?”