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?”