My New Bike!

My CycleWorld.com blog started a year ago when I traded my KLR650 for a hammered GSX-R1100. I wanted the Suzuki and its owner wanted my KLR; we were both happy.

Then my wife Judy got a Yamaha XT250 dual-sport bike that fit into our rural Colorado environment better than the streetbikes she wasn't enjoying on the gravel driveway and dirt county roads. All of a sudden, Judy was enthusiastically riding again on her electric-start, fuel-injected, light-and-nimble XT250. So what should I do? Yep, that's right, get another dual-sport bike! It was my 2015 Christmas present and it took me four months to find.

Call me weird, or old-fashioned, or perhaps silly, but I wanted a Yamaha. Back in 2007, when Freddie Spencer got out of the riding school business, I was unexpectedly unemployed. Miller Motorsports Park had been our summer home and Dan McKeever headed the school side of the facility. He wanted the school to continue and Yamaha jumped in with both feet. Now, eight years later, Yamaha’s backing of YCRS is stronger than ever and I’m simple enough to appreciate that support with my own dollars.

So, I wanted a Yamaha. Maybe I’m maudlin or puppy-dog loyal or misguided, but it’s another way to show my appreciation to the tuning-fork company that shares my belief in rider training. I looked at and rode XR and XL650s, DR650s, a few KTMs and another KLR, but kept returning to Yamaha dual-sport products, specifically WR450Fs with lighting kits, XT350s and 550s and 600s and the two-stroke DT400. Those were the bikes that caught my attention and prompted phone calls. Yes, I wanted a Super Tenere but it was above the Christmas budget.

As with any search, I began narrowing my choices. Since I live at an elevation of 5,000 feet and ride uphill from there, I knew a big single was mandatory and I’d want to shoot myself on a small four-stroke bike. I’d already sold an almost-new CRF250X Honda because it was so boring at this elevation. So the XT350 was eliminated and the DT400 was too, despite my love of two-strokes, because I had a lot of trouble finding a clean DT around here, and never found one that had been thoughtfully modded. Too bad, because I was motivated to get a stroker. Some readers might remember that I have a “street lethal” KX500 dual-sport bike but its usefulness as a ride-with-my-wife-play-bike is akin to giving your first-grader knives to juggle as toys. Pre-mixing the fuel and kick-starting it erase “play bike” from its description. When I kick it to life, large parts of terra firma boil out from beneath the rear tire, not much fun to ride behind, I’ve heard.

So then I looked at the XT550 and wasn’t crazy about the drum front brake. Or the kickstarter. Yep, I said it: Not crazy about the kickstarter. Wimpy? Yes. Lazy? Yes. Old…what?

So that slimmed my choices down to the ’90s XT600 or a WR450F with a street-legal kit: both are electric start. I rode Keith Culver’s WR and decided I could live with the dirt ergonomics, specifically the narrow seat. Prices were all over the board, but to get a good one it appeared that I would spend at least $4,500.

And then I found this 1995 XT600 in Bountiful, Utah. The ad looked good: Original owner, 2,200 miles (yes, 2,200!), stock pipe, stock everything except handgrips. New battery. Never down.

I called my friend Gary Klein in Salt Lake City. He rode his FZ1 over and had a look. “I’m not an expert in used bikes,” Klein began. “But it’s clean. Started right up. There’s some scratches on one handguard and the header pipes are stained, but it looked great.”

At this point I had spoken with the owner Bill twice. Moments after Gary’s report I called him back and asked if there was any room on the $2,850 asking price because he had already said the tires should probably be replaced. He thought $2,600 would be acceptable.

These phone conversations happened while driving south from Tucson to Inde Motorsports Ranch for a Champ school. Mark Schellinger was driving and we started brainstorming about how I could buy a bike sight-unseen, long-distance and then get it home to my place in Colorado ten hours from Salt Lake.

“Hey,” Mark said with sudden inspiration. “Call Scott Rybarik…Boulder Motorsports is building his Duc and he’s supposed to drive out from Salt Lake to pick it up. He might be able to bring the XT.”

Fifteen seconds later I explained the deal and Scott said that he was indeed driving to Boulder, Colorado, in three weeks and could easily bring the XT. No problem. We’d meet at Boulder Motorsports and I’d bring the 600 home.

But first I had to pay for it. My parents live in Salt Lake, but I was loathe to ask my 79 year old mom or dad to drive to Bountiful to “buy Nicky another motorcycle.” I told Scott, “Okay, I’ve got to figure out how to get Bill the money and then how to get the bike to you. I’ll call you back.”

But Scott didn’t hang up, he said, “The bike’s about an hour away from me. How much does he want?”

“$2,600”

“Oh, well, then I’ll just drive out there today and if it’s clean, I’ll pay him and bring it home, keep it here for three weeks and then drive it to Boulder. Just send me a check.”

Yep, he said that. In this age of ripoffs and scams and distrust and digital friendships, my friend Scott Rybarik offered to take his own hard-earned dollars, drive two hours to buy a bike for me and then store it at his house before finally delivering it to within three hours of my house. “No problem.”

Suddenly my emotional desire to buy a Yamaha due to loyalty was matched by a friend’s generous offer. Neither move makes sense on paper, but Scott and I are friends because we would each make those moves. Scott believes my coaching has helped his racing, and he appreciated being a coach at the Sunset Clinic before he moved to Salt Lake. His appreciation pushed him to extend himself to help me, as my appreciation for Yamaha’s efforts has guided me to purchase tuning-fork products. Loyalty and the Golden Rule, in play to help put an XT600 in my garage.

John Ulrich, the owner of Roadracing World magazine, once said that for a group of relatively unassociated people, motorcyclists were a pretty great group. I can’t remember if he wrote that or said that, but when I heard or read it, I agreed. Sure there are exceptions, but Ulrich’s observation has almost always proved true.

And it did here again. Bill, the owner of the XT, noticed that the 600 was dripping oil so he bought a new shift-shaft seal and replaced it before Scott picked up the bike. He put a brand-new high-end battery in it. He included the original sales sheet, the owner’s manual and a workshop manual. When I finally saw the bike at Boulder Motorsports, I called Bill and thanked him for taking such good care of it and representing it so fairly. I told him it was exactly what I wanted and I’d probably keep it forever. “No problem,” he answered. “After I met your friends Gary and Scott, I knew the bike was in good hands. You’ve got real good friends there.”

Motorcyclists: Damn good people.

**Late edit: I just shook digital, long-distance hands on another sight-unseen motorcycle, purchased from Pete Boccarossa's collection on www.superbikeuniverse.com. Can you guess which one of his jewels I bought?*

More Next Tuesday!