On my way back from Walmart I stopped at the Yamaha dealership. Turns out they can hone the Suzuki cylinder for me, so I'll take it in there one of these days.
While I was there, I took a gander at the bikes on display. It seems if you're in the market for a crotch rocket (sport bike) or a V-twin (cruiser bike) you are in luck, but if you want a standard bike with a 4-cylinder engine and fuel injection that costs less than $15,000, you are SOL. (No problem! Buy a Honda Goldwing for the low low price of $23,000! Whee!)
*sigh*
Assuming I had a job, I could see paying about $10,000 for the right motorcycle, new--a bike with fuel injection and four cylinders which does not require me to fold myself into a pretzel to ride it--but I'm not going to buy anything sub-optimal.
Of course a V-twin engine displacing 750 cc will beat the snot out of my present bike's engine, torque-wise, allowing higher gearing and thus lower engine speeds while riding the highways--but I want smooth and elegant, not "Harley Davidson wannabe".
...not that any of this matters right now since I don't have the cash to spare on a new motorcycle. It's just kind of funny.
But it was nice just to look, anyway, and think about what looks good and what doesn't. I saw a cruiser bike there that might do the trick, though, with an MSRP of around $11,000...assuming it's fuel injected, which I don't even know. I didn't even sit on any of them, contenting myself just to look and ponder.
The shop there has a cat in residence, and he let me scratch him under the chin and behind the ears. I didn't think to ask which bike was his....
Also took a brief look at safety gear, but didn't ask about prices. I might do that later; it'd be nice to have a proper riding jacket.
The bike didn't miss a beat, and though I didn't check the tires when I got home everything still felt okay. When I went out to the garage to mount up, I checked the tire pressures and they were right where I'd left them the last time I rode the thing. I added a few PSI for good measure, then used a box-end wrench to tighten the valve caps beyond finger-tight. (And yes, I tossed the wrench into the trunk, so if I need to get the valve caps off when I'm not at home, I can.)
So my next thing is to sit the bike out in front of the garage again, and see what happens to the tires this time, with the valve caps tightened down.
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...among other things, I need to cut the grass. It's looking about ripe for cutting.
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I took my first synthroid pill this afternoon, and will take the second when I wake up tomorrow. (Er, make that "yesterday afternoon" and "later today". Whatev.)
But while I was laying in bed waiting for Lemonzen to arrive, the tingling in my legs subsided so far that I felt like they were melting into the mattress. Total relaxation of my legs, unprompted...could the tingling be due to my maladjusted thyroid output?
My back hurt from riding the motorcycle. I took a route that didn't have speed limits set faster than 45 MPH for much longer than a mile or two at a time, instead mostly set at 30-35...but which was bumpy in spots. That bumpiness was not good for my back.
We had food from Super Burrito! We had a good time tonight.
* * *
Anyway, tired and heading for bed.