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(See also pictures below.)
... I bought my ride November 14, 1998. That was a Saturday as I
remember. It's funny that the bike I first looked at a couple of
months prior turned out to be the one I bought. I was looking for
another car actually but decided I just didn't have $20K to put
into anything not even considering a bike.
In 1979 I sold 2 Triumph 750 tridents on the east coast and came out to southern california. Had a Honda 250 (i think it was) for a little while but it was the least satisfying ride I'd ever been on.
Then I got married yada yada yada... You see, I used to ride those 750s from Delaware to Massachusetts and back to the USAF base in Dover (Delaware). The trip is on the order of 360 miles and I did it in all kinds of weather. Little did I know I was developing a taste for crusing/touring. Have you ever rode through up state NY on the Taconic (spelling?) state parkway in the fall? I just fell in love with that kind of travel!
Ok, 20 years later... if I couldn't buy what I wanted in a car, what else was there?... da... what about a bike? Well it should be big! I knew the 750 was too small for spending any kind of time on it so what then? I remembered having to work on those Triumphs all the time while my buddies just cleaned and polished their Yamahas and Hondas. ...Ok they adjusted the carbs every now and then. Anyway, seemed to me the guys on the "jap" bikes spent most of their time riding so I guess I was going to look at jap bikes.
I'd heard Suzuki had some shaft drive bikes and honda and yamaha too. When I dialed up the suzuki site and saw the LC I knew I didn't have to look any further. I did, of course, but in the end I ended up on the LC. I'd heard all kinds a crap about how heavy (too heavy) it was and it was the first year out and all that. I started to consider the Yamaha royal star or V star then the Honda Ace tourer and finally the Valkyrie had lead position for a long time. The guy up the street bought a Kawasaki Vulcan and the Nomad was really attractive to me. The bottom line was the cost was more than I was willing to give.
...so what it really was that sold me was Suzuki's marketing blurb about how this was the bike I was waiting for and that the wait was over! Then I found an ad for the beastie for $8,499.00 at a local suzuki dealer and called them... by the time I got out of there I had the additional 3 yr. warranty, the windshield with lowers and the light bar. Total you ask? $11,100.00 tax/lic/assembly out the door! I think that's pretty damned good for something that's exactly what you want! How often do You get exactly what you what!?
Peter Bisson - eMail