V Twin Gypsy: Recent Episodes
Alex Clendenning
After digging into the Indian Challenger more, I've found there are plenty of aftermarket options for the bike as it is now. Looking back at the King of the Baggers race, I can guess there will be many more aftermarket companies stepping up to bring more options to the Challenger world.
In the past, most of us have spent countless hours thinking of new and creative ways to live or provide for ourselves. One of the factors that stopped us then, or at least it stopped me, was the absence of free time. There was never enough time to get those needed steps done, or there never seemed to be enough resources within what I would call a reasonable time to acquire what was needed. But now all we have is time, the "rush" that used to be ever present is absent for the time being. Let us utilize this moment to begin building up the resources we need to actualize our passions and dreams.
This past year has been rough on us all, and this coming year(s) isn't looking like we will see much deviation from that course. But let's take this time to look ahead and prepare ourselves for the future, get ourselves ready for the adventures to come without the distraction of things we could be doing NOW.
I was talking with a sales manager at my current place of employment, a customer recently traded in a 2020 FLTRX Road Glide Standard in for a 2020 FLTRXS Road Glide Special. It was in the beautiful River Rock Grey Denim and I haven't been able to take my eyes away from it since it hit the showroom floor. I know my credit could use some work and as far as down payment goes that's not happening right away, but I figured I would ask a hypothetical question to have some idea on what I would be looking at in the future.
The parameters I gave her were as follows.
Tier 1 or tier 2 credit (over 700)
$3000 down payment
The answer I received was appalling, as an employee who had good credit and a down payment, the best rate I could expect to see on a 23,000 dollar motorcycle was between 480-500+ a month for 82 months. So do yourself a favor and shop around when you're considering taking out a loan for something.
There are plenty of folks out there who's lives and routines have been completely halted and rewritten due to restrictions placed on the people of Maine but not bikers. Suns out iron is out, we practice social distancing just by living our lives as normal.
I've been seeing and hearing a lot of folks talk about "you're first bike" and what NOT to buy as a first, in this episode I throw out my two cents on the topic which definitely goes against the grain from what I have been hearing. I usually fall onto the opposite side of the fence on most topics and this is no different, basically do you and just be smart about it so when the time comes to actually have some fun you can.
Is HD really worth all that extra cash you spend? I know there are some makes that match Harley and their MSRP but for the most part metric cruisers are all considerably less, so whats the big deal and are Harley's worth that extra coin? I get into my opinion on that topic here.
Things that give you an opportunity to handle problems and get a reward from them are an invaluable tool these days where few people growing up seem to have had the opportunity to learn to handle life and it's issues. Sometimes the only freedom and control you can find in life is riding and working on your own machine and sometimes that's enough.
We all have those close calls and near misses and lets face it, there's nothing we can do to change someone else's behavior but we can change our own.
It's almost time to hit the roads again ladies and gentlemen, what do you have planned for your bikes? How are you holding up during this craziness?