PlatKat.com: Bike Shopping Blues

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Bike Shopping Blues

For some reason, I was shadow-banned from Fark, meaning no one can see my posts in the discussion threads. And so everyone will stop asking, no, I didn't start a fight or post offensive pictures. I really have no idea what happened, but my level of concern over this particular time-wasting vehicle is relatively low. Consequently, I expect absolutely nothing to be done about this, and have thus moved on to finding more productive means of passing time at work.

I, Former TotalFarkette platkat, am motorcycle shopping.

I sold my first and only car last year. I loved that car with every ounce of my being (go ahead, call me white trash) and did not want to sell it. Knowing then what I know now, I wouldn't have. Like a dead pet, it's too soon to get another.

Lucky for me, I took a motorcycle class while bored in New York. I may not be ready for a car, but nothing's stopping me from getting a bike.

Except finding one, that is. I've been combing the ads on craigslist, searching for the perfect first bike, which I will surely wreck or at least scratch to high hell. So whatever I get must be used, and fairly cheap. It's a delicate dance though, because whatever I get is going to be pretty old, but with my limited knowledge of bikes thusfar, it can't require too many repairs.

You'd think Seattle-ites would be unloading their used, cheap bikes during the winter for, well, cheap. But I'm having a hell of a time finding anything that isn't a powerful sport bike that's way too nice, a plethora of dirt bikes, or a quad. (Quads should have their own section, by the way. Who the hell rides down a city street on a fucking quad?)

The biggest catch-22 I've encountered so far is that all the cheap, old bikes (and most of the bikes in general) are located in cheap, old places: Bothell, Federal Way, Renton... I don't know if there's a bus to take me where I'd need to go in those towns, but even if there were, it would mean that if I bought a bike, I'd have to ride it on the highway for longer than I am comfortable.

I'd love to take more motorcycle classes in order to get comfortable, but all the ones I've seen here so far either resemble the beginner class I've already taken or they require you to already have a bike. So it feels as though I pretty much have to wait until the perfect bike goes on sale in Seattle proper. I'm sure if someone wanted to sell their bike badly enough, they'd ride it out to where I am, but usually people with good deals on good bikes get a lot of responses and don't need to put up with such nonsense.

Le sigh...

I might as well look into buying a rocket while I'm at it.

posted by platkat @ 1:45 PM