meet my monster

So, I proceeded to solicit advice about what sort of motorcycle to buy from my good friend, Chalo. He's been riding motorcycles for many years and is also a big guy. Also, I started trolling eBay and later CraigsList exhaustively, learning the models, what I liked, and asking him countless questions.

Now, I trust Chalo's advice, and I even took some of it into consideration when deciding what to get; however, in the end, I chose mostly with my heart. After shopping quite a bit, I found a recent Ducati Monster 620 that had been babied for its first 1900 miles of life by a retired gentleman.

Unfortunately, Andy had discovered on his first low-speed spill that he isn't strong enough to lift a full size motorcycle anymore. Further, it was shaking his bones too much and leaving him so stiff after rides that walking hurt for a while afterwards.

Anyway, this morning he took his last ride on that beautiful black bike in order to exchange it for a cashier's check that he's going to turn into a nice scooter. I'm sad that he can't ride motorcycles anymore, but I'm also happy he's not completely giving up riding.

It was so hard to wait patiently through the work day today, knowing that my new bike was at home, just waiting for me to start learning how to ride it.