July 8, 2005
1999 Honda CB750 Nighthawk
Though most of my gas-burning interests have revolved around cars, I've long been curious about motorcycles -- particularly, what it would be like to take longer trips like this one and this one, but was always too focused on other things to actually act on it. In April, I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's excellent course for novice riders, and a month later, rode home on my new-to-me bike.
When buying your first motorcycle, you can sum up the conventional wisdom roughly as follows: 1. Don't get a bike that's so fast you're going to kill yourself. 2. Because you *will* drop your bike at some point, get one you can afford to drop.
So after some amount of research, I wound up buying this 1999 Honda CB750 Nighthawk from a retiring mechanic in Lynn.
I bought the Nighthawk because it's fast enough to have fun, big enough to be comfortable on the highway, but not so big that it would be hard to handle. Also, they have the reputation of being exceptionally reliable, and easy to maintain, thanks to modern niceties like self-adjusting valves.
Always goal oriented, I took care of the dropping part the first night I owned it by foolishly putting the kickstand down on soft ground. Of course, it rained during the night the ground softened, and I woke up the next morning to find the bike lying on its side. Fortunately, damage was minimal.
Posted by dreeves at July 8, 2005 3:30 PM