Ever bought a bike and immediately realised your mistake?

I saw one of my dirt racing buddies sliding a corner on one, and thought, "I'll have one of those". Ten years later, I bought a used one. The exhaust note said "I am racing", the cam boxes were too wide for my knees to touch the tank and after much undoing of hotrod mods, it would only get 90 miles on a tank of fuel. Then I traded it for a broken Audi, and things went further downhill.

Ah,much like the drunken evening I traded a 1977 GS750 Suzuki for a 74 Norton 850 Roadster. The Suzuki was bone reliable and handled well for what it was in 1977.
The Norton? I remember the seat flying off the back of the bike when I did a quick start on the way home with it,seems the big dumb knobs that hold it on will never stay tight. I held on by my fingertips as the seat flew out from under my ass.
The 850 looked great,sounded great,made great noises but could Not complete a 40 mile ride with out something breaking off the bike,something ceasing to work,or feet flying off the pegs due to oil accumulation.
The pegs dragging early and often were a distraction,the front end reliably tucking on corners at speed was fun to watch Im told. I made it to the coast from Chico once on the 850,I think we fixed it 3 or 4 times on the way.
At the exact farthest point from home..........the rotor blew to bits and took out the stator. We bought a couple 12 packs and camped on the beach,then I rode home with my eyes bugging out scared to the pissing point on the back of a 900 Ducati. I traded the Norton for a pumped 1974 RD350 that would wheelie through 3rd easily.
I may have done stupider things then getting that Norton but cant remember any at the moment.

XL600............Nice handling,bags o torque............ They have built some newer thumpers since then that may tickle your fancy. 83 wasnt Honda's best year.

I was in the market to upgrade my old CB900C for something with more wind protection and carrying capacity. Test road a used one and didn't like it. So i tried two more thinking that maybe the first one was a fluke. Still did not like it. Had a chance to by a mint one for like $1400 and still did'nt like it. Got back on my 900 to drive home and felt like it would of been a downgrade to the CB. Compared to it the motor put off too much heat, shifting was notchy and the whole bike vibrated too much. Now if I this was my first bike I'd probably think it was great but I had too many other bikes to compare it to and it failed the comfort test.

I just bought a used 2009 KLR with 4,200 miles on it. I previously had a 2000 KLR I bought new and traded for a new SV650 after 6 months and 10,000 miles. I should have known better.

I think I'll be selling the 09 KLR soon.

Any takers?

Just traded in my 2009 Triumph Sprint ST. I bought the bike with 896 miles on it. The P/o was too short for it, and took it back to the dealer after a few weeks. I picked it up and put 10,000 miles on it. Great bike, but.... I just couldn't stand the stupid "smiley face" headlights. Is that weird? I just could never get used to the way it looked from the front. It was like it had this retarded grin stuck to its face - which is a shame since from every other angle the bike looked awesome. My wife also sat so high on the back seat that she never rode with me. I had this strange love hate relationship with it. I'd come back from a ride thinking, Dang this bike is awesome and then the next morning look at it in the garage and think - ugh you are so ugly. It was comfy, powerful, smooth but I just never bonded 100 % with it.
I then bought a 2002 R1150RT That was a 1 owner bike with full service history so that I could have something for longer trips with more wind protection. It had 38k on the clock. It was pristine and I went over it again with a fine tooth comb, techlusion, overhaul starter, valves, TB syncs, etc etc. For some odd reason, I feel in love with it, maybe because I bonded with it all those hours in the garage - but something was missing. It shifted like a tractor and my better half asked me when I was going to ride my "old mans bike." Finally, a few weeks ago, she told me to "figure out what bike I want, and go buy it."

There's a brand new 2012 R1200RT in my garage. Traded everything in on it. What an awesome machine. I finally feel like I've found my bike.

I bought the first bike I ever owned back in March. Suzuki M50 2006 model. Loved it...until I started doing the GLMC USA rally! Found that my stamina on the thing was a little over a half hour before knees and legs got to hurting so bad it was not fun anymore. Highway pegs make it even worse. Bike handles well, fun to ride but the riding position and I don't get along very well. Stamina is getting better but can not wait until I can sell it and buy a bike with a different riding position and more comfortable on longer rides.

Until then, I am a cruisin'!

As a master procrastinator and lookie loo. I have been pretty sure when I pull the trigger.

A friend of mine was buying bikes every couple of months. I got to ride a lot of different bikes and learned there a lot of weird bikes. I realized those magazine testers aren't so smart. If you ride 4 similar bikes it is easy to see this one has great power, this one brakes well, this one handles best, this one is quirkie etc. So know I know the bike that looks really cool my ride like crap. So test everything and ride as many different bikes as you can for experience and knowledge.

I would love to retract my earlier statement regarding my K1200RS... not long after falling in love with it, it started leaking oil from the timing chain cover. The expensive dealer "fix" lasted three weeks. The rear shock gave up the ghost after 21,000 km. The brakes were pure punishment to bleed, and much of the rubber bits dry rotted. There were a few other deficiencies that cropped up. I don't want to bad mouth it too much as I could have lived with the brakes if that was the only issue.

It was drop dead gorgeous to look at and it had turbine smooth power. If there weren't too many technical turns, it was pretty stable. Got everything fixed and lost $7000 on the sale.

Ironically, I sold my 2008 KLR650 and my 2005 Triumph Tiger 955i to buy the KRS. The KLR was forgetable, but selling my Tiger was a huge mistake. If only I could turn back time.

Was this bike subjected to high doses of radiation by any chance?

My Concours 1000.

I might like it if I stripped it naked, but that's not going to happen now that it's wearing a really expensive piece of billet steel where the shit-tier fairing mount on the steering head was. Oh well, this mount will never break. Now it's just a matter of time until the fairing stay itself breaks, hope that it doesn't happen on the trip I'm planning this summer.

Part of it is me. I just don't like big fairings. I liked the bike a lot more once I got rid of the Cee Bailey barn door and got a short little Gustaffson shield.

Don't knock it till you've tried it. I've tried it, and now I'm definitely knocking it.

I was tempted to make it into a naked bike but I didn't think I'd have time to complete it before I left on my trip on the 31st.

I also didn't want to spend the money on a headlight bucket, fork ears, front signals, relocating the TS flasher, and wiring some gauges in, either Koso, Acewell, or Vapor. And then there's my time which I don't have much of because I'm working a lot of hours at work.

....I don't want to talk about it

I bought a Ducati S4. Within 10 minutes, it ate the fuel pump wiring and I pushed it home. The dealer (I bought it from a Ducati dealer), came and got it, and when I got it back, it ate the fuel pump wiring again. I started to get a bad feeling about this bike. I looked under the tank and it was rubbing the wiring on the rear cylinder head, that's why the wiring was cooking itself. I made a spacer and the dealer put it in with a new fuel pump and wiring. When I got it back again, it started cutting out real bad, within the first day, remember, I had not put more than 10 miles on it yet. I was just about the ask for my money back, but this time it was the sidestand safety switch cutting out. OK, one more chance. To this day, 4 + years later, it's been almost dead nuts reliable. It is the most fun bike to ride that I've ever owned. Real good power, it spins the back up coming off of turns. It will wheelie in third gear if you clutch it up, power it up in 1st and second. It handles great, Ohlins in the back, Race Tech reworked Showa's in the front. It is as fast on a tight road as anything I've ever owned, and I've owned a lot of bikes. I've owned faster bikes, but this one beats them all for fun.

I'm glad I kept it, the KTM 950 I just bought has a big job ahead if it is to top the S4.

Nope. I've never owned a Kawasaki.

I owe you a beer for that.

It spent most of its life in the garage, and up here in Ontario, we don't exactly have a great deal of "sun days".

The cat's meow in 1972 or before ,after ? in good condition a trail bike ,left for freaking dead by Hodaka's ,hondas,suzukis,Steens and everything else on the planet.
Regards,Ed

Ah, what does it mean if you can't remember if you did or didn't ? Shit now I remember ,77 kz 400 in 1979/80 . What will it take to forget again ?

Regards,Ed
ps I really didn't remember this bike until starting this post

Put a post in the bottom of the rear portion and put that back on the boat !

Maybe it's just me,Ed

Hey now - I still own a Kawasaki.

It is, however, broken down out in back of the house right now...