In my last post, I mentioned that I picked up a few camping items at LL Bean (http://www.llbean.com/). I plan to slowly accumulate everything I need for the trip over the course of the next seven months. We leave at the end of July and plan to be gone for sixteen days of riding and camping. It won't be an Iron Butt rally but I'm sure I'll be grateful to get horizontal each night.
Speaking of that, I got vertical today for the first time. I purchased an inversion table from Brookstone recently and found the time this week for the assembly. It took longer that I had thought but, this is a very sturdy unit, well capable of supporting my 200 lb. frame. I tested it out in a variety of positions, including fully vertical, with my head just inches above the ground. Very cool. I'm hoping that this will be a good way to decompress my lower back at the end of each day.
But, back to the topic of past bikes. I guess I didn't have any/many digital pix of my last two bikes so I had to troll the 'net to find shots of my last two rides. Here they are, in order of ownership. The first was a 2000 Kawasaki Ninja 600:
This is the first bike that I owned/paid for but there has been a long line of mini-bikes, dirt bikes and "borrowed" street bikes over the past 40+ years. I had always wanted a bike like this and did not hesitate to buy it.
My second bike was a 2002 Honda VFRA. To me, this is still the most beautiful bike built today, short of a couple of Ducatis or the stray MV Agusta or two. Here is a shot I found online:
You can tell from the shot how pleased the designers were with this bike. This was a redesign and a technological leap for Honda, at the time. In the past six years, this bike has gone largely unchanged. Rumors abound about larger displacement but this bike can run with all of the 600 or 750 class sport bikes and still give you all of the room you need for a weekend away.
That's it for tonight. I just wanted to post these two shots but got a little gabby. If you've owned either of these bikes and want to email me a photo of yours, I'll post it here with a note. Just send an email to me at joerocketmc@yahoo.com. I'd be interested in trading tales about them.
Thanks and have a great 2008!
Joe Rocket
PS - If you live in Southern NH and are looking for a group to ride with in the Nashua area, check us out online at our club site: http://www.amherstnhmc.com/
