Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

A friend of mine was killed on Sunday morning on his way to work. He was run off the road on his motorcycle. He got airlifted to the hospital and went into surgery. Afterwards a clot formed and caused a stroke. He is an organ donor and he will continue on helping other people survive, just like he did, overcoming addictions in his younger years.

I will always remember my friend for driving down from Delaware just to help me move furniture I bought off Craigslist into a room I was renting in Georgetown. I will always remember him for being a huge Eagles fan and having a tattoo of his seats in Veterans’ Stadium.

At any rate, please, while you are driving, keep an eye out for motorcyclists.

This is the main reason I haven’t yet gotten my motorcycle license. I’m scared to death of people driving who do not see me. In the past week, a friend of mine was at a red light and tapped by a driver who was on a cellphone who did not stop. She was slowing down and misjudged the distance. While this particular friend did not sustain injury, he was so startled, he dropped his new bike. (A used Suzuki)

If anything, I am resolved now to sell my motorcycle before the season ends in October. Someone else can take all the risk.

There have been days this summer, or rather sleepless nights, where I regretted getting the bike. And then I had a perfectly clear afternoon this week, schedule-wise and weather-wise. I put my fully-charged battery back into the bike, mashing up the screw on the right and got it started again. I love fixing stuff myself, especially when I don’t get electrocuted. (Upon closer inspection, I see that the screw on the right had been mashed into its socket before by the friend who first installed it for me. It’s just not a good fit into that spot. It just isn’t.)

At any rate, I haven’t made it out of the parking lot. Some nice people I know helped get me re-oriented and tweak a few things a couple of weeks ago, when I had my first moments riding in the parking lot at home. I was really nervous and tense about it all. But this afternoon, I had a great time making ovals around the cement medians, and cutting figure-8’s in low gears. It hurts my forearms to squeeze the levers, but it’s a good kind of ache.

Even though I am sorry I spent the money, on the other hand, I had a great time noodling around that afternoon. I can now stop reliably, even if it’s still not perfect. If I had a jacket on, I would have taken the bike out of the lot, onto the street. But I left it inside for the moment since I had only intended to practice. I’m not really supposed to ride alone anyway because I have only a permit.

I’m still edgy about riding on the street in traffic, but I had a great time on the bike. It’s perfect for puttering over to nearby places like the farmer’s market.

For the amount of enjoyment I’m getting though, I have no regrets. It felt really nice to ride around the lot and practice even if it’s costing me a gazillion dollars per mile. LOL.

Little by little, step by step. I’m going to learn to ride.

I forgot to tell you guys that the new TripleTred tires drive really well in the rain. They have a better feel on the road and I’m really glad I sank the money into them. Yes, they do corner better and I feel like they improve my handling at higher speeds. They were worth the money.

Even better is that there was an offer for a $40 Visa card as a rebate on my purchase. (It’s a promotion that’s still going on. I saw a sign for it again today at the Goodyear store.) I came back from the holiday weekend and found that my Visa card was waiting for me! WOO HOO!

So the plan is to use it to buy a trickle charger for my motorcycle, which I ordered from a small repair shop that was highly recommended to me. (I hope he takes Visa. He actually might not. I didn’t even think of that. Who doesn’t in this day and age?)

I spent my extra day off going to banks in VA and MD, ordering the charger, getting a car wash, buying a new shredder, catching up on blogs, and cleaning my apartment. Wednesday was a good day.

The ding is that the shredder was a lot of money. But I think it’s worth it since I’ve broken two home office shredders already, and the tall industrial shredder at work doesn’t like me either because I dump fistfuls of paper into at a time. Who has an hour to wait for shredding? I am Fawn Hall on steroids. (Please God, I hope my readers remember who she is. I’m not *that* old.)

The other ding is that I used the local car wash place ($14) that’s ‘touchless’. Honestly, it’s not that much better than the car wash place ($8) at the gas station by my office. The wheels are a lot cleaner, but still dirty. They don’t do the greatest job, so I was still wiping them down with Armor All and hitting up the windows with Rain-X when I got home. There is getting a good value from an awesomely powerful new shredder, and then just wasting your money between two things that are roughly the same. Now I know. I won’t use the place near home. Always get a wash at lunchtime instead.

Two and half hours, but I now have VA tags and title on my bike. Tax, registration, title came out to $110.00. Cover and lock, $250.00. Bike ~$1700.00.

Missed the learner’s permit exam by one question. I pay $2 and I can take the test again. If I wait 15 days, I lose 2 weekends and 4th of July holiday to ride the bike. Guess what? I’m going to try and take it again on Monday.

Bought an octane booster ($13.50) for the bike’s gas tank because of the old gas in it. The idle dies after stopping, but I knew about this and the boys all recommend the booster and topping off the tank to get the bike into a shop.

Bike needs new tires, because unlike cars, you replace the tires based on time, not mileage. I knew about this when buying the bike.

It needs a wash. But I am totally freakin’ excited now.

When I get new tires, I will also be getting a new helmet. Again, you replace it based on time or else if you had a crash. My helmet was used from an MSF instructor and a bit old now, so this is the year. I’ll be getting a white or yellow one, because yellow matches the bike and much safer than the dark blue I own now.

1) I found the missing iPod Nano. It was in a purse I use only during the summer. I wanted to take that a barbecue yesterday and found the Nano in it. Dead battery though. I won’t sell it since I think I might be riding the bus more frequently now that I know a couple of useful routes to ride.

2) I am the blogger for whom Clever Dude moved a motorcycle. The unexpected nature of the transfer is costing me quite a bit, but in the end, it’s better to do it. I’m still in the process of moving it officially, so I will eventually put a tally out there of the interstate transfer expenses, but not for a while yet. (She is a cute little bike, isn’t she?) The title is clean and I visit the DMV this week to take the written exam for my permit.

3) I got the papers for tuition reimbursement and the official word that it will be part of my next paycheck disbursement in two weeks. THANK GOD. That’s nearly $3K I can shave off my credit card balances very quickly!

4) Medical FSA. I think this is going to need a separate post, but I got drama going on with that one too. I’ll know better in a week how it’s going to play out, but I thought I’d mention it now so I wouldn’t forget about it later.

Ah, so I did it. I picked up the bike, insurance, and title this weekend. Next weekend, a trip to the DMV to complete the transfer. After that, getting the permit. Somewhere in there I have to pick up one more piece of gear (overpants), because I already own my own gear. I’ll try to put together a tally after I get the pants figured out. But this definitely will go on my August net worth calculations as an asset! Oh boy, I cannot wait!

It’s a really clean bike. The guy who owned it treated it really well. His wife no longer wants to ride it anymore so she’s making him sell it. I think she was actually shorter than me. It’s a 2002 MZ RT125. It’s a very small cc bike, but it could really move when we opened up the throttle with about 285 lbs. on it.

The beauty of this bike is that it doesn’t make a small person feel like they have to have a lot of strength to manhandle it. The problem with the Honda Rebel 250, which is recommended for most short stature riders as a starter bike, is that it weighs about 350 dry, and feels super heavy when you sit down on it. I always felt like I had to start going to the gym to ride it. This bike is so light, I don’t have that issue at all. Dry weight per the manual is about 290! WOW! That’s crazy light.

MZ, being finely designed and crafted by Germans (East), did a great job stripping this bike to well-placed essentials. My friend is jealous that I have a real dipstick on my oil tank and not just a little window like his SV650. HA! Even so, it’s the small things like the placement of the switches and how far you have to move them to engage or disengage them. Doing small repairs on this bike myself will be pretty easy. Chain maintenance, oil tank/filter access, etc is all very reasonable. The valves could be replaced at home too, but I don’t ever think I’ll get that ambitious. I’m just happy to have matched spanners to adjust my own shocks.

This bike is a rarity, so I hope that it will retain some of its value. A lot of starter bikes hold their value since they can be sold to the next beginner, often for what was paid for it, less any maintenance or repairs done. (I love that it takes mostly stock Yamaha parts.)

Whee!

ps- If you want to leave an instantly appearing comment, use the comment link to the left. I moderate comments from link on the right, and today is a day I have to keep the nose to the grindstone.

In about 2 hours, I might own a motorcycle. It’s neither here, nor there what you think of them. I am pretty sure it’s going to be mine once it passes the test.

I always wanted a bike or scooter when I lived in San Francisco. It was about 7 years ago that I first thought of this. I have family members who ride and the advice was the same. Don’t get a bike till you can get your starter bike for cash. Well… I have that emergency fund… And you see this model doesn’t come on the market very often. It’s a 125cc engine and it’s in very good condition. At my weight, I can easily crank it up to 80mph and with an aftermarket kit, add an additional 8HP.

There’s a lot about this bike that is absolutely perfect for a starter. So though I haven’t saved specifically for it over the last 7 years, I have thought very much about what I wanted. It’s the right opportunity.

Now if it passes just one test, it’s mine. I will need liability insurance, new riding pants and possibly boots. I have about a month or two left in the riding season and I’ve already taken an MSF course once and failed. I just never logged enough hours riding on anything to become competent. Without getting my own bike, I’ll never be able to pass the MSF course, or a state licensing exam.

I hope the bike passes the test. If not, I won’t be shopping for another bike for a while because I know I shouldn’t be pillaging the emergency basket of cash for this.