Beginning of a New Cycle

Traveling from the Arctic Circle to the southern tip of South America by motorcycle has been a dream of mine for over a decade. It hasn’t been a constant thought, but it has definitely surfaced every year or two. Last month when a Columbian friend told me he wanted to return to Columbia by land I brought up joining him on motorcycles. He thought this would be a good idea. A week later I found out he would be leaving the country before I could go with him, but it didn’t stop me from researching what kind of motorcycle would be the best one for the journey. All of my research led to the same bike: The Kawasaki KLR 650. The KLR is cost effective, dependable, relatively light (compared to the BMW), easy to work on and also the motorcycle used by the US military. This is an on/off road motorcycle that gets between 50 and 60 miles per gallon. I have to admit it has become somewhat of an obsession for the last four weeks, even seeping into my dreams.

After my daily Craigslist and Ebay perusing, I began to get frustrated. The specific KLRs that I had been watching were gone and in there place were only a few older models from Denver, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. Though I was ready and willing, the thought of hitchhiking for half a day to buy a motorcycle only to find the there was something wrong with it was disheartening. Wouldn’t it be great to find a KLR right here in the Yampa Valley? On my way back to the office I checked out the Wheels and Deals for the Western Slope… nothing. I had finally resigned to the fact that this was not the time or the place to buy a motorcycle when I picked up the daily paper. This paper always had a list of three motorcycles, which never included the Kawasaki KLR 650, never that is, until today.

2007 Kawasaki KLR, 1300 miles. Kept in garage. Was all it said but I couldn’t have asked for a better description. I called immediately. Message machine. I expected a call back promptly but had to wait just long enough to begin to lose hope. Who knew how long this motorcycle had been in the classifieds? He probably sold it. Just as soon as I got immersed in work, my phone spurted out the ring that means “unfamiliar caller.” It was him.

Twenty minutes later I was tooling around on a monster bike. Twenty-two minutes later I had agreed to buy it. “Will you take off $300 so I can buy a jacket and some gloves?” I asked.

“I would if another guy hadn’t called after you offering full price.”

The KLR was in beautiful condition and they are becoming harder and harder to find, especially with gas prices going up as they are.

My afternoon was the beginning of a love affair getting to know something that I knew I would spend lots of time with, for better or worse. I don’t know when I will get to go on the grand adventure from Arctic Circle to Chile, but I did take care of the first step. I now have a motorcycle and it’s the perfect one for the job.