redkow97

The "American Dream" is no longer obtained, it is financed throughout your life, and then liquidated by creditors upon your demise...

Are you volunteering to teach me? I'm realistic about my relative lack of financial savvy. The plan was/is to find someone in the field and pay for their guidance regarding how to proceed. As your post suggests, a few hundred (or even a few thousand) dollars well-spent now stands to save me tens of thousands over the next 30 years.

$45k is the average starting income. I'm not sure if that is limited to "salary." There are $100k+ jobs that pull the average up, and people building their own practice that pull the average down. The problem is that reasonable hustle used to guarantee $75k pretty quickly. Any more, that's hard to reach even when you're busy.

The bike will wiggle and scare the crap out of you, but it's probably still safe to ride the posted speed limit with decent body position. The tires moving between grooves is fine. It's losing reaction that you care about. All that said, I hate that shit too.

Chassis, engines, an cost, to name a few. That said, JB's 4x4 F150 with the 5.0 gets as good or better mileage than my 4.0 ranger did...

Worth looking at. It will be very obvious very quickly if he's lying about it being down...

Technically the loans are 6.8% and I get it down to 6.625 by setting up automatic payments. But the points above are why I'm considering it. On the bright side, my actual payment is going to be less than the estimate. I should be able to further reduce it by not filing taxes jointly next year.

What happened to the flat black Chevy with the in-bed camper?

You sure you don't want to reverse that plan?It's not like you're a track day fiend in need of a full-on race replica. The VFR for sport touring and SV for spirited street rides sounds like just about the perfect combo to never miss the CBR. Might have an easier time selling the CBR too

Where are you averaging 7% return on your investments? I have a pension, and a Roth IRA where all my 401k money was rolled. I will have to check, but I think my return is 5-7%, and it's not compounding the way my interest is.

You're running the line with your head rather than your tires. I would bet you almost anything. Just be conscious of it and practice. You'll be on the apex in no time.

not another multistrada owner... ;-)

the quick and dirty is: $25 to practice on Saturday Sunday racing is $25 for the first class, and then less thereafter. Could easily ride all weekend for $75 or less. I expect people will organize a hotel/camp site 'block' as well. Really wish I could make it down.

...but really, I've never encountered a Harley that was going obnoxiously slow. At least not on the highway.

This is a tough question for a lot of the reasons already discussed. I think you should always try to look at a bike, hear it running, and (if possible) ride it before judging whether or not you would own it. A nice "tight" sounding engine with 40,000 miles on the clock is probably fine. a 2009 bike with tons of valve chatter and cam-chain noise and an oil spot on the garage floor beneath it is cause for concern. Know the basic model history, and common issues (ex. said cam-chain tensioner on 90's Hondas), and just do a good inspection.

I am not a GM fanboy, but I can appreciate that Polaris seems to have deferred to an auto maker rather than designing a motor that is likely double the size of anything else they produce. 2.4 liter I-4 is what I read. Sounds like the cobalt SS motor, in its Cruze incarnation(?) Regardless, as long as they can tune it to be the RIGHT amount of tail-happy, it could really be a blast to drive.

installing a damper to correct a poor chassis/suspension design isn't the answer. In fact, I would conjecture that a damper might relieve the issue at lower speeds, but exacerbate it at higher speeds. That might prove more dangerous.

I was registered on this site for a year or more before I started logging in consistently. Don't take it personally. It takes a little time to break the ice on a new forum. I belong to ex-500.com, 600rr.net, katriders.net, the NESBA bbs, the WERA bbs, and probably a couple more boards that I'm forgetting. The only two I check regularly are ORDN, and WERA. Been on KatRiders a couple of times a week to look up bits of info here and there, but I don't have any "friends" there.

Sean Clark has repeatedly said that I'd someone wired one to WERA specifications, he'll find a class for it to race. I don't think they're motorcycles, but I agree they could be a lot of fun.

Already impressed with your proper spelling and use of "a lot." Welcome.

**that is what I would buy, not what I am suggesting you buy. If you're looking for specific models, I am biased toward the EX500, because that was my first bike. In hindsight, I lucked my way into an awesome purchase. They are cheap, fast enough to cruise at 100mph all day (and push 120 if necessary), handle decently, and are mechanically solid. Other good options would be a Honda hawk, but that's bordering on "collectable" these days, or an FZ6R if you found one for cheap. Ninja 250/300 or GS500/buell blast are other fun, reliable, low-powered bikes that are great for new riders.

Whatever you want! $5000 will buy you almost any bike if you don't mind 20,000 miles and 5 years old. If this is your first bike, I would spend no more than $2k, and then plan on selling it for a newer/better bike in a year or two. The ER6 you posted is a nice ride that you could keep forever, but I would buy the clean SuperHawk or the used Z1000 posted before paying more for the ER6.

we run a combination of GoPro 2's and 3's on the XR's. JB's channel has a TON of samples... I defy you to tell me which is filmed with which camera http://www.youtube.com/user/bark615 (so i'm saying buy a 2 for cheap)

Isn't this how the entire state of Alaska works?

they also look at "comps" to see what the market will support. Like Josh said, this time of year, that's going to inflate the value. Too late now, but in the future, I would start off a thread like this by simply describing the bike as best you can, without saying what the seller wants for it. I'm not saying $5200 is or isn't a great deal, because I have no idea what ER6's go for, but I know what else I would buy instead for the $5200 asking... Rather than getting straight opinions on what that bike is worth, you've got me thinking about how else I'd spend that amount of money.