A Satisfied Customer

A few days ago, a fellow author asked her Facebook audience, “What was the best purchase you ever made?” I replied with a photo of my eighth motorcycle, bought new in 2004.

I was fifty-four at the time. I’d taken a long break from the activity, then resumed with a 1976 Kawasaki 900, a version of which I’d owned in 1974.

My Kawasaki was more fun-to-own as a fond memory than in real life. In less than a year, I was shopping again. Curiously, dealers were allowing customers to test ride bikes. You had to sign a form saying you’d buy it if you crashed, but I had the opportunity to try out a lot of iron, and I took it.

I thought for certain I’d buy a BMW Dual-Sport, but the Suzuki DL1000 was too amazing. I rode it for ten years. It was exciting to operate, every time, without fail — easily the best purchase I ever made, in any category, and I never fell out of love with it.

In 2012, I hit a curb at walking speed, tipped over, and pinched a foot under the bike. My Achilles tendon was sore for a year, a persistent reminder that I should think about what it meant.

Some men ride in carriages, others on horseback. I always took pride in being one of the latter, but I haven’t lost the capacity to acknowledge change in my life. In 2014 I bought a Ford Mustang convertible and let the bike go. I was sixty-four years old. I almost cried the day a younger man rode away on it, but it was time.