Which reminds me. Did you see those kids on the National Spelling Bee? What was the point of all that? Was I supposed to be impressed by that? I watched that thing on TV and all I kept thinking was "Geez, don't these kids have computers? Don't they know how to use a spellchecker?" Well, apparently not, or why would they go to all the trouble of memorizing the dictionary. If you ask me, knowing how to spell some Latin medical term has nothing to do with wisdom or intellect or intelligence at all. It's just a bunch of rote memorization and scholastic drudgery, and completely pointless. Those poor kids. What future could they possibly have except as sorters and classifiers of data. They'll probably all end up as librarians or accountants or non-fiction writers or something. My God, is that what you want for your children?
(By the way, I'm a horrible speller)
But where was I...
Oh yeah, I was gallivanting around. You see, the thing is, I'm not being lazy. It's just that I got this new bike. You remember I've been riding around on that old GZ250 of mine? (You do? Why?) Well, I'd had the GZ for about a year, and I decided it was time for an upgrade. I know I said I was gallivanting, but what I've actually been doing is motorcycle shopping. A lot of motorcycle shopping, in fact.
Wait a minute, maybe I should back up a bit.
If you have been down to your motorcycle dealership lately, let me fill you in on what's been going on. As some of you may have heard, there's been this thing happening with the price of gasoline. Namely, it's been going through the roof - four bucks a gallon in most places, four-and-a-half bucks here in California. Of course, with prices like that you'd expect a lot of people to be scrambling for some other means of transportation. Some are looking at hybrids, some are looking at bicycles, and some, it turns out, are looking at motorcycles. Particularly the little ones that get 60-100 miles per gallon. So now dealers, who a year ago couldn't give away scooters and motorcycles, are finding their showrooms full of people and their inventory of little bikes all but depleted.
I went to one dealer up in Hayward and literally had to drive around the parking lot waiting for someone to leave before I could find a place to park. It was like the Saturday before Christmas. Sure, there are still plenty of people looking for a sportbike or cruiser, but it seemed like every salesman I talked to said the same thing - "we can't keep the scooters in stock", and just driving around town I'm noticing more and more people tooling around on their Vespas and Piaggios and Burgmans and whatever.
Man, it's great. I love it. Instead of guzzling gas in their SUV's, people are actually starting to discover the joy of motorcycling. They're getting out of their motorized living rooms and starting to enjoy a little sunshine and fresh air (okay, fresh air/exhaust fumes). I've been seeing what's happening and figured now would be a pretty good time to trade in my little GZ because, believe me, dealers want 'em. In fact, as I was driving out of the lot after I bought my new bike there were already two people talking to the salesman about buying the bike I just traded in an hour before. Damn, I should have put the thing on Craigslist and sold it for full price instead of trading it in, but then I hate dealing with crazy people who answer ads on Craigslist.
Anyway, it was a good time to trade in and I got a good deal and that's why I'm happily gallivanting around on my brand new, 2008 Suzuki Bumblebee. That's not the official title, mind you, but that's what people are calling them. The official moniker is a Suzuki Boulevard M50. The "Boulevard" part means it's a cruiser, the "M" means it's a so-called "muscle cruiser", the the "50" means it has a 50 cubic inch engine (around 800 cc). They call them Bumblebees because they're painted black and yellow and they look like...well, you know.
Well, not all the M50's are painted black and yellow. Most are painted either all black or black and silver, but I didn't want one of those. I wanted one of the Bumblebees, and when I walked into a showroom and saw they had one, that pretty much cinched the deal. It was pretty cool too because after I'd signed the papers a couple of other people walked in and saw my bike sitting in the showroom and started asking a lot of interested questions about it. Huh, sorry, too late. That bike is mine, sucka! One lady who was in there with her son saw them wheeling my bike out the door to get prepped and the strangest expression came over her face like "the hell with shopping for my son. I want to buy me one of those."
Ah, it was a great look. Made me feel good, you know, and when I drove it home I just kept getting the kinds of looks I never got when I was riding around on my GZ. A couple of guys on Harleys even gave me the little motorcyclist's wave when I passed by. That was really strange. I never had that happen before. I always got the impression that HD guys are a bit cliquish and tend to look down their noses at metrics, but maybe they just look down their noses at guys riding GZ's.
Either way, it was a proud ride home. Here's a picture of a Bumblebee so you can see what they look like, although I don't think it's a very good picture. It's not my Bumblebee. It's just a stock photo, but you get the idea. I know looks are subjective, but I like it, and so far it's proven to be quite an attention getter. Especially for a stock cruiser, and especially at this price level.But how does it ride? I would say it's a big bike that rides "small", except that it's not really a "big" bike. It's strictly midrange with a nice little electronically fuel-injected, liquid cooled V twin that puts out about 45 horsepower and pushes it's 544 pound dry weight through a shaft-driven final drive. It's no sportbike, but it's got more than enough power to get me around town and up and down the freeway. I don't know it's top speed because I don't drive like a maniac, but 70-75 on the freeway comes solid and easy with lots of throttle left if I need it. Running through the curves or putt-putting around the parking lot feels light and nimble, yet it still has enough weight to feel steady in crosswinds and freeway turbulence. All in all, it's a nice midrange ride that may not win a stoplight drag race against a Hayabusa, but feels just about perfect for normal day-to-day riding or a Sunday cruise to the beach.
On the downside the seat sucks, but then I'm getting the impression that all stock motorcycle seats suck. Luckily, there are plenty of aftermarket options out there and I'll probably be looking into one of those. Other than that I've got no complaints. Pricewise, the M50 is about $300 more than the Harley Sportster 883XL, but when you compare features they are really pretty comparable. My bet is that if someone ever does a side-by-side comparison of the two, the M50 will come out on top, but who am I to say. All I want to do is fire up the engine and do some gallivanting.
See you later, sucka.
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