Bye-bye KLR

After sitting on the Suzuki V-strom I was hooked and needed to have one. The only thing stopping me was my next to brand new, slightly dented Kawasaki KLR 650. I decided I would post the KLR for sale for a reasonable price. If it sold, so be it. If not, then I would wait until Spring 2007 to sell it.

I had two people look at the bike. The first one seemed interested, but he wasn't serious about it. The next guy to come saw the condition it was in and knew that he was going to get a decent deal on a two month old bike. We got all the paperwork sorted out and got the bike up to Dylan's place for some maintenance that needed to be done on the bike (the famous "doohickey" mod) and other parts.

When I bought the KLR I thought it was awesome. It turned out, I thought riding a motorcycle was awesome and the KLR was all I knew. The V-strom made the thought of riding around the world something that I could actually achieve - with Dylan of course.

As I mentioned in previous posts, the economy in the Calgary area is on overdrive right now. That meant there were no V-Stroms to be had in Calgary and those that were available (after being shipped from other dealers) were selling for MSRP, plus shipping, plus a gazillion other fees that many dealers charge. Then I called Turple Bros. in Red Deer, Alberta.

Turple Bros. is a dealer I had never heard of (I'd really never cared about any motorcycle dealers) However, they have been selling bikes for 50 years in central Alberta. Glenn Turple, the founder of the dealership, still works the sales floor. I can only imagine the change that he's seen in his lifetime - both in bikes and in society in general.

First off, Turple Bros. had a V-Strom in stock. Second, they were willing to sell it for less than MSRP. Finally, their staff are friendly and down to Earth. I was sold. We got all the paperwork sorted out and Dylan and I headed up to Red Deer to pick up the V-Strom.

More to come...