Just bought a GZ250....Wow!

[Shooter McS]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Mark, I am 41 years old and if you have a minute or two, I would like to share my experience buying my GZ-250.

I have always wanted to own and ride a motorcycle. On September 12, 2008 I finally made it happen.

First, let me tell you, I subscribe to the give, give, give, give, give.....TAKE theory! You may remember this if you ever watched the TV show Coach, when Hayden and Dauber both bought a motorcycle. The premise is this, your wife buys small things all the time. At first, I would question this seemingly arbitrary spending, but after I saw this episode of Coach I decided to adopt this way of thinking and let me tell you....it works! So now when I take, I take big!!!

About two months ago, my next door neighbour (yes, there is a "u" in neighbour for us Canucks!) bought a new four wheeler. He was selling his old one and I caught my wife at the exact right time. I took her for a ride, after which I got the YES if I wanted to buy it. I could have just gone out and bought a recreational vehicle before now, but without the wife's okay, I don't think it would have been worth it. I bet you guys know exactly what I mean! To make a long story short, after getting the yes, I told my wife I wanted to think about it, to make sure it was the right decision. I started talking about how a scooter might be a better option, since there would be more places to ride it where we live and it would be easy for her to ride (trying to get her involved). I got her to buy into that and began researching scooters. To be honest, I almost bought a Yamaha Zuma 125 (called a BW 125 in Canada). I walked in to the dealership with my wife to show her a BW 125 and was prepared to order one, but they hadn't recieved any in yet.

That's when I saw the 2008 GZ-250. It was the only 250 they had in stock.....and it was almost $1,000 off the list price. I sat on it, looked at my wife and she said....."Go ahead, I know that is what you really want!"

Now, I am in sales and if you know anything about selling, you don't question someones decision when you get a YES! The problem I had, is that I always research any significant purchase. Knowing that it was the only motorcycle in this class in stock and not wanting my wife to get buyers remorse.....I bought it. I wrote the cheque and picked it up two days later. I couldn't afford to miss this opportunity!

When I got home, I started to research my decision. Without getting into too much detail here, I realized I made the right one. Being new to two-wheel motoring, the GZ-250 was perfect for me.

Over the next day and a half, I ran around studying for and getting my M1 motorcycle license along with insurance and also signing up for a motorcycle training course and buying a helmet. I managed to get it all done just before they delivered the bike. I couldn't wait to ride it.

It's not that I had never ridden a motorcycle before, but really not much at all. I knew enough to get started and started riding around the back roads near my house. Lucky for me, we live in wine country. Lots of back roads and great places to hone my skills.

The past month has been awesome. I have almost 900 kms on my GZ-250 and have become more confident along the way. At first I was somewhat tense once I got the bike over 60 kms per hour. The amount of wind kind of threw me off a bit. Then it was 70kms......now, after installing a fantastic windshield, as long as the road and conditions are conducive to it, 80 to 90 kms is no problem.

By the way, after reading a ton of posts from this forum, I ended up purchasing a Memphis Shades Hell Cat windshield. http://www.memphisshades.com/hell_cat_metric.shtml I purchased the black gradient model. The Memphis Shades website doesn't say that it fits the GZ-250, but it should, because I think it looks fantastic and it was fairly easy to install if you are even moderately handy. The only tool you need is a hex key which comes with it. Grant it, I played with the adjustments for a couple hours, but once you get it right, just tighten the bolts and your done. Here's a good picture of it with all the parts. http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com...ient_Black.jpg

I will post photos of it on my GZ-250, but it might take me a week to do it. I will try, but I have a 4 year old daughter that keeps me pretty busy. Tomorrow I am taking her skating then it is back to work on Monday.

Today was a perfect fall day and I put over 100 kms on my GZ-250. I don't really have any interest in driving on highways and as I mentioned, there are a ton of fantastic back roads to explore. Check the area out for yourself. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...=10&iwloc=addr

I still need to purchase a good pair of riding boots, a riding jacket and another helmet. I found some good deals on Ebay and am also going to attend the Toronto motorcycle show in December , so hopefully over the winter I pick these items up.

It might have been somewhat of a fluke in the beginning, but no matter how it happened, I love riding my GZ-250 and don't know what I am going to do when I have to put it away for the winter.

I am looking forward to contributing to this forum and getting to know other passionate GZ-250 owners.

Now I am gong to finish watching the Leafs lose to Pittsburgh and then laugh at Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.

Happy motoring.

Cheers,

Mark