Sign in Subscribe

Expensive Hobby

Lets see. In the past few days I’ve done quite a bit of shopping. Here’s the list:

  • Progressive rear shocks
  • Rear fender
  • Corbin saddle

Today I finished my list by making a grand tour of the Bay Area. Unfortunately I didn’t find anything I liked at Road Rider in San Jose, but thanks to a series of very humorous navigational errors Turnsignal Tim and I ended up in Dublin.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, “we could go check out the Arlen Ness store!”

So we went and looked at all the pretty bikes and I spent some time looking at expensive accessories. The remaining items on my list were a taillight and rear turn signals, and new mirrors. The stock mirrors on the Guzzi were fine until I put lower, straighter bars on the bike. Since then I’ve been seeing nothing but my arms in my mirrors. I wanted some mirrors that were a bit lower profile and on longer stems. Most of the long stems I found pushed the mirrors up instead of out, which I don’t like quite as much.

The Arlen Ness mirrors were a bit more expensive than I wanted to spend. The mirrors I didn’t like at Road Rider ranged from $20 per pair to $30 each. Arlen Ness mirrors start at $45 each.

On the way in, I saw the shape and profile of a mirror I liked. Nice lines, nothing too ostentatious, not too small. They were pretty much what I wanted. But at the display of mirrors, I didn’t see the ones I thought were good. So I asked the very nice gentleman at the counter if they had anything like “the mirrors on the second-to-last bike in that row.”

“Scarface” Randy will be gratified by his answer: “Oh, no. Those aren’t on the shelf. Those are the stock mirrors on that Victory.” I cringed when he added, “I have some in back, but those are more expensive than our mirrors.”

Well, OK. I’ve already proven I have more money than brains, so I wanted to see them. One advantage of the Victory mirrors, as it turns out, is that they use a 10mm threaded stem, just like most Euro or Japanese bikes. So unlike the Arlen Ness mirrors, I would not need an adapter to mount them onto my brackets. That’s a good sign, and surprising since Victory is certainly not a “metric cruiser” company.

So these stock mirrors are $85. Each. I held one in my hand, and it felt solid and well-made. The mirror glass is held in with rubber to dampen vibrations. And the stems have a deeper bend, which keeps the profile low. They aren’t cheap, and part of me felt a little odd about buying a stock part for another make of motorcycle, but these were the mirrors I wanted. So after I hemmed and hawwed, the salesman offered me a modest discount and I bought them.

I also walked out with bullet directional lights.

Installing the mirrors was way easier than I anticipated. ‘Nuff said about that. I’m still getting used to the very different shape of the mirrors, but I can say two glowing things about them: I can see what’s behind me in my mirrors now, and that rubber-mounted glass really does dampen the vibrations. Not only can I see behind me, I can see behind me more clearly than ever before.

So OK, not cheap. But in both senses of the word.

Then tonight I trawled around online and looked at hundreds of pictures of taillight assemblies until I found what I wanted. Hooray for eBay, I now have a taillight on its way. It’s very possible that as early as next weekend I could start the project of reworking the Moto Guzzi’s rear end.

I went to my mailbox today too. Along with the bills and credit card offers and all that was the title for my Virago. Which I can now say is MY Virago. I still owe the bank some money, but I guess I’ve paid enough of it down that they figure I should have the title. Not sure exactly what their logic is there, but the bottom line is: now I can sell it.

I won’t sell it immediately, because Jolie has been riding it and I like keeping Jolie happy. While she is exactly who that bike was designed for (she is eighty pounds lighter and six inches shorter than me) I think she’ll be happier with a sportier bike. But she can ride the Virago until she picks out the bike she wants.

But now that I have the title… well, it actually seems like an asset now. That’s a really good feeling.