And I bought it.
Dillon, I found your motorcycle in a powersports shop in Daytona Beach
And I purchased it on the same day. I met you at university - we had that special physics lab together with that skinny TA with black hair who always did the full derivations on the board and ran out of space. That class with the girl who always partied and came drunk or high the next morning and relied on us to do all the work for the group.
I knew she annoyed you, and I was peeved that the teacher didn’t (couldn’t) really do anything about it, he was an unconfident academic and probably had so many loans that rocking the boat to kick someone out or make an issue of it wasn’t going to happen. I’m speculating, but that’s what I imagined.
I was the 17-year-old kid who sometimes wore the whole motorcycle get-up like I was going to the track, for no reason, other than I thought I looked cool. I only lived like a mile away. At that time I had the Suzuki Katana, or maybe I had the Yamaha YZF600 with the fairings off and air inlets featuring duct tape.
Either way, I have no idea if you remember me. But after I saw your bike in the second-hand section of a dealership after walking for 45 minutes in the soupy Florida heat, I immediately remembered your existence. Aside from that one physics class, I don’t think we ever crossed paths again at university. You might have even graduated after it, I don’t know. That was OK with me, I figured you hated me because I skipped the final few days of that class (and the presentation) because I stopped giving a crap and hated dealing with it. I still feel bad. Sorry.
I faked being mature pretty well, I think
But I wasn’t. I lost interest in the class and started just sleeping my way through it and not even trying to focus, just going through the motions on the lab instructions, flopping around with the lab items, and waiting for it to end. I know you were in the Air Force, and I assumed you had already put in 4 years to get a GI Bill, but I don’t know for sure. I almost felt bad for you, because you were surely above the level of dealing with kids coming to class high. Sure, it’s college, but even I felt like it wasn’t hard enough to pass those courses, like sleepwalking through the degree I was getting was totally possible, and I had to fight against it. I mean, that girl passed, and I can’t imagine she learned much.
I felt bad too because you mentioned you couldn’t afford the motorcycle gear that I had, especially the boots. I was loan and parent-funded, plus some small salary I made part-time tutoring on the bottom floor of that building. It made me wonder where you came from, and when I saw your bike, I realized the level of person I was dealing with. You know, I had remembered you mentioning that you cleaned your bike often.
This Suzuki SV650 was the cleanest, most sparkling, most gloriously meticulously well maintained machine I have ever seen. I… I mean this thing was 15 years old, had 9,000 miles, and just… wow. I was jealous. It was clearly your baby.
So when I saw your bike sitting outside - under an overhang, but still outside - at a powersports store, I started to wonder what situation lead you to give it up. I was in town to help a friend sell a house, and had graduated about 2 years ago. I had basically an unlimited buddy-buddy lease to stay down there until it sold, so I figured I’d get myself a bike again and live the motorcycle man life while I remote worked for a company in the northeast during covid.
Did you trade up to a new, nicer bike? That’s what I hope.
Did you have to sell it to make ends meet?
Did you move out of town and need a car?
Did you stop riding due to a close call?
I lost your number and don’t even remember your last name
But, I did notice that the sprockets were within maybe a thousand miles of their “good” lifespan. So I imagine you traded up instead of dealing with having that done by a shop, which is expensive, or doing it yourself, which you might not have had the right tools or a good place to do it. I hope this was the situation, and you left that shop with a new, shiny KTM or something.
I initially tried to argue the price down. Geez, they wanted over 5k I think. I’m sure they only offered 1.5k to 2k for you for it. I think I was able to get it for 4.5k. I don’t remember, but it was almost double what I should have paid for an almost 20 year old bike at that point. But, since I knew the owner, I knew how well it had been maintained, and I was always jealous of the thing - it’s gorgeous and has that old bike soul to it, not like these new crappy ones … I bought it.
That “old bike soul” is hard to explain. It’s not weight, it’s not size. It’s that shape and solid-ness to those things. Like you could trust it, like it was a part of you when you rode, like it was confident in itself, not anxious like a technical, digitally bloated piece of metal that wouldn’t start if a sensor was moist. Like come on, screw off, don’t lock me out of my own engine like that. I rode the newest version of the SV650, and it just felt weak and lame.
Which looks more sturdy to you? It’s obvious, right?
I took great care of it. I kept it inside. Didn’t get it wet much. I felt like I was obligated to, to be honest, how could I throw away all those years of your hard work? I put in a brand new set of sprockets and a new chain. I went for the good quality stuff, paid a pretty penny for it all. I even bought an impact to do the job, and the presser tool to rivet the master link instead of all that clip crap they sell now. It was worth it - the thing rode like a dream. I immediately got a nail in the tire, which I think might have been from my own driveway, but after I got some new rubber for the back … oh man, I was set up. The thing rode so well. The brakes were tight, the thing sounded like a throaty dragon.
Just thinking about it makes me have to pause and imagine the sound of the engine while shifting those gears, the click of the key when I was starting it up.
Honestly man, that university was too much marketing hype
The profs were alright, the courses were amped up like they were something special. I was in the math program, but I dual minored and took a wide variety of courses. I remember having a few professors that stuck out as engaging and seemed happy to actually be teaching and helping people make their way in their studies. Others just read their slides. This contrasted to some of the courses I took at other universities during the summer semesters where I felt much more connected with the profs. Maybe it was just me, I don’t know. I still had a good time.
It felt like the university tried to make the place one big “in group”, and deny all sorts of transfer credits just to flex their power like their courses offered more. Oh well, we all had to deal with it as students.
People spent $200,000 for a regular degree there. Especially if you stayed on campus it was like $50k/year with the base tuition of $18k per semester times two for a year plus living expenses. I was lucky I got some scholarships, but still ended up with absurd debt, but nowhere near 200k. All those rich guys from Dubai thought they were coming to the World’s Most Famous Beach to have a party and were met with broke college kids, a speedway, and Mason Ave.
Popped & replaced a tire before I had even ordered the new chain & sprockets (the first thing I had planned to do).
I really think that the average guy who had consistently done honest work for years before starting university will become dissapointed with the experience unless they go into astrophysics or something that has maintained a level of prestige and filters out the people who don’t want to become scholars by the sheer difficulty alone. Those are the kind of people who are expecting the quality of bike like this, and know they have to work for it. And they also know that it’s worth working for.
Does the average person even know that the new models are entirely empty inside, lacking soul, lacking confidence in themselves? If they never rode the old ones, the entire concept is lost.
I left the hobby later that year
I moved back north, and the hobby was just too dangerous for me. God, that bike was my favorite. I thought about paying to ship it north, but it would have just sat in a garage. I found an honest buyer who was older and would take care of it - and gave him a good deal. The ad itself on Craigslist generated some attention - people messaged me saying how clean it was for 20 years old.
Someone actually said it is probably the cleanest one in existence now, and I believe it.
Dillon, wherever you are, I hope you are doing well
Relax mom, my helmet is behind the bike, I took it off just for the photo
Cheers man.
Daniel