It
is said that the only difference between a man and a boy is the cost
of his toys. I guess there is some truth to that because my Harley
is nothing more than a toy. I’m not sure when I picked up the
interest for bikes but as most boys I wanted to have a motorbike
when I was like 15-16 years old. I used to stop by the Yamaha/Honda
store in Stavanger all the time to bike of brochures and look at the
bikes that were in the store. I guess I must have driven the owner
insane because he knew that I wasn’t a potential customer…at least
not at the time :-) I remember looking at the Yamaha Virago and I
thought it was the most beautiful bike in the world. When I was 16 I took my drivers license for a light
motorbike and I bought an old Yamaha. Unfortunately this was a piece
of junk so I never really got to ride it much. When I turned 18 I
wanted to take the drivers license for a big bike but I couldn’t
afford it. Then I went into the navy for a year, I started to study,
I picked up an interest for traveling so the bike plans were put on
hold. But in the back of mind I still had a dream about having a
bike. In the spring of 2004
I
went to get a neck massage…I had been a bit stressed up about work.
It turned out that the place had screwed up the reservation so my
massage was cancelled. Well, as I got out of the office I saw the
Harley-Davidson store on the other side of the road and I decided to
go in there since I was in the area. I looked at the Sportster that
were in the store and the price and thought “The price is not that
bad”. I picked up brochures and went back to the office and made
phone calls to start driving lessons since I still didn’t have the
license to drive a big bike. After a few lessons (and quite a few
Norwegian Kroner) I got my license on November 5th 2004. But
the Stavanger winter is not ideal for bike riding so I had to wait
until the spring of 2005 to continue my plan.
So
on March 15th I went to the HD store…it had been snowing and it was
wet and miserable outside. When I got to the store I looked at the
bike again and I asked if it was possible to test a Sportster and
the guy said not really. Normally I wouldn’t buy anything like this
without trying it but after reading articles and test about the
Sportster I made up my mind and I told the guy at the HD store to
order one for me :-) On Saturday April 2nd 2005 I finally got
the bike. I picked it up from the store and the weather was
beautiful. I got a few instructions from the HD store and I started
up the bike and then I was on my way. It was quite a feeling driving
from the store on a Harley-Davidson…my own Harley-Davidson. On
different (non-Harley) internet forums there had been lots of
warnings about buying a HD. Many had comments like “don’t buy a
Harley if you don’t know your way around the engine because you will
have to work on it a lot to keep it going”. Well, so far I have had
my Sportster for about ˝ year and I have driven about 5000 km on it
and I haven’t had any trouble with it so far. Let us hope that it
stays that way. To me it was a dream come true to start up the
Sportster and drive away from the store :-)
It
is said that the only difference between a man and a boy is the cost
of his toys. I guess there is some truth to that because my Harley
is nothing more than a toy. I’m not sure when I picked up the
interest for bikes but as most boys I wanted to have a motorbike
when I was like 15-16 years old. I used to stop by the Yamaha/Honda
store in Stavanger all the time to bike of brochures and look at the
bikes that were in the store. I guess I must have driven the owner
insane because he knew that I wasn’t a potential customer…at least
not at the time :-) I remember looking at the Yamaha Virago and I
thought it was the most beautiful bike in the world. When I was 16 I took my drivers license for a light
motorbike and I bought an old Yamaha. Unfortunately this was a piece
of junk so I never really got to ride it much. When I turned 18 I
wanted to take the drivers license for a big bike but I couldn’t
afford it. Then I went into the navy for a year, I started to study,
I picked up an interest for traveling so the bike plans were put on
hold. But in the back of mind I still had a dream about having a
bike. In the spring of 2004
I
went to get a neck massage…I had been a bit stressed up about work.
It turned out that the place had screwed up the reservation so my
massage was cancelled. Well, as I got out of the office I saw the
Harley-Davidson store on the other side of the road and I decided to
go in there since I was in the area. I looked at the Sportster that
were in the store and the price and thought “The price is not that
bad”. I picked up brochures and went back to the office and made
phone calls to start driving lessons since I still didn’t have the
license to drive a big bike. After a few lessons (and quite a few
Norwegian Kroner) I got my license on November 5th 2004. But
the Stavanger winter is not ideal for bike riding so I had to wait
until the spring of 2005 to continue my plan.
So
on March 15th I went to the HD store…it had been snowing and it was
wet and miserable outside. When I got to the store I looked at the
bike again and I asked if it was possible to test a Sportster and
the guy said not really. Normally I wouldn’t buy anything like this
without trying it but after reading articles and test about the
Sportster I made up my mind and I told the guy at the HD store to
order one for me :-) On Saturday April 2nd 2005 I finally got
the bike. I picked it up from the store and the weather was
beautiful. I got a few instructions from the HD store and I started
up the bike and then I was on my way. It was quite a feeling driving
from the store on a Harley-Davidson…my own Harley-Davidson. On
different (non-Harley) internet forums there had been lots of
warnings about buying a HD. Many had comments like “don’t buy a
Harley if you don’t know your way around the engine because you will
have to work on it a lot to keep it going”. Well, so far I have had
my Sportster for about ˝ year and I have driven about 5000 km on it
and I haven’t had any trouble with it so far. Let us hope that it
stays that way. To me it was a dream come true to start up the
Sportster and drive away from the store :-)