By: Kevin
When we moved to San Diego, we never intended to change vehicles. We had a truck, van, and motorcycle that served their purpose and we enjoyed them. As one can read in a prior post on our site, we have already upgraded our van since we arrived in San Diego. Then I was on my way home from a training class on a freeway fly-over ramp when the SUV in front of me decided to brake harder than necessary. Due to being in a full-bank turn my motorcycle was hard to bring to a stop and I ended up skidding into the back of the SUV. I came off the bike and rolled past the side of the SUV before coming to a stop against the concrete barrier wall. Other than sore hands I had no other injuries. It certainly could have been much worse! The accident only left a scratch on the SUV (which the owner was not concerned about) but bent my handlebars and front forks. The insurance company inspected the bike and totaled it in a matter of minutes. It was mid-December so we decided to wait a bit for the weather to warm back up before seeking out a second bike. Well, San Diego weather is fairly mild, and by mid-February I was back on two wheels. My former bike was a 2005 Honda Shadow 750cc cruiser. I enjoyed it and put 41,000 miles on it since I purchased it brand new. Now that I had been riding for multiple years I was interested in a bike with a few more creature comforts. After test-riding it, I purchased a 2011 Kawasaki Concours 1400cc sport touring bike. After my crash some advised me to give up motorcycles entirely for safety reasons, but instead I more than doubled the engine size and top speed of my old bike. You can tell I listened very well, LOL.
The new bike has many creature comforts and upgrades compared to the Honda. It has ABS linked braking, a motorized push-button adjustable windshield, heated hand grips, a throttle lock, keyless ignition, locking hard saddle bags, full cowling, a digital dash, tire pressure monitoring, and LED lamps to name a few things I did not have on the Honda. I am very happy with it, and the ride is great. For anyone who cares, it also cost me half of what my Honda did, although the Honda was purchased brand new and the Kawasaki was purchased used with 13,000 miles on it.
Note: Since purchasing the bike all the Coast Guard stickers have been removed 🙂
The Ready Rovers 