The Gamble Family (.Net)

We picked up the new Gold Wing today!!!

I worked from home today so that I could take a couple of hours at lunch and go pick up the bike. Cheryl and I were treated like royalty at Sloan’s, our local dealer. I guess that is to be expected when you are taking delivery on a $22,000 motorcycle, but it was nice, none-the-less.

After signing the minimal paperwork (we had arranged our own financing), I took the bike out on its maiden voyage. The bike only had 0.2 miles on it when I started it up for the first time. I’ve never had a vehicle with mileage that low before. I was pleased about this, because I have read that the first 20 miles are the most critical for a new engine, and I wanted to be sure that the new engine got broken my way.

That being said, I rode up Murfreesboro Road to Highway 840. I chose 840 it an interstate-type of highway, but it has minimal traffic. My goal was to run the engine for about 40 miles at relative high RPMs, varying the speed as much as possible. I was in 3rd gear as I exited the entrance ramp onto 840. I wasn’t watching the speedometer, but instead was focusing on the tach. The tach shows a 6,000 redline, so I wanted to run it up to about 5,000 and keep it there for a few miles. When I hit 5,000, I looked at the speedometer and realized that I was already at 85 MPH. Wow! 85 MPH in 3rd gear, and there are still two gears to go. This could get interesting…

I rode up 840 to Central Pike. I took Central Pike to Gladeville, where I then took Mona Road down past the Nashville Superspeedway, and back to Murfreesboro. Man what a joyful experience. This bike is going to take some serious getting used to. It is so quiet and turns so easily that I found that I was running around 70 MPH on backroads that should be run only at about 55. I was not intending to run this fast, but I realized that if I didn’t pay careful attention to the speedometer, I found that I tended to ride along quite quickly.

Since winter is settling in on Middle Tennessee, I know that I will have to choose my riding days carefully. There won’t be many opportunities to ride between December and March, but you can be assured that if I get a clear morning when the temperature is around 35 degrees, I’ll be rolling the new Wing out for a ride to work.

We got word this past Friday (Dec. 3rd), that our new 2005 (30th Anniversary) Gold Wing has arrived at the dealership. We had originally been told that it would not be released from the factory until Dec. 15th). Cheryl and I went down on Saturday to take a peek at it. Man are we excited. We plan on picking it up this coming Friday afternoon, Dec 10th. Needless to say, we are quivering with anticipation.