How many motorcycles are too many motorcycles?

You can never have too many motorcycles.

Since last summer, I’ve been stalking the Internet for a third motorcycle to add to my growing stable. Why three motorcycles, you ask? Good question, and one that Jennifer often asks. The full answer is complicated, but the simple answer is that so my sons and I can go for rides together and eventually turn these bikes into cafe racers and bobbers.

Now for the slightly more complicated answer.

I’ve been working on a project called BIKRTIPS for the last couple of years as a way to share what I know about riding and make it a safer pastime for others. I have a lot of footage but am at the point where I need some new and particular shots, so I’m going to film my kids riding. My kids are in their twenties, so it’s not like I’m putting a five-year-old on a Honda Shadow, not that this would be wrong.

The new-to-us bike is a 2005 800cc Vulcan that I bought in Black Diamond yesterday. It’s been well maintained, has just had a full service, and has new tires. It’s the right size for either of my boys and will handle itself well on the highway once we add a windscreen and possibly some baggage.

It was fun rolling into Black Diamond yesterday to check out this bike because back around 1988, I bought a 1981 Virago 750 there. Riding back, I had to use a bandana around my face like a gunslinger because of all the bugs that summer. By the time I got into South Calgary, I could barely see out of my sunglasses, and the bandana was thick with dead gnats.

Have you ever smelled the inside of a gnat before? How about a thousand inside-out gnats? It smells the way you expect it would.

Anyway, the new-old bike has been purchased, and today it will get registered and insured. Later we’ll ride down this week to bring it home and get it ready for BIKRTIPS, Boys Riding Time, and our epic ride to the coast this summer for my mom’s birthday.