I own a motorcycle. It's something I like to brag about a lot this time of year because with the warmer days and nicer weather, it's all I can think about.

I find that I don't associate myself as a "biker" because it is not simply that I am an enthusiast for the sport of motorcycling, it's that I use my motorcycle as a primary form of transportation during the warmer months.

And I don't even ride that fancy of a bike. I ride on a puny 2003 Suzuki GZ250. With a 250cc engine, it's the smallest you can find for road bikes. But, it gets the job done and does it well. My little putter gets 70 miles to the gallon, which is sweet when gas prices push $4.00/g, and puts even my hippie of a wife's 07 Camry Hybrid to shame (it gets a measly 40mpg).

It is a blast to ride too! You'd think that to have any fun on a motorcycle you would HAVE to buy the fastest crotch rocket supersport bike with a name like Ninja or Katana [discontinued] or own a Harley or Victory...but you really don't. Any kid who's used a friend's dirt bike can tell you how much fun even going a few miles per hour around a dirt pile can be. Any bike will give you a feeling of freedom and exhilaration, no matter the name or the size or the speed you're going. In fact, with my small bike, you get all the fun of whipping down the highway at 90mph when you're putzing around at 60mph because there is no windshield or fairings to protect you from the wind.

That being said, I still want a new motorcycle. My little bike has served me well, but now that my wife has a full year of riding under her belt (taught her how last summer and she got her license too) she is itching for something that can get up highway speeds without going downhill with a tailwind.

I've been looking at sport/cruiser corssover bikes like the Suzuki GS500F, and the Suzuki GSX650F and even looking at some traditional cruisers like the Suzuki Boulevard M50 or the Yamaha Star V-star Custom. They all have a lot of great things, but at the moment, if I were to buy a bike tomorrow I am leaning toward the V-start Custom or the GS500F. Both are real solid bikes, and I like how both are not overkill for my needs (like the boulevard m50 and gsx650f).

I have also gladly put tons of money into safety and safety equipment. When I first got my motorcycle at 17, it was because my mom wanted to get a motorcycle. She had signed herself and I up for a motorcycle safety course that summer. We took the course through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and they managed to teach me, someone who had never even driven a standard car, all of the basics of riding a motorcycle. They had their own bikes they taught us on, and at the end of the weekend-long course they had us take their own version of a road test. When I passed their tests, I was given a waiver and didn't even need to take my road test to get my license! It was so cool. Afterward my mom bought a bike just like the ones we learned on, the gz250. Unfortunately, she always felt the bike was too heavy (she had used dirt bikes as a teenager and was never comfortable on a road bike) so she gave me this brand new motorcycle she had gotten!

And now, after it has served its purpose and has taken all of the bumpd and scrapes of 3 new-to-sport riders, it is ready to move on to someplace better. Still runs like a dream, but yeah, I've been thinking about a new bike for a couple of years. I may get $1000 trade-in for it, and that can go toward the bike i really want.

Also, check out my first youtube video (sorry the sound is messed up lol) of my cat trying to figure out why he can't jump over our railing onto the neighbor's deck.