Jul 23, 2015 Look what followed me home!

Whooee! A few days ago my bud Jerry Smith decided to put his 2012 Triumph Bonneville up for adoption and I took the bait. There were other interested parties but typical of so many, most were tire-kickers. One exception was a couple who wanted it but they continued to waffle non-stop until I decided it would go on forever so I grabbed it.

Not like I really need another ride but I've decided to replace my non-riding equipment with one that I'd actually use on occasion. Enter the Bonnie.

This was how it arrived

After a day of trying on different options I like this best

Jerry gave me a ton of stuff with the Bonnie, two custom saddles, one from Corbin and one from Bill Mayer, two windshields, Happy Trails aluminum panniers, two rear luggage racks, the list goes on and on.

He'd installed upgrades to both the front and rear suspension plus added several little niceties like special adjustable foot pegs, center stand, upgraded brake fluid reserve, high-rise handlebars, heated grips, volt meter, ignition key relocation bracket, even the tires are nearly new. It's about as sweet as it gets.

With a bit over 14,500 miles on the clock the bike's barely broken in and runs out better than new. I'm looking forward to doing lots of traveling on it, it's very similar in size to my Ninja 650R and one of the sweetest handling bikes I've ever owned.

Since the Bonnie's outfitted so nicely there's not much I'll be adding. I've ordered one item, a Parabellum Scout fairing windshield that's supposed to be the cat's a-- when it comes to touring screens. Better aerodynamics and increased fuel efficiency as touted by the manufacturer and if I can believe owner's reports, all true. It should be here around the 2nd week in August. The company lets you try one out for 30 days and if you don't agree with their claims you can return it (provided you haven't done dumb things to it.) Got my hopes up on that one.

Don't know what color they arrive in but it's probably something like this.

I'll also be installing a GPS, probably steal the Garmin Zumo 550 that's currently residing on the Bumblebee. I'd like one of the new-improved models but they've been having some teething problems so I may wait awhile.

Crimoney I thought maybe I'd be getting a new dog house....

So that's it, the new beastie is settled in and pretty much ready to head out on. There's lots of warm summer weather ahead that I hope to take advantage of so who know's what will happen.... Labrador is still waiting, eh? Now that would be something.

LL