Perhaps the only down side to moving to our new apartment has been the fact that my 2.9 mile commute one way to work is now about 8 miles through heavily trafficked streets. I like to ride my bike to work but 16 miles every day in a notoriously wet climate? Come on. I know that you’re asking yourself right now “How in the world did Benj convince Melinda to let him buy a motorcycle?” It all started with an electric bike.One morning as I was perusing craigslist I found an electric bike that was for sale for $100. We decided to hop in the car and go check it out.

Before arriving, like any good craigslister, I had decided that I would have a limit and that limit would be no more than $80. I didn’t want it bad enough that I would pay a penny more. After checking the bike out, seeing that it was in almost new condition, I decided that I would go for it and asked the woman if she would take $80 for the bike. I’m still not sure what happened but somehow she convinced me or I convinced her to let me have it for free. As you might expect I was pretty excited. I thought that if I could ride a normal bike almost 6 miles a day then surely with my electric bike I could do three times that. Well. . . call me opportunistic but I decided to sell the bike and almost danced away after selling it for $400.

Now, $400 goes a long way to buying a used motorcycle and I must have caught Melinda in a weak moment because she didn’t put up too much fight at all. Ok, I confess, I haven’t taken motorcycle training yet and I don’t really even know how to ride a motorcycle but it sure feels cool to be a biker. I’m scheduled for training at the end of the month and then I can get endorsed and so in about a month’s time I should be bad to the bone. Insert mental image of the biker from Raising Arizona. Ride on lil’ buddy, ride on.

Motocicleta from Benjamin Lloyd on Vimeo.