Crap - I may have made a big mistake (my 20 year road to a VTR)
 

This is going to sound stupid but I can remember the first time I saw a VTR on the street and I can remember the sound it made.

The first time I saw one in the flesh was at Laguna Seca for world superbike in the late 90's - I loved it immediately - I loved that it was a sport bike but not and was disappointed when it was discontinued after only a few years.

Through the years I came within reach of a VTR a few times but it just never worked out. One time I passed up on a near perfect VTR for an SV1000 with 1200 miles on it.
The SV was very meh but it was probably good that got that out of my system as I wouldn't have ended up with my Speed Triple that may be the last bike I have before I croak.

Anyways, I signed up for this site almost ten years ago in anticipation of getting a VTR...

:o

Long story longer, I inherited a near show room 1999 ZX6R that only had ~4K miles on it. The while I-4 sportbike thing has never been my thing but I was doing a 100 mile commute a few time a month so it was nice to have a bike that was good at speed and (relatively) easy on gas.

I never liked the bike, which is to say there was nothing wrong with it... I Just never liked it.

I was lookin at CL the other day and there was a guy on there with a "CBR Honda" looking to trade for a ZX6R. The pics were clearly of a VTR so I emailed him and he drove an hour to see the Kawi. He was INTO the ZX6 and wanted to trade immediately.

The pics he sent of the VTR made it look pretty good but there were warning signs immediately - a bent lever.

:roll:

Ok long story longer, he showed up yesterday and we did test rides.

Over all the VTR felt solid but not very well looked after.

23k on the clock

The Good:
- motor is strong
- tires are good
- everything seems to work
- started easily with no smoke
- even if its been set down, the plastics dont seem to be scuffed and the tank seems ok (maybe it was replaced?)
- Jardine High pipes

The Bad:
- It looks like it has been at least set down on both sides but not crashed
- both levers are bent
- shifter is bent
- stupid custom paint
- its clearly been in the sun as the front fender is faded and the reservoirs are a bit faded
- it leaks a little bit of coolant (not from the water pump...or at least I think so)
- Jardine high pipes

The bottom line is that i didn't like the Kawi and I was eventually going to sell it anyways and I let my romantic side finally get the best of me as I have wanted one of these literally since they came out when I was in high school.

...so I traded the Kawi for the Honda which was probably a bad deal for me, but I wanted to take a chance on this bike.

Here are the pics -