This thread has made fascinating reading for me. But it seems to me that the overriding emotion from most of you is passion.
As many of you know, I lost my wife in '10 when we hit a deer with our Electra Glide. Less than 3 months after that accident (and with me still in physical therapy), I bought my first CVO, a 2011 RGU. I'd only managed to put 5,000 miles on it when I traded it this past June. I just couldn't relate to that bike and I never connected with it the way I did with my old and now lost Electra Glide. It was a real let-down to me. I had high hopes for me and that bike, but they never materialized.
Fast forward to 2015. I have a new wife now, who lost her previous husband to cancer. He rode a Heritage and had to quit because of his illness. She loves to ride, but knows I just can't get into my current bike. We're at a dealer when I see the 2015 RGU pictured below.
And then it hits me. My old CVO was bought at the wrong time in my life for the wrong reasons. I bought it to fill a hole in my soul that no material thing can do. I bought it when I was still grieving terribly. I was trying to force my healing to somehow happen faster from losing my wife of 22 years. In short, I bought it for the wrong reasons and it became a reminder of all of the bad that happened almost 5 years earlier. Others may think this is ridiculous talk, but to me, it was quite real.
My new wife Patty knows me well, and she sees all this and can relate to it, having lost her previous husband of 21 years.
I'd told her the same thing I told my previous wife when we test drove this new bike. Don't tell me you like the bike...tell me you want the bike. If you can't say that and mean it, I'll walk away from the deal. She looked at the bike after we got back from a test ride, then she looked at me and said, "I want it." So she stands beside me and watches me work the deal for us and we're having an awesome time on this new scoot.
Life is truly short and there really aren't any guarantees. Money is not the end all be all...it's only a means to an end. Follow your heart and if you can afford what your heart wants and it hurts no one else and benefits you and your loved one(s), by all means, spend the money. And don't look back.
Now, Patty and I have found a newfound love in a sport we both love on a bike we both love and picked out together, and that's what made the difference for both of us. We chose this bike under happier circumstances and at the right time for us.
And that makes the money we spent on this new CVO a real bargain.
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Topic: You only live once...right? (Read 17286 times)