New Scoot In The Hood

Well, we did it. Chris Bowes aka New Chris picked me up at about 11:00 am and we drove down to BMW Motorcycles of Salt Lake City to pick up his new 2010 Lava Orange F800 GS. The dealership was crawling with all sorts of eye candy, it was hard to stay focused on the task at hand. We were immediately greeted by Mike the owner, but he had to deal with a demo F800 that had been dumped on a test ride. Pretty stressful actually, the demo bike was trashed! Chris’ new bike was inside, adorned with the BMW aftermarket hand guards, and a sweet set of SW Motech engine protector bars. I’ve been shopping lately for engine bars, and had previously been looking at Adventure Spec and Alt Rider models, but I must say, the SW Motech version in now in the consideration set.

Chris' new rig, all shined up and ready to go.

Before leaving the dealership, we had an enlightening chat with Mike about the current state of affairs. Now I won’t get into the politics here, for fear of dropping a pin on the spectrum of left to right for myself or the others involved. Let’s just say we were marveling at the craziness of how changing media influences our so-called modern society to be so quickly polarized and ill-informed. The old “I read it on the internet so it must be true argument.” The three moto scholars dropped some big names: Thomas L. Friedman, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan. Then, Tom Paine was invoked, something like:

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

Or perhaps it was this:

“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

Or perhaps it was more relevant to motorcycling:

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

Not the sort of discussion you expect in a motorcycle shop, but I suppose you should always be open to the possibility of surprise and delight, otherwise life can get pretty dull, pretty quick.

Mike and Chris, talking shop, politics, religion, football, just kidding.

I rode the bike back to Park City for Chris because he hasn’t put much time in on a moto for a few years and he was not so sure about having his first ride in Utah be in afternoon traffic on I-15. The bike rode like a charm, and Chris followed me all the way up the hill, until I parked in his driveway 3 houses down. I took one last parting shot of Chris sitting on the new bike, before walking back to the IAATB home office.

New Chris. New Bike. Park City's newest F800 rider has arrived.