I’ll admit that I felt guilty in buying the new bike but I’ve got all sorts of rationalizations for getting it. But the number one reason is that my wife really enjoys the comfort on the new bike and as much as I want to ride more with her, that is an important consideration.

My Burgman has been a blessing to me. I bought my 2008 Burgman 650 Executive soon after I moved back to the U.S. from the UK. I have nothing but glorious things to say about it and the experiences it has given me. From the rallies to the friends I have made, it is an amazing culture and ride.

In the time that I’ve had the Burgman I put 8,300 miles on it. Most of them were haul ass flying low miles that put a massive grin on my face. The longest ride to date was the trip I took on it last year to the Mentone Burgman ralley in Alabama. Read more about that here and here. But riding the bike around town has always been a lot of fun, especially when you put five bags of groceries in it at 50 mpg.

So what did I buy you might wonder. I stepped up the engine a bit and bought a Honda Goldwing. The local dealer had a 2008 demo bike with 500 miles on it. They had let me borrow it in the past and I put five hours and 150 miles on it with Pam. She was amazed by how exceedingly comfortable the ride for her was. With the economy the way it is at the moment, the deal on the demo bike was too good to pass up. I wrote about my buying experience here.

On many items, the Goldwing is less of a deal than the Burgman is. The Goldwing is less fuel efficient, the insurance is more expensive, and the windscreen is not electrically operated like it is on my Burgman.

I’m still going to operate this site and live in the Burgman world. I’d love to still go to Burgman rallies and hang with my Burgman friends. In fact this weekend a Burgman friend and I are riding to Myrtle Beach with our wives. I’m really looking forward to that.

My cousin Tom bought my Burgman, He is just now getting his motorcycle license and I think he caught the bug when we were in Bermuda riding scooters a few months ago for a family reunion.

Here is a picture of Tom leading my pack of relatives on a Bermuda scooter ride.

Tom lives in Pittsburgh and he is going to fly down to Raleigh and get the Burgman. I’ll then ride back with Tom as he does his first cross country ride. I know we will have fun, and stories to tell.

When he came down to stay with me for my birthday recently I even let Tom take my Burgman for a ride around the hood to try it out. We put about five hours on it with Tom riding on the back.

I’ve bragged to Tom about what great people Burgman riders are and how the participants of this site and forum are an amazing group of people. Everyone is always so kind, giving, and generous. I’m hoping that you will do what you can to help Tom learn how great the Burgman world is and welcome this new motorcycle rider in with open arms.

©2010 Suzuki Burgman Scooter Riders - 'Lovers of Fun'. All Rights Reserved.

Well here is a 10 minute video of my update and I hope you enjoy.

Ride Safe,
The Smyrna Cowboy.

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©2010 Suzuki Burgman Scooter Riders - 'Lovers of Fun'. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 Suzuki Burgman Scooter Riders - 'Lovers of Fun'. All Rights Reserved.

At this time of year here in Tennessee, we are blessed with blue skies and longer days to ride. It seems like it has been raining forever! Now we can enjoy our Burgy’s and hear the call of the open road. One thing you must keep in the back of your mind is to HYDRATE ! Take a short break, take in some fluids and smell the roses as you ride. There is nothing else like it.

Here is a video I’ve done just to give you a quick update of what is going on with little old me. I hope you enjoy it.

Remember to HYDRATE and be safe out there. Keep those cards and letters coming in and Happy Birthday America!

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I hope everyone is having a good summer this year. Were having some great weather right now so I’m taking advantage of it and riding as much as I can.

There is a rider on You Tube that got his first look at our beloved Burgmans and had nothing but praise about it. He has over 1100 subscribers so he may get the word out. Well, Here is the video.

I saw this and thought it would be cool to post.

Everyone ride safe,

The Smyrna Cowboy

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This past weekend Charles and I headed out on a lovely Sunday morning for a two hour ride from Raleigh, NC to Wilmington, NC to have lunch. The ride down was great. The GPS took us on the back roads to Wilmington and it was a lovely ride without much traffic. Passing some of those farms was a bit rough on the nose. I swear in a couple of places, something must have died. Stinky! But better than the time were were riding and came upon a recently struck skunk.

We arrived a little early and waited for the restaurant to open at 11. Unbeknownst to us the lot across the street from the restaurant was a paid lot on Sunday. While Charles and I sat on a bench shooting the breeze, around the corner a meter person was lurking and left us a present we discovered when we left, pretty $25 parking tickets in pink envelopes. To add insult to injury, the parking tickets were issued five minutes after we arrived and the site to pay the ticket was ParkRite.net. I wonder who thought that was a good domain name. “Hey, let’s call it parkrite.net, people will find that funny.” For the record, we don’t.

Lunch was fantastic and we felt so refreshed that we decided to press on further to the nearest NC State Aquarium. You know us Burgman riders, we are a real outlaw group. Not everyone can do an aquarium ride, they have aquatic beasts there.

What was promised as a 23 mile ride, turned into 45 minutes, mostly due to the traffic on the beach front roads. Note to self, don’t go there when everyone is off for the summer. Traffic!

I should have taken it as an ominous sign when we pulled into the parking lot of the aquarium and some kid was pissing on the pavement. The parking lot is full kid, how about behind a car next time. “Whew, look at me. I’m three and can pee!” I suspect that there are going to be some drinking games involved in that child’s life.

The aquarium was a nice break and worth the price of admission for the air conditioning and restroom. Nice. Guess what we saw there> Yep, fish and other critters.

We left the aquarium to head home and when we got back to the bikes my GPS that had guided us all the way to the furtherest point on out trip into unfamiliar lands, decided that it was done working. Charles had his GPS but with only 30 minutes of battery left and the ride was 3 hours back home. We just decided we’d get home old school and point ourselves in the right direction and read signs.

As we headed out, the GPS thing had really pissed me off but I was soon not caring about that anymore, “What are those dark clouds doing up ahead?” The forecast was for a sunny day. I glanced at my iPhone and checked the radar image. No worries, it looked like a small shower up ahead. I braved it without my rain jacket. Not a problem.

After we made it back to I-40 and headed toward Raleigh the clouds got dark again. In fact we both thought we spotted the wisp of a little funnel cloud up ahead. At the last stop Charles had put on his rain gear, I didn’t. Guess who was the idiot? It gets too hot in that stuff just for a little shower. And what we hit my friends, was no little shower. It was a freaking wall of rain and in literally two seconds I was drenched.

Luckily there was a bridge up ahead and I made a straight line for that. Besides, I couldn’t see anything really in front of me except for the flashing light on the back of Charles’ Burgman. The underpass was already a parking lot with two church busses, two other bikes and us. Before we left, four more bikes joined the party. We almost needed valet parking.

Across the way, on the other side of the highway, another bike pulled over. Everyone was waving and laughing. Luckily I had another shirt under my seat so I changed the drenched one and put my rain jacket on. As the rain slowed down we headed back out into reasonable rain. I hate crowds.

Not long latter we stopped at a rest area since we were back in full sun and blue skies to remove our rain gear. As we stopped Charles was gesturing and just pissed off. “I lost my damn $600 glasses back there,” he said. Apparently he had taken them off to dry them and put them on his saddle bag. When he got back on the bike, he forgot they were there and took off.

At some point soon after leaving the protection of the bridge, Charles noticed his vision was a bit fuzzy. I’m sure he just assumed it was the rain on the visor. He cracked the visor and reached in to feel his glasses and “oh crap” they weren’t there. For a church going man I’m sure he was swearing like a sailor after that.

We totaled the expenses for the day. Let’s see, $600 glasses, two $25 parking tickets, a dead GPS, and I managed to scratch the display on my new little HD camera. Charles’ take on the day, “Nobody died.”

We both agreed it was a good day anyway, we were on our favorite motorcycles and having fun.

©2010 Suzuki Burgman Scooter Riders - 'Lovers of Fun'. All Rights Reserved.

As most of you know, I do vlogs on You Tube and one of my subscribers cleaned out his tank bag. So I decided to show what our Burgmans could carry. Here is the video.

These are some of the things I carry on ALF.

What’s in your Burgman?

Rider Safe,

The Smyrna Cowboy

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I know it’s been awhile. Time to get back on the ball again. Been busy with life in general. Busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest !

I went to a new scooter group meet up this past Sunday. It was our second meet up. The first one I was so excited on meeting new scooter riders, I forgot to vlog. Not this time.

On a safety note. I just got a new rear tire installed on ALF. It had about 12K miles on it and was getting to the wear bar. What is a wear bar? It is a bar that is made into the tire when it’s close to the cords to remind you to replace the tire ASAP. On a car you blow out a worn tire, you still have 3 others. On a bike, could be major trouble.

If you have to replace the tire ( or tires ) you have to scuff them out. That is to get the mold release off the surface of the tread. For the next 60 or so miles, you need to ride it like it’s raining. No hard leans into curves and then increase you lean angle a little at a time. Before you know it, your running at those twisties again.

Just a safety tip from The Smyrna Cowboy.

Here is the video. I hope you enjoy it.

Ride Safe,

The Smyrna Cowboy

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Here it is. But I’ve been getting an increasing number of comments from people that use this site and forums, quietly complaining or expressing concern that another big Burgman forum on the web is becoming very political and aggressive in places.

That is one thing I will not tolerate on BurgmanRiders.com. I built this site for us to share our love, advice, tips, and friendship around the Burgman motorcycle, not politics or religion.

I don’t care if you have a liberal or conservative point of view in your life, but when you come here, please leave that at home.

This has never really been a problem here but if it does become an issue and I do block someone from the site, please understand that it was only to allow this to remain a safe and friendly place for Burgman riders, from all nations, to have a safe place to meet.

Ride on.

Steve

©2010 Suzuki Burgman Scooter Riders - 'Lovers of Fun'. All Rights Reserved.

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