After three years of owning the bike and putting maybe a sum total of 120 miles on it, I decided to go ahead and sell it. I'm glad I bought it, and I'm happy to have learned to ride a motorcycle, but it really just wasn't my thing. So there was no point in having it take up garage space and having to pay for insurace. I sold it pretty quickly and got 2/3rds of my money back (and it was pretty cheap to start with). I also sold off my helmet. (I'm keeping the jacket dammit! Yeah I may be a poser when I wear it, but I have ridden a motorcycle while wearing that jacket!)

So I've always wanted to ride a motorcyle. So in 2004 I decided to buy one so I could really practice. I bought a used 2000 Kawasaki Ninja 250. It's the smallest production sport-bike around, which is good for me since I'm a beginner. It doesn't have enough power to get into too much trouble, it's light enough I can man-handle it and lift it up, and it was dirt cheap. Here are some pictures of it:

So far I've barely ridden it. I do have all my safety gear, insurance, and learner's license, so I'm fully legal to ride. I've probably only put 60 miles on it since buying it though. It's a terrifying and exhilerating experience at the same time. You're so much more aware of your surroundings when you're on this tiny bike. You also feel ridiculously exposed and vulnerable. Anyway, I'll master it someday.

It used to have F1 pipes on it when I bought it, but I actually bought a set of stock pipes from eBay. The F1's were ridiculously loud, and I'm much happier with a bike that sounds like it's run off a turbine than a little sport-bike that's trying to pretend to be a Harley.