Some insider financial advice

If I could give one piece of advice to a new rider, it would be "buy stock in whoever makes gear shifters". Honestly, I've had my '03 Suzuki SV650S for all of 5 weeks and already have the third gear shifter on there ... that I know about.

Okay, okay so it's my fault but still. They don't make these things very strong. I laid my bike down on day 2 of ownership. The nub on the gear shifter busted off so I had to replace it. Understandable enough. Once my buddy and I put the new one on, I got this crazy idea that "hey, I should know how to pick up my own bike, or at least know I can do so, in case I lay it down and no one's there to help pick it up" so ... yeah, you can see where I'm going with this. We lay the bike down as slowly and gently as possible and I pick it up without a problem. Good times, I can do it. Good to know. Except now the gear shifter is bent all the way in to the frame. Awesome.

We bent it back out but it was never straight. Well yesterday, while I was in a little maintenance clinic at a friend's place, we attempted to straighten it out when ... SNAP! So we made a run to the Suzuki dealership, bought the last one they had in stock and installed it. The plus side is that the gear shifter is now completely straight and works like a charm. The down side is that my bank account doesn't like gear shifters one bit.

So yes, do your research. Buy your stock. At this rate, I'll be contributing to your children's college fund oh, maybe 18 more times this year.