SVS updates
There aren't any, really. No word from the dealers. I thought for a moment
that I might have typoed on my fax out, and given them an incorrect number,
but upon checking, I hadn't. It was correct, and my cell phone number was
also given. So, beats the heck out of me. Kim's off-the-cuff theory to
the mailing list (see? don't you wish that you were subscribed?) is that with all the
newly-rich dot-commers going in to the dealerships and dropping bank on new
bikes, the dealers don't really feel like they need to spend any effort on
high-maintenance customers like myself, who request return faxes. I can see
the point of that, but I'm surprised that I faxed to fourteen different
places and got exactly nothing in return. Feh.
So, I signed up at cyclebytel.com, which had been recommended to me by a couple of coworkers (well, actually, one of them recommended autobytel.com, but it's the same thing). You give them your info and $7.50, and they do the "send the ping to the dealer" step for you. I'm not terribly thrilled about this, since (a) $7.50, and (b) the dealer only gets my phone number, and I'd much rather deal over email or fax. They guarantee a response time of under a week, though, and after 10 days of waiting for nonexistant responses from dealers, I'm itching to get this process going a little bit. So I bit the bullet and paid the seven bucks to have this website get in touch with the dealers in the exact same way that I did, and give them the exact same info. Oh well.
I also started to fill out a loan application at Meriwest, but I decided to wait until after I'd gotten at least a rough idea of how much the bike was going to cost me. I'm planning on around a $7000 loan, but one never knows. Cyclebytel had a link to some loan company off their site, and I started to apply for that just for comparison, and found out that they accepted only *minimum* loans of $7500 AND had a 9.5% APR. Feh! No thanks. I'm not about to borrow $500 more than my maximum, and then have a sky-high APR. This whole loan thing sucks.
other news.
Sadly, not much there either. It didn't rain today, but it was freezing, so
I left the bike at home. I sent in the money order for my new cover, so I
should be getting that pretty soon; that'll be nice. It fits 500cc-1500cc,
so it'll be a wee bit large on the Nighthawk, but will fit the SVS
perfectly.
I found a webpage today for a guy who does personalized caricatures of motorcycles, either alone or with their riders. I sent him an email to see if he's still doing the drawings (I couldn't tell how old the sit was or the last time it'd been updatd), but if he's still in business, I'm going to have him draw me a picture of me on my Nighthawk, as an anniversary present to the both of us. ;) Show it that I still love it, and all.
Next weekend, Kim and Ann and I are going to get together at Peter's garage and play with our various bikes. That'll be a bunch of fun -- I think I'll take that opportunity to bite the bullet and start taking apart the Nighthawk's front end. I'm going to start making a list of the parts I'm going to need and what else I need to get together for that, so that I can actually start it and go with it this time. I'm really looking forward to that. :)
OK, time to go redye my hair. Sorry so boring tonight.