Hi guys! I don't have my warrior yet, but I will be getting one in the spring next year. I've just joined now so I can be as informed as possible when I go pick my warrior up. Here's a little history on me so you know where I'm coming from.
For starters, I have ridden motorcycles for about 12-13 years, averaging betwwen 6k - 12k miles per year. In all those years I have never ridden anything even remotely resembling a cruiser until this morning. I've owned a couple Katanas, an '03 FZ1, '04 VFR, and currently own a 2002 Honda Blackbird (CBR1100XX).
Well for the past year, I have been seriously eyeballing the Warrior and I just could not understand what it is that would draw me to that bike! Sure it's a beautiful cruiser, but c'mon...I'm a sportbiker! I like railing the curves and skyrocketing up to insane speeds! Well lately, that just hasn't been doing it for me...I had begun to lose my enjoyment for riding....not that I dislike riding...but I wasn't getting that elated feeling anymore. So I figured "What the ****...I'll try the Warrior so I can at least stop thinking about it and move on." That was the first mistake.
So this morning I called up my dealer (whom I'm friends with) and asked him if he could prep the Warrior for a test ride. Once he recovered from his initial shock that I would actually want to ride a cruiser, he told me he'd have it ready in about 45 minutes. So I did a few things and headed up to the dealer for the test ride. That was the second mistake. /emoticons/emotion-1.gif
The test ride:
Now I'm not going to lie...I was quite apprehensive and intimidated when I went to leave the dealership on a test ride on that bike. As I said before....I have NEVER ridden a cruiser...always sportbikes. So the ergonomics were completely foriegn to me. Even after a 30 mile test ride, I was still missing the footpegs when picking my feet up from a stop. /emoticons/emotion-4.gif The ride however, was nothing short of glorious. I really just don't even know how to explain. Everything just felt right as rain. I took a few high speed sweepers, did some low speed manuevering, and tried out emergency breaking so I could get an idea of how everything would handle on the bike in verious situations. The closest I could come to explaining how I felt is if you try to remember the first time you really ever got out and rode a motorcycle. You're thinking to yourself..."Wow...I'm really doing it! This is great!!" It was honestly the most fun I've had on a bike in years...and that's saying a lot.
So, I put my bike up for sale this morning...and will soon be posting it in the classified ads on this forum. Bonus and tax time fall at roughly the same time of year for me and I will be the owner of a Warrior by the end of April. Riding season is pretty much over here anyways, so it's not THAT big of a deal for me to wait until April.
So thats it in a nutshell. I just want to say you guys have a top notch site here and I have gleaned alot of good information over the past week of combing through the threads. I only have one immediate question that I would like answered as I couldn't find the info anywhere. Is there any difference between the '05 and '06 model years? Thanks in advance.
As far as personal info...I'm 38, married (15 years) and have 3 boys and 2 dogs. Boy's ages are 11, 8, and 3. They're a sheer joy to be around and they seem to have taken an interest in mototrcycling as well. I hope to get them a dirtbike to beat around on in the next year or two. Thanks again for the great site...sorry if this is long winded, but I thought you would appreciate all the info!
-Rob
For starters, I have ridden motorcycles for about 12-13 years, averaging betwwen 6k - 12k miles per year. In all those years I have never ridden anything even remotely resembling a cruiser until this morning. I've owned a couple Katanas, an '03 FZ1, '04 VFR, and currently own a 2002 Honda Blackbird (CBR1100XX).
Well for the past year, I have been seriously eyeballing the Warrior and I just could not understand what it is that would draw me to that bike! Sure it's a beautiful cruiser, but c'mon...I'm a sportbiker! I like railing the curves and skyrocketing up to insane speeds! Well lately, that just hasn't been doing it for me...I had begun to lose my enjoyment for riding....not that I dislike riding...but I wasn't getting that elated feeling anymore. So I figured "What the ****...I'll try the Warrior so I can at least stop thinking about it and move on." That was the first mistake.
So this morning I called up my dealer (whom I'm friends with) and asked him if he could prep the Warrior for a test ride. Once he recovered from his initial shock that I would actually want to ride a cruiser, he told me he'd have it ready in about 45 minutes. So I did a few things and headed up to the dealer for the test ride. That was the second mistake. /emoticons/emotion-1.gif
The test ride:
Now I'm not going to lie...I was quite apprehensive and intimidated when I went to leave the dealership on a test ride on that bike. As I said before....I have NEVER ridden a cruiser...always sportbikes. So the ergonomics were completely foriegn to me. Even after a 30 mile test ride, I was still missing the footpegs when picking my feet up from a stop. /emoticons/emotion-4.gif The ride however, was nothing short of glorious. I really just don't even know how to explain. Everything just felt right as rain. I took a few high speed sweepers, did some low speed manuevering, and tried out emergency breaking so I could get an idea of how everything would handle on the bike in verious situations. The closest I could come to explaining how I felt is if you try to remember the first time you really ever got out and rode a motorcycle. You're thinking to yourself..."Wow...I'm really doing it! This is great!!" It was honestly the most fun I've had on a bike in years...and that's saying a lot.
So, I put my bike up for sale this morning...and will soon be posting it in the classified ads on this forum. Bonus and tax time fall at roughly the same time of year for me and I will be the owner of a Warrior by the end of April. Riding season is pretty much over here anyways, so it's not THAT big of a deal for me to wait until April.
So thats it in a nutshell. I just want to say you guys have a top notch site here and I have gleaned alot of good information over the past week of combing through the threads. I only have one immediate question that I would like answered as I couldn't find the info anywhere. Is there any difference between the '05 and '06 model years? Thanks in advance.
As far as personal info...I'm 38, married (15 years) and have 3 boys and 2 dogs. Boy's ages are 11, 8, and 3. They're a sheer joy to be around and they seem to have taken an interest in mototrcycling as well. I hope to get them a dirtbike to beat around on in the next year or two. Thanks again for the great site...sorry if this is long winded, but I thought you would appreciate all the info!
-Rob
