Bikes and bikers in Sweden

While spending a week in Sweden I took advantage and visited some motorcycle stores. To be able to speak with the sales agents in my own language certainly has advantages and I had a nice time trying out some bikes.

The Yamaha Teneree is the tallest of the bikes I’m looking at but I sat nicely on it, great legroom!! And I reached the ground fine as well. If a mono-cylinder is an option I’m not sure, depending on who I speak with I get various answers. A test ride is the only way to find out. I still haven’t found a place who sells second hand Teneree in Madrid but I assume there is.

I think the Triumph Tiger is great! I riding position is great, the design, the colour, the extras. If I would chose with my heart this would be the bike.

But then again, thinking practically this model, only came last year and to find a second hand would be difficult and a bit pricey still.

I park on the street and buying a new bike under these circumstances is not an option. But since it is such an awesome looking bike it is still on the list.

Since the weather was decent I was actually offered to go for a test ride, even gear was provided. Unfortunately I was wearing the wrong pair of glasses and besides that I was feeling generally ill from an evil cold I brought with me from Spain. Annoying though since it would have been a good experience and traffic in Gothenburg isn’t half as bad as in Madrid.

When speaking to the sales agent I didn’t want to mention living in Spain since they might feel they were wasting their time with me. This put me in a tricky position when telling that I needed a bike for travelling across Europe as well as commuting to work in heavy traffic 🙂

This Honda was sure a temptation with a decent price and many nice features. When the sales agent started up the engine I felt like buying it right away, possibly only held back by the fact that I live more than 3000 kilometres from this shop. The engine is a parallel twin with a beautiful sound.

It was quite empty in the shop when we arrived but we manage to attract some elderly gentlemen and we circled around the bike to admire it’s tank, which is under the saddle and luggage department, which is in front where you would expect to find the tank. So sneaky and I love it! Unfortunately this is a brand new model. Apart from this Honda I also looked at the Crosstourer but didn’t quite like it, don’t know why really and the Transalp, witch I feel pretty indifferent to. It is difficult not to let the heart decide to much in these matters.

After this what was left to visit was the BMW. Unfortunately they were closing down their bike department so no luck there. The profit was to low on bikes was the reason. Another disappointment was that there was no Kawasaki Versys in store. But I was welcome back in a couple of weeks, I could even bring my Ducati for evaluation.

Well, apart form checking out bikes I checked out my favourite café. A decent amount of Swedish Ducatistas joined in for the weekly “espresso time” at Jungrens café.

And apart from the nice people, the sandwiches with west coast prawns are precious! So good that I went back the next day and had another one for lunch. Just couldn’t resist.

But all good things come to an end. Back in Spain I oversleep on Monday morning and when rushing out to uncover my bike I find that the right rear mirror is broken, again. Well the bike hadn’t been tipped over, it was just broken under the cover. I’m clueless to how it happened but the week started of like crap. In the end of the week I managed to make it to the Ducati garage and after parting from 63 Euros I can see again. Nice guys in the garage, they helped me put it on as well. My excuse is that I lack strength to do it, but the truth is that my Spanish home don’t contain a spanner, my tool box is still in Sweden.