It’s painful, but this afternoon I put an ad in the Times Colonist to sell my scooter.
In fact, even worse than that is the fact that I’m having to admit it was a bit of a mistake. That’s not my forte.
We’ll see if we get any serious interest. I’m not going to fire-sale it just to get it out the door. I want to cash in my chips, not get taken to the cleaners.
Why the change of heart? Lots of reasons. Some big, some small. Cost is a big reason: it’s working out to be fairly expensive to commute on it, despite the fact that it was an honest attempt to choose an economical vehicle. Case in point: each day is now about $3.20 in gas. $3.00 in parking. That adds up to as much as $130 per month. Insurance is $60 per month. Add to that paying off the line of credit at $300 per month, and it’s $490, not counting servicing. Compared to a $60 bus pass, it’s just not making sense.
Add to that the intangibles:
- even riding to Sooke on that twisty road isn’t fun the 138th time
- risk: I almost got rear-ended twice yesterday
- grumpiness: I’m tired of waving/nodding/generally acknowledging other motorcycles and not having it returned (it’s a motorcycling thing)
- noise: the bus doesn’t seem that bad with noise-cancelling headphones and a good book
I’m sure I could list some more. It’s just a sense of apathy mixed with an economic itch and a dash of family responsibility. It would have been nice if it had worked out better, but it hasn’t.
I’ll miss having the freedom of not being restrained to a single car living so far from town, but I’m sure I’ll survive. Heck, I like having a bus pass working downtown. I can get lots of places really quickly “for free”, like Long & McQuade or Mayfair.
Don’t take a beating on the selling price of the bike. It really should hold it’s own, especially with the gas prices now. …… I know, it’s none of my business.
That’s good advice. Thanks! 🙂
I bus to work (mind you only for 20 minutes) and I always appreciate being able to take my eyes of the road and read an entertaining book. I’m also freakishly scary to sit beside. I don’t take is personally – I wear a tie!
Yes, the bus… That was one of the major motivators for buying the scooter in the first place. I felt I was flipping out riding it for about an hour each way (near Christmas it takes up to an hour and a half to get home). It was okay when I was riding it with Tammy: we would sit next to each other on the bottom floor, and sometimes chat. Once I was on my own, I started being very conscious of the inane or aggravating conversations around me. The scooter was an escape. However, it has turned out that the ride itself is numbing. Like you, I wish for reading a good book. My proposed solution: get some noise-cancelling or noise-blocking earphones. 🙂
I don’t know if you remember when I sold my truck, but the reasoning was very similar to what you are having to deal with. Yes it was painful, but it was necessary. I’m sure you have an ipod by now, so get some of those headphones and do some reading and listening.
No, no iPod yet. That’s part of the deal: sell the bike, get an iPod from the proceeds. 🙂 Can’t figure out which kind, though. That new iPod nano looks mighty nice.
I didn’t realize you would lose that much on the sale of the bike. Simon, why don’t you make up a selling flier with a picture of the bike and all the information and give copies to Evan [and other friends] to post on their work bulliten boards?? On boards outside of Thrifty’s, etc. You could ask Chris [Spicer & Biickert]. By the way, thanks for dinner yesterday. We had a good time!