I sent my friend Simon a link to a motorcycle on Craigslist that I really liked, and he said, "No way, that's exactly the sort of bike I'm looking for. If you don't buy it I will." So I bought it! My friend and coworker Steve came out with me in my car to a country house SW of Fargo and I drove it back.
Simon found his own (same model, different color) to buy so we had matching rides. I remember tearing it up around Star Lake and on the big sweepers of the road north of Dent.
This is what I rode on my three week trip to Key West and back. Let's start a couple weeks before that though. I went for a ride out on the curvy frontage roads on I-94 just east of Mapleton and then pulled in to Panchero's in West Fargo where I realized one of the panniers was gone. I realized that I had forgotten to latch them. It was dusk but I retraced my route and found nothing. So I returned to Panchero's and had a very sorrowful burrito. I wonder what ever happened to that pannier. I found another used set to buy from my friend Adam (maybe they were Alan's though?). They were grey so didn't completely match but at least they were OEM equipment and fit on the existing mounting points. Then I resigned from my job and went on the trip!
Of course I crashed on the trip, and when I got back the insurance company calculated about $2,700 in damage versus $3,500 total value (rough guesses on the numbers). I took the easy way out and sold it to a guy who worked at the Indian/Triumph dealership in Fargo for something around the remaining dollar difference. He was planning to do the repairs and sell it. And that is exactly what he had done with that same bike before--bought it damaged, fixed it up, and sold it to that guy SW of Fargo who I had purchased it from!