Hola Compadres

I've been a long-time lurker here who finally decided to register an account.

I'm a fairly ancient specimen--in fact I think Elwood might be the only older one ;) --and acquired my first motorcycle about ten days ago.

I had my heart set on a Ninja 250R, but of course the dealer told me "I'd get tired of it real fast," and talked me into a Vulcan 500 LTD. This seemed reasonable; however, the day I paid off my balance, there was a 2009 650R in the store. Against my better judgment, I sat on it an immediately *knew* that the machine was probably gonna be more fun. We worked out a decent price and *voila!*

In the ten days since, I've had it in the Taconic mountains (NY state), on the highway, and all over town. I've given the engine an easy break-in, and with 600 miles coming up I'm starting to get the RPM's up to 8k with an occasional redline. The first maintenance is likely to be next week, and I've had a stoopid, sh*t-eating, ear-to-ear grin on my face since the day I got the bike home.

Anyhow, y'all seem a bunch of fine folks and I'm looking forward to hanging out on this forum with you. :)