Hubby’s response when he saw Love Letter to My Sherco: “What? So now you love THIS bike? Why did you buy the Yamaha, then?”
What can I say? Sherco IS my first love. My heart is in the dirt, as it were. I love dirt bikes. The sound, the feel, the freedom of being able to go ANYWHERE… Even the freedom to wipe out. Everything about dirt bikes is awesome: the mud, the dust, the bruises, even the occasional errant tree branch to the face as you’re whipping down a forest trail. The physical challenge of enduro is intense and exciting.
But… a bike is a huge investment and one I can barely afford, so I had to think carefully about what was best going to satisfy my two-wheel passion in the short term. And that came down to Use, Clan, and Cost.
— USE– If I got a dirt bike, I could only use it on the weekends; I don’t always have free weekends and the weather doesn’t always comply, so that would probably give me only 50-60 days a year to ride. A street bike I could ride every day the weather permits, including on my longggg commute to work.
CLAN- Though I have plenty of friends at the track, I don’t have my own enduro group and enduro isn’t a solo sport. With a street bike, there’s no problem riding solo until you find your clan.
COST– My darling Sherco is easily 10,000TL more than the street bike I wanted. Plus they need more maintenance. AND they have to be sold quickly, before too many hours or too much damage. When you DO sell them, they’ve lost significant value. Street bikes, on the other hand, retain almost all their value in the first two years, so it’s actually equity. My street bike is ostensibly my bank savings that I can ride around on while preparing for my upgrade, whether it’s gonna be a dirt or street bike.
So, I bought my new baby in October 2016. Yamaha MT-25. My first bike in 20+ years.
My heart may belong to the dirt, but the rest of me is now revving down the asphalt every day.