I find myself back in the same old rut, obsessing over buying stuff, even in the light of self knowledge. Somewhere down the line I’m going to need a car with a towing hook. And I find I’m loathe to use my “toy” motorbike. It’s a sunny day, fun machine. I don’t want to take it out in nasty weather and ruin it. Which is being owned by possessions, and a different subject.
So that leaves me here. Going into winter without a workhorse bike, or car.
So, if I need a car, I might as well get one. Then I’d have wheels to get to my boat club, and room to carry my kit, and towing capability down the road when I want to move my boat.
I’m just writing this out to try and clarify what I should do. I have several options and I keep flicking from one to the other.
1, Sell my bike, use the money to buy a car, and a cheap motorbike that I’m not loathe to use.
2, Sell my bike, and just buy the car.
3, Buy the car, see if I actually use the bike/ would use a bike if it was a workhorse, then decide if I sell or keep.
Hmmm, 3 clearly looks the winner.
I’m going to be pushbiking to work for as long as I’ve got this job, and I don’t ever intend to leave it, so a motorised vehicle is just for going to the boat club and towing said boat for the foreseeable. I really can’t see when I’m going to use a motorbike. I don’t like to ride just for the sake of riding, I need to be going somewhere. But I’m losing nowt by waiting and seeing. If I sell now it’s gone. And going into winter is the worst time to sell a motorbike anyway. OK. Settled.
Later,
Buck.
PS, I had several avenues of enquiry open on the car front. Ideally I want an estate (so I can throw pushbikes in the back) with a towing hook, and a big enough engine to not struggle. The boat isn’t particulary heavy, but I remember the Mighty Micra struggled to get up steep hills without any load. You had to drop gears to get up Windy Hill. Poor beast. The trouble is the estates tend to be bigger engines. Good for my needs, bad for my insurance. I kept circling back to the Peugeot 207 sw, (Station Wagon! *sigh*). The reviews said the best of the bunch was the 2 litre engine model,the insurance quotes said not. My best bet was the 1.4, which the reviews said was woefully pedestrian. I was going to compromise on the 1.6 model.
A left field option has just popped up. A supposedly immaculate 2003 Volvo V70. It’s a 2.4 litre automatic estate with a towing hook. I did a mock insurance quote, £370. Way cheaper than the Pug! Weird. And it’s in Stockton Heath.
It looks in top nick. The advert says “perfect bodywork” (the Pug I was looking at had rust around the wheel arch when I zoomed in on the bigger screen of the computer) and the engine looks clean enough to eat your dinner off. I’ve enquired. It does mean I have to get a pipe and a rocking chair if I get it though.
