Actually Rob's gloves came from Fleet Farm. In a private exchange earlier this year when someone else was looking for glove recommendations, he had responded that this is what he did for gloves. Surprised me, when I read it.
I think allot of people don't wear gloves, because good gloves are expensive and inexpensive gloves wear out fast or tend to be uncomfortable. I bought two pairs of gloves last year and was surprised to see allot of gloves at the $200 a pair level, close to the cost of a pair of good boots. Looked at inexpensive and moderate priced gloves and wasn't impressed at all with the level of protection they offered.
I think many riders total up all the riding gear they should have and they run out of steam. At the low end, a helmet ($200), jacket ($200), pants ($150), boots ($150) and gloves ($50) is quite a bit of money ($750) in total. Most people tend to want to spend more on a helmet, and jacket, as these are the most obvious pieces of gear, so all of the sudden, basic gear looks like $1000. Lotta green, so going without gloves or cheeping out is understandable.
Cheap gloves/no gloves, no riding pants, and/or boots are common in my experience. I've learned over the years to buy good stuff because it works better and last longer, but looking at my riding closet and the amount of money I've spent on gear, I get why people don't buy gear. It isn't cheap.
It's interesting how good the BMW F650 series bikes are. Such a simple machine, but somehow they compete with much more complex and expensive machines. I'm always amazed at how many riders with large amounts of experience end up with these bikes.
Piston engine goes boing boing boing, but a rotary goes mmmmmmmm.
I'd noticed the "original tire" comment too, when I originally say the ad. No way the original tires made it 6700 miles either.
It is impressive and fortunate that the bike still runs fine as U.S. techs were never taught to service these engines. The owner's manual specified that the engine be crated and shipped to Japan, if it needs service!
Seems like the on-line prices are the same everywhere. Even the same as Brick and Mortar. Price fixing in place?
As best as I can tell, no one really inventories many helmets, and everyone gets them from the same distributors, so if they don't sell a helmet, they don't get profit, but they also don't have inventory carrying costs driving them to discount heavily to get it to move. Retailers with inventory, don't discount, because they don't want to undermine their in store inventory prices. The sellers with inventory to liquidate are the only folks who seem to discount beyond the norm, and most of them only have a few helmets to move. The place of choice to move a few units of excess inventory seems to be Ebay. I've bought a few helmets over the years off Ebay.
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