Your Spouse and Your Bike

[Muffler Bearing]

Originally Posted by JamesNT

You guys are HILARIOUS! I can imagine some of you being doctors and lawyers and other types of professionals, but I can also see some of you being old war vets that are used to just telling it like it is with no remorse and no apology.

My wife did agree to my buying a bike. We did have to come to some terms, but nothing I can't handle.

* I had to give up soft drinks. I'm a major Dr. Pepper/Coke fan. But the amount of money I spent on soft drinks every month is probably half the bike payment.

* The monthly payment cannot be more than $200 a month. The local Harley shop may have to negotiate a little if they want to sell me a bike. The $19,179 Road King I currently have my heart set on may have to move from that number a bit.

* She agreed to let me use our upcoming income tax return as a downpayment. We should be getting about a $3,000 return if I have my math right.

*I'll probably finance for 84 months. Not ideal, but not horrible, either.

RDK09 is right. Gotta respect the dual income thing.

JamesNT

James I Got Good News For You!!


1..You are allowed $200 month payment now.
2..You got a $3,000 refund coming. You can use.

Now follow me here: Your $3,000 refund means you are paying the guberment $250.00 per month more than you need to.

So you actually have:

1..$200 mo.
2..$3grand down
3..$250.

$3,000 down and $450.00 month availiblle for payment.

So your only decision now is?
What Color You Getting?

[Aberdale]

I should add that my wife could care less what I do or buy as long as it doesn't put us in debt or require payments. Therefore, I can pretty much do anything I want as long as I pay cash . . . and it's my cash, not hers. Sounds pretty fair to me!

'dale

[Muffler Bearing]

Now I'm Slick As Goose Crap:

When I was getting a new Harley, I knew "Battle Ax" was going to throw a fit. So I had Sea Ray send me brochures on 35'-40' boats. Which I left laying around all over the house. This triggered all the local Sea Ray dealers calling and E-mailing prices.
One day, we just happened to stop at a H.D. dealer.

Long story short....All I had to do was promise Not to buy a $400k boat.

P.S. I hate Sea Rays!!

[duecedog]

I always had bikes before getting married. Then kids came along, college for kids came along, etc etc. I had always told her that I would sometime have another Harley. Well, time went by and all the kids were out of college and starting their own lives. My wife and I have our own discretionary money so when I told her I was going bike shopping her only comment was "as long as it doesn't affect the household finances".

I get a chuckle out of all the 'logical' thinking on this subject. So many of us (yes 'us') use the rational of giving up something else to make up for the extra payment of a bike. I still haven't seen anyone include in their argument the license, registration, insurance, upkeep, and........all those shiny extras we all love.

Anyway, my wife likes to ride occasionally and puts up with my 'bike stuff' but has never complained about me getting/having one. Last year I was seriously considering selling my Deuce and getting a Street Glide. My thinking was that it would still give a bike that has a cool look but would maybe make it more comfortable for her. Which would maybe make her more apt to ride with me more. When I told her all of this her response was: "hmm, maybe, but your bike is paid for, it has all the goofy stuff you want for it, and you like it. If you get another bike you have to start all over again. But if it's what you want, go for it."
As much as it pained me, after a lot of soul searching I finally had to agree with her. We recently went on a 8 day south/mid west tour where I rented an EGUC. I was still kind of hoping that she'd tell me that she'd ride more if I had a bike like it. Didn't happen. lol

I am going to test ride a Street Glide next year though.

[E4nf3]

I'm in a situation where my wife is DEAD SET against me getting a bike. The biggest reason is safety, while a secondary reason is finances. The finances is the easy fix; I just gotta keep saving. The safety issue? Well it'll take some time. I'm planning on taking the MSF course next summer. It saves on finances cause it's only $20 here in IL but you gotta sign up quick when the classes open in February. After that I plan on renting a few times for practice & to figure out what would be a good fit for me (right now I've got my eye on a Fat Boy Lo). Once that happens I'll sit down with her and chat some more and see where we're at.


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[Rhino40]

My wife and I went on our first date on my softail .... as a result she absolutely loves the bike, in fact she tells people it is her bike and I am her chauffer. So now 7 years later, I told her I wanted to get an Ultra, which she thinks is an old man's bike, so she was not 100% on board with the idea. Fortunately for me, her only stipulation was that I couldn't get rid of the night train, so now I have both in the garage. As I like to say, "every now and then the sun shines on a dog's ass" ...... and in this situatuion, I am that ass.

[Chief Illiniwek]

Originally Posted by Muffler Bearing

Now I'm Slick As Goose Crap:

When I was getting a new Harley, I knew "Battle Ax" was going to throw a fit. So I had Sea Ray send me brochures on 35'-40' boats. Which I left laying around all over the house. This triggered all the local Sea Ray dealers calling and E-mailing prices.
One day, we just happened to stop at a H.D. dealer.

Long story short....All I had to do was promise Not to buy a $400k boat.

P.S. I hate Sea Rays!!

I love my Sea Ray.

My wife knew I was getting one. She pretended to put her foot down against it. I said it was happening, she said it wasn't. She knew it was. She said I had to promise to wear a helmet. I hate helmets, but wanted to give her a win. I agreed. She agreed by buying me a pair of boots. I bought the bike. Been wearing a helmet ever since. Gave her my word.

My Sea Ray was substantially less than $400k.

[SullysRoadKing]

My first road bike was bought after the kids were older and we had a little more money to spend. My son who was 19 at the time was trying to buy a crotch rocket at the dealer and needed a little help in the form of a co-signer on the loan. The wife asked me if i would go up there and see what was going on. If he was not getting screwed over on the terms of the loan, I should help him out.

Now this was something. I have wanted to get a bike since we got married 20+ years ago and something has always come up like kids, military service, money or emergencies it was always put off till later. We always put the family first. I had been after her to consider allowing me to get a bike for us to ride I don't even have a bike of my own and now I am going to be signing for a bike for my kid that I will never ride. Well, I went to the Suzuki dealership and when she did not hear from us for a few hours, she got worried and came down only to find not one, but two bikes being purchased. I was financing a new Suzuki cruiser and the boy was getting his crotch rocket. I am pretty sure that is why she sent me to the dealershio in the first place because she could have just as easily done it. She knew what was going to go down. She had just as big of a smile on her face as I did.

The Suzuki was a good bike to get experience on and it started something that turned into a great thing. Being a part of the motorcycle community. We both had to take the safety class and I got to enjoy riding with my son.

In 2010 I found a deal on a 2007 Road King Classic from a friend and the wife said go for it because she knows how much I enjoy riding. The best part of the deal is that we kept the Suzuki cruiser which she is now learning to ride and I got my dream bike.

Another thing that helped me in convincing her that we should buy the Road King was the value of Harley Davidson bikes vs metric bikes. The Suzuki which is loaded woould only resale for $3,500 at best wher the Road King only lost maybe 20% value where the metric lost nearly 60% value. Consider your Harley an investment and hope you never have to sell it.

I apologize for the book I just wrote but It is a good story. Sully

[What a Ride]

Mine was her choice.. I actually won My 09 streetglide in a charity raffle. I was going to sell the winning ticket to pay college tuition for my daughter. Told her my thoughts & her words were "what are you stupid? we can't afford a bike like that right now, ride it for a year if you don't like sell it next year" I have 17k miles on it now... Life is good....

[zeus0909]

Mine was all for me buying mine. Only said that we should buy a house we are saving for before I get more than one up: