Well yeah - they always check my license. Some times they get me to leave that behind, sometimes one of them comes out and tails me. It's not as if they're just throwing the bike at me and saying "go have fun!"

That, and after coming through to buy kit and parts a lot of the sales folk around here know me now so that makes things easier.

I just couldn't handle buying a bike (or a car for that matter) that I hadn't ridden/driven.

R.

Quote from: JamesGSorry, but go spend a weekend in the the Dominican Republic, or Spain any you will learn that a GS is perfect for lane splitting, and having their way with car traffic.

Dominicans have lane splitting down to an art form.  They will pass between cars at highway speeds on tiny GN 125s with THREE adults on it (those poor little bikes) and at any stop light a small school of scooters will filter thru the parked cars, and unless there is cross traffic, blow thru the red light as if it were a suggestion, instead of a law.

Oh yeah...I've ridden in the D.R. twice, once in the North around Puerto Plats and then again in Santo Domingo (big city) and WOW!  Right-of-way means whoever gets there first, and the only rule of the road is that there are no rules.
I was amazed at the assortment of tiny scoots and motorcycles, many held together with bailing wire and duct tape...but somehow a family of 3 or 4 gets on one and goes...shorts, skirts, T-shirts...helmets?  What for, and besides, they cost money.
In fact, for a huge part of the world's riding population, our 500cc zooks would be a huge bike!!

Test rides?

Local dealers here won't even let you sit on a bike unless they are 90% sure you are going to buy it.

Test rides?

Local dealers here won't even let you sit on a bike unless they are 90% sure you are going to buy it.

See... how is that attitude going to help sell bikes? I can understand wanting to keep the curious off, but at the same time as long as people are careful then what the hey? A lot of the shops i've wandered through have one of each model bike that they use specifically for tests, which later gets sold off as an ex-demo with associated discount. They don't lose a lot of money on it, and have the benefit of the rest of the stock being completely untouched...

R.