That would be the '99 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa, one of the three or four fastest stock production street legal motorcycles

currently made. This baby will do a quarter mile in under 10 seconds. This baby can hit 190 mph. She gets better gas mileage than

most of your pathetic little econocages. This bike is cheaper than virtually every 2001 automobile. Ain't it pretty? It has more power

than a whole lot of cars on the road, and weighs, with rider, less than one fourth what most cars weigh. All that power driving one

wheel. One fat ass tire, as wide as the fronts on my sports car. First gear will take you past all speed limits, second will put you

WAAAAAAAAYYY past them. I've never sat on a Busa, let alone ridden one. I've sat on a 2000 Kawasaki ZX-12R, which is an even

faster bike. The thing scared me just sitting there in the store.

That is not the bike I'm looking for. Here is one bike I'm considering:

This is the 2001 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6. A nice midsize sportbike. Not a fast bike by any means. It'll still out-accelerate a Porsche

Turbo, a Lamborghini Diablo, a Dodge Viper, a Corvette, and a Ferrari Modena. So no trouble twisting the throttle on the highway

to instantly get away from trouble. I've sat on this bike before, it's very comfortable and it fits me well. Gorgeous too. It can be a

gas-sipper (55-60 mpg) on the highway, can carry another person, and can carry the groceries home (with the optional bags). It's

got enough handling and lightness to make it fun to take trips on, or to take out to the country for some corner-carving, or to blast

around town on Sunday mornings. The bike hasn't really changed in years, just slight tweaks and cosmetic changes, so I'd be looking

for a '95 or '96 model or so.

One of the best bikes made right now in my opinion is this:

This is the brand new 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200S. An excellent all-around bike. This is what I would buy if I could buy new. Although,

the Bandit, which has already made a huge splash in the sportbike press, costs under 7 grand so it's not that out of reason.

Well, this concludes the motorcycle picture posting and self-indulgent motorcycle discussion portion of this diary.

Hah! 2001 Honda CBR600F4i

Hah! Monger, CJ and CO with a '99 Yamaha YZF-R1, 2000 Ducati Monster 600, '99 Yamaha YZF-R6, and

a SWEEEEET 2001 Aprilia SL1000 Falco that CSL just bought two days ago.