Honda CBR 250

One of the annoyances of living in the Lower Keys is that you only ever get to see a stream of assorted Harley Davidsons mixed in with the odd BMW looking badly out of place in their layers of all possible high impact gear.


And then one of my anonymous neighbors gets the bright idea to go and buy a modern motorcycle like a Honda 250.


This isn't a tired Nighthawk 250 or the diminutive Rebel which has a seat that is knee high to a grasshopper. It's supposed to be female friendly but it's just dead boring. This Honda 250 is most decidedly not boring.


Check this little boy racer out. Automatic Braking System and all on the front disk. The oil gets changed every 6,000 miles and the four valves in the water cooled single cylinder get checked every 16,000 miles.


The instrument panel is modern and complete and the riding position doesn't look to be as ferocious on a middle aged back as you might think.


The finish is lovely and considering these machines are made in Thailand (where Bonnevilles are assembled) these machines will be sold around the world at bargain prices - four grand in the US gets you one.


This owner cleverly installed a couple of color coordinated bungees to haul his/her lunch to work in Big Pine. I expect this bikes are that popular someone soon will create some useful accessories for the little CBR.


On the other hand not many people buy an 80 mpg little racer to carry luggage so perhaps innovative bungees are as good as it will get. That and the usual throw over not waterproof saddle bags.


I like this bike.


Of course I would look like an overweight middle aged pratt riding it so my choices are probably a Suzuki TU 250 or a Cleveland Cyclewerks 250 both of which I also like a lot. Small bikes are so much more interesting than oversized penis enhancers.


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Five Years

Today is the fifth anniversary of the very first essay in this blog. When I started I had no idea how obsessive this enterprise might become, but here I am, 2668 posts later, tens of thousands of photographs, mostly of the Florida Keys, an average 700 page views a day, 228 followers, and no idea what the future might bring.


I understand that there are thousands of people across the country and the world who miss "their" Florida Keys and this blog, as whimsical and as personal as it sometimes is remains a window on the Keys for people starved of contact with these islands.


I have always tried to avoid formats or formulae, or cutesy repetitions like the photo blogs tend to pursue, for instance blue Tuesdays or weathered Wednesday's and stuff like that. These essays are a product of my daily life, heavily edited.


I just happen to live where a lot of people have a remote interest. I wish there were more blogs like mine about other places around the world with pictures and words. After all I like armchair travel too, but in my Internet searches unfortunately I find Key West Diary is all too rare. And so it goes. Five years. Amazing isn't it?



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