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After going to high school in Sacramento and serving my mission in Los Angeles, I was less than excited to move to Idaho while being single and in my mid 20’s. Despite living in Idaho as a kid, I was scared that my social life was going to be absolutely non-existent and that everyone in Idaho would drive me crazy. I had some confused judgments on the area, and basically feared the worst: Potato eatin’ farmers kids everywhere whose idea of fun was moving irrigation pipes.

My parents live about 25 minutes west of Boise Idaho now, and I lived with them for 8 months before my mission, and an additional combined 18 months after my mission. I was really surprised to find so many people that weren’t actually from Boise. There were lots of transplants like we were. Many of which were from California same as us, in addition to a vastly varied population that came from many other parts of the United States.

When I attended Boise State I started seeing more of the social scenes in the area in addition to meeting a great deal of cool people. Yes, I admit that meeting many of the people I did out here surprised me at first. I worked as an installer for custom home theaters in an extremely nice part of Boise called Eagle which is actually absolutely nicer than anything I have seen in UT. This combined with my mother working in real estate all at the same time when Idaho had it’s single largest growth period ever I got to see some amazing changes happen in the Boise area and meet some great people.

Though many of the locals have always feared the growth, and hated the “Californians stealing all their land” Boise/Eagle and Nampa have really improved quite a bit over the last few years. Aside from having a good solid variety of quality restaurants, independent movie theaters, art festivals (jazz festival and a Shakespeare Festival included) as well as large University which has also had some amazing growth. Boise has the largest Basque community in the United States. The Big Easy concert house has had almost every band and musician come through that I have wanted to see and they always sell out, the whole green-belt around the Boise River has been improved time and time again. Urban Outfitters ven built a store here before they built one in UT (to many people that means nothing, to me though it’s a pretty big deal).

Since moving to UT, I have seen an unusually high number of people that I really have no desire to meet or get to know. I am lucky to already be friends with some of the coolest people in the state anyway, but maybe you will agree or disagree that all over UT county at least there are quite a high concentration of “Bro’s” we call them, and “hair school” girls. The term “hair school girls” can also apply to students at BYU or UVSC and doesn’t mean necessarily that they actually go to hair school, it’s more of a train of thought and character label.

Boise on the other hand actually has a large number of locals and transplants who are genuinely interesting and diverse people. They are not obsessed with telling everyone they play the guitar even though they don’t (pretty much every other single guy in UT county), and they most definitely don’t have a large population of guys who fake tan and wear pink popped collared polo’s. A lot of people here are approachable and friendly, and usually end up being people I want to be friends with. With a growing culture of it’s own in recent years, the people and activities here are growing more attention than most would imagine. There really are very few farmers in the area anymore. A few of the companies that have their headquarters in Boise are Micron, HP Printer division, Washington Group International, Albertsons, WinCo, and Simplot.

Just a 10 minute drive from down town is Bogus Basin Ski Resort. A few hours to the north there is the prestigious Tamarack Ski Resort. In the valley there are two accessible reservoirs which I have enjoyed wake boarding and boating on. If you like watching insanely crazy football games, Boise States last 3 seasons have been jaw-dropping from start to finish.

This image from Wikipedia’s article on Boise, the city is called “The City Of Tree’s” which I made fun of at first because I thought Sacramento would probably fit the name better, but actually Boise really does have a large quantity of beautiful tree’s which set’s the city apart from the surrounding dry sage brush and farm land areas.

In 2006, Forbes named Boise as #4 on their “Best Places to Own a Business”. National Geographic did one of the best articles I have read about Boise, naming it one of the last great cities in the west and the premier pace to live for outdoor activities and lifestyle..

I enjoyed my time at Boise State, and always enjoy my visits here. I may not move back here ever again, but props to you Boise. Maybe people will stop assuming no one in Idaho has indoor plumbing, and stop wondering if everyone eats potatoes for every meal.

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I have worked in various support services departments for different companies. I did tech support/customer service for Nu Skin/Pharmanex which didn’t require a ton of knowledge, but they did require us to know everything in our scope of support. If someone came to us with something we didn’t know, we found it out. I felt like a slave, but at least our customers were satisfied with out service. I later worked for Apple iPod Tech support. Here the training was surprisingly rigorous. Apple really did want us to know as much as we could about the products we were providing support for, despite the fact that if someone couldn’t figure out how to use an iPod, they probably have a fairly low intellect. 85% of the time the hold button was on or it was out of power.

Recently I was informed of a tech support department who not only didn’t know how to help their customers for some of their products, they decided that rather than finding the information out and teaching the rest of the tech support team it would be easier to just actually send the customers to another companies tech support. I know . . I know . . it’s absolutely ridiculous.

Newegg is a huge company who has a fairly dominant position in online retail. On a number of occasions they have referred customers to Sewell Directs tech support department for products and questions concerning Newegg’s products. It has been known for a long time that Sewell Direct has had an amazing Tech Support and customer service department, but honestly think about how sad it is that Newegg is a company willing to lose customers and taint their online image by trying to earn money but not support and help their customers.

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Recently I have been disappointed in how hard it has been to really find an online review with any real content. Usually the reviews that people find when they spend just a few minutes of time online are written by a hired copy writer with the intent to gain profit. I would like to offer up a few reviews here and there on things I purchase or use. The following is for the motorcycle listed in the title of the article. To warn you, it really won’t have a ton of critical and negative information since I have love almost everything about the bike.

The Size

I was initially pretty worried about getting a bike with such a large motor, largely in part because of the sheer weight which drops in at 641 lbs. and the possibility of having too much power. When I started test driving them though, it was immediately apparent that Honda did an excellent job of balancing everything to make the bike extremely smooth and easy to handle. If you stand the bike up straight to move it with out starting it, or just take it out on a ride, you will notice it feels like a much lighter motorcycle than it really is but with the benefit of actually weighing more. Yes, there are a lot of benefits to having a bike that weighs more. Freeway driving is more solid even in windy conditions; pot holes and debris are less likely to affect steering, passenger weight effects handling less, etc. This is the largest motorcycle I have ever driven, but I have gone on plenty of rides on smaller bikes and have had absolutely no problem adjusting to the total 1312 cc’s my VTX has.

I am 6′4″ and really wanted a bike I fit on well because I feel so ridiculous on 750’s and 1100’s, like riding a 12 year old kids BMX bike. Personally I think I am still just a tad too tall for the bike, but nothing an adjustment on the handle-bars and foot pegs won’t fix. The turning radius isn’t quite as good as an 1100cc (Sabre) or 750cc (shadow) but still turns and corners quite well. The seat is only 27.46 inches off the ground so the ride is comfortably low to the ground but not too low. I test drove a Yamaha V Star 1100, V Star 1300, Kawasaki Vulcan, Honda Sabre 1100, and Honda Spirit 1100.

The Power

Riding this bike has been more enjoyable than any other bike I have ever driven. The 1312cc liquid cooled 52-degree V-twin comes with a SOHC valve train with three valves per cylinder. It has a 5-speed transmission, and power gets from the motor to the road over a drive shaft, rather than a chain. When I request power from the motor it gives me plenty, even at 110 MPH there is plenty of response still left. What is even more impressive, is when I was cruising in 3rd gear at about 40 mph and just floored it to get comfortably ahead of a car, the motor sent enough power to the rear tire, the bike actually peeled out. Peeling out from, just from speeding up while I was already going a decent speed . . yeah. . . plenty of power (which can still be used in moderation of course). Honda makes excellent vehicles and motorcycles, and the 2007 Honda VTX 1300c is definitely one of their best. Very low maintenance needed. The rear suspension has dual shocks that have 5 position spring pre-load adjust-ability, and using a tool kit built into the bike adjusting between these 5 positions is a breeze which is nice for the different comfort ride I want for free way use or taking a passenger on a ride.

Regardless of motor size, braking power is a huge requirement on any street motorcycle. My VTX 1300 has a 336mm disc brake with twin-piston calipers in the front, and 296mm disc brake with a single-piston caliper in the rear. Stopping and braking control isn’t a problem for me at all with these massive brakes. I really have been quite impressed with the response and maintained control when I need to make a quick stop.

The Style

The 2006 and 2007 line of Honda VTX 1300 models have three variations. The 1300R, 1300S, and 1300C. Each model from each year has its own line of color options on top of styling variations which is found in fender designs, rim size and designs, and handle bars. All three bikes have the same size of rear tire (15″ rim), but the front tire on the R and S are 17″, while the C has a sporty 19″. Like I was when I first test drove the VTX 1300, anyone who is used to riding smaller bikes will immediately notice how wide the gas tank is. Definitely not as big as the Honda or Kawasaki 1800 series bikes, but still wide none-the-less. Since styling is the only real difference between the three different 1300 models, my personal styling preference was to get the 1300c. I entertained the other models initially, but there isn’t a question any more that the C has better rims ( pretty frigging hot cast wheels as opposed to spokes that come on the S which I am not a fan of at all ), better handle bar styling, better color options- I got the Pearl Dark Blue on my 1300c, and much, much more attractive fenders.

The Bad

Two small hex-screws fell off the bike with in the first 20 miles of riding it. One is on the Odometer/Gas Tank plate and caused a horrible rattling noise. The noise was actually pretty annoying since I put 300 miles on it in the first 24 hours. The other screw was one of the two that held my license plate cover on, so not a big deal. They were both fixed on the first business day after I bought it. The headlight is pointed more up rather than down currently, and the speedometer is off a little bit. Monarch Honda in Orem, UT where I bought it offered to adjust the headlight, also not really a big deal. The speedometer though is a little annoying, and Monarch bike-techs said there was nothing that can be done. I intend to prove that statement false.

If you are considering getting a used 2006 or 2007 Honda VTX make sure the initial owners did the 600 mile tune-up. This is extremely critical. It’s not just doing the valve adjustment new bikes need, it’s removing and changing the oil that gets pretty full of metal filings caused by a new motor wearing in. Even if that was ignored and the oil was changed around 2000 or 3000 miles, plenty of damage was probably caused with the metal-filing-full oil that should have been swapped out. Not really my problem since the Odometer actually read “0 miles” when I drove it off the lot.

The 2007 Honda VTX 1300 Review Rundown

I really enjoy how smooth it drives. The Pearl Dark Blue looks amazing out on the road. The cornering and turns are great compared other 1300cc bikes, or ones close to it in size. The Passenger seat is a little narrow but I plan on getting a new one soon enough. There is lots of Chrome from front to back. Driver seat is comfortable and well positioned. Everyone driving around their 750’s and 800’s regardless of if it’s a Harley, Honda or whatever always turn their head and gawk. Stock pipes aren’t loud, but are big, beautiful and add a lot more chrome. They (the exhaust) seem to really be a trouble spot on collecting light scratches and that nasty chrome rust stuff that looks like brown spots. I decided to buckle down and really learn how to repair them, and wrote a tutorial on How To Repair and Remove Scratches from Chrome Exhaust. Owning your motorcycle for longer than just the summer time is pretty common. This Honda VTX is my first motorcycle, so I also spent some time learning how to prepare my motorcycle for winter weather and storage.

Check Out Honda Motorcycles Official Website for more info.

Check out my wallpapers of this picture. You can click on the image to be taken to the wallpaper versions of this picture.
-jon

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