Some of the major factors involved in determining what accessories I have or are adding are below. In no particular order:
1. For the first time in my recollection, my better half gave me the complete go-ahead to get this bike ready (for our first couple of trips, likely northern lower peninsula here in MI) which will include taking our best friends along with us. "Do whatever it takes to get it ready" were her exact words. Yes! Our best friends (husband & wife team as well) lived across the street from us for ~15 years before we moved to a lake last year, then proceeded to buy the piece of property next door to us and are building a house there now. They plan on getting a Pioneer as well as soon as the whole house thing is wrapped up. These rides will be more leisurely than future rides for a variety of reasons, but the main one being that the ladies aren't looking for full-on crawling or extreme mudding. I'm OK with that, as it will give me a couple of rides under my belt to accommodate myself with the P1K5 and make sure things are working correctly before spring/summer and the TO. Over the many years, it's always been ME doing the trips and such, as the wife wasn't much of a fan of motorcycles. With the SXS, the wife is actually geeked about doing these things with me, so I want her to be as comfortable as possible.
2. Despite this being my first SXS, it's far from my first powersports machine. As such, I've lost count (machines, dollars, accessories, etc.) of all the farkling I've done to my many machines over the decades. As a result, I've learned many (not all, but many) of the things I DO like as well as what I DON'T like. Most of what I've done thus far can be categorized as things I know I/we will NEED, while some are WANTS/LIKES or, quite frankly, things I didn't do to other machines in years past that I later regretted.
3. "Sometimes you gotta say "What the F*ck", make your move. Joel, every now and then, saying "What the F*ck", brings freedom. Freedom brings opportunity, opportunity makes your future." - Miles Dalby (Curtis Armstong) to Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) in the movie Risky Business, 1983. Not only am I not getting any younger, I'm sorta living on borrowed time. Nearly 10 years ago, I was on a motorcycle trip (on one of those aforementioned well-farkled two-wheeled machines, that one a 2010 Kawasaki Concours 14) and got whacked by a car that was doing 70MPH while I was sitting still. Ripped my leg clean off. I should have died right there, but I saved my own life (made a tourniquet out of my $8 Walmart raincoat I had on over my full leathers). Had the meth head, hit-and-run '92 Buick driver been 6" further to the right, I'd be dead for sure. So the way I look at it: Why not live life to the fullest? You never know when your ticket is going to get punched.
4. Ok, Ok, I can be a little bit obsessive. When I get to doing something, I'm in it 110%. That's just the way I am wired.
I'm planning on leaving plenty of meat on the P1K5 bone until AFTER we put a bunch of miles and trips on. I'm not jumping into lifts, long travel kits, big tires and beadlocks, etc.. I think that is the kind of stuff that is better postponed until after I determine where and how I'm going to ride. But the stuff I've done thus far, from dual batteries to stereos to enclosures, are things I already know I'll be doing sooner or later.
)
