How to survive a midlife crisis on a budget

I’m closing in on 47 years of age and to date I have not had the midlife crisis I’m entitled to. I think that may have just changed.

My midlife crisis was brought about by a transportation dilemma.  My oldest daughter turned 16 this year and we had not adequately saved to buy her a car. That means she is driving my vehicle a lot these days. When she has my vehicle and my wife is out with her’s, I am left stranded at home.  We live in a community that is pretty much self-contained in the foothills of South Mountain in Phoenix.  Since I work from home most of the time, I don’t need a car on a daily basis.  However, when I need to run an errand or meet up with the guys at church or just get out of the house for a while, sometimes I need a set of wheels.

For the last year or so, I have been watching Craigslist for an opportunity to buy a scooter at a good price.  It wasn’t until recently, that I stumbled upon an ad for a Honda CT 90.  The 90 in the bike’s model means it is a 90 cc engine.  Not much power by modern street bike standards, but it is plenty to get me from my home to the points I tend to travel.  I’ve done some research on the bike and discovered that they stopped making them in 1979 –  the model year I bought. Nevertheless, there is no lack of popularity with the bikes.

It turns out there are cliques of people who buy and collect and ride these bikes just like there are for Harley Davidson motorcycles. People buy these post the bikes for all sorts of reasons, such as nostalgia, convenience, economics and so forth. For me, the appeal is budget. The truth is I’ve never desired to ride or own a Harley Davidson.  But once I discovered the CT90 and did a little research, I was hooked.

Thanks to Craigslist, I was able to find one of these trail bikes of the 1979 vintage for only $1,600. Here’s the beauty: it has only 1,400 miles on it and is in near mint condition.  It’s almost as if somebody locked it away in a time capsule and preserved it for me to have today. With no clutch and only four speeds, it’s very easy to ride and gets about 80 miles per gallon of gas. The perfect cure for my midlife crisis.