'Cause I said so

So, I guess at some point we make decisions. Decisions that will either make our life better or our wardrobe better or a music collection better, etc. Decisions. And sometimes it's a cross between function and form, that mythical crossroad where the two meet to battle it out for which is more important. Also, I guess sometimes you can tell the type of person of which one or the other is more prevalent. Sometimes.

Anyway, my point is about the center stand. It's great the bike has one. I've had others before it that had one, too. I've had some very specific race-ish bikes that wouldn't dare have one, and I used a paddock stand for those just fine. I've also had a cruiser or two that couldn't have had one, considering they weighed so much it probably would have been difficult if not impossible to actual utilize such a thing.

So now I'm faced with whether or not to remove mine. It's got one mounted right now, and other than it being slightly more difficult to get the bike up on it since lowering the forks, it works fine. The new exhaust however, is getting banged up slightly each time the center stand gets folded up, so at some point that's gonna get more annoying than worth keeping.

It's also not that this bike wouldn't benefit from losing a few more pounds either, and that piece probably weighs 7 or 8 pounds all by itself. So there's that.

It comes around to that choice again; form or function. Having the ease of a center stand handy is great, and this bike is not going to suddenly start winning street races because the center stand is no longer there. On the other hand, cafe bikes usually don't have one, it's ugly (big reason there) and... well, it's ugly.

See that form vs. function thing coming up once again. A theme perhaps, or a tell-tale sign of where I usually land on that equation. Shallow as I can be, sometimes...

I'm thinking I'm likely going to leave it mounted for the build phase, since it keeps the bike more steady and more importantly upright. Once we're all moving and roaring again I'll probably take it off.

Just because I can. And just because it's not necessary.

And I wanna.