Yeah, Im also a veteran.. 44 years old, Infantry 1/327 Inf 101st Airborne and the 1/506th Air Assault, 2nd Infantry Div(DMZ Korea, Camp Greaves) 1990-94 I started riding like a lot of other Southerners start riding, as kids on 3-wheelers and trail bikes, tear-assing around woods in the middle of summer, nearly getting ourselves killed at every turn. ha ha!
When I got a bit older and was in the service I started buying Honda CBRs and Kawasaki Ninjas, but those bikes never really "scratched the itch" for me. They were just too damn generic and they didn't match my lust for Ford Mustangs. When I first saw a photo of a XB9 back in '03, I heard a voice in my head saying "that's the ONE".. It just looked like a Mustang Cobra to me.. eventually I was able to test ride one and it was like finding something that you've been looking for, for a long time. I bought the Firebolt and a few years later I bought a XB9SX. The Lightning is perfect for me, now I want one in 1203. Why do I love them? Well they are real good as other guys have stated. They remind me of American military equipment. If the US Army ever needed a "Assault Bike" it would be a XB. If you were to paint it OD Green it would look totally at home sitting next to a Bradley or a Hummer...if you painted it Flat Black it would look totally at home sitting next to a B2 bomber. They just have that "combat ready" status to them. The Soldiers here know what Im talking about.. they are effective and tough. I trust mine. You can depend on one as long as they are properly maintained just as with any other military piece of equipment. The XB also has a lot of "Mad Max" in them. Its the kind of bike that would be well suited for the "End of the World" type situation. I could easily see 'ol Max running around in the outback on one, scavenging for gasoline, sleeping under a poncho hooch at night. The XB is like a sportbike for "The Wild West", a tough "all-rounder"...a survivalists sportbike. Military guys tend to like machines that are tough generalists with well-rounded capabilities, mechanical simplicity with a well thought out design plan. For me, the XB is like the AK-47 or the M-16 of the sport bike world.