April 2008
Hello everyone.
April is over already. WHERE DID IT GO!?
It was an extremely exciting month for me and the YY site. There has been a lot of interest lately in YY and the views have skyrocketed. I am so chuffed that people take the time to look at the site and it is nice to have some comments as well.
April started with a reply to my letter that I sent to RST clothing following my favourite pair of RST trousers ripping after less than 6 months usage, although to be fair, they had been used 5, 6 and some times 7 days a week from October to March, all the way through a mega winter. They performed well on dry days, whether it be freezing or mild. However, and this still stands, the waterproof area of the Pro Paragon suit leaves one somewhat wanting. There is a serious problem with water ingress mainly around the upper chest and belly button area. The 360 zip actually only goes around 300 degrees and leaves a 3″ gap just above the trouser zip. For some reason the water finds its way in to this area and leads to very wet and often freezing inner clothing. On very wet days within 10 miles the suit can fail completely with water repelling and leads to a very uncomfortable ride.
Anyway, after receiving a letter from RST I was chuffed to bits. I was told that I would receive a reply from the designer of the RST products when he returned. I did receive a reply and it was extremely positive. I was delighted that the company had read my letter in a positive light, and that they took a lot from it. I had tried my best to make it positive even though I was writing about a negative experience. I can’t divulge the outcome of my letter at this moment in time but it’s fair to say it is far more than I had ever wished for.
After the mammoth positive there had to be a mammoth negative and that was my bike breaking down, and in true YY style, it broke to the point that no-one knew what the hell had happened to it. The boys at my Suzuki garage had the bike to it’s bones, using the demonstrator GSR as a parts bin trying to diagnose the problem. In the end they had to phone Suzuki and they replaced the entire wiring loom and it fired first time. All in all it took 3 weeks and £500 to fix it, and thankfully it was all done under warranty.
I fiited a HID light to my bike and initially it was absolutely brilliant, but due to it being a cheap £30 unit from China, the solenoid that controls the high/low beam has jammed on low beam and won’t budge, so that’s annoying.
My GSR got it’s first rear tyre replacement, and it just so happened to be the wettest day so far. I turned out of the garage gently, changed to 2nd gear and opened the throttle, the rear spun up and that was the warning to baby it all the way to work.
Apart from that April was a quiet month! Ha.
May is here, and that means in 3 weeks we will be going around Scotland for a week, anti-clockwise.
Stay tuned for a mega photo/video/word fest after that!
Anyway, thanks for visiting YamYam and thanks for your comments.
Cheers
Gordon
HID and Stuck
Hello everyone.
My bike is fixed! HOORAY! After Suzuki replaced the wiring loom it fired up first time, so that seemed to be the problem. It was covered under warranty too so I didn’t have to worry about footing the bill. On the flipside though my rear tyre is “completely illegal” and is getting replaced this Wednesday with a new one, and will cost £119 odds.
Upon getting the call that my bike was fixed I was desperate to get it back as I have been doing the bus thing. It’s not that bad now actually because the buses here have free wifi! I would get on the bus around 7:30am and get the iPod touch out and start reading the news, surfing the web, listening to music. It was nice to be able to relax on the way in to work (although you did get the dodgy driving and kangaroo braking which ruined the otherwise sleepy journey)
I was fed up of the 6:20am rise as I usually wake up around 7:45am when I have the bike, so it was pretty tough. Plus the fact that if I need to do stay later it means having to re-arrange a collection from the park ‘n ride, which can be inconvenient for everyone else. So the long and short of it was I was desperate to get my wheels back.
The ride back from the garage was funny. Not haha, but weird. The bike seemed really difficult to lean, and perhaps it was subliminal considering the phrase “completely illegal” was used about my squared off rear. But I got home and the HID light was really cool!
But then on Saturday the HID stuck on low beam and the solenoid wouldn’t change it to full beam. At least it was on though, but it was annoying. This was later on in the evening during a trip with Em because it was a nice night.
Today Em and I went to Scott Murray’s because I wanted to get some wheel stripes. I saw some boys on the forum had them and it looks great! So we left to go there, anticipating a call from Blair as today’s weather was nothing short of glorious. The HID rig was working this morning, after I washed my bike. It only seemed to stay working for a wee while though, and then stuck on full whack for the rest of the day (but I didn’t realise this until I got home! OOPS! I wondered why all the signs were really bright! HA)
We chatted to the boys and I bought a new back protector, which I will review after this post.
After a quick chat we were off again and headed to Blairs, and then over to St. Andrews for a ride/chips. The bike felt really good today for some reason and was smooth, gears, throttle and brakes were all silky. It must have been the weather/new helmet which added to the “I’m alive” feeling.
Once we got to St.A we headed to the back of the Old Course where the dunes are and stopped for 10 minutes. It was getting colder, but we thought it was just the breeze from the sea. A boy on a Buell, the exact same as mine drove past and I was a hater. He also was wearing the RST Electric jacket and draggin jeans, the exact same setup I had when I had the Buell. It was like I was watching me riding past. Really bizarre.
We fancied some chips so headed along the high street, but couldn’t see anywhere. Then Blair mentioned Anstruther and it’s famous chip shop and Em made an executive decision before Blair had even finished his sentence. We fuelled up and headed out, on some brilliant roads!
Once in Anstruther Em and Kirsty joined the ridiculous queue to the chip shop, some locals swearing under their breath, annoyed that the pavement was taken up with hungry punters. Blair and I stood outside for 45 minutes, watching the endless circuit of boy racers going up and down the high street. It was getting really cold and I had my Furygan/Hardas combo on, so was starting to get quite cold. The fish and chips arrived, with Kirsty saying another local jumped the queue. We ate, (delicious) and the left rickety tick. The ride back home was glorious, with the roads sweeping and fast, the sun low in the sky offering a warm breeze through open visors and the sound of two GSR’s in unison. It couldn’t get any better, and it didn’t as I started to get really tired and sore. The GSR seems to have a hard area on the seat, just before the tank. Basically where you like to sit. This means that after a days solid riding, it’s sore bums all round. I didn’t care though.
So that was my weekend! It was brilliant to get out with the 4 us on the bikes and the weather was simply glorious. It was meant to be raining as well! Pah, weathermen.
My bike is over the 4k barrier, time for the 2nd service.
Thanks for reading!
Gordon
Talk about the wrong stuff
Hello everyone.
A few updates to do so this is Update 1:
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I received and fitted my new HID bulb. But there’s bigger news to be told first. My bike has broke.
I got up Saturday around 9am, pretty early for my usual Saturday routine, but today was tinkering day. Bike was washed by around 10:30am and I got everything ready for fitting my new HID rig. I was pretty nervous about it, mostly the touching the battery bit, but I got Dad to supervise that bit so I didn’t kill myself.
It took about 2 hours, mainly due to me making sure everything was in place and secure and not going to break etc. I have photos from all of this fitting but Dad is away with the camera so I can’t post them up yet.
Everything went ace, the new light worked and I was happy as larry. (Read: relieved) I then went to re-attach the headlight assembly and sheared a bolt. After all of this working flawlessly I bloody ruin it by over-tightning the bloody bolt. IDIOT. It was safe as it was with the remaining 3 bolts holding it in place but it was just really frustrating, as the rest of the bolt was stuck in the thread. A job for the next service I think.
Anyway, I started the bike around 4-5 times to show Dad and Mum and then Blair came up on his bike. I showed him my light working and he was pretty impressed with the brightness of it. My bike was on the paddock stand so I asked Blair to help me and when I took it off the stand I did it a bit abruptly. The bike landed with a thud but I didn’t think anything of it.
We then decided the rain had stopped enough for us to head out and as I went to start my bike, it didn’t. It went “ee ee ee” and I looked at Mum who was standing there. I then gave it some throttle the second time and it started with a revver. Weird eh? Anyway I didn’t think anything of it, and even when the bike lurched at the top of the road I was a wee bit concerned but not too worried.
We then rode to Newburgh and on to the jetty bit, I wanted to take comparison photos of our two headlights, mine with HID and Blairs without. We turned the bikes off and I took two photos. We then saw a beach about 10 miles up the road so we decided to investigate. And that’s where my journey stopped.
The bike just wouldn’t start. The started motor was ticking but it was as if there was no fuel getting to the engine to start it. Either that or the spark plugs had bust? Hmm I had no idea. Then after a wee while of trying to start it, the FI light came on and started flashing. It would then say “FI” on the dash.
Now from reading the forum I knew that if you didn’t replace the ignition clusted properly, the immobiliser that is housed in this small bit of plastic would show a FI warning. But when I turned the key on, the FI light would come on and go off once the sweep of the rev counter had finished, like always. It was only when I went to start the bike that nothing would happen and THEN the FI light would flash.
Anyway, after 20 or so attempts I asked Blair to go and get the tools from the house (we were only about 10 minutes from the house by this point) and I would lift the tank off to see if there was something snagged or loose.
I remembered that I would need the ratched extension bar to get the tank bolts off so phoned Blair and we ran through what tools I would need to take the tank off.
Half an hour later and Blair returned. I had started the steps to taking the tank off with the bike’s tool kit but could only get as far as taking the immobiliser panel off as I needed the ratchet.
I took the tools out and Blair had brought the small and medium ratchets, the medium extension bar and the bloody 10mm small ratchet bit. So the extension bar didn’t fit the 10mm ratched bit. ANNOYING.
I managed to get the tank off etc and checked everywhere for fuel leaking or a snagged anything. I asked Blair to phone the garage to let them know that my bike was broke and I may need the van to come and pick me up. He got a call 5 minutes later to say the van was on it’s way.
There was no snags etc and after putting all the stuff back on we tried to bump start the bike but nothing was working still. So we waited for the van to arrive, which it did 20 minutes later. The guy drew up and I was already pushing my bike so as soon as the ramp touched the floor my bike was in the back of the van.
We spoke about the issue and he said the garage was shutting in 15 minutes so don’t bother coming to the garage. Also there would be no mechanics in on Sunday so they wouldn’t look at it till Monday at the earliest. Fair enough we said and thanked the boy for coming out to get my bike.
Blair and I spoke for a bit about what could have happened. It couldn’t have been me fitting the new bulb. It was just a case of wiring it to the battery and running the cables to the headlight. That was it. I didn’t touch anything else. So our only explanation was that when I dumped the bike off the paddock stand, it must have knocked something off or out. Perhaps it broke something. The electrics were perfect, the lights came on the indicators worked all the dash worked perfectly, so it wasn’t the electrics. Thinking about it now, it must be the spark plugs. I looked in the manual and under the “FI Indicator warning” section it speaks only about the spark plugs. I must have broke on when I dropped the bike. Although I have no idea anyway, I guess I’ll just have to wait to hear what the garage says.
It was then a case of me being a pillion for the first time ever! I was dead excited about it and I tell you what, I fecking loved it. It is so so so different being a pillion compared to being a rider and it was such a good feeling sitting there and leaning with Blair etc. Loved it!
It then started raining, so I wasn’t loving it as much.
I am pissed off. I hope this wasn’t due to me tinkering. It can’t be because the electrical circuit is working. It’s a FI problem, which means spark plugs or fuel injection system problems. And if that is the case, how did it happen? The bike worked prior to me taking it off the stand, so it must have been the dumping it on the ground that wrecked it.
The other think is the bike was running perfectly until I switched it off at Newburgh. It wasn’t like it was running like crap all the time. It’s just weird and now I have to get the fecking bus tomorrow to work, which means 6:30am rise.
Anyway, that’s that, and I’ll hopefully get my bike back next week sometime.
The photos from the jetty looked like this:
I think you will agree, the HID looks the dogs, and the additional LED side lights that I got (12 LED’s per side light) add to the effect. Blair got some as well. A token gesture in a crap day.
Update 2:
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RST still haven’t got back to me, and after 2 weeks I still haven’t received my RST Paragon trousers back from the fixer shoppie. I received my Hardas trousers on Wednesday last week, which was great, but crap as I had to go around for a week and half with plain jeans on.
Anyway, they are really good, solidly built and very comfortable to wear, with no tension around the crotch, which is a failing point for most motorcycle trousers.
I haven’t got any pictures yet, but I will post some up next time around.
Anyway, I am done and still upset that my bike is broke. I miss it already and feel really guilty for some reason. I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks for looking guys, 10,000 views and rising!
Gordon
UPDATE:
It seems as though it may be a fuel pump relay issue, as some of the boys on the forum have said that their fuel pump relays have been clogged up with crap and corroded. Who knows, but it’s certainly something to do with the fuelling. Perhaps its the o2 eliminator as these boys who had the corrosion had aftermarket pipes.HMMMM
HID and seek
Hello
I have been pretty disappointed with the GSR light situation, but it is nothing compared to the Buell. I could hardly see 10ft in front of me with the Buell’s lights, but anyway, I fancied doing something to alter the situation.
I thought about LED’s and having a row of them somewhere at the front of the bike, but then a guy on the GSR forum showed me this and I just about wet myself.
Pretty amazing.
I’ll have to investigate further, but it seems to be the solution I am looking for.
