Me and My Bike – #1 The Occasional Adventures of Betty
By Sue
The Occasional Adventures of Betty
suehineswrites.blogspot.com
I came late to motorcycling, at 45, riding into the fray on a little red GPX250 – and with all the zeal of the religious convert, I am nuts about motorcycling for lots of reasons.
Firstly, it was bloody hard to get my licence in the first place, coz I’m not the most coordinated person. Expelled from my first attempt at the pre-licensing Learn to Ride course (I crashed the riding school’s bike), I went through months of remedial lessons, fell off about a million times, and was black and blue for much of 2005. Friends alternately applauded my stamina and begged me to give up before I killed myself.
Nearly six years, four motorcycles, a dozen clutch, brake and gear levers, and about 150,000 road kilometres later, I’m not looking to give it up any time soon. As the aches and pains of middle-age and past ‘whoopsies’ creep up on me (there have been a few whoopsies, but almost all at car-park speeds), I’m hooked. I’ve just bought a new SV650S because I wore out the last one, ha ha ha.
Secondly, I’ve always been a hide-in-the-background type. You know, that person who people say “Oh, was she at the party? Are you sure?” about? That’s me. I’m short, I’m shy, and I’m afraid of so many things. Having control of a wickedly powerful piece of machinery makes me feel strong. Also, I like my own space, both physically and inside my head, and motorcycling gives me that space. I’m not much of one for big group rides – I prefer getting out on the road alone, or with only one or two others. I can be as sociable or as much of a loner as I want to be – great stuff!
I love motorcycling for another, darker reason, too. Rewind to January, 2006. I’d had my L’s for about three months when I was attacked one night at home by a complete stranger, and all of a sudden my motorcycle became more important than ever. My life and the inside of my head were such a complete mess that the only time I felt in control of anything was when I was on the bike. I had to ride every day, just to keep the bad thoughts at bay. When darkness closed in, I rode to the light. It was a way of taking back a bit of the control that my attacker took away from me, and I honestly believe that it was the motorcycle that kept me sane. My attacker has been in gaol since 2006, and will still be there until at least 2031. I, of course, will still be out on the road, doing what I love and raising the rude-finger as I cruise past the gaol on my way to another alpine adventure or coastal retreat. Take that, scumbag!
Nowadays, the bike isn’t the therapy that it used to be, coz I don’t need it to be, but it’s still the most empowering, liberating, enjoyable part of my life. I use my bike for everything – commuting, shopping, touring – and the more I ride, the more I love it. Besides, the people I’ve met, the friends I’ve made, the places I’ve been – none of these would have been part of my life if I’d stuck to four wheels. Black moods return whenever I have an enforced break from riding – it only takes a week. I try not to think about how on earth I will cope if ever I have to give it up for good.
The part of Australia that I call home is a great place for year-round motorcycling - a temperate climate, lots of open road and some big big distances to cover. I wish my bike had a bigger fuel tank, because I start to get twitchy after about 250kms if there’s no petrol station nearby.
There’s nothing like getting to a country pub after a long day’s riding, hundreds of miles from home, and jumping into a hot shower to wash off the day’s dust, with the promise of a plate of pub grub and a cold cider or a glass of red at the bar afterwards. The best savoury mince I’ve ever eaten was at a pub in Jerilderie after several days of riding and rallying one chilly June.
This bit sounds really corny, but the bottom line is that motorcycling makes me feel so damned good. Sometimes I still can’t quite believe I’m doing it – quiet, conventional, timid little me, astride a thundering, growling machine, flying through the countryside at (sometimes, heh heh) naughty speeds, screaming and laughing with maniacal glee inside my helmet. My motorcycle obeys my every command, dancing through corners, screaming across plains, snarling its kick-arse Yoshimura snarl – I am Xena, Boudicca, Mulan… It fills me with such breathless excitement that I sometimes think my heart will burst. (Sorry – I did warn you it was corny!)
Sometimes, though, I just ooze peace and serenity. I drink in the essence of the bush, close to the sounds and smells of nature – the bugs, the birds, the roadkill and the wildflowers – and I feel more alive than I have ever felt.
See you on the road!
New Year. Happy or Otherwise.
Week 1
Happy New Year. 2011 is upon us.
YamYamBiker.com seems a bit weird when there is no bike involved. I don’t really know what I am going to do about that. I will return to biking I am sure, but I don’t know what to do in the meantime. Change the title to reflect the content? Or just leave it as is….?
2010 was the fastest year of my life so far, it was but a blip on the calendar of life. I don’t know why it went so fast but I know for sure I don’t like the way it did. I am going to have a quick whip around the year’s postage and see what I got up to….
…
Well the first post of 2010 was regarding the GSR and it’s failings as a bike. I had left it in the work’s garage over Christmas due to the crap weather and it seized up in to a block of rust. Awesome. I also posted about my new Uncle-Hood and my lovely new Niece. That was a year ago…holy shit.
Second post was along the same lines. Brakes seized, £80 before it’s even moved, whacked my head, angry, went inside to look at BMW 1200GS bikes. I justified it to myself that I need a bike that is designed to sit in -2°C with road salt on it and not rust. What an idiot. There isn’t a motorcycle known to man that would withstand that punishment.
I posted a video of a guy on a BMW trying to do doughnuts in the snow. Idiot.
KTM 125cc concepts brought to life in the new 125cc naked bike. Smart. I also found a motorcycle air conditioning system which I thought was hilarious…
Big post on the VFR1200F. I made the point that a bike that is designed for touring/bad weather riding shouldn’t have 170bhp. Comments were generally that I should get a moped if I can’t handle that amount of power. I got annoyed because the folk who said that probably have never been on a cobbled icy downhill slope….I’m getting annoyed again.
January done.
Only a handful of posts, some videos and my artwork. Also a guy with a radiator strapped to his back on his bike, in the middle of Glasgow.
1 post. 1 measly post. But a good one. Ben Spies artwork was completed and looks amazing.
2 posts this month!!….One post talking about Limited Edition Ben Spies artworks (please buy them if you are interested………….) and one post that started one of the best moments in my motorcycling life. I started thinking about buying a Yamaha MT-01….the original beefcake.
The big month. I buy a used but great condition Yamaha MT-01. It’s a dream come true for me, I wanted one since I first thought about getting in to motorcycles. Even before my test and before YamYam started. I still remember listening to a sound clip of an MT-01 from start to 100mph, and I still remember to this day thinking about how smart this thing was. Well I had the opportunity to buy one and I did.
I then had various issues with it. Head bearings broke, the rear rim was seriously dented which I had a bit of a hoo-ha with the garage about. Got it fixed and it all seemed to be fine.
Fitted an alpha-dot.
Got the rim fixed on the MT-01, handed the GSR in to the same garage to get the head bearings replaced. Ended up being £185 after being quoted £100. Had a big argument with the dealer and ended up just paying it. But I swore never to go back there ever again..and didn’t.
2 posts discussing my love for the MT. Decide it’s the best bike in the whole wide world.
I get the bus because my MT got a flat whilst riding in to my hometown. My new back tire reminds me of when I got a new back tire on the GSR and ended up redlining away from Stuart’s garage. We ride up to the west coast to see my Uncle Michael and the MT performs brilliantly. I ran over a frog.
I go to Knockhill with Rossy Boy and almost see a man die.
I sell my GSR on grounds of not being able to afford running it in to the ground. I am glad and buy new golf clubs with the proceeds.
I write one post on the Pope visiting Edinburgh. I also have an altercation with a man in a Subaru that almost costs me my dignity.
I have a bit of a moany month. I get frustrated by the complete lack of ability of some folk to drive their cars. I get my MOT done on the MT at a garage that employs a bunch of greasy know-it-all salesmen who think that rubbing your whole bike lovingly is good service. I also put the MT to bed for the winter, the first time in my 4 year biking career.
I write about getting the train and how it’s easier than I first thought. I actually read a whole book in a week…I also design some loudspeakers but naebody is bothered.
Two posts, one to say that I have sold my MT-01 and another to say Merry Christmas. A sad month but a good month, we get a new car and I feel optimistic about the future. The weather hits Scotland in a way it never has before and I find it baffling to see the world as I see it disintegrate in to a pile of shite because the councils can’t grit a road properly.
And that’s it. The year in 12 paragraphs. It seems like I didn’t do very much..but there’s tonnes of other non-biking stuff I did. I had an exhibition of my work in Perth, went well. I went to see 3 gigs. Went well. I was extremely busy with work…went….not so well.
And so it is, another year done, another 12 months of stories and experiences. 2011 is going to be such a different year for me. I won’t have my bike. But I will have munros and golf. I will hopefully get a new house and I will hopefully start my new project of home studios. I will be updating YamYamBiker.com with 100% non-biking content, but there you go.
I hope everyone had a great 2010, a great Christmas and a great New Year celebration. I am secretly optimistic about what 2011 will bring to us. I hope the optimism is fulfilled.
2 days ago I, along with Blair, Dad and Alan, went up Ben Chonzie. We went up a munro 2 years ago (to the day I found out last night) and it’s a great way to welcome in the new year. But this year we are all going to be doing a lot of walking and golfing. It was great to get up Ben Chonzie and despite my legs being knackered, I was ok everywhere else.
I went and bought some boots yesterday which are a bit more robust than my £15 Tresspass specials. Can’t wait to get out on the hills, tomorrow will be the 1st Munro of 2011, the start of many more to come.
Thanks all for your continued support. I hope you stick around for the non-bike related stuff. All the best for 2011.
Flattery in a Bike Shop = Wrong.
Weekly Update 8 – 02/10 – 10-10
Hello all,
This week saw the first ever MOT done on a motorcycle that I have owned, surprising as I’ve had so many older bikes but hey, it’s down to timing I guess. I took the beastie for its first MOT on Tuesday at a place just up the road a Suzuki garage. I went there based completely on a colleagues recommendation (he’s had mostly Ducati’s but as there’s no Edinburgh Ducati dealership, he has to go here to get his bike serviced etc).
It’s easy to find but the actual area outside the showroom is a shambles. There’s bikes everywhere and the surface is similar to a place who has had a boo-boo with a cement mixer. Lots of quite high raised blobs of concrete make riding up to the service doors tricky. Winter services would be bum clenching riding in to there.
I head in to the showroom and am immediately met with two girls whooping and some bloke chortling. A good joke shared there then. I walk up to the service desks and a youngish looking chap says hello, and I mention I called him earlier about my MT. He seems a bit confused but his brain kicks in and he gets on to his computer. Sure enough there I am, “do you have the keys and we’ll get it in to the garage.”
I suppose the good thing about this place is they do this thing called the Preliminary Check, which is basically an MOT before the MOT but it’s free. This way
we can discuss the bikes needs with you and your needs. from here you have full control over the jobs direction, and with your input we can establish a very clear picture of the way forward giving you the peace of mind that costs are under your control and giving us enough information to prepare the job, ordering any parts required in time for a mutually convenient date that we can accurately forecast.
So I asked them to have a look at the front tyre as well, as it’s getting a bit low I said. No problems, 15 minutes they say. I hear them firing up the beast and they drive it in to the workshop and sit for a good few minutes just revving it. All the while the whole showroom is vibrating.
20 minutes later I am on my 8th rotation of the showroom. There’s only so many times you can look at a Suzuki Gladius before being thoroughly fed up. Anyway I get called over and the mechanic visibly winds up for his performance.
“Ok, well I had a good check and the tyre is adequate to pass the MOT.”
Great! I say. Just go ah….
He butts in.
“But. I had a look around the bike and noticed that, the Chassis was dry. The calipers too were dry and the chain is dry. It could do with a service”
Right. I don’t even know what the ramifications are with a dry chassis…is it bad to have a dry chassis? Will my bike stop working unless my dry chassis is quickly hydrated? “no thanks, I’ll just go for the MOT please.”
“I would suggest that your bike comes in for a service as soon as possible as these things tend to develop blah blah”
Well no, I think I’ll just stick to the MOT if that’s ok?
“…..yeah its ok but I just wanted to make you aware of these issues.”
Great! Thanks for that, and he starts writing down some stuff on a bit of paper (a print out job sheet thing) and rotates it around so it’s facing me and he walks away back to the workshop (which you can see by the way as it’s got a window in to it).
So I have a look at this sheet, fold it up and put it in my pocket. He’s away to do the MOT that should take around 15 minutes to complete.
“I could just sign an MOT sheet now, but I’ve got to run it through the computer and that takes 15-20 minutes.”
I watch him go in to the workshop and light up a cigarette, as he proceeds over to my f*cking bike!
So I begin my further 10 rotations of the showroom because I can’t watch, including a wee trip out to see the bikes in the lot. When I come back in I go back to the service desk/youngish looking boy and ask if he was able to get the Metzeler Z6 front in for me if I needed it.
“I know this sounds like a hard sell”…
Here we go
“…but I would seriously consider getting that tyre changed. I’ve had so many blokes coming in here with a tyre like that and they give it all the “nah it’ll be fine” and then come back the next day all sheepish like. You would be stupid not to change it. It’s only £100″
There’s something about this whole situation that I can’t handle. I don’t know whether it’s the cautionary tale, told to me by some youngster(!) or the fact that they offer this “free” check with the “free” advice only to pump all these advisory pointers in to your brain with their sausage fists. It’s like they are basically saying, because they are wearing a Suzuki branded T-Shirt in a Suzuki shop, they can tell anyone that comes in that they know best.
Anyway, I’m not going to make a big deal about it. I have ridden with no brake disks and a bald tyre before so I am sure I can get from here, back to my office with 2mm of tread in the dry thankyouverymuch.
The boy sits down and looks like I’ve just told him his mother is actually his sister, his face visibly angered.
Whilst I am kicking about, watching the lunchtime countdown diminish to nothing, I see this bloke getting his gear on in the showroom, followed by some Suzuki boy coming over and, in the only way I can describe, starts rubbing him off. It’s crude but it’s absolutely true.
“I love those boots on you”
“yeah they’re really comfy. I think I might get some Rizla Suzuki leathers as well.”
“oh yeah, they would look fab. really nice…”
Right. This is really awkward for me watching this so I decide to have a closer look at some Suzuki cruiser’s dials, with a bit too much enthusiasm.
The mechanic comes back in and asks me if I have seen the white sheet he wrote on. I take it out my pocket and he says, oh that’s mine…well why did you leave it on the desk?
Then I hear this almighty rumble and here, it’s this guys GSXR-1000 Rizla Replica. It’s sounds gorgeous and looks pretty good, with some Leo Vince double cans out the back. Two and two together and suddenly it all makes sense.
In between all this, a woman arrived, probably the manager I couldn’t really tell, and she was giving it the big licks, loud talking and tonnes of swearing. I mean every second word was the f-bomb. She was saying how the “Gixxer 750 was the one for her because it’s so manageable.” Even after I had walked over and stood there for 5 minutes waiting for her to finish so I could pay for my MOT, she still garbled on with this boy, occasionally looking at me to agree with her that race bikes are sexy. I have a 1700cc V-twin sitting outside love, you aint getting appreciation from me.
So the two blokes go out to this gleaming blue rocket and the Suzuki bloke starts lovingly running his hands over the tank, and the seat fairing. He notices the number plate is slightly squint and starts manoeuvring this in to place. He continues rubbing the non-existent dust off the seat cover before starting it up again.
They have a chat which is inaudible over the howl that this thing is making at idle and then the bloke gets on it and warbles forward a wee bit. I am a bit excited to see how he makes it out of this minefield of a garage surface and he opts for the tried and tested (amongst weekenders) run along with the bike between your legs technique. There’s a few high revvers as well as he makes it up the steep incline to the main road and then he’s off, giving it a bit of rev as he goes.
The Suzuki boy watches him ride away and gives himself a small smile, another good job done.
I couldn’t help but see him doing that when the beastie came out of its MOT and all I could imagine was me punching him in the face. Why are you feeling up my bike? Leave that numberplate alone. I am allowed to rub my bike, not you.
My MT finally arrived outside and I got my certificate of approval and my keys back. There was some awkward “eh…aye…tyre….do you want it?…..ah……oh…..£29.63 for the MOT then….eh….” from young gun.
I got on my bike already late for work, and I felt really harassed. Not only had I stood around for an hour and a half, been told that I couldn’t ride and I would probably fall off and have to come back tomorrow with a sheepish look on my face and say sorry to the childman and lick his feet…..but I felt a bit…violated. I seem to have a real connection to my bike, a relationship that is created the moment I first sat on it. I’m sure a lot of bikers will understand this. But my relationship is further developed than most, because I do spend a lot of time on my bike. So to have some bloke rubbing and treating it like it was his own, to some may be “good service” but I just felt violated. He looked a bit greasy as well.
I don’t know.
I had a parting thought about this place and it went as thus.
This Suzuki garage seems to be the place to go if you like the concept of bikes and biking, and like to stand around talking about how you did a wheelie through parked cars, or a burnout along the street whilst the police chased you. It’s a place to go if you like waxing lyrical about the beauties of carbon fibre footrests and the joys of getting your knee down, with leathers and helmet matched to your custom paint job. It’s a place to go if you have too much money to care or have no balls, because unless you know your way around a bike, or have done it long enough, I’m sure you would heed all their free “advice” and end up spending an absolute fortune in there. A dry chassis seemed a bit desperate as a reason to get a full service don’t you think?
I mean I guess he was only trying to keep me from decking my bike (and making his monthly target on sales) but he didn’t know that my bike is going SORN at the end of this month. And he certainly went the wrong way about it, by saying that they give free un-biased advice, and then make you feel so damn guilty or afraid to get on your bike that you get the jobs done to their recommendations. I said to him, “you’ve planted that subliminally in my mind, so I probably will go out there and crash now” and he smiled and said “no, I’ve just seen it all happen before. and you will come back all sheepish.”
There’s nothing more infuriating than having some guy behind a desk tell you what’s best for you.
So the MOT is passed without a hitch! I am glad that I will now be able to put the MT to bed without worrying about spending a lot of money. I can now do it all over the next 3-4 months whilst the MT is snug in the garage.
Phew! That was a biggie.
Speak to you all next week!
YamYam
p.s. Thanks for voting all my posts down whoever you all are. Please leave a comment as well if you don’t like the post, and tell me why so I can improve. Thanks!
It’s up and down really. Mostly down.
Weekly Update 7 – 17/09-02/10
I am not feeling overly positive at the minute, and it’s something that I can’t shake off despite some good things going on.
The MT is going well and has comfortably taken it’s place as the best workhorse for my journeys to work and back. I’ve been getting more and more used to it’s characteristics and am now able to throw it around town easier. It’s a damn heavy bike but if you know how to handle it, the weight soon disappears and you feel no different than if you were on a 125.
Jed Heath got in touch about the recent article I wrote regarding his utterly terrifying crash at Knockhill. You can read that here if you like. He’s a-ok and it was great to hear from him after his daughter initially got in touch! Anyway, enough of the positivities…I’m winding up for a bit of a rant.
I am growing increasingly intolerant of the people who have accidents during rush hour. It’s just the complete lack of ability to concentrate for an hour without hitting something that gets to me. This evening, like a few others over the past few weeks, was an accident on the rightside lane leading up to the bridge. Now anyone who drives this route daily will know that the lanes leading up to the bridge all race on to the bridge only to brake wildly as the cars all slow down in front, leading always to a last minute concertina of cars braking like mad. The sensible thing to do is to keep back and allow all the nobs to race on to the bridge and by the time you get to them, they’ve all got the late braking out their system and you can all proceed as per normal folk.
Tonight however was a 3 car/van fender bender at the very entrance to the bridge, causing much annoyance. But it was short lived as luckily it had just happened, so the queue hadn’t managed to form yet and once I got past it, there was no traffic. I got home 15 minutes earlier than usual which was great. Anyway.
The lack of ability of car drivers to concentrate irks me. The lack of awareness of their surroundings has reared it’s ugly head several times in the past few days, when twice some stupid woman has pulled out in front of me, or indeed never seen me at all until I am either horizontal with their window or suddenly appearing in their rear-view mirror. Then it’s the baffled look of “oh….where did you come from?” with my response being, “I was here all the time you stupid woman, you just never took the time to glance to your right, otherwise you would have seen me sitting in this lane for the past 40 seconds. Instead you relied on your mirrors to give you the full picture”, usually abbreviated to a peep of my horn and a shake of my fist, usually in the direction of my head to signal my disbelief of their stupidity.
This irk is one of the main points I make when people say that motorcycles are dangerous. Cars and their drivers have so many distractions that it’s almost a certainty that they will lose concentration. Whether it be heated seats or their radios, the chunky pillars either side of the windscreen or cruise control, cars are designed to be comfortable and to keep occupants safe.
The solution to this problem is to make cars like bikes. Dont have plush leather in any car. Don’t offer heated seats. Don’t give drivers the option of cruise control or radios. In fact, make the seats in cars out of bare metal and have air coolers not heaters, and make the steering wheel out of glue. This way the drivers are not comfortable and thus all their attention is on the road ahead and what’s going on around them.
Its never going to happen, so the only realistic solution is to shoot anyone who has a fender bender at rush hour…Maybe the threat of absolute death will get them to concentrate, because when you think about it, the threat of having an accident is so small these days due to all these implied safety gizmos, that people really think they can get away with not giving a shit. And what’s worse is, they usually do. It’s the poor suckers on bikes, pedestrians and cyclists that get the raw deal. Make driving cars “dangerous” and maybe then people will not have accidents. Ken?
My. What a rant.
I’ve been playing a lot of golf lately. I love it. The sale of my GSR has allowed me to get out in the fresh air nearly every weekend since and I am so happy that I made that decision. My game is coming along nicely and I am especially excited to be playing Gleneagles this weekend…that’s right. The big time. Forget Celtic Manor, the 3-ball Fraser clan will be tearing up the hallowed ground with some plunks of metal on sticks.
I’ve also been enjoying the feeling of progression in something. I used to get this feeling from riding, but I’ve kind of flattened out with regards to learning on the bike. It’s nice to get something fresh to concentrate on improving.
The weather is shocking at the minute and pretty soon the MT will be cosied up in Dad’s garage for the first ever non-biking winter since I started riding in 2007. I’m a bit down about it, but in a strange way I am relieved. No longer will I be forking out £800 in January to replace the parts destroyed by salt, and no more will I have to deal with Emma worrying about me wobbling about on sheets of ice and snow.
I’ve finished watching the Ryder Cup highlights after a bum clenching day at work listening to the radio coverage, so now that I have enjoyed that, I am going to listen to some music and then head to bed.
I thank you for enduring my silly rants, and I look forward to updating YamYam soon with my very first DIY bike service, with a blow-by-blow account.
All the best for the coming week y’all.
YY
The Pope is in town, and it’s the easiest commute to work I’ve ever had.
Weekly Update 6 – 30/08 – 16/09
Hi all,
I have a few good stories to tell you but I want to say firstly how quickly this year is going! Blimey guv, it’s whipping past at an incredible rate and boy I’m losing touch. The air is distinctly colder this past week, so much so that my face has been chilled by the time I get to work. If only I could fit my lunch inside my helmet, it would be an ideal fridge.
Yes, the Pope is in Edinburgh today for his runaround in the PopeMobile™. We have been warned the past week through email to “AVOID EDINBURGH” because it’s set to be so busy, you can hardly move your eyelids. Get the train, get the bus, get a plane or walk because what you don’t want to do is get stuck in the 50 mile long tailback and never actually reach work in time.
We’ll as always, I throw caution in to the wind and didn’t listen. And I am really glad I did. Not a queue in sight, not a panicked motorist or wailing horn. No pumping fists or swerving abusers, revving engines or flashing lights. It was by far the most uneventful and delightful ride in to work I’ve had in the 4 years of doing it. It was like coming to work at 4am in the morning. Except it was light.
So my suggestion is that the Pope comes to Edinburgh every day for a year…I don’t think that will fly somehow.
The MT is running well despite a funny knocking sound from the front of the engine. I am of the opinion that a suspension tune would benefit both myself and the bike immensely, so I’ll have to have a word with someone as its not just a case of spanner turns in the MT, it’s an unlock this bolt first, turn this one and then measure….complimicated.
So.
In commuting life you have two kinds of car commuter and they can be broken down in to folk who accept bikes, and folk who don’t.
Folk who accept bikes move over in traffic, they flash you back in to lane on the motorway, they turn and wave, often thumbs up or generally don’t mind you going past them. I love these kinds of commuters.
Folk who don’t accept move over in traffic, but the wrong way. They flash at you, but not to let you back in. They turn and wave, but it’s more of a gesture. It certainly is not a thumbs up and is almost always accompanied with a red face. They will do absolutely anything, until the point of metal to metal, to make your life a living misery. I do not love these kinds of commuters.
Which is why this next story is so funny.
I was coming in to work in really good time actually. I was early! I know!
Travelling up to the Barnton junction mess, I was filtering between the stationary cars, as I do every single day of my commuting life. I got so far up and the cars were too close together, so I came to a halt flicking the MT to neutral and sat waiting for the lights to change. I watched the usual lighting sequence play out and prepared myself to continue by flicking the MT to first, looking over my shoulder to make the guys in cars know I’m thinking about something. (This is a great tip subsequently for any keen biker. If you are moving your head, people will expect you to do something. So if you are planning a manoeuvre it pays to move your head (shoulder check works) and people know you are about to do something) Anyway, the cars in front move off and I wedge myself in to the right between 2 cars. I check my mirrors to see how far the guy is behind and he’s right up my arse.
I always keep tabs on guys like this, because at one point in the very near future I will be in a position to move forwards when he can’t. And I like to let them know this by either waving or turning my head to look at their burning faces. Anyway, there he was behind me quite close, and I saw an opportunity to dart in to the left hand lane, which I did and got about 50 yards forward from the man who was in front of me. The key to successful commuting progress is taking your chances. However this opportunity turned quickly in to a dead-end and as I turned my head to see if the gap was still available for me to quickly move back to the right, I checked my mirrors to see this bloke winding up to close the big gap I was about to fill. Seeing this happen I quickly whipped across to the right hand side and the bloke let rip on his horn as he travelled the remaining 40 yards to my rear tyre.
Nothing on the face of the earth irks me more than un-necessary use of a car horn. It could be peeping to say goodbye, hello or using it to release aggression, it’s all enough to get me going absolutely berserk. I slammed my brakes on with the biggest fist full I could manage, enough that the guy behind me had to move to the right in order to stop himself rear-ending me (this is how close he was) and his bonnet ended up parallel to my footpegs. He peeped his horn in one, very very long drawn out release of anger and I kept myself facing forward. I had my dark visor on so he couldn’t have seen my eyes firmly affixed on his but I was watching as the following scenes unfolded. Much to my absolute delight.
Once he had managed to prise his fist off of the horn area of his steering wheel, he then started talking to himself, albeit with a very aggressive jaw movement and a sharp shaking of his head. His right hand was whizzing about at his side as his window started to wind down. His seatbelt came off with the other hand and flew across his body whilst his face went absolute red. There is no redder shade of red in the world.
All the while my head hasn’t moved but my eyes have went from the right hand mirror with this berk filling it, to my left hand mirror where I make a note that traffic has ceased from the left and it’s clear.
I come back to the right hand mirror where by this point the berk has managed to lever himself out of his bucket seat (this was a Subaru Impreza) and he get’s his head out of the window but doesn’t stop until his whole upper torso is clear of the window threshold. His mouth seems to be winding itself up now as his words start forming in his mind.
And at the point of his release, (the very point that he is about to unleash all the pent-up aggression, the frustrations of life, the universe and everything, the point that his throat, lungs and tongue align with the stars to vibrate the air around him with such force that birds start dropping out the sky, the absolute moment of glory) I perform a flawless (thank you) MotoGP race start in to the now clear left hand lane. As the revs rise I hear the falsetto scream of a demented man shouting some garbled profanity faster than his mouth can form, but slower than his brain can generate.
Now amidst my anger about the whole situation, and the slight weakening of my muscles due to the “all too close” braking moment adrenaline which I must agree was totally stupid and I was lucky I got away with this one, I couldn’t help but find the scene I just left extremely amusing.
In my mirror I could see a car at a 45° angle across the right hand lane, with a driver hanging mostly out his car window shouting something at the top of his voice and shaking his free arm wildly, to a motorcycle now 200 yards away. What’s funnier is he would have then had to get back through his car window, in to his car, put his seatbelt on and then stop at the now red light in front of him, all the while fuming about not getting his release that he deserved thus making him even more angry. I only hope no-one at work looked him in the eye when he arrived because the force of his now doubled aggression would have instantly evaporated anyone in the vicinity.
It was spectacularly funny, but also very sad that someone can get that wound up about driving his car.
Anyway, these are some of the fabulous things that motorcycling can offer!
Winter is soon to arrive, and that means the MT is garage bound for its first big service (by me!) and a good once over.
Thank you all for reading and commenting. Please keep it up!
Gordon
It’s a sound unlike any other.
Break the mould just this once.
This isn’t a weekly update, but I am compelled to post for many reasons. The first of which starts with the photo above. There is several things wrong with this photo. I wonder if you can see what?
No? Yes? Let me tell you.
The first thing you can see is that this is a motorcycle, obviously. And it’s travelling on gravel. Now, that’s no big deal, but let me elaborate. This, as you can see by the screen identification, is a man named Jed Heath. I’ve never met Jed so I don’t really know much about him. But I know that he shouldn’t be on a motorcycle like this, in some gravel. And he especially shouldn’t be travelling at the speed he was travelling at when he reached the hairpin gravel section of Knockhill Racing Circuit, near Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK. You’ll also note, he’s not braking.
I was at Knockhill this weekend with Rossy Boyo for the Jock Taylor Superprix, a celebration of Mr. Taylor winning the sidecar world championships in 1980. There was the usual support series including the GP400′s, which is what Jed Heath was riding.
We had started the weekend at the pit straight, followed by the bottom of the Seat Curves and the Scotsman, taking photos and getting our techniques in to shape. We drove around eventually to the “Carlube” corner and found it to be a bit lax, although the loudspeaker system which pumps out some irritating twat fumbling his way through times and interviews at obscene volumes was broken, so it offered us a bit of a rest. Following the completion of the Superstock 600′s in which our very own Stuart Jackson (of Jackson’s Bikes) was racing, we headed around to the hairpin for some closer in action shots, and some shade from the sun beating down upon our (or at least my) reddening faces.
The sidecars spun their way around and finished quickly. A man with a small boy turned up with a Nikon camera (with a stumpy looking lens) and a laptop of all things. No bags, just those two items…and his wee boy.
The 400′s, Forgotten Era’s and the 125′s headed out on track at once and I decided to switch to black and white on my camera to try and get some nice oldy looking shots with the Forgotten Era bikes. I was shooting in JPG as well, meaning these black and white’s were baked in to the files (instead of RAW where you can remove the black and white setting should you want to…)ANYWAY. I mention this only to make it clear that I didn’t translate these following photos in to black and white for “effect”, for impact or show. It was just unfortunately the setting I was in when this happened.
So they went round a few times to get their tyres warmed up a bit and the grid set up and off they went. I moved a bit further up the hairpin whilst Ross stayed close to the outer edge of it. The man with the small child/laptop was in between us. And then it happened.
I was locked on to Jed which was strange in itself as I had been resting my now knackered arms in between the Forgotten Era bikes going past. But I had my camera to my face and was locked on to Jed and I was immediately aware that something wasn’t right. Usually by the time they get to the hairpin you can see the front diving and the sound of hard braking, rev’s getting lower possibly some tyre screech. With Jed however, when I locked on to him his bike was still going as fast, there was no dive of the front, no reduction of engine pitch.
My camera was on continuous shooting mode but for some reason it takes two very quick photos, there’s a wee pause and then a third photo. It’s not really “continuous” in any sense of the word. I took the first of the two quick photos as he entered the sand trap. The next quick photo captured the photo above. The next photo, after the short pause, showed him or rather a wheel of his bike, sticking out of the now seriously inflated air fence.
Jed hit that fence with a sound that, like all things of horrific nature, isn’t heard anywhere else. We all knew how serious this could be and my initial reaction, after the air fence impact photo, was to turn to Ross who looked at me with such horror that I swear I have never seen before in anyone. The sound was that of a motorcycle going past you, flat throttle with no increase or decrease of pitch, with some gravel noises thrown in and then a hollow “boffffffffffff”. Then silence. No “OH MY’s” or sweary words. Just silence.
We watched together as the marshals whipped across that gravel barely touching the surface and were in that air fence before the fence came back down. Red flags were being waved ferociously as the other racer’s continued on unaware of Jed’s fate. A few seconds later, after rooting around deep within the tyre fence, a man emerged and stood up, resting himself on the airfence beside his impact point. A collective sigh of relief washed down the spectators box and Ross walked over, shouting how certain he was that Jed was dead. “You can’t go in to a fence at that speed and survive.”
And he was right. Jed was travelling at full speed when he skipped across the gravel and hit that fence. It’s a long straight leading up to that hairpin and these 400′s are quick. How he is standing there, talking to the paramedics, who had arrived shortly afterwards, is a miracle.
We had a moment of reflection, Ross and I, as we watched the bloke get his laptop out the case, and then proceed to upload a photo, presumably of the crash, to somewhere. Instant coverage…
Our day was coming to an end anyway by this point but we watched a few more races and then headed back to the paddock to speak to Stuart before heading home.
I got home and after having a shower and my tea, I sat down to transfer my day’s catch on to the computer. I was interested to see how the black and white ones came out, as well as my longer exposure ones (the really blurred fast looking ones).
And then Jed’s sequence appeared on screen.
It’s been a bit of a thinker for me tonight as I cropped these photos for YamYam. In the photographs of Jed travelling across the gravel, I can see his eyes in one. I said to Em, “This would have a completely different significance had Jed not been so lucky” to which she replied, “you’re full of joy tonight.”
But it’s true. In any number of ways Jed could have not have been so fortunate. His bike could have skipped up at the last minute making him miss the air fence…etc. etc. And this photo would have been the last moment of his existence. His last point of being in the world.
On every Knockhill ticket it states “WARNING MOTORSPORT CAN BE DANGEROUS. Despite the organisers taking all reasonable precautions, unavoidable accidents can happen. In respect of these, you are present at your own risk.”
“…you are present at your own risk”.
I couldn’t help think that the risk involved for us isn’t getting hit by a flying motorcycle or car, it is having to possibly watch someone die in front of us. I mean, I enjoy racing, I enjoy watching it and despite the slightly demonic inclination, I enjoy when people crash (don’t try and take the moral high ground here either, I know you like a good crash or two). But as long as they get up I can feel ok about it, I mean they know what they are getting in to. Right?
Right. But in the same token, this weekends racing made me really think about what these guys bet every time they get on that track. This wasn’t a professional race, it was probably a Dentist or Accountant on his weekend thrill seeker. And the moments before his demise would have been crystallised in startlingly clear digital pixels on my amateur camera in my amateur hands.
Despite the enjoyment I get from motorcycle racing, I don’t know if I like the risks involved, if I’m honest with you.
It isnae the fastest bike, but it’ll pull a caravan
Weekly Update 4 – 07/08 – 14/08
Ah, the feeling of fresh tyres. It’s a strange feeling really. A cross between bum clenching and quick breathing as you try to scrub them in. Every degree of angle you exhibit brings this feeling on, coupled with the thoughts of the back end sliding out behind you as you go over too far. But once you get out to the edge of the tyre, this feeling turns to joy as you are afforded the full use of the tyre.
These feelings are enhanced ten fold if it’s wet. Which it just so happened to be the day I picked the bike up.
Now if you have got this far and have no idea what I am talking about then,
When a tyre is made the inside of the mould is coated in a release agent, which allows the tyre, once moulded to be freely ejected from the mould. Without it the tyre would be a pain in the arse to get out of the mould, and when you are making millions of these, you need a quick way to get the tyre out and the mould shut for the next tyre to be made…anyway, this release agent just so happens to be extremely greasy. So that’s the reason most, if not all motorcycle dealers, servicers and outlets will tell you to “take it easy for the first 100 miles or so” as you leave.
For a great example of why your told to take it easy, see exhibit A:
Now, when I last got a back tyre on the GSR (a Bridgestone BT-021 for those who are interested) I picked it up from Stuart and he said the famous words, “take it easy.”
As I bid adieu he started talking to the next bloke who was waiting and off I went. I pulled out of the garage and started heading along the road, and gave what I thought was a good level of throttle given the situation. Next thing I know the bike is snaking about and the redline is being kissed. “BRAAADADADADADADADADA” up the road. I could just imagine Stuarts face.
I told you that so I could tell you this.
I got the new tyre on the MT on Saturday there, a Metzeler Z6. Now those of you who have read every post on here (thanks Rossy Boy) will know how I don’t ever mix brands of tyre. By this I mean I don’t have say a Dunlop on the front and a Michelin on the rear. It just doesnt work.
Now when I called Stuart to get him to order a tyre he tried to get me a Pirelli Diablo Strada, the same as both my tyres were before the flat rear. He called back shortly after and said that he couldn’t get a Strada rear and suggested the Metzeler Z6… I said “you told me not to mix brands” and he said that basically Pirelli own Metzeler and the Z6 and Strada are basically the same tyre, same profile, just slightly newer tech in the Strada than the Z6.
If Stuart says its ok, it’s ok.
Saturday I headed down and it was wet (great) and there it was, fresh shiny new tyre. We got chatting about various bikes and his race bike was sitting there. I moaned about how the GSR needs the crap revved out it if you want to go somewhere instantly. He agreed saying his R6 race bike needs a lot of rpm before he goes places, whereas the MT is just BOOM you are off.
“Aye, it isnae the fastest bike but it’ll pull a caravan” he said, I burst out laughing. I’ve never heard torque explained that way before much to my amusement.
So we talked some more and I mentioned the unfortunate situation where in order for Stuarts business to be thriving, people need to be falling off their bikes. He laughed agreeingly. Is that a word? Agreeingly. He laughed in a way to suggest that he agreed with my statement.
Stuart you see is owner of Jackson’s Bikes, the place to go if you need absolutely anything done to your bike…unless you live outside Scotland. There are some shockers in his garage I tell you. He was showing me a bike that hit the back of a bus and the engine casings were split as if someone had wanted to show a section of the engine. Clean through. Unbelievable.
Anyway he parted with the take it easy line and I mentioned my last visit. He burst out laughing saying that he was talking to the waiting guy and heard me redlining it up the road. He smacked his forehead in a “oh no what are you doing…” way and was laughing.
So off I went with this insane torque machine, wet roads and fresh greasy back tyre on. It was ok really, I took it easy but taking any kind of corner on new tyres is always a shaky one. By the time I get round to changing my tyres they are usually well squared off/bald. This means more force is needed to turn the bike, to get it over the edge or lip of the now flat area. When a new tyre is on there’s absolutely no resistance and the bike falls to the side. It’s quite shocking and I always get a “oh shit somethings wrong” instant reaction but then realise it’s how it’s meant to be… Maybe I should change my tyres more often. ..maybe not, at £108.63 a piece I don’t make a habit of it.
Anyway, as the week draws to another speedy close the rain is falling like one of those rainfall shower heads….hang on. I need to get me either a one piece waterproof oversuit or at the very least, a pair of brieks. I am growing tired of getting off my bike only for all the water that has collected in my pants to go shooting down my legs and in to my boots. It gives a somewhat bitter end to the journey.
YamYamBiker.com is steadily growing in popularity and visibility. By steady I mean I have a steady view stat of around 170 folk a day… I would love for it to get a bit more popular, so any hints on what you would like to read about would be appreciated, or indeed what you don’t like reading about.
To help me on my way I have been included in various “TOP ###” motorcycle blog posts, including the ones below. Many thanks for that and I hope people start finding and subsequently enjoying YamYamBiker.com.
All the best for the coming week all,
Gordon
Its a big old bus this…
Weekly Update 2 – 03/07 – 28/07
Hello everyone.
It’s been a busy old month in the life of YamYam. Firstly I had my meeting with Glen Richards, to get my artworks signed! It was a nervous time for me for some reason, but anyway it went without a hitch and it was a great experience, Glen is a fantastic bloke. I gave him his complimentary canvas and off he went with it under his arm, to show all the HM Plant boys during his tea! I showed him the Bayliss as well and he loved it, so hopefully the word will spread and I’ll get some more orders!
I’ve been commuting to Glasgow the past couple of weeks on the MT and boy oh boy does it fatigue me. It’s not the riding position at all, in fact it’s the most comfy bike I have ridden. It’s the vibes through the pegs, coupled with the lack of foot movement (on the motorway) makes my feet fall apart after half and hour. It’s not the best and it’s certainly needing some kind of foot restage botch if I wanted to use it as a proper touring bike.
“There is something about traveling at high speed a few feet above hard ground that gets your attention. When the body is right there, the brain tends to be right there with it.”
I was planning on writing a story about the reasons why I believe motorcycles to be safer than cars, but having typed just that in to Google, I found this article here. It pretty much says exactly what I was going to, so there’s no point in regurgitating, I’ll just link to it and write something else!
I have been working extremely hard these days at work…obviously. I have been doing some serious hours an it’s left me with zero time for well, anything. I get home at 3am, I am more concerned about sleeping than updating yamyam or other important things like eating.
After a weekend to forget, even though I already have due to exhaustion, I am now on the recovery and have some free time to do all the things I haven’t been able to do for the past month.
The other night I finished very late through in Glasgow and had forgotten to put my clear visor in my Kriega so had to ride for an hour and a half in the pouring rain with my dark visor on. It wouldn’t have been so bad had it been dry as I could go along with it open to see the road, but because of the rain it was near impossible. But after an hour on the bike and getting saturated through, I was suddenly aware of the cats eyes on the newly laid stretch of road near Kinross. They lit up so brightly that through the dark visor it was almost like a landing strip leading me home. It was amazing, as pretty much that’s all I could see through the visor.
That happened several times over the coming weeks, me forgetting my clear visor, me riding home in the dark, sometimes dry, often wet. I would always love getting to that stretch of road, as it meant I was almost home; the place I have grown to miss through not being there at all the past wee while.
One thing is for sure though, the MT is the best bike to be on when you are knackered and wanting to get home. Once you are in top gear, you just chug along. Nothing else to really think about. That’s what I love about it, if you want to get a thrill, open the throttle quickly. If you want to cruise, just sit back and enjoy. You feel amazing regardless of what style you feel like.
I will be sad when winter comes around again (and at this rate, it’ll be tomorrow)
Washed it for the first time in two weeks today, it was pretty dirty all over and I was secretly worried it had been damaged or rusted, but it was brilliant. All the dirty stains and rusting parts cleaned up a jem and it’s sitting outside my house gleaming in the evening sun.
I am glad I am so fortunate to own such a bike. I see a lot of bikers on the road on bangers and old bikes. I don’t feel bad for them, because they are probably loving it. I just feel fortunate to be able to walk out to the MT every morning, knowing that it will soon be locked up and still gleaming, as the GSR is brought back in to active service. I too will soon be riding around on a banger, but I will also still be loving it.
Sorry for the complete lack of update. It couldn’t be helped.
Cheers
YY
MT-01 Fixed, Rockin. GSR Fixed. Crap.
Hi all,
Bit of a hoo ha really, but the long and short of it is that the MT has been fixed, wheel is true (unchecked as of writing) and although scuffed in a few bits, the wheel isn’t too badly mangled.
I have been commuting on the MT for the past 6 days and I am absolutely in love with my bike. It’s just the best. The comfort, the power, the dials (the smartest I have ever seen), the riding position, the sound, the vibration (with earplugs in the bike makes your brain vibrate out your ears), the feeling of utter joy as other bikers double take left right and centre.
A lot of bikers who normally fly past me in town or motorway will now sit behind me. It’s almost a respect thing, but I suspect it’s something more to do with the sound and looks of it.
When I picked up my MT from Sandy Bloys I dropped my GSR off as the head bearings have been shot for the past 6 months if not longer. I asked how much roughly and was told £100 – £120.
Go for it.
Got a call today to say the bike is ready. No price attached.
How much is it?
£185.
!!!
Again the long and short is that the GSR is apparantly a total bitch to get in to the head bearings. You have to take the ignition barrel off and everything and the mechanics at the garage said they never seen any bike as complicated as this.
I don’t know whether to believe them or not but it seems awfully expensive.
Nothing I can do now but I am a bit disappointed really.
GSR will go straight in to my Dad’s garage in preparation for it’s first oil change in over a year. Joys.
I’ll keep you updated as to whats going on but I’ve got to get my main website up and running after the powersoft fiasco.
Thanks all for reading,
Gordon
Yamaha MT-01 – Bent Rim Blues
Hello all. A double header tonight….actually it’s now the morning.
First up is today’s big development. After getting the bike back from SB motos yesterday I decided today that a thorough cleaning was in order, I mean eat your dinner off it clean.
Did the first pass(!) and the bike was pretty clean, got all of that rusty water/gunk off the nooks and crannies and the bike was looking good. Only the rear wheel to clean, but I decided today to give the chain a good clean as well first, and then clean the wheel and finish by a second pass. Intensive aye. Sad, definitely.
My paddock stand has never been the same ever since someone sat on my MT-03 whilst it was up on the stand. It was all bent and has chewed my GSR swingarm with a nice arc of scrape. So I obviously didn’t want to get the MT-01 on the stand only to rip a big arc through the gorgeous blue metallic swingarm.
I modified the paddock stand (Oxford for those interested) and made sure that the brackets stayed well away from the swingarm.
Finally I could get the rear wheel properly cleaned, so I gave it a wee spin….then another, and another…because I noticed something that was both baffling and indeed horrifying:
Well I never.
I’ve never seen a motorcycle wheel like it. It’s funny (in a really un-funny way) because Blair’s car wheels had an issue just last week where he went to the garage to get a knocking sound fixed (unrelated) and found his front left tyre flat. Found out that his alloy was dented and thus wasn’t holding the seal with the rim letting all the air out of the tyre.
This is the same thing, but the added risk is that when you lean in to a corner the tyre deforms around the rim area, you see it in motogp on the camera mounted to the bottom fairing. I may not be getting motogp lean angles on the MT but in general that’s what happens.
So knowing that the only thing keeping the air in the tyre is the seal made between tyre and rim, it certainly doesn’t fill me with confidence with a nice big flat dent on it.
But in saying that, I’ve ridden for 4 weeks with this issue (because I never dented it, it was one of the previous 2 owners that did this unforgivable act) and Ive never felt anything. I’ve ridden it enough now to feel comfortable leaning it well over and there’s never been any indication of a serious flat spot on the rim.
Well, I’ve emailed the garage asking for their thoughts as I really dont know what to do. Checking the OEM online parts place states that a Yamaha MT-01 rear wheel, without anything on it, just the plain jane alloy, is €850, that’s £718 at xe.com’s exchange rate.
And by anyone’s standards, that’s a LOT of banger for a bit of metal.
I don’t know enough about warranty’s and rights as a buyer to comment enough on it. I will investigate it more and await the garage’s thoughts. Very interesting indeed.
Summer Holiday Decisions…
I go on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks, and it seems like I may have picked a winner!
The first week of our holidays will be going round houses in the first part, and preparing for the exhibition for my motorcycle artworks. But the second week, oh the second week.
Perhaps:
View Larger Map
Well now.
Its not quite the mammoth trip we did 2 years ago (pretty much to the day actually!!?) but we now luckily know the best roads and places to stay so we can go directly there!
I’m waiting on conformation from the place we stayed last time in a tiny place called Durnamuck. Hopefully all will be well.
The added bonus this time around of course will be the fact that the MT will be our steed, and not the GSR!
Its pretty much the same as our last Scotland trip except we are cutting out the north east leg. I am already EXTREMELY excited about the chance of going back there again, it’s unbelievably beautiful.
Updates soon,
YY
p.s.
This is the place to go if you want the best road in the world…
View Larger Map
What winter does to your motorcycle…
What does riding your motorcycle in winter do? Well if like me you don’t have a garage or a hose, this:
(click the image for a full whacker)
Unless you are intimate with a GSR’s engine casing, the black shiny bit should sit up against the lip of that bolt you see there. But the road salt has eaten away at it so much, that you can actually see the shaft of the bolt. Now bear in mind, this is about 2 weeks worth of salt sitting on the bolt areas, and this is the damage.
Its pretty crazy to think that 2 weeks worth of shit they put on the road can do this sort of damage but there you go. This is the second casing on this side of the bike, I’ve had 2 on the other as well.
I guess I should have known it would happen but, not this quickly.
Anyway, I thought I would share what the consequences are of leaving salt on your bike. I think I will have to replace these casings and get busy with the FS365 from Scottoiler.
Bums.
Just goes to show how crappy the materials are that Suzuki use on their lower end bikes.
50,000 miles and counting
On Sunday the 2nd May I crested the 30,000 mile mark on the GSR, just over 2 years after buying it. It was a weird feeling really, I was excited about it, enough to show Emma whilst we headed down the motorway sliproad (“Aye, very good” she said)
But at the same time as being excited about crossing another milestone I couldn’t help but remember what 30,000 miles has done to the GSR’s health. Anyway,
Since Jan 2007 I have covered over 50,000 miles on 6 different motorcycles: Yamaha MT-03, Buell Xb12Ss Lightning, Kawasaki ER-6N, Suzuki GSR600 and my latest Yamaha MT-01. It’s a good feeling knowing that I am beginning to get in to territory that relatively few bikers (in the UK anyway) reach, and I’ve only been riding for 3 and a half years.
It’s funny how I’ve come full circle from first getting my MT-03, and then swearing never to return to Yamaha after the way they treated the “incident”. But I am so glad I did, because my excitement for motorcycles and love of being a biker has been reignited, and it’s raging out of control. I had become complacent and the daily drudge in to work on my bike resulted in it being just another day whenever I sat on it.
I am also glad that I chose the MT as my new steed. It’s crazy how many people have gone out of their way to comment on it since I got it 2 weeks ago. I’ve never had anyone come up to me like that since owning the Buell 2 years ago. I think it’s something to do with the V-Twin roar, or the oddball looks but whatever it is, people warm to it.
So I shall continue on and on, sitting upon 2 wheels every day as my A to B.
I must say a little word about the tragic death of a biker just down the road from me. Saturday was a glorious day to be out on the bike, and we were out as well. It seems that no matter how nice the weather there are still people dying on their bikes. I always feel sad for these unfortunate people, but always always sceptical. I don’t know why really, but whenever I hear of a biker dying, I always think of the biker doing something wrong or riding beyond theirs or the conditions limit. Sometimes its just a freak coming together in the middle of nowhere.
My scepticism isn’t helped much after witnessing a bunch of high-vis clad bikers wobbling all over the road on Saturday, one of which left his indicator on for 10 minutes. I want to stop these bikers and slap their dishes. Get a grip. Ride safer. But then why should I?
Take care out there please, and keep your head screwed on.
Onward.
YY
Ducati Monster 796. Wow.
(From Ducati.com)
Just seen the new Ducati Monster. Oh my word its nice. There are a lot of colour schemes, some amazing (as above), some bogging.
Its a single seater from what I can see here and looks like it could be a great bike.
Shame I’ve just went and bought a bike that’s a complete ripper.
I can tell you one thing though, Blair will go wild for it.
Yamaha MT-01 Review – YamYam is BACK!
The last post on YamYam finished like this:
I am going to have a wee test ride on one to see if all the reviews are correct. From there it’s either buying one, or looking elsewhere, but something tells me I will be rumbling home once more.
Well I did go for a test ride, and here’s what happened.
Friday (23rd April) I decided to head up to Sandy Bloy Motorcycles, Perth, after emailing Gary regarding the MT-01 they had in their shop. Gary said come up Friday.
Arriving on the GSR with the rain in full swing, I wondered what it would feel like to sit on an MT-01 after all these years of wanting one. Well it seems like I wouldn’t get the chance, because when I entered the shop the MT was sitting there, looking amazing…with “SOLD” suckered on the light.
Gary emerged after a lengthy wait and I introduced myself and said “well, it seems like I won’t get to test ride it” and pointed to the beast sitting unavailable.
“We’ll…” Gary started, “It is…and it isn’t.”
Oh? I said, feeling a small glimmer of light appear at the very end of a long tunnel.
“Yeah, the guy who was in has since said he can’t get finance, and I have told him that if someone else comes along, then I won’t be waiting for him to get his act together. So as far as I am concerned, the bike is still for sale.”
Well then, lets get a test ride! I filled in the standard “if you deck the bike you’ll pay for it” form and round the bike came, sounding amazing as it did so. This was the first time I had seen or heard one up close, so everything was a new sensation.
By now the rain was getting quite heavy, so Gary said take it easy, handed me a £5 note and said put some gas in it. Off I went, and immediately I could feel the power that this thing had in store. Burbling up the first junction I had a bit of a time getting the old clutch-in action smooth, and indeed the fantastic twin engine braking was quite harsh on the MT.
Anyway I toodled about and after a whizz around Perth I got back to SB’s and in I went. Gary was there to greet me and I said how I loved twins and to cut a long story short, he was chuffed to have someone ride it who knew what it was about and I wanted it. I said that I had the finances ready (The loan form was sent and I was waiting back for the approval) so took a gamble on them being successful and put a deposit of £100 down, after haggling a bit with the price.
He showed me a dent in the exhaust headers from where someone has laid the bike down at rest, and a chip on the tank.
So I left it at that, said I would be back up the next day with Emma and w0uld keep him updated as far as the finances go.
Parting test ride thoughts: Well the MT looks absolutely gorgeous. It sounds absolutely gorgeous. It feels absolutely gorgeous. It’s just a shame I didn’t get to test the instant thundering torque and fantastic brakes that everyone raves about. Fingers crossed the finances come through because it’s rare to have an MT come up for sale in Scotland, and I would be pretty sad if I didn’t manage to realise my 4 year want.
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Well. The finances did come through. And I went up on Saturday 1st of May to pick her up.
What. A. Beast.
Of course, Saturday was raining as well, which was great. I was hoping to get some full throttle’s going but anyway, we headed up sharp as I wanted to get a good day of riding on it before we headed out to see the Doves in Glasgow at night.
Got all the paper work sorted, paid the remaining balance (£5400) and that was that! Emma had never heard an MT-01 so when I fired it up and the bike sat and shook, Emma just burst out laughing. She was even more excited than me.
On the way home I gave it some licks and it sounded so good I burst out laughing, shouting “THIS IS AMAZING”.
But. Twice on the way, in 2nd gear and giving licks, the rear spun up in a controlled wheelspin. The rev’s rose to a constant hum and the rear stepped out. Giving it a bit more throttle the rev’s rose more and the rear straightened up, leaving me feeling even better. It did make it perfectly clear however, that there’s enough power being transmitted to the rear tyre to make it dangerous, should one forget and open the taps whilst leaning over.
I took it out on Saturday for a while, fitted the new tax disc on (with the ridiculously complicate 8 bolt tax disc holder) and then rode home to pick Em up to let her experience the MT first hand. She was slightly worried that the pegs would be too high or she wouldn’t feel comfortable, but after getting on it and riding down to Blairs (to surprise him) she felt fine.
I explain the surprise for Blair in the video at the end, but basically I said that after I got to Sandy Bloys and saw it was sold, it was actually sold and that was it.
We got to Blair’s street but went round the back street and I revved the MT up knowing that he would hear it, and he did. By the time we got round to the front window he was standing there waiting to see what it was. You could see the cogs turning as he stood there open mouthed in amazement!
Well as I thought, he absolutely loved it and I took him out for a spin during which he felt the full beast unleashed and although there was 2 fatties on it, it still shifted like nothing else I have ever felt. He was astounded at the instant power, the gorgeous v-twin sound and the gobsmacking strength of the brakes.
What a beast.
The bike is in fantastic condition, with the above mentioned scuffs on the exhaust, the bike is pretty much mint. After cleaning it today I did notice that there’s a few more scuffs, on on the front rim and a few other wee bits, but nothing that is noticeable.
So there you go. I finally have an MT-01, after 4 years of wanting it. The good thing about this is though, that the MT will be a Summer/nice weather bike, a bike I can keep looking gorgeous and get the enjoyment of it, but then put it away in the Winter.
I can then use the GSR as a Winter hack and a learning tool for changing the oil and other servicey things.
YamYam is now a 2 bike outfit, and I am so very excited about it. I will be posting up my experiences with the MT regularly and I am suddenly really excited about being on 2 wheels again. Staying on 1 bike for so many miles really does take the fun and enjoyment out of it, but now I have the beast to go to when I am feeling down, I can see things being different.
More pictures and the video review, including some derogatory comments and some funny voices. Oh dear. Thanks for visiting and look for the MT related posts, of which there will be many. I’ll be doing a bit of maintenance on the site, weeding out the lesser viewed stuff and re-arranging some bits and bobs to make posting a bit swifter.
As a wee testament to the quality poured in the MT-01, the dials as seen above are adjustable for light intensity. But not just as a whole, you can adjust the tach, the main bit at the bottom AND the needle for brightness! The needle! Makes my day, that does.
What a ripper. I just LOVE the MT styling. Always have, always will.
Video below.
(Will add here once it’s finished uploading.)
Yamaha MT-01. I beg your pardon?
Artworks are consuming my every moment of living…that and putting up blinds in the house. When I am not painting or drilling, I am either eating, sleeping or riding my bike. Anyway, just so you know, I feel guilty. But thinking about it this instant, guilty for what?
My GSR is running it’s bland life fine at the minute. My back tyre is squaring and the head bearings are clicking. My headlight was turning off whenever I turned the steering to full lock left, but I soon found out that the connector had worked itself loose after me prodding it every time. A quick click back on sorted that out.
I’ve had the GSR for over 2 years now, and after a fatal mistake by Em of looking at other bikes, we have been thrown in to discussion.
Discussion about the future of my biking life. Don’t worry, I am not giving up. The issue revolves around the GSR and winter. You see, Winter in Scotland is a very unwelcoming place to be. It’s usually cold, usually wet and always miserable. This is true for everyone, pedestrians, car drivers, hillwalkers. For motorcyclists it’s a freakin nightmare.
I spoke a while back regarding the new VFR1200F as my main motorcycle and the response was mixed. Some agreed with my points regarding the output of the bike/lack of fairing protection. Other’s took their chance to call me a sissy and offer me a moped. The question in point was getting a bike that would give me year round satisfaction, with the benefit of not falling to bits.
It seems that my thinking was going down the wrong path. You see, I was going down the path of a one bike outfit, something bullet proof that would ease my woes. But after big discussion with Blair, Em and anyone else who would listen, having a second bike seems like the way to go. The reasons are thus:
One bike = High price, high mileage, high wear & tear, quick boredom. A one bike house would mean running a bike throughout the year including winter and thus exposing it to the same bike rotting salt.
Two bikes = Lower price, low mileage, low wear & tear, less quick boredom. A two bike house allows use of one bike for summer/dry days, another for winter/salty days.
It may seem excessive to many, but the argument is sound. Why sell the GSR and buy a new bike, only to inflict the same torture to it, road salt, sitting outside in the rain rotting. It would be the same situation all over again and it seems totally pointless to continue buying new bikes only for them to fall apart because I ride them at a time that these bikes aren’t designed to be ridden.
If I have a bike for summer/dry riding, I have the excitement of a fresh bike. I have the reduced mileage on both the new bike and the GSR. Once it gets wetter/colder, I switch to the GSR. I would be able to look forward to summer again, because at the minute, I am still riding the same bike in summer, winter and every other time.
I’ve paid off the GSR now, so it’s mine. It wouldn’t matter if I wanted to sell it anyway, because after speaking to a few garages, no-one would even entertain the thought of trying to resell a 2-year-old GSR with 30,000 miles on the clock, a bit rusty here and there and generally a hack. So no-one wants it. And I aint giving it away.
The added bonus to strengthen the argument is insurance. Insurance companies seem to go on the assumption that more miles = more chance of crashing. This means that the premium goes up massively. Take my old Buell for example. I put 18,000 miles annually on the insurance form and it returned a premium of £1,600. Put in a mileage of 5,000 and it’s £300. I couldn’t afford to run it based on that kind of money, so I sold it.
SOOOOOOO
What am I saying then? Well I will be looking for a Used bike to ride during summer/dry days, and I will be keeping the GSR for a winter hack. It makes complete sense.
Now those of you who have been here from the start (Thanks Rossy Boy) will know I had a Yamaha MT-03 as my first bike. The seat melted due to faulty exhausts, Yamaha didn’t give a shit. I got a Buell and so the nightmare unfolded.
I swore I would never return to Yamaha. I lied.
Now that I have the opportunity to basically get any bike I like (within a £5k budget), and having spent the past 4 years knowing that someday I would own a Yamaha MT-01 I thought, this is my chance.
And so it is.
Now a lot of people in reviews and in person lament the MT due to the lack of jail baiting top speed. They see 1700cc and get disappointed that they don’t fly at the speed of sound. They get upset that the bike has R1 derived brakes and chassis, but when you try to get your knee down the headers threaten grounding.
I think that they don’t understand it. Whereas I do.
The MT is a bike that gives you the unbelievable thrill of torque, without getting you in to trouble before you know it. It’s a bike to fart along the back roads on knowing that at the twist of a throttle you will instantly be rocketed forward. None of this IL4 surging at 9ooorpm (a-la GSR).
A lot of reviewers say it’s bland because the power is so linear (in other words when you open the taps, the power doesn’t waiver or surge in, it’s just “flat” all the way to peak RPM).
I think the MT is perfect. I would have a V-twin over any other engine until the day I die. I love them. I want a bike I can get on and just enjoy. I don’t want to look down and see I’m cruising at 100mph and not realising it. I want to go down the street and small children fall to the ground from the vibrations…maybe not.
I think what I keep remembering is when I went to France on the Buell. I was going down the street and a gang of youngsters on mopeds/125′s were all gathered down the road. I saw them, and they heard me. As I drifted past them with the beat of the 1200cc V-twin beneath me, I knew that I was on something special as they all stood open mouthed. Then I noticed the collection of skinheads standing up from a cafe, perhaps expecting some kind of chopper or harley, to see this small bug eyed gold wheeled machine. It made my year. It made me love biking.
It won’t quite be the same with the MT, for a start its huge. But its also deeper, louder comfier.
So.
I am going to have a wee test ride on one to see if all the reviews are correct. From there it’s either buying one, or looking elsewhere, but something tells me I will be rumbling home once more.
Updates (hopefully) as things start to unfold.
#002 Ben Spies – Yamaha Italia (Artwork)
Hi all,
I am still alive, just tied up…
I have had a post titled “GSR Fixed (again)” in my post editor for the past month and have never got round to writing it.
The reason for this is my artworks and the fact that they consume every last spare minute that I have. I’ve been painting away for the past month and finally, after hours and hours and hours (around 500 hours), my #002 artwork is finished and ready for all to see.
I am finished this artwork after 1 1/2 months of work and I think it’s the bomb.
Go to my website to see the details.
Yamyambiker.com will be up and running shortly with fresh posts and lots more opportunity for summer bikers to tell me to get a scooter because obviously I can’t handle it…
Thanks all for visiting,
Gordon
More Balls than Motorcycle Control…
I think you would need more courage than motorcycle control, especially as , should you have a moment of weakness, the whole troupe would come crashing down.
How to keep warm on a motorcycle…
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Hello y’all,
Things have been quiet on the yamyam front for the past week or so due to me starting another artwork. However this one is zipping along nicely so I should be able to get some posts up soon. Anyway, as I was trawling through backlogs of stuff I found this and thought you should see it!
Well…it’s certainly one way of keeping warm. I saw this in Glasgow last year around November.
Brilliant.
Check out www.gordonfraserartwork.co.uk to keep up to date on my artworks.
All the best
Gordon
New Motorcycle Artist – Check it out!
Hi All,
You may or may not have noticed on the right hand side of YamYamBiker.com for a wee while has been a big banner, pixellated for the most part.
Well the day has come where I shall reveal what I have been up to.
And it’s this:
I’ve got a new hobby, and it’s creating ultra realistic artworks. This is not a photograph or indeed a Photoshop alteration of a photograph. This artwork has taken me 3 long months of evening and weekend work (on top of my day job) to finish.
Check out the website here: www.gordonfraserartwork.co.uk for more details on this and other artworks, and how I went about creating it.
I’m really excited about it and have already started my 2nd work – Ben Spies on his Yam R1 winning the World Superbike Championships.
Thanks
Gordon
Honda VFR1200F. A Possibility?
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Well then folks. Well then. In my last post about my future bike choice, I talked about 3 options to consider when buying a bike. The options were you get a house with a hose and a dry garage, you go wash it at a nearby garage before you get home or you buy a bike fit for purpose.
I ended my post with
“This also means repairing the GSR yet again, and who knows, that may be anything from a clean service and new caliper seals, to a new ignition block if they can’t unseize it. And who knows how much that’ll cost? By my experience, £100 won’t cover it.”
Well I still don’t have my bike back yet (it’s due to be completed tomorrow) and on top of the caliper seals needing changed, I did indeed need a new ignition block. I also needed a new sprocket and chain because it was “a good one” said Stuart. All the teeth were pretty much half the size and the chain was rigid.
£100 won’t cover it, and it’s another January of financial drain.
So anyway, I said in my last post that the answer to all my problems was getting a BMW R1200GS. But then one day at lunchtime I was browsing the Honda website and remembered the VFR1200F was about to be released and sure enough, it had been. As I poured over the various infos and pictures, I suddenly started to realise that hey, this might actually be the bike for me. I will now go through the reasons why.
(All images below are from http://www.feelvfr.com)
At first I noticed how nice it looked. I remember when I first saw it, I didn’t really like that huge fairing. I must have grown to it, because now I quite like it. I like how aerodynamic it looks and the unbroken lines make it very sleek.
Reading through the specifications I noticed a lot of things that fitted my requirements. Shaft drive, build quality and quality materials. Good winter accessories. It has a V4 engine, single sided swingarm, radial brakes, chunky rear, nice seat, good riding position.
This thing looks like it could do a lot of miles and not complain.
I’ve read a lot of reviews about this new Honda shaft drive and how it works. It certainly removes the need for any maintenance, which when riding in winter is a massive draw.
It has a centre stand which would be superb for cleaning the back wheel. Would remove the need for me to get my buckled paddock stand out of the garage every time.
Honda seem to have really thought about what a rider wants out of a bike, and especially a rider that will ride his bike a lot. The 12v cigarette lighter would be superb for SatNav or other accessories that you would use on a bigger trip.
So after having a quick whip around the details, I gave Blair a call and asked him about it.
He agreed it would be nice and said there was a review in MCN that week about it. One of the things he said was that the shaft drive seemed to skip when going fast over bumps. Not really an issue unless you are a knee down kind of rider. He also said that it was 170BHP and would hit around 160mph…
And this is where my interest ended.
One Hundred and Seventy Brake Horsepower.
Imagine if you will a nice winters morning. You are riding to work and aye, it’s a bit cold and overcast, but you knew this yesterday and yet you still got on the bike because you love it. It’s in your blood and you would never take the bus unless your bike was physically immovable. You made your bed when you signed up to the 365 biker club and you never think about quitting.
Then it starts to snow. There’s nothing you can do about it, you are halfway to work. You can’t turn around. You just have to keep going. But the snow is lying.
So you get to work and as you travel down the cobbled, wet and snowy surface you get to the hill before your garage. And therein lies the problem.
You now have 170bhp to try and baby along this street. There doesn’t seem to be any GSXR style ABC power control. There’s no traction control. Your only way of dealing with it is down to what your right hand does.
This neatly leads on to the next problem. The fairing. Although it’s beautiful to look at and really shiny, there isn’t upon inspection any holes or places to fit crash mushrooms.
We all know how expensive wee fairing panels are and that’s some of the reason why they are all split up, so you don’t have to replace a massive plastic panel if you are unfortunate enough to drop it.
The VFR1200F has this problem. And believe me, when you are going down this cobbled road with 170bhp under your right hand, you will be thinking about it.
Why make a bike so powerful, when it’s intended for touring and bikers who ride their bike? This isn’t a track bike Honda. So why are you giving it so much bloody power?
The speed limit is 70mph in the UK and yes, at some point we are inevitably going to break that. But not by over double. So why can this bike go 160mph?
It’s baffling really. And this is why the VFR1200F is immediately obsolete for me. There’s no way I will get insurance on this bike, not without a severe heart attack and some ball crunching from Emma. And inevitibly if you ride a bike in the shit weather I ride in, it will be dropped, and that beautiful fairing will be reduced to a blabbering mess within 2 feet of asphalt contact. Not only that, but it’s over £10,000!!
It has the credentials for a marvellous bike, it really does. But it’s been ruined by whacking in an absurdly powerful engine, stupid design and amazingly stupendous price.
I haven’t ridden it and I never will. It’s pointless.
Blair had a good point. He said,
“Why get a brand new bike, especially one so damn expensive, and watch that rot away to nothing in the Scottish winter? It’ll be even more painful watching a £10,000 bike rust than it will your current bike. And it will rust and it will get manky, because you will ride it. What you need to do is get a bike for summer and keep the GSR for a winter hack-about.”
He has a good point and one that I am now seriously considering. I could have a bike that I ride from say April to November, and my GSR for November to April. This way I keep a bike in great condition and I reduce the mileage on both bikes. This means less servicing, less miles and more value. It also means I wont be using the same bike every day all year round which should bring back some of the enjoyment of riding a motorcycle for me.
I really need to have a think about it, but for now the VFR is so far beyond reality it’s actually quite funny.
Thanks for checking YY over the past month, the view have really been good!
All the best,
Gordon
KTM 125cc Concept Street Bikes. Wow.
UPDATE 14/10/2010
Check it out folks, the brand spanker 2011 KTM 125 DUKE! Blimey, it looks like they have taken bits from both the 125cc concepts and made one badass looking bike!:
Image from MCN.
The only problem I can see (if I were to get one now) is that the 15Nm of torque would seem like a bee fart compared to the MT-01′s 110Nm…..
Maybe for a track bike then eh?
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When chatting about bikes with Blair, and his opinion of getting racing bikes for commuting, he sent me these pictures of KTM’s conceptual 125cc street bikes.
First of all, how smart are they!?
The KTM 125 Concept – Option 1 Race
The KTM 125 Concept – Option 2 Street
The KTM Duke R. 690 Single.
Well first off the 125′s are crazy nice. Obviously they don’t have the power of some bigger bikes, but for whizzing around town or indeed the back roads, this bike looks to be immense fun. Having seen the MCN video of the bikes at the show, I can undoubtedly say that the 125′s are amazing. The orange Race version has 2 Akrapovic’s sticky out the back. It’s almost a copy of a bike from the MotoGP games (the Climax made ones, not the new ones, which incidentally aren’t as good…) Amazing.
The Duke R is also very very nice. KTM have a lot of spiel on their website about them all, so check it out in full here.
As a fun bike, they all look like they would fit the bill. But unfortunately I am still not convinced they would be suitable for me.
Maybe the 125′s are so simple and cheap that I can justify getting one. If it gets crapped up, who cares, it’s easy to wash, the engine is on full display and I can get a new one if it falls apart (he says.)
Anyway, pretty damn cool regardless.
Let’s Rock…Let’s Not Shall We.
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The snow has gone in what seems like an evening, vaporising in to the air and leaving the dirty mess all over the place. The grit lorries have finally arrived, depositing the corrosive acid just after the snow had gone. Well done Fife Council, you’ve done yourself proud. There still remains the odd patch of lethal ice but on the whole, the snow has disappeared from our lives after 4 weeks of carnage.
Hang on…it’s snowing again.
Anyway.
Tuesday afternoon I gave Stuart a call (Jacksons Bikes) and got him to come get my bike from the work’s garage. Yesterday Gordon (one of his mechanics) arrived in the van and he came in to the garage to see what’s going on. After a prod here and a strained back there he said that in fact all my brakes have seized, and he’s off to get the mallet.
The mallet. Sure enough he returned with a block of wood, shaped ergonomically like a block of wood, which he then whacked off each of the calipers, 1x rear and 2x front, in a bid to free the rust that had seized the brake pads on to the disks. After a few attempts and a worried look on my face as he took a full swing at my calipers, the brake pads seemed to release enough that he could get some motion back and forward and then they were free. With a hurrah from me we began chatting about what the matter was. Counting the calipers he said something like “you’ll need around 20 new seals for your caliper pistons as they will all be messed up from the corrosion. ” He then, upon me asking, calculated it out to be roughly £4 a seal, thus I was facing £80 before my bike had even made it 2 yards. I guffawed and went about pushing the bike out to the van, which was now prepared with the ramp down.
Because the brakes were still pretty gunked up, we had to push quite hard to get the bike up the hill and then up the ramp in to the van, but in doing so, and because of my lack of height judgement, I whacked the top of my head square off the top of the door. I mean whacked. The van shook.
Gordon said “It’s alright, I’ve got the bike” indicating to let go of the grab handle at the back, but I was holding on to it so I didn’t collapse. Anyway, I made like a man and whimpered out the back of the van and he said I’ll get a call when there’s anything to report.
So heading back in to work, head thumping and dizzy, I was furious with the GSR. It’s a shame because it isn’t the GSR’s fault that the brakes got seized. It was me. I didn’t fight my way through the winter carnage of -11°C with a bucket, sponge and water to get the GSR’s brakes cleaned, in my works garage with no hose. And because of this, I will now have to pay at least £80.
But I am furious about the ignition barrel seizing. That bit I wasn’t at fault for. And after all these years of riding every day, I still am amazed when I get the answer to why these things happen:
“Because you ride your bike.”
Because. I. ride. my. bike. It’s not, “Because you ride your bike like a fool.” or “You don’t ride your bike” even. People often say to me, “but you see 10 year old bikes that are in great condition!?”
Well let me tell you folks, I do indeed ride me bike a lot more than say most other people who own a bike in Scotland. But I, contrary to popular belief, do actually take care of my bike. I wash it nearly every weekend unless it’s chucking it down or snowing. It’s the weekday stuff that really takes it’s toll, coming home after a wet ride and leaving the bike overnight outside, under a cover albeit but still outside.
The bloke at the Suzuki garage said explicitly that this is why my bike is in such poor condition, it’s because the bike comes home and sits with all the road salt/crap and festers. I then do this for 5 days before it gets fresh water/Zymol on it. So unless you have a garage and hose nearby, you’ve got no chance…and I don’t have a garage. Or a hose. And it’s false logic to go all the way up to my Ma’s, only to wash my bike, get back on it and ride for 20 minutes in the rain and crap again. So what do you do? You can’t wash your bike during the week, but you need to wash it in order for it to not fall apart whilst going along the motorway.
Answer A: You buy a house with a garage. And a hose.
Answer B: You go to a nearby garage that has a car wash and go for it. You’ll still get crap on it before you get home but it’s a lot less crap than it would be going to Mum’s.
Answer C (My favourite): You get a bike that is actually fit for purpose, and not one that’s built to last 8,000 miles of sunny riding…
I could have used KTM or indeed Ducati, or indeed Husqvarna. But in the broad terms of “Enduro Bike” you almost always think “Ewan and Charlie”…don’t you?
So after heading back in to work with a sore head, I was furious with the GSR enough to bash BMW in to google and have a wee browse in my stupour.
I’ve almost always steered away from the Beemers because I love the look of naked sports bikes. I love the fact that it’s the “raw” version of the faired go-fast bikes. More recently I have taken a shining to the KTM RC8, because in a word, it’s Gorgeous. But the other day there, in a moment of quiet contemplation, I stripped back the lust and want, I removed the gawking and stroking and I asked myself just what exactly am I doing with this banana…
I mean what kind of bike would suit what I use it for? The faired superbikes that I lust after just wouldn’t cut it. Aye their engines are kind of protected with the fairing, and aye they would be good to ride. But I doubt they would be year round comfy. What about touring? I know Emma doesn’t go on the bike that much but I still factor it in to my decision making. And I know for a fact she wouldn’t enjoy a superbike pillion seat.
So what does that leave? Well naked bikes aye, but they just don’t cut it with the riding I do. Well what about something like the KTM Superduke? It’s from a manufacturer that’s based around Enduro bikes, but it’s got the looks you want and indeed the performance and a back seat to boot.
I think the KTM SD is to many a track bike, an edge of the seat ride that takes no prisoners and is a “baw-hair” from being rubber side down to rubber side up.
That leaves only one real choice.
I need a REAL bike. I need a bike that won’t fall apart after 2 months of use. I need a bike from a manufacturer who isn’t targeting the “weekend warrior”, the 2000 miles a year kind of rider. I want a bike from a manufacturer who knows what someone like me needs, and what I don’t. I don’t need to wheelie. I don’t need to have my knee down. I need a bike that has shaft drive and heated grips.
Enter then please, the BMW R1200GS (that’s the one below the Ewan and Charlie model. That’s known as the R1200GS Adventure. OOOOOO)
(Taken from BMW Motorrad Website)
So lets see. Does it have shaft drive? Aye. Does it have heated grips? Aye (A massive £210 optional extra by the way!) Does it have endurance background? Aye.
It has a big screen for the rain. It has an engine in front of your feet, so no more cold wet feet. It has a single sided swing arm. it has a luxurious looking seat (for both) it has a massive tank (20l, with 4l reserve) and although it has a 150 section rear, it’s built for mileage. It’s also 100bhp, so 4 more than the GSR meaning insurance shouldn’t be too much more, although it is a good deal more expensive…
£9925 on the road, as compared to the £4295 otr for my GSR back in 2008. So the weigh in begins.
I guess we’ll just have to wait, because there’s no way I can get a new motorcycle at the minute. This also means repairing the GSR yet again, and who knows, that may be anything from a clean service and new caliper seals, to a new ignition block if they can’t unseize it. And who knows how much that’ll cost? By my experience, £100 won’t cover it.
Welcome to 2010!
Well welcome one and all, for it’s two-thousand-and-ten A L R E A D Y.
The weather here is atrocious at best, so because of this my bike has been constrained to the work garage, as I couldn’t get it home. Because of this, my bike has sat for a week and now that I have returned to see it, the ignition is seized stopping the key from turning (you can still get the key in though…) and thus I can’t start it, thus I can’t unseize the rear brake that’s now jammed on.
Ace.
It’s going to be a few weeks I would imagine, before this snow and ice clears up. This isn’t good because my bike needs to be in active service asap. I think what I might do is get Stuart to come and get it and do a service. Then I can just wait until the weather is a bit kinder to 2 wheels.
Anyway. I hope Santa was good to y’all and you had a great and happy new year’s celebration. We had a great time, with a new Fraser in the family (Lily, both mother and daughter are well!) and some nice relaxing fatty-eating-chocolate-and-other-leftovers joy.
2010 has to be a good year, because 2009 wasn’t. And for this reason, I have made a promise to update YamYam at least twice a week. Let’s see how I do.
Oh and the 25th of January will celebrate my 3rd year of YamYam and 2 wheeled joy. Insurance AHOY!
Cheerio for now!
Gordon
