YamYam’s Top 10 Posts Ever.
So whilst I await the melting of the Fife Ice Caps, I shall collate some data…Geek Style.
I am always amazed at how sparse reviews are for products, or how biased a lot of reviews seem to be. Motostrano Blog said it excellently:
“I rarely read product reviews these days. They are all advertisements and we know it- pure fantasy. On the other hand, there’s the ‘discussion forums’ where you can read countless essays written by lonely males holed up in their mancaves about the products they’ve purchased, sharing with others the ins and outs of why the product they invested in is so great. Of course it’s great, you bought it and you’re actually wasting life hours writing about it. We beat our chests about the little gizmos and gadgets we’ve been able to scrounge up on our hunting and gathering missions out in the shopping wilderness. Heading back to camp with our gear speared on a stick- which is really a lonely little desk away from the kids or wife – we review the goods, inspect it, try it on, pose in action shots in front of the mirror, perhaps in our underwear, perhaps dressed up in our leathers in the garage. Then, as if to map out a terrain that no other fellow savage has explored, we set up to transpose our inner most thoughts on digital paper about whatever it is we just bought, signaling to other tribe members where to go and what to see along the adventure.”
So it’s with great satisfaction and indeed pride, that I have been complimented on my reviewing technique and detail. This is probably why (and you will see soon enough) my reviews are the most popular out of my posts. Naebody cares about me seeing a plane almost hitting the Forth Road Bridge. They want to know why I think the Puma Desmo’s were the best boot ever made.
Anyway, lets move along. I give you the top 10 favourite posts on YamYam ever (in descending order):
#10: Review: Respro “Foggy” Anti-fog Mask
#9: Review: Puma Brutale Gore-Tex Boots
#8: Update: AGV GP-Tech Helmet
#6: Review: Shark RSI “Eden” Helmet
#5: Yamaha MT-03
#4: Review: Puma Desmo 800 Boots
#3: Tutorial #1: How to change grips and handlebars
#2: Kawasaki ER6n
The most popular post on YamYam ever is, surprise surprise:
#1: Review: AGV GP-Tech Helmet
So there you have it. I think the reason is I got the GP-Tech really early, as in first batch. This allowed me to get a head-start and offer the viewing public a chance to see what this new helmet was like before going out to purchase it themselves.
It’s a good indication of what people are after when looking around the interweb for motorcycle type stuff.
I hope you enjoyed reading the top 10 posts, but also have a wee look around the archives at the non-review stuff. You might be pleasantly surprised…or endlessly bored.
All the best
Gordon
Thoughts: Rev-It Apache Boot & Dainese Virlunga D-Dry
After my Desmo’s packed in, the Airtech GTXs disappointed and the Sidi Rain Evo’s got sold on eBay (times are tight) I had nothing left but to get the Alpinestars Effex GTX back out of retirement, complete with mud and cobwebs from working in the garden with them on.
The only issue however is now the Effex boots are wasted. There are still two holes in the shift patch and the sole (the reason for the retirement) and the sole is compacted to a wafer, so comfort isn’t really what you would call comfortable. Not only that, they are cold and leak like a pair of boots with two holes in them.
So I got thinking about what was out there now that could possibly fill the void left when my Desmo’s packed in. What kind of boot could be worn day in day out, in Scottish winter weather, as well as walking about in them, washing my bike in them and generally living in them. What boots are there in the market RIGHT NOW, that could possibly fit the bill?
What do you think of these then?
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT!! Wow.
I stumbled across these boots when searching for another boot that I liked the look of. I’ll come to those in a minute.
These Rev-It Apache boots are precisely what I would imagine a boot to look like, should it fit the requested spec I mentioned before. It looks rugged. But it also looks comfortable. It looks solid. Most of all, it looks really quite smart.
These retail for around £160 in the UK. There’s a variety of tech going on in here, including a sole that was derived from hiking boots. WebBikeWorld calls them a “Mashup” in that they merge off-road boots with hiking boots with touring boots and racing boots. It’s a best of all worlds type boot.
I am really intrigued by these. Could they be the answer to my Scottish boot nightmare?
The other boot I mentioned was the Dainese Virunga D-Dry boot. It looks like this:
These boots look like comfy bams I have to say. I also like the combination of soft materials combined with ratchet style closure as an extra security feature.
They don’t look as solid as the Apaches but I prefer the softer look.
I’m going to try and get my hands on either or both of these boots and give them the YamYam review treatment. Fingers crossed because I am really starting to tire of having cold wet feet.
Stay tuned!
Winter Hack
What what what.
My last post to have the blue banner of information said that I was in a so-so mood, had done 24486.3 miles on my GSR and…go to yamyambiker.com.
Since then, as you can see with my new blue banner of information, I have increased in mood by 3 bars, I have covered 2619 more miles on my GSR and you’ve still to go to yamyambiker.com.
So what’s the chat? What have I been doing that’s so damn interesting to keep me from my YamYam duties. Well as you know, I sometimes go for ages and then end up writing a long assed post, so perhaps this might be one of those moments. I’ll start from where I left it…that is I had just reviewed my current jacket (Wolf Titanium if you ask), I had been told I would be better suited to a scooter because I couldn’t handle my Kwak ER-6n and I was off to Tenerife. Not before emailing West Coast Harley about their current Buell stock, a small yamyam probe to see what the deal was (deal…get it?)
Well I got back from a spectacular 2 weeks of sunshine, sleeping, eating (a lot) and bobbing in an extremely cold pool. Like a true Scotsman, I sucked it up and I was in there pretty much every day, floating like a fleshy coloured iceberg, whilst others sat shivering on their sunbeds. I didn’t care. I wasn’t thinking about work, I wasn’t thinking about the thousands of troubled thoughts that plagued my mind on a daily basis. For 2 weeks (well, 1.3 really) I was awol from my mind, from my life back in Scotland and all that was really to do was decide what to eat (crisps or bread), what to wear (usually just shorts…easy ladies, and a t-shirt) and what to do; float or read…or watch a film…or go for a walk.
We arrived back in Scotland to an extremely cold, windy, wet Saturday morning, having had our plane delayed a wee bit. I sat on my couch at 6am deliberating whether or not to go to bed or just ride it out and see how far I made it. I went to bed.
It was great being back really. I love Scotland and no matter how many Hunters Chicken I ate (a delicious meal prepared by someone other than me in a restaurant filled with alcohol and sunshine), it’s still no match for the stiff, crisp Scottish air. Refreshing some might say.
Before heading away on holiday I had realigned my broadband duties from Virgin to O2, because I found Virgin’s internet to be slow in the evenings, slow enough that I had to buffer some films from Sky Player a few times.
What a mistake that was. From the get-go O2 were dismal, utterly dismal. Think along the lines of trying to open a YouTube video, only to have someone actually come out of your screen and scream “Who do you think you are!?” at you for even trying. I couldn’t load any videos, surfing was a task and I was totally fed up. However I had a 30 day “Happiness Guaranteed” period where I could opt out and nothing would be said of it. I gave it a little while as I was promised that the service would start to pick up shortly because of some maintenance they were doing to the lines or something.
Well guess who got their math wrong? ME. I got back from Tenerife thinking I had a good week left of my 30 days, only to find that I was actually, from Saturday of my arrival onward, 1 day in to my contract. The service was no better by the way, still as crap as always. I should have been getting 8mg. I was getting 0.3mg.
So with no time to lose, I called them up and got my MAC code, then requested my account be cancelled to be told that I am now “within contract period and it’ll cost £160 to get out of it.” After much argumenting and deliberating from O2 I got out of my shockingly bad contract and luckily I was able to go to a more safe bet, BT. Now that I have, my internet is ace, I can watch films, watch YouTube and I’ve even updated www.gordon-fraser.com to celebrate.
But all this has taken it’s toll on my time available to post here, that and just getting on with riding my bike every day with pretty much no incident.
Since getting back the weather has steadily decreased to the point of no-feely-handies. So I decided that it was time to forget looking swish, and buy some hand guards for my Gisser. I did buy them (£38) and fitted them with Dad with a little trademark Fraser persuasion.
What a difference, my hands are now wind free and really a lot warmer. Then the weather got to the point that in the morning my bars would be iced up, so really even though my hand guards were preventing wind and rain from chilling my fingers, I was still holding on to a frozen piece of metal, so my hands still got numb. The ride home however is a different story and I am ever so thankful I took the plunge and fitted them. I also re-fitted my screen unit and it’s keeping a lot of the rain and draught off me so that’s ace. The only problem is the increase in ease of speeding. I am always so used to having the drag on my body that the position I sit at naturally on the throttle is causing me to cruise faster with the aerodynamic advantage of the fairing. It has been a few times I have glanced down to see that I am not sticking to the speed limit without knowing it. ANYWAY.
Hand guards were from a V-Strom 650, for all you like minded GSR riders, and can be picked up from your local Suzuki dealership.
I mentioned the email to Buell Glasgow.
Well I sent a wee informal “Now that Buell is going south, what deals you got?” email to them and I’m not exaggerating here, 8-9 calls later they are still trying to get me in to have a chat. I’ve decided to forget going for a new Buell because I spoke to Stuart @ Jacksons Bikes about it and he said that because of the miles I do, I could quickly find myself in a position that I need a part and they can’t supply it. Say if the engine management computer packed in, and I couldn’t get a replacement, that’s my bike written off, even if the rest is in mint condition. So aye, even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE Buells, I just can’t justify it really. I’ll stick with the pain in the arse and rusty boy until it packs in (it’s been a while so touch wood nothing will happen…)
So that’s really where we are at. It’s a week until christmas, Blair is soon to be a Daddy (it could hit off anytime now) and work is busy as feck.
In a week there could be a small, brand new Fraser in this world. After a year of utter SHITE, I am desperately holding on to the hope that it’ll end well. I am hoping.
2010 is a new year. It’s a fresh start. One things for sure, it really couldn’t get any worse than what 2009 was. If it does, there’ll be bigger problems than my hands getting cold, or BT internet. 2010 could be the greatest year of everyones lives, purely for the fact that we had one of the worst years just before it. I hope for all our sakes it will be.
AHHHHHHHHH
It’s definitely time to draw a line under this post. Word count is 1308 as of this word HERE.
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Go check out my home website WWW.GORDON-FRASER.COM and feedback me.
All the best for the remaining 2009. I will speak before the bells.
Thanks for visiting all,
GORDON!
Review: Wolf Titanium Textile
I have had many chances to wear motorcycle gear, from my first ever setup of RST Synchro jeans and RST Electrik jacket to the effortless cool with a side-order of not practical with a Furygan Orona to the RST Paragon 365 textiles. In this time I have come to understand what it really means to have decent gear on your skin. Aye, you can plump for the cheap stuff and think “well with that £xxx I saved I can put it towards a set of Akrapovic cans and a mohican for my helmet.”
Or you can aim higher.
Now admittedly I have had issues with RST stuff in the past. Of course RST are siblings with Wolf, designed by the same house and brought to you in the same way. However, this time there’s something different.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the brand new Wolf Titanium Textile setup:
Oh. Aye.
Now, after all my troubles with the RST/Wolf family, why would you be interested in anything they have to say? Well let me tell you, I opened my ears and I soaked it up, because this offering in it’s black and red war paint is something special.
This jacket is a touring jacket, but it has a definitive difference to other touring jackets, and that is it’s cut. Now with the Paragon jacket, it was quite long, going pretty much to my arse in length and this is really the only cut you got. However with the Titanium Jacket, the cut is a shorty. A concious decision by the designer to cut out bumfle when you sit on the bike which means no pools of water sitting soaking through the fabric which means….DRY.
When you first put your arms through the sleeves you feel like you are part of this jacket. The slick Outlast fabric allowing easy access down the arms. I’ll come to Outlast in a minute.
You put the other arm in and you feel a really solid fit around your shoulders. Zipping the main zip up brings the whole experience to a new level, as the fabric tightens around your upper body as if someone is standing with a ratchet strap clicking it over until you go “aye, that’s it.”
A comfortable fit? Most definitely. But you say the jacket is tight right? Well what about movement. I mean, with the Furygan, it was a nice tight fit, but those blasted foam bits made moving about a pain in the arse.
Well the Titanium seems to know just where you want movement, and yet it retains that snug solidarity that you enjoyed as you zipped it up. The shoulders sit square on your body, even shoulder-paddy, but definitely not in a bad way. It makes you look square, masculine to the point that I actually started to fancy myself…
Small of the back pocket, doesn't really offer anything but a nice visual
Heading down the arms, you find 2 levels of adjustment on the biceps and the forearm for wind flap. Side adjustment is available here as well but I didn’t need it. The cuffs have a lovely velvet finish (a material called Clarino) on them which makes skin contact joyous. Velcro closure makes putting summer race gloves or my A-Stars Goretex gloves a breeze and very comfortable. The arms were shortened to stop the dreaded cuff encroachment in to glove scenario. So many times I have wanted to put my gloves over my jacket only to find that the cuffs sit so far down my arm that it’s uncomfortable wearing gloves outside the cuff. The Titanium is perfect length.
Clarino cuffs. Gorgeous.
It's not really useful day to day (for me), but it still adds to the design
As you can see on the back view, you have stretchy panels on the backs of the arms and indeed the flanks of the back of the jacket. You’ll also notice the flap at the bottom, hinting at it’s touring credentials, although not really offering any kind of sensible storage. Perhaps documents or smaller items, but forget a set of gloves…well without upsetting the harmonious fit.
I love this reflective material and I love the design touch of the red outline.
Below the large WOLF logo which by the way is reflective. It’s this new type of invisible reflective stuff that looks sort of gunmetal grey, but as soon as you get light on it, it’s blazes in a white flash. Brilliant stuff…anyway below that is a popper which conceals a large cross shoulder vent. Never used this as I always wear my Kriega so no wind flow goes through it.
Metal badge oozes class. Not only that, but it re-inforces the feeling of wearing something special. It's like an insignia to make people aware that you mean business.
You’ll notice the gorgeously contoured neck profile, offering maximum draught exclusion without choking. Adjustment is available for pencil necks but again I never adjusted these. On the front you’ll see the red Wolf logo, smart as, and you’ll also see a wee tapered box shape, in some corduroy type fabric…you may notice a similarity between this and the Furygan chin patch I mentioned here…influenced? worth it? Aye. It’s these little flairs that make my day. So I say go for it. It’s not like it’s an identical steal either. It’s been enhanced, enlarged, improved and made out of a material better than the stuff you find on wet-suit pencil cases…. Wolf 1-0 Furygan.
The badges on the sides of the arms, made from metal and outlined with a Wolf emblazoned thick black line, make you feel like you are wearing something special. It oozes class and echoes the serious approach Wolf are taking to this product. It says “Aye, I mean business, and I intend to deal with you as soon as I have finished looking cool.” It’s an insignia to show that you are wearing a serious jacket. And I love it.
Cheeky chins? Perhaps...
Outlast.
Outcast?
In a sentence, Outlast is a fabric that regulates your body temperature to keep you at the perfect comfortable temperature no matter what is going on outside of you. In practice it does work, but it’s sometimes more noticeable than other times.
I have been riding along and I suddenly feel a surge of heat come from…from nowhere. From the air. It’s amazing really, and I really can’t describe it well enough to do it justice. But it is amazing stuff.
The tech of it is easily found on their website, but the way I understand it is this. When you are too hot, Outlast wicks the heat away from your skin and stores it within the fabric. When you get colder, Outlast gradually releases that heat back to you thus heating you up and the cycle is complete. The problem arrives when you don’t have direct contact with the material. I sometimes wear a long sleeved thermal top under my t-shirt and this limits the effect or perhaps the communication of the effect to the body. Anyway, when you feel this fabric with your hand, it doesn’t matter if it’s roasting inside or freezing, this fabric remains cold to the touch at all times. It’s a bizarre sensation but it just adds to the amazement.
Amazing technology in an amazing jacket.
An amazing piece of technology in this jacket and I am well chuffed that Wolf have had the vision to encorporate this in to their Titanium line. However, there is one pretty major area that, if not addressed properly, would instantly remove any and all good things about this jacket, and that is waterproofing. A pet hate of mine and something that I have dealt with since I first started riding.
Black bit warm, Grey bit COOOOOLLLLLLD. AMAZING!!!!
I’ve mentioned the great decision of the cut of the jacket to reduce bumfling and pooling of water. How does the rest of the jacket fair in the Scottish weather?
I have ridden in some of the worst weather imaginable. Side-ways rain, 50mph winds and ice. This jacket excels at keeping that shit out. Unfortunately there are a few material choices that have made the jacket and trousers susceptible to soaking water up and storing it, which is located on the shoulders and the shins. It’s called Clarino and I can see why the choice was made to use it on the jacket. It’s gorgeous. Soft, velvety and classy. But it soaks up water like nobodies business and it takes a day in a hot environment to dry it out again.
The jacket keeps water out brilliantly, with the only leaks being in rain that some cars would struggle with, so for this very reason, I will state that the Titanium jacket is as good as a Gore-Tex setup, because boys and girls, I have worn gore-tex in similar rain and it let water in. A plastic sheet would let water in on days like these…
Trousers.
The trousers of this ensemble are similar in look to the jacket but have two pockets on the thighs, like cargo jean pocket things. I use them for my wallet on the right and keys on the left, they are waterproof and a good size. The trousers have Clarino on the shins as mentioned before and a zip that runs up the back of your leg ( to just before the back of your knee) instead of the side. This keeps the water from entering the zip and makes putting boots on a breeze. You can also refrain from zipping them all the way down to get a good flair on the go…
I can’t post pictures as I have a pre-production set and are not suitable for internets. But believe me when I say – These jeans are comfy as feck and are as comfortable, warm and nice looking as the jacket. A great setup.
SOOOOO
To conclude then.
I am relieved. I am amazed. I am in awe. I am happy.
Wolf have made a set of motorcycle gear that would make even the most picky of us whimper with joy. The Titanium gear is some of the smartest gear I have ever seen. I may be biased in the sense that I wear it every day and have done for over a year, but as I stated at the outset, I have tested a lot of different types of gear from many manufacturers. These beat every other manufacturer hands down for looks.
- The fit is sublime. The touring cut does it’s job and reduces bumfle to the point of there is none…
- The design flairs are perfectly executed.
- The durability is second to none, a real bug-bear with me but thankfully RST/Wolf have upped their game with respects to manufacturing quality control.
- The utility of the gear, the placement of adjustment and pockets, vents and access points are all well thought out and perfectly placed for ease of use, daily.
- The waterproofing is completely successful.
- The Outlast is mind-boggling.
- The use of materials is gorgeous. Hard wearing materials for the important bits. Sexy materials for the flairs. Metal for the badges.
- Zips are solid.
- Velcro is heavy duty, no fluffing or stitch tearing.
- Front fastening is zip, velcro and poppers. A total overkill but it’s bullet proof. I would rather have 3 methods of defence over 2 or 1, even if they did the same job.
- Armour is all standard stuff, but secured extremely well to reduce movement over time.
In a word then, how do I rate the Wolf Titanium gear?
Love.
Review: TCX Airtech Gore-Tex Boots
One month off. A whole month of non-yamyam action. That’s bad.
Let’s rock.
I give you, The TCX Airtech Goretex boot
So after a while of waiting and various calls to J&S, I got the TCX Airtech Gore Tex boots through in the mail. Upon initial inspection I noted to myself that these were nowhere near the effortless cool of my beloved Puma Desmo GTX.
The boot felt stiff in the hand and the rubber was really…rubbery. It reminded me of something that perhaps a fireman would wear, or a fisherman… After a few moments of visual disappointment, I unzipped those suckers and stuck em on my feet, after all it’s more about what they feel like…right?
There's only so much rubber you can take...
After struggling to get the massive velcro patch off the boot, I slipped my foot in to a very vacant feeling interior. Vacant in the sense that the boot didn’t really fit my foot, it more hovered around it. There was a lot of space for my foot to move horizontally, waving a stick in a cave…what…oh. The boot also felt really hard, rigid and not very pleasant. Nevertheless, I soldiered on and zipped them up…oh dear.
Initial feeling was “oh, that’s not really good” as the interior fabric that’s fashioned around the lip of the boot scraped against my leg. I unzipped it again thinking I had messed it up but sure enough, at the top of the boot was a ragged edge that was rough to the touch. I am not enjoying this experience.
Walking back in forward in my kitchen I was completely turned off by what my feet were saying to me. Absolutely no movement in the shin area forcing an awkward cowboy stride and moon-landing plant of the feet, albiet with a “SLAP”.
As you can see, I took photos on my wet patio table. After doing this, I put them on in my kitchen and immediately my grip was lost, due to some moisture being left on the sole. This was not a good indication of the available grip for say, when you put your foot down at the lights when there just happens to be some diesel spilt on the wet road…
Bugs eye toe cap...mmmm. Not.
There is a natural “That’s enough” point in a products design. With the Puma Desmo it wasn’t ever crossed, I wanted more of it and would have lapped it up with a squint face.
With the TCX Airtech GTX, the point at which “that’s enough” was reached happened as soon as the box was opened and eyes were rested upon the feast of rubber and mesh.
It may be slightly harsh to say it, but I will say it. On a web shop with the Airtech at a 45° angle and the right lighting this boot looks pretty good. In reality, this boot should never have left the design office. It’s an over stiff, non-user-friendly lump of hard rubber and mesh that makes you partially vomit in to your mouth, and then, after you have wiped the barf off the floor, you try the boots on and you suddenly have the urge to scoop your eyes out with a spoon, only after you have picked yourself up from slipping on the slightly damp floor.
A boo-boo if ever I saw one, and a real shame. I never wore these on the bike. I made the pose of being on my bike, using my kitchen bar-stool as a make shift peg and I immediately knew this was a no-go. And to top off all this lovin’, you then have that annoying rubbing on your leg from the really really reeheeheeeelly (too much Scrubs) bad craftsmanship and materials choice.
Bad one.
Sorry TCX, you’ve blown it.
Review: Bridgestone BT021 – Sports Touring Tyre
I have run BT014′s and BT016′s on my GSR since new. Up until recently I was just replacing them every time they either got bald or I was guilted in to it by my lass. Anyway, whilst in Jacksons the other month there, Stuart said “why have you got these on?” and I said “cause that’s what I was given.”
After yet another dumbfounded look, Stuart then said that what I need was the Bt021′s because for the riding I do, the 14′s and 16′s are totally wrong. He puts 14′s on his trackday bike. Anyway, I got a 21 on the rear first and last weekend I got a 21 on the front, after my 2nd ever front tyre was totally done (a BT014).
Well I have to say, the BT021′s last I would guestimate around 3-4 times longer than the BT016′s. The rear, although starting to square, has been on since the beginning of 2009 and is still going strong. The front is 6 days old, but I have to say the wet weather grip is good and it seems like having matching front and back makes leaning easier. The deep tread on the BT021′s will shift a lot of water away from the suface and give you a longer tyre life.
The BT021′s aren’t any dearer than the 16′s so I have to wonder why my garage didn’t suggest these to me earlier considering that they knew how many miles I do and also the fact that I was in there every other month for problems…they had ample time to mention that there was a more suitable tyre for my riding.
ANYWAY
If you do a lot of miles but still want a really good grippy leany tyre, then look no further than the BT021. I love Bridgestones, and after having Pirellis, Dunlops and Michelins, I know how essential it is to find a tyre that you are comfortable riding with. I am just glad I suit the Bridgestones.
Go buy some.
Cheers
Gordon
50% Off All Prints
Well well,
As you may or may not know, I have a wee shop where I sell my wares in the shape of photographs. These are available immediately to buy, and as of this very minute are on offer of 50% off all orders.
If you use the code: YAMYAM at the checkout, you will get a whopping 50% off. Now that’s a good deal. Some examples of the great stuff you can buy are below. Click HERE to go there right now!
All images are available in 15″ x 9″ glossy photo prints.
Fuel Light Challenge #1
So this morning I go out to my bike and look at the dash when I turn the key. 2 bars of fuel left. Hmm.
Now usually the way it works out is that the day that I need to fill up, I usually have 3 bars left that get me to my work and then to the petrol station afterwards. Today however was different and instead of going to the nearest petrol station to fill up I decided to see if I could conserve my petrol in order to get to work on 2 bars.
My work is 34 miles from my house and I knew that really, it wouldn’t be an issue, but I didn’t fancy playing the fuel light challenge so played it cool and done the eco thing.
Sure enough I arrived at work with still 2 bars, where as normally I would have been on total flashy (reserve tank in GSR terms. The petrol pump symbol flashes when you have say 5l left in the tank, and the whole gauge flashes when you are down to your reserve 3l ish.)
It got me thinking. If I can get to work on 2 bars driving at the speed limit and keeping accelleration to a minimum, what would it be like if I always did that? In other words babied it about from full tank?
Well here we go then, the start of the test. See chart below.
Ok. So usually I fill up my tank and then bomb it. Not in town necessarily, but on the motorway or dual carriageways etc. My full tank gets me home from the petrol station, then a full commute the next day, then in to work the next day after that. I then go to the petrol station on the way home with around 5.1litres left in the tank (even though it’s on half flashy, I am too chicken to play the fuel light challenge.)
Tonight I filled up my tank to the brim, 10.9litres of fuel. Calculating (roughly) the MPG, it seems I get 44.5mpg in rip-the-arse mode. From the second I turned on the ingition, I was in eco mode, so pull away and immediately to 2nd gear, then change up through the box until 5th doing 30mph. Easy on the throttle and no hard accelleration.
It’ll be really interesting to see just how long my tank lasts, and I might take it that one step further and strap a jerry can to my seat and really run it dry to see what the mileage I can get out of it is like. I will then compare that to the normal use data.
*Normal Use = hard accelleration, very fast cruising speed on motorways and occasional red-liner.
** Economy Use = quick shifting up to high gear, soft accelleration, low revs, speed limits everywhere with occassional lower than, and general eco mindset.
So I got home tonight with full bars. I will bet that tomorrow I will still have full. Let’s Rock!
Update: Puma Desmo 800 GTX. Done. Gone.
Well now…
Firstly, thanks to Alex @ J&S Accessories for her help. I appreciate it.
My favourite pair of boots, my Desmo 800 Gore-Tex boots, my babys…gone. Forever.
I had sent them back well over 5 weeks ago to J&S Accessories due to the zip busting and the unbreakable Gore-Tex liner leaking. I sent them back and waited. And waited. And waited. Until it was too much and I called them up.
“Ok…hmmm. I’ll have a look and get back to you.”
That was Friday, and hadn’t received a call back. So today (Wednesday) I called up again.
“Yeah, we sent them back to the supplier and I’m waiting back on them calling me about the status. Hold on, I’ll call you back and I’ll find out.”
Sure enough 30 minutes later a call.
“The suppliers say that they have given us a credit for the boots so you can get anything you want from our store.”
“What, you can’t get them anymore?”
“No, they have stopped making them. But have a look in our store. You can get the Sidi Evo’s? They are our best selling boot?!”
“Hmm Bums… I’ll call you back once I’ve had a look at them.”
So I had a quick look at their store and no boots were Gore-Tex apart from some TCX Competizione boots at £200…doubtfull she’ll allow that to fly.
I called back and suggested it and although she had said that I could have whatever boots I wanted, there was obvioulsy a bit of no-way-jose before I was told that the boots on the web were only the most popular and that she’ll check to see if they do any other GTX ones.
No call back, but again she was quick to get a hold of. She apoligised with the reason that she was doing two jobs at once due to someone being ill. No problem.
“There’s some Daytona ones.”
No. They were pretty basic and not very nice looking.
Whilst I had been waiting for the call I had checked online at various brands again, thinking various things like, perhaps the Alpinstars Effex would be good again? They were bullet proof and comfy as feck as well. Hmm. Nah. What about any other Puma versions? No. Puma seem to have pulled out of the motorcycle boot industry altogether!!
Well what about TCX then? Hmm.
I had a wee swatch on their website and immediately drew myself to these:
Now. I know what you are thinking. And it probably isn’t “They are smarter than X”
I like the look of them definitely. But my rational was this: Winter.
I have the smartest boots around. The Desmo non GTX variety remember. I had 2 sets. Now I still have the normal Desmos, so getting winter boots smarter than the Desmos isn’t possible. Add to that the fact that during winter, my mind isn’t on how good I look, it’s on getting to work with the most number of body parts still attached to my body. These boots look like they will be comfy (going by the pretty sparse reviews of them) and warm. They also crucially have Gore-Tex.
Aye they may not be made of hard plastic to protect from crushing, but apparently they last ages, are instantly comfy (no break in) and are warm.
So I suggested to her if it would be possible to get these? She said that she would call the supplier and see.
10 minutes later a call to say that aye, that’s no problem, but there is a problem with price as these are £150 and I had paid £126 for the Desmo GTX. Of course I had paid £140 for them back then. She realised the mistake and said, no worries, she’ll get them ordered and sent out asap.
So there you go. I am really looking forward to trying this new boot out, but at the same time I am gutted about my Desmo’s. The fact that Puma don’t make them any more is also disappointing. But more than gutted or disappointment, I am really beat up about the fact that they only lasted 9 months. I was sure they would last at least as long as my AStars Effex, but I was wrong. Such a shame. I guess I’ll just have to take ultra good care of my normal Desmos if I want to keep them for longer.
Updates on the TCX Airtech Gore-Tex when they arrive!
Thanks for checking out YamYam folks. I am always reading and enjoy your comments.
Check out my Flickr for a constantly updated photo stream.
All the best
Gordon
2009-06-22 – Thoughts
My mood is pretty low at the minute. Maybe substitute mood for morale.
It seems to be getting windier every day and although today was the first dry commute this week, it was still not very pleasant.
The bike is still playing up, cutting out, indicators flashing fast or not working at all. The Bridgestones (BT021) are working a treat though, Stuart was right; I wasn’t on the right tyre for my needs. The rear still has similar grip levels but are not wearing half as much as my old 16′s. I’ve had them for over 2 months now and there is no apparent squaring.
Riding through Tillicoultry the other day I saw a boy on the back of a bike wearing a t-shirt. I instantly wanted to slap the helmet off his head…would’ve been easy as it probably wasn’t fastened. Why bother?
On Sunday for the first time in A G E S me and Em went out on the bike and I cruised. No red liners or the need to go fast. I bumbled along and I felt really relaxed, allowing time to take in what was whizzing past instead of looking for the next point to ATTACK!
We headed over to Stirling via Crook of Devon, Alloa etc and it was great having no agenda, we were just out for a Sunday totter. There was a load of bikers out, all shapes and sizes, sportsbikes, harleys, tourers, trailies.
Em got a new dark visor for her Shark RSi Eden helmet and it looks smart as feck. I’ll post up a picture later.
Saw a Kawasaki 800 Drifter at the weekend and couldn’t help but imagine myself cruising about on one. Sounded beefy and looked like a lazy boy. I don’t know if I’m starting to gravitate towards a more relaxed bike, MT-01 perhaps…can you call the MT-01 relaxed in any shape or form? Maybe not.
I’m going to Tenerrife in November. This may seem like no big deal, but the whole scenario takes on a different meaning when you realise how quickly I burn. I won’t even be off the plane and I’ll be in need of some medical attention. It looks not to hot though in Nov which is a good thing. The place we are going looks fantastic and behind it sits an active volcano, something which I will be heading up. This holiday can’t come soon enough.
British Superbikes come to Knockhill in a week or so, really looking forward to that. Hopefully the weather will remain somewhat dry and we can get some good racing. Last year was quite wet which spoiled a lot of it, but I’ll not forget the demonstration by the rescue helicopter right above us. Amazing.
Anyway,
Thanks to all that have left comments and check out my various links to Flickr and whatnot.
Gordon
p.s. check out the new sticker for my helmet:
Road Rage, the Biker Way!
Yesterday then,
I was heading back home after a days work and I got to the new section of road just before the bridge. I was coming from Edinburgh via the A90 towards the A8000 spur, and there are two lanes. The left is a continuous lane that takes you on to the new 3 lane road to the bridge. The right hand lane merges with the middle of the 3 lanes. In between the continuous lane and the other 2 lanes of the merge is a thick set of chevrons, to keep folk at safe distances I guess, and perhaps offer a route for emergency services to get up. Anyway.
I was in the right hand lane, ready to merge in to the traffice from the middle lane and in front of me was another biker. We were just about to merge when a car to the left of the biker in front who was on the continuous lane, cut across the chevrons and tried to merge on to the two main lanes. The biker, seeing this as totally idiotic and dangerous, waved his disgust at the driver 2 ft from his window. Shaking his head and holding both his hands up in amazement, he continued to watch this car driver drive along the chevrons, waiting for the biker to get out the way.
So now, having established that the car driver was an idiot, the biker accellerated forward to let the car driver in to my lane. I had already merged with the main traffic, but then passed the car driver who looked at me with a glakit expression (Scottish for blank, confused look) and then got on his merry way.
All the while however, the biker who had shown his disgust at this idiot driver, had now accellerated past him, went back on to the chevrons, continued speeding up until he was doing roughly 30-40mph more than the flowing traffic and then cut through all 3 lanes, weaved in and out of the traffic and then he was gone.
I was left thinking that, even though the car driver had done a silly move, the biker thought, “I’ll show him” and proceeded to show off his mad skillz by doing one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen! Similar to my “There’s a reason for all the cliches” post, this guy was a hypocrit in motion.
Why would you show the guy who just made a boo-boo, that he made a bo0-boo, by making a serious boo-boo yourself?
Shades of “That’s not a knife….this is a knife” I feel.
Anyway, I’m glad he got it off his chest!
Gordon
AGV GP-Tech – Updated Neck Roll
Hello all.
I wrote in my AGV GP-Tech Year Update that I loved everything about the helmet but the durability of it left a lot to be desired. I also stated that I got an early model so these issues have more than likely been addressed.
However the neck part of the helmet was really falling apart. It seems now that AGV had a lot of issues with this specific area of the helmet and have thus introduced an upgrade. I would like to apologise before I go any further for the appaling background for these photos. My sofa does look better than it does in these photographs, however the light was failing and I had to use a combo of flash and ceiling lights, making these images a bit crass…anyway.
This is the original neckroll laid on top of the new one (now fitted.) As you can see the original used to have red AGV lettering where the black outline is, and the materials have all started separating where they join each other.
Now not only does the new neck roll have the updated logo, but the areas where the different materials join have been reinforced big licks.
The original as you can see is just butt joints.
The new one has some serious jointage going on here. It makes the whole thing look so much more robust and I am sure it is. I also like the new logo.
It’s amazing that this simple swap out has made my helmet look so much fresher, newer. Aye granted when you turn it back the right way up you see a tonne of flies, blood, chips and dirt, but it looks brand new from the bottom…
Thanks to Chris for providing me with a new one.
I still love my AGV and would say to anyone teetering between this and anything else: GET THE FECKING GP-TECH, because it’s the absolute bomb. XR1000′s, X-Spirits, RSR2′s all have nothing on this helmet for materials, finish and comfort (depending on your headshape)
Every time I put this on, and this is including today, I think aye, this is the sh*t! I caught a glimpse of myself in my mirror when I did a shoulder check on the motorway today and I burst in to a big smile, because ladies and gentlemen, when I wear this helmet I can’t help but look the business. You too can have this, if you would like to pay AGV £400. It’s worth it. Have I bigged this up a bit too much? Who knows.
For those who currently own the GP-Tech (and congratulations to all who do) and you find yourself with a dodgy neck roll, I think I am correct in saying (thanks to Dave King for this heads up) that AGV now offer a free replacement for any neck roll that has fallen apart. So hit up your dealer for a new one.
Thanks for reading all,
Gordon
UPDATE:
Vids from A.S. regarding build quality issues. Pretty worrying considering how expensive this helmet is. However I have yet to encounter the second issue – fuzzballs. My interior of my helmet has remained smooth throughout 15 rigorous months of use in all weather types. I am interested to hear why this has happened. Is stubble the cause? I always wear a Buff around my lower face, even in Summer, so perhaps this is why I am not experiencing fuzz balls, but the back of the neck roll is also fuzzed, which is bizarre…
Suzuki GSR – Just a pain in the ass?
Hey all.
So I got my bike back last Wednesday and for the first 30 minutes of riding it, it felt weird. I had ridden the new (08) SV650 for the past week and had gotten used to the quick steering and fall over cornering. The GSR seemed a bit stiff, a bit like you need to work at it to get it to corner. I didn’t like it.
But then after riding it again on Saturday I was back to knowing my bike and it felt like second nature again. It’s amazing how quickly one can adapt to a different bike so quickly.
I had to go to work on Saturday, but left at mid-day. I had to drop off a package in the middle of the city so after doing that I headed back home through the town. After a bit the bike started to feel really rough, shakey and just not right. I looked at my mirrors when I stopped at a set of lights and it was like I was riding a V-twin! The mirrors were vibrating like nothing I have ever seen on the GSR.
It was then that I looked down at my dials, to see a flashing “121°C” oil temp and the red oil light illuminated. For reference, my bike usually sits around 70-80°C. I immediately thought “Shit, I need to get moving before my bike blows up” and then the lights changed, so I quick shifted to 6th and bumbled along. Thankfully within a couple of seconds the temp started to come down and when it passed 119°C the flashing of the digits stopped and the oil light went out.
Once I got to the dual carriageway the temp came down to around 85ish and my heart slowed slightly. However it wasn’t just this incident, as come Monday it was still pretty warm. Sure enough by the time I got to work the temp had crested 110°C and although the engine didn’t sound or feel like there was anything wrong, I certainly didn’t like it being so high. When I arrived at work I called the garage and they asked me to come in asap. When in the garage on Tuesday I handed the bike over at around 3:15pm, after arranging to be there for 3pm. Howeer I didn’t get my bike back till 5pm leaving me and Em floating about the garage for nearly 2 hours. It was a bit annoying as there aren’t any seats except the wall outside but when I saw this, it made up for it:
I couldn’t believe it when I saw them! The B-King with quad pipes. This is the same bike that had the 2 Brothers Exhausts on it, but man, these things are lovely…but then, after gazing at their titanium stainless steel splendor, your eyes can’t help but fall down on to the white slip of paper that holds the price for them. That’s right folks, you read it correctly: £1615 retail price. It seems no-cheaper with the “Our Price £1000″ because lets face it folks, a grand for a set of cans is pushing it, don’t you think?
(I would still have them though…)
So after I got my bike back, the boy mentioned that my rear-right hand indicator lens was hanging off. We went through to the workshop where my bike was in bits and there it was, hanging off. I never noticed it until this moment, but it was plain as day. Even the rubber seal was hanging out as if it’s intestines were on show.
I got the guy to order me a new one and tape up this one.
Pretty annoying and yet anothing thing to add to the long bill of parts.
Just for you, I now have a picture of the part that was most recently replaced under warranty: the whole crank casing.
That’s a whole lotta metal there folks. This part goes all the way from where the black bit meets the silver bit at the left of the blue arrow, all the way down behind the header pipes at the bottom, all the way behind the big circle at the bottom left. It’s a massive bit, and pretty much the whole engine. All replaced under Suzuki Warranty. Beggards belief that Suzuki don’t think, “hold on, this is the same bike that was in just the other month there…” but hey, as long as it gets fixed.
Well, at least my bike seems to be running ok now and for that I am thankful.
In other news I have been made aware of something called FS365, it looks something like this (taken from www.scottoiler.com)
This stuff you spray on to your bike after a wet ride or in winter and it protects the bits that are cheap and shit from corrosion. It’s a little too late for my bike really, but I will still be investing in some for this coming winter to at least stem the rot.
Rusty.
Anyway,
I have some updates for my AGV GP-Tech and thoughts on my next bike.
Many thanks for all that take the time to write to me and all that visit regularly. I appreciate it all, and I hope that you enjoy what I write and review.
Yours
Gordon
Review: Suzuki Gladius 650 Design
Well then well then.
Whilst at the garage yesterday bumming about I thought I would have a closer look at the various bikes outside in the courtyard. One of which was the new Suzuki Gladius 650, which seems to be the replacement for the much loved/hated SV650.
I didn’t ride it though, so this is purely a visual review and observations.
The new Suzuki Gladius. It's definitely for girls.
So what is this bike all about. Well I think this is the bike that will attempt to lure more women to biking, which is made very obvious by the inclusion of a pink and white colour scheme for the Gladius. It’s a little bit sickly for me but:
(Image taken from http://www.suzuki-gb.co.uk/bike/sfv650k9/)
The ones they have at the garage are Blue and White and Green and Black (my favourite).
Gladius 650 in Blue & White
Autoglym Clean Wheels. The best for the worst.
Right.
Today I cleaned my bike so it was clean enough to eat your dinner off it…except for the rusty bits…anyway,
I clean my bike religiously but I often clean the wheels enough so that most of the muck is off. I guess I just got fed up with the winter hash being all over them and got bored with the elbow work.
Well today I thought that it was high time that I restored them to shiny lovelyness. And to do this I opted for the tried and tested easy-most-definitely-better way of doing it. I bought myself a brand new bottle of Autoglyms Clean Wheels.
Now for those who spend possible hours gubbing away at your rims only to find you’ve just smeared the chain fling around then this is for you. You basically spray this liquid acid on your alloys and let it sit for 1 minute. Then you get your sponge and wipe the stuff off…that’s it.
I lie.
That isn’t it, because today after 2 months of “That’ll do” rim cleaning, the first pass didn’t take off a few patches of stubborn crap. So I sprayed the bits again, and left it for an extra minute.
B L I N G
That’s all I have to say about that.
If you want the easiest and best way to clean your wheels of all chain fling and dirt, then get yourself a £7 bottle of this stuff. It’s the BUSINESS.
Thanks for reading,
Gordon
Suzuki GSR600s K7 – The Big Review
Hello.
This post would have been done a looong time ago had it not been for my bike breaking so much, so apologies for that.
It has been more than a year now of owning the Suzuki GSR600 and I am about to review it. It won’t be positive in any sense of the word so if you are in a good mood, please navigate to another post on YamYam until you are angry enough.
I guess I’ll start from the start then.
I bought my GSR600s K7 in January of 2008, it was my 4th bike and the last chance of a bike for the next couple of years. I had a Yamaha MT-03 (which melted), a Buell XB12Ss Lightning which costed £2000 for insurance and a Kawasaki ER-6n which was crap and I crashed it and then sold it. The GSR was the bike that I had to get on with as I wasn’t able to afford anything else.
Brand Spanking New.
Blair had one since November 2007 and after having a sit on it and seeing it going etc etc I liked it. I had never had an in-line-4 and had never had access to these kinds of rev’s so was looking forward to it…actually the only thing I haven’t had is a triple.I picked up my bike on the 24th of January 2008 and it felt good. The ER-6n was away and stability was finally here. And it stayed that way for 3 months.
The first thing to go was the electrics. And when I say the electrics I mean the whole thing. The garage replaced the whole wiring loom after a week of diagnostics turning up nothing. It was highly frustrating as we had booked our Scotland Tour for the end of May and I didn’t want anything to stop us from going.
Turns out that they couldn’t find out what the problem was but it was working now and I was happy. If I remember correctly the warranty bill came to something like £600 odd.
Debugging
A couple of months later my bike suddenly failed to start. After many attempts at the house to start it I was off, however on the return trip from work that evening I went to the petrol BP at the Forth Road Bridge and it wouldn’t start for love nor money. After half an hour of attempts it fired up and all was ok for the rest of the week. But then it totally failed to start and it was buggered. After another few days of non-biking bus journey to work the garage had fixed it, with a dirty starter coil or something like that the issue.
My bike then developed a knocking when accelerating in 6th. It wasn’t any other gear, just 6th. As you twisted the throttle I could feel through the pegs a “knock knock knock knock” which sped up as I accelerated. This grew over time in to a knocking at all revs and gears.
My indicators also broke but strangely started flashing really fast. A new indicator relay fixed this. An annoying trait started to appear as well with the mechanic at the garage. He was completely unable to fit my indicator pods back on properly, leaving a huge gaping hole between my tank and the indicator pods. Hair pullingly annoying to say the least.
The knocking became so loud that I had to do something about it. I bought a new Renthal chain/sprocket kit and got it fitted. Turns out my chain was totally feckered and my sprocket had 3-4 teeth missing. Problem solved and the shitty GSR stock drive system was OUT.
Whilst this problem seemed to have been solved, another problem was rearing it’s ugly head. The throttle.
Now I was fully aware of the throttle issues with the GSR and how it lurched forward and back when you accelerated/decelerated, but this was different. The throttle was sticking and I had to force it open and closed if I wanted to get anywhere. This was crap for a few reasons, the first of which was that it’s really unsafe to have to shut the throttle off manually whilst trying to slow down. A number of times I found myself having to brake harder to try and overcome the throttle being slightly open. Also when I am changing gear, the throttle will stick open and rev the bike to 8-9000 revs, which is shit if you are trying to be smooth.
After months of putting up with it I took it to the garage. A week and a half later the bike was fixed. The throttle bodies were siezed, making the butterfly’s stick open. This accounted for the need to force the throttle open and shut and after they were lubed/released the bike was running sweet. This also solved a problem with the bike cutting out in the morning. I would start the bike, let it warm up and then start off to work. I would get to the bottom of the road and change down the gears only for the bike to cut out. I would then have to restart the bike whilst still on the move. I had a suspicion this was to do with the idle speed and I was right.
How my GSR looks now, 2009
The brake switch in my front brake lever broke as well, rendering cars behind me oblivious to my slowing down. The back brake pedal had siezed up due to excessive lack of brake pad so I only had my front. This was replaced under warranty.
January 2009 saw me falling off my bike in the office carpark. This would have been a minor spill had it not been for the engine casings on my bike being corroded. And it was on both sides, and it was leaking oil. The first was fixed under my dollar, but the second corroded engine casing was a warranty job. The spill damage (rear brake lever, engine casing) as well as a 16k service came to £580, which was irritating as the only reasoon I fell off was because the office had left the entrance to the carpark un-gritted. There was not a sausage I could to to stop my front folding from underneath me.
How my GSR looks now, 2009 - The new non-corroded engine casing.
The rear left hand pillion footpeg mount then suspiciously cracked. It’s bizarre but the bottom of the casing has a big crack along it. I thought it would be covered under warranty but no it aint. £160 for that to be replaced by me and Em can’t get on it until a week today. What with the excellent spring weather we are having at the minute, this is a major annoyance.
How my GSR looks now, 2009 - Rusty. F*cking Rusty.
The finish on my right hand mirror is gone. This is frustrating but will be replaced under warranty with some K8 mirrors, which anyone who rides a GSR can do. There is a deal at the minute whereby anyone who has a GSR can get their mirrors swapped under warranty due to excessive vibration. I never use my mirrors for anything but seeing what’s directly behind me, so I wasn’t bothered. However for those who like to look at themselves or read the car numberplate behind them, this seemed to be a reason to get on to Suzuki. I can think of a few more important issues that they could attend to first though.
How my GSR looks now, 2009 - The frame saving R&G Crash Mushroom. Cheers!
And to top off all of this, the throttle issue returned. There seems to be a pattern of things happening twice, but this time it was the throttle shafts not being lubricated enough and now that they are, the problem is fixed.
How my GSR looks now, 2009 - Aye...build quality is an issue folks.
The real bone of contention for me is the crazy lack of durability with anything on this bike. It’s like the boy in the garage said, “They give you the bike for free and then rob you for parts” and I have to agree. I am a guy who takes pride in the finish of his bike and to see the paint falling off, rusting, flaking, cracking, badly designed parts on my GSR is a major issue. My rearsets are totally wasted with the paint finish blowing off with the wind to leave a nice fresh bit of metal to rust up.
How my GSR looks now, 2009 - Cracked footpeg, conveniently held up with a zip-tie.
I ride my bike 5 days during the week and then when it’s nice, some weekends. I try to wash it every weekend and when I don’t, it’s the 2nd weekend. A bike shouldn’t be this easy to ruin and a bike certainly shouldn’t be so easy to break.
How my GSR looks now, 2009
That’s the negative out the way, and when I say negative I mean in excess of £1500 worth of warranty and non-warranty negativeness.
How my GSR looks now, 2009
So now after I have stated all the problems I have had with the GSR, where does that leave me? Well to be honest I like my GSR. If you ignore all the issues the GSR is a nice bike. The throttle issue can be worked around but now and again still catches you out.
The looks of the GSR are still one of the reasons I love it. It’s quite unique and still get’s a lot of attention, but I suspect it’s people thinking it’s the B-King and not the GSR.
How my GSR looks now, 2009
The power of the GSR still makes me smile with the bike really coming alive after 9k all the way up to the redline at 13.5k. The roll on speed at 70mph is brilliant and leaves nothing to be desired for motorway duties, with low speed stability and controlability superb, so long as you use a good helping of back brake at 3-4mph.
The running costs of the bike are pretty good. I pay circa £224 a month for everything, bike £80, insurance £30, petrol £110 (varies), tax £48 (yearly) so this is a big positive.
The time saved in rush hour alone is enough to justify the expense on parts braking and consumables like tyres and services. I can’t really picture what it would be like commuting to Edinburgh in a car. I would have to leave at day break and get home at sunset and this would drive me mad. With a bike I get up and out to work in 20 minutes and am in the office 40 minutes later. The return is pretty much the same and there is absolutely no waiting in queues at all.
Also as a point in favour of the GSR: It took me and Em around Scotland, laden with luggage, camera gear, sweets and maps unflinchingly easy, and gave us the best time on my GSR, including some sweet handling, power and lack of fuss that we would have wanted. This was a big ask of the GSR and it didn’t even break sweat. Thankfully…
So in summary then, how has the GSR performed over the last year/16,000 miles?
Let us not forget first and foremost that the Suzuki GSR600 is a relatively cheap JAPANESE motorcycle. The finish on the parts is to a budget and it almost certainly, everywhere, shows. With exception to the wheels and handlebar, there is not a part on my bike that isn’t rusted or showing signs of deterioration, whether it be finish flaking off or just turning nasty due to cheapness of material.
There are a number of design touches that are completely stupid and worth slapping the designer over the face for. First is the rearset, which is a cast block of metal. This block holds both sets of pegs and the finish on it is a very nice easy scratch silver paint. If you happen to snap a peg mount point, you have to replace the whole damn thing.
The next is the seat, which is paper thin exactly where your bits naturally sit when you are on the bike. After prolonged periods on the road or if you wear thinner trousers, this can be excruciating very quickly. Not only is the seat thin, but it’s also angled such that your body slides forward in to the tank at the whiff of slowing down. A bit of a flatter angle on the seat would irradicate both problems.
The clutch cable obstructs the temp gauge on the dash. This isn’t so crucial but is annoying.
The clock pod vibrates at exactly 6000rpm and it’s LOUD AND VERY ANNOYING. Something has broken off inside this part and is causing it to vibrate, but I haven’t hit it with anything or tampered with it at all, so there’s obviously an inner stress within this part that fails whenever a mildly big bump is hit.
The throttle issue is something that I knew about and folk who know what a GSR is know about. The fix (looking at the GSR forum) is the throttle position sensor being manually set in the build stage of the bike to a preset place. If you get your bike apart and override this setting by adjusting the position of a lever, the bike runs fine. How Suzuki couldn’t advise their garages to fix this themselves to eradicat this highly irritating and potentially dangerous issue is beyond me.
Ridden 50%, broken 50%
Well, there you go. The GSR is a decent bike let down by STUPID build quality issues and a severe lack of durability to their parts. When I am due for a new bike I wont be looking to Japan for my new metal, I will be looking to either Austria, Germany or Italy…although I am sure I said that if you want a cheap bike you need to look no-where else but Japan….who knows. One things for sure, Suzuki really have something to answer for with the GSR and it seems that when Suzuki released the GSR to the world, the didn’t expect anyone to actually ride it that much. For example Blair’s bike has 4,000 miles on it in a year and a half, and it still looks fresh as a daisy. I’m hitting 17,000 in a year and it looks like a pile of rusty ming. I dont want to even think what it’ll be like this time next year…oh dear.
AGV GP-Tech Year Update
Well well well.
Yet again this post has nothing to do with my GSR as I had promised, again…
The reason is that it broke again just before the weekend there, so that’s being added in to the mix. Anyway, in the meantime I thought I would update you all on how the GP-Tech is performing after a year of every day use. The polls are in and it is as thus….
Not so fresh as a daisy, more like a stale egg...
White helmets are good for a few reasons. Firstly they are bright, allowing traffic around a small glimpse of a white ball moving around in their mirror, thus attracting attention to yourself. Secondly white makes for a really smart looking helmet, although I would extend this no further than the GP-Tech and perhaps 1 or 2 other helmets. Lastly white shows up the dirt easy to it’s a cinch to clean. However this last point is also a negative, as the dirt on this helmet is easy to see. It’s ok once you clean it off the easy parts, but all the grooves and holes trap the dirt and make it nigh on impossible to get to. This means that you have a constantly dirty looking helmet which can be annoying.
Dirt in the grooves means annoyance...
Comfort levels on this helmet are still fantastic, even more so now that the interior has moulded itself perfectly to my head. The addition of the foam strip under the roof of the helmet is still the original and it’s still making the helmet sit perfectly on my head, as if you remember I mentioned that the GP-Tech sits naturally low on the head.
Finish on this helmet is a bit of a downfall to be honest. I will say again that I got one of the first batch of these so perhaps the finishes have improved now but if I had spent £400 on this helmet I would not be impressed. So far the front vents have fell off, the buckle pull has ripped off, the visor latch is not snug meaning rattly visors when up, the badges fell off the neck curtains and now the materials are separating from each other at the back of the helmet.
The build quality is tearing me apart. That was shit, sorry.
It’s a shame as this helmet in my opinion is the best helmet around at the minute in terms of comfort, ventilation, safety and looks. It’s the best, end of. But the niggling build quality issues take some points from what is a 10/10 helmet.
Don’t get the wrong idea though as I wont ever be going back to my Shoei XR-1000. The build quality of the GP may be falling apart, but in terms of finish, the GP is streaks ahead of Shoei. The blend of velvet, perforated and smooth materials are sublime and the attention to detail is superb.
So that’s that. But I have one more thing to say and it’s the same old problem. The visor. I have gone over the reasons that it’s crap, mainly fogging/misting issues, and I stand by that if AGV were to get Pinlock or Fog City involved in their helmets they would sweep the floor…thoroughly. It’s crying out for it, and although I have been informed that AGV think their “Anti-Fog” coatings work fine, I don’t believe they are testing them in the conditions that cause the issues. Yeah in Italy they have rain, but it’s a damn sight different in Fife than it is at AGV HQ in Valenza, weather tunnel or not.
What they need to do is send their designers over here for a few weeks in December/January and I guarantee they’ll get far more information that they can utilise in their helmet designs.
Anyway after all that is said and done, I still love this helmet and it’s gave me nothing but a reliable, comfortable safe environment for my head. Once this helmet falls apart to the point of non-use, I will definitely seek another one immediately.
I love my AGV and there's no denying it, it's still feckin smart.
The GSR yearly update will commence very soon, after I have resolved the issues that happened at the weekend. It’s not looking any better I can tell you that.
Thanks for the visits all and sorry about the lack of images over the past few months. My camera has been out of commission (my small pocket one.)
Cheers
Gordon
EDIT:
Just a quick image to show what it looks like on my head.
The Summer Luvvies are BACK…
…and I’m annoyed.
Well hello folks, it has been a very frustrating 2 weeks in YY’s life. But hey, whatever.
The summer luvvies are back, resplendant in full race leather, knee sliders ‘n all and it’s havoc! This morning I finally got my bike back and I was up in good time to get going (instead of waking up and getting out the door in 10 minutes.)
It was still quite cold today, a temperature that made me swither on wearing my summer gloves, but I opted for my winters, which was a good choice. As I was cruising along the motorway a guy on an old Kawasaki (i think) went shooting past me wearing a leather jacket, cream jeans and some Timberland boots.
Reaching the city another guy with pillion went weaving through the traffic at high speed, not even flinching as he flew past a bike cop.
It’s been so quiet for the past 3 months and I miss it. I miss seeing the regulars and us both enjoying the fact that we were among relatively few (out of the whole biking frat) that were out in winter weather. Anyway, it’s all good.
The spring is arriving and it’s feeling milder, considering it was only 2 weeks ago I dropped my bike in snow and ice. The sun is out most days and I am loving it.
Bike has been fixed after the small spill.
So the 16k service was done, complete with a new set of brake pads front and back.
A new air filter was fitted and the spill damage was repaired; a new engine case/seal/bolts, new rear brake pedal. Then I got a call last minute to say my valves need shimmed, which would take a wee bit longer.
The bike was ready last night, having been road tested and cleaned (which was great as it looked ace) and the bill came to circa £580. I have gotten used to this figure so don’t flinch when I see it, but when I first was told I almost ate my phone. This biking lark is expensive! haha.
The bike feels great, really solid again. It’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to failing mechanics. It’s like the short story “The Machine Stops” where the machine starts to fail, but they find ways to adapt to it’s failings and make do. That is until it gets ridiculous and the machine fails.
I think it’s safe to say that riding with brakes on the steel is a wee bit harder than riding with new brake pads.
Anyway, biking is ace, and I would never change it for anything. 16,000 miles and counting. I promised you a review of the GSR and that will be the next outing.
Thanks for reading guys, (and girls)
Gordon
January 2009…what happened?
January 2009
Good evening all, it is a cold Sunday night here in Scotland and I have just realised how long I have left it since posting.
My January this year wasn’t the action packed January like last year. No sir, this Janauary consisted mainly of riding to and from work. That’s it.
As far as biking goes, this is as routine as it comes. Yeah there was numerous stupid car driver fuelled moments and a lot of lonely rides in the bogging Scottish winter weather.
My favourite moment from Jan 2009 was when someone pulled out in front of a guy on a beemer Long Way Whatever. I watched as the guy then peeped his horn, raced along side the driver’s window and proceeded to pound on it in frustration. It was a spectacle and something which I found highly amusing. I could also hear some expletives being launched from within his helmet. Brilliant.
We had some snow here over the past 2 weeks and for most the snow had little or no impact. When I say most, I mean people who actually have a grip of themselves. There were people flailing about whining that they can’t get to work and blah blah. Every day I went out in -1°C, -5°C and swept the snow off my bike. I then started my bike and then got on my bike. I then wheelspun out of my housing estate and then wheelspun on to the motorway. I then rode my bike to work and back again. Most people called me a psycho, whilst I called myself a non-panic merchant. I found it fine riding in snow. I found that although it was at times trecherous, as long as I approached the situation sensibly, I was ok.
Well there wasn’t a better way to approach the weather last week. And my story starts thus:
Thursday last week I headed to work in the snow like I had done for a few weeks. I got on the motorway and it was snowing heavy. I then got all the way through the rush hour traffic and roadworks, through some idiotic moves from car drivers playing with satnav and mobiles, some thinking about work and some just sleeping. I got to my work’s street, which is cobbled and the back wheel was loosing traction like mad, so I slowed down to below walking pace, say 3-4mph and kept it in 2nd to try and get some traction. Then as I went over the entrance to my office car park, which happens to be downhill, my front folded and down I went.
Now there wasn’t a whiff of brake, nor a whiff of anything else. As soon as I touched the slush on this slope there was absolutely nothing I could have done. And what’s the most annoying thing? It should have been gritted.
As I fell it felt familar, something which only people who have fallen off their bike can understand, and I shouted “why isn’t this f*cking gritted?”
Well not a moment had passed and a guy from my work had appeared from the garage saying he had heard me fall off. He also said that his car had been all over the place too and was angry that it wasn’t gritted. He gave me a hand up and off I went in to the garage pushing my bike along, although it was sliding still under no engine momentum whatsoever. It gives a wee idea of how slippy it was.
In to the dry garage I stopped and surveyed the damage; broken rear brake pedal (obviously. These things are meant to break…) a scuffed engine casing and crash mushroom was filed away flat. Luckily because I fell on a downslope, the crash mushroom protected the bars from coming in to contact with the ground, so they were fine, as was my bodywork.
I tried to start the engine and after a bit of trying it started fine. It was showing FI but I turned the ignition on and off and it started ok. I then rode it and parked it up.
During that day I went back out and noticed that my bike was leaking oil from my scuffed engine case. There was a bolt loose enough to turn by hand and this was where the pil was coming from. I went inside and called Stuart, from Jacksons Bikes. He suggested tightening the bolt and warming the engine up to put the engine under pressure and see if there was oil spurting out. If there wasn’t I could ride it to his garage. If there was, it was goosed. Luckily the bolt tightened up fine and there wasn’t any oil.
The ride home was interesting though as I crapped myself incase the engine casing burst off the side of the bike, thus throwing oil on to my back tyre throwing me in to a housing estate or field…but I was ok and got to the garage fine.
After riding the bike in to Stuarts new bike garage wing he surveyed the damage saying that he thinks it’s just a case of rear brake pedal replacement and that’s it. My 16,000 mile service was due so I said just to get that done whilst the bike was here and also replace the brake pads after Stuart had mentioned it the last time.
“You’re mental. Riding in this!” He had a look at the back and muttered “That’s down to the steel…” had a look at the front and “…yep, they’re pretty much the same!…how do you stop!!?”
“It’s an issue”
So we agreed on what needed to be done and off I went happy that my bike was in safe hands.
Voila! My January was complete and February is already half way through, which is ridiculous. My weeks have been flying by (hence the reason I never realised how long it has been) and I am getting the bus to work tomorrow, something which annoys me. On Friday there I was sitting in front of some greasy bank exec type who had serious fag and tea morning mouth and kept sighing, which sent all his faggy tea breath over in to my seat. Lovely. Then some youngster sat in front of me, doused in some sweet smelling aftershave which added a sickly twist to the atmosphere. This is why I hate public transport.
I can’t wait for the spring and it seems to be coming through now. It’s to be mild this week and I can hopefully get my bike back before I poke my eyes out on the bus.
I have had the GSR a year now, so I’m going to post up a yearly review of it. Stay tuned for the relatively small good points and the overwhelmingly regular bad points…it’s not going to be pretty…
Thanks for the regular interest all, I know how lucky I am.
Send me a message if you can, I’ll reply to every single one.
All the best,
Gordon
p.s. 15,500 miles this year. It seems to be flattening out a bit, but that now makes my overall bike mileage well over 33,000 in 2 years. Oh and recent news of bike air bag jackets will be covered soon too…grrr.
I’m still alive!
Hello!
Happy New Year!! HA! 22 days late but hey, what can you do.
I am extremely sorry for all my fellow bikers for the complete neglect that I have shown for the past month. There really is no excuse and I apologise sincerely.
So what have I been up to for the past month then?
Well Christmas was a good relaxing time off. I didn’t use my bike at all! Along with the usual lazing about I also went walking up a Munro with my Dad, Brother and his girlfriends Dad. It was phenomenal being above the clouds in unspoilt air.
Back to work on the 2nd which was crap.
The GSR has has lots of problems over the past month. The first of which was the chain which was sorted before Christmas. That’s been great and there’s no problems now.
However there was still the issue with the sticky throttle. Basically when I rolled off the throttle the rev’s would either climb to 6-7k or just die to below idle. When I started my bike the engine would just rev up and sit at 7ooorpm. It was like the throttle cable was stuck. There was an “edge” where you would twist the throttle and nothing would happen, but then you would force it over this edge and it would rev like mad without you touching it.
Very annoying and extremely dangerous, especially as it was essentially an uncontrollable cruise control. I had to constantly force the throttle back, i.e. in to negative throttle to keep the revs down or to slow down.
Anyway,
I dropped it in to the garage and the morning of the garage drop off I noticed that my front brake wasn’t illuminating the brake lights. The back brake was but the front wasn’t. So I got to the garage on the Saturday and dropped the bike off, picking up a Suzuki SV650 in bright Yellow.
I was told the bike would be ready later on that day and off I went. Usually when I get a SV I can’t wait to give it back but this one was somehow different. The bars were lower for a start and the tyres seemed to offer a more progressive lean, instead of the usual turn in turn in flop style of 160 rears.
I love the sound as always with a twin and the instant power was good, although overtaking was a struggle.
Saturday evening came and I had a call from Suzuki saying that they couldn’t find out what was wrong with it, having checked the throttle cable and throttle tube etc so were having to look deeper in to the engine. Should be ready Monday or Tuesday.
Oh dear.
Monday came and the bike was ready to go, with seized throttle bodies the cause. Basically the things that control the butterfly valves was sticking and this is the reason I had to force the throttle back to close them. This also explains the funny lip that I had to get over in order to accellerate.
So that was that, and then I asked if it was covered under warranty, which I assumed it would be. They didn’t know and had to go off and email Suzuki.
3 days later I called the garage and it was covered by the warranty which was great! So I went in on the following Saturday to pick my bike up.
Sitting on my bike again was weird. I had become used to the lower bars on the SV along with the pretty good brakes. I now realised just how bad my brakes had faded, I desperately need new brake pads. I also noticed how high my bars are and how upright I sit. I feel less comfortable now for some reason.
I do however, love having the extra power back, along with the marginally more comfortable seat than the SV’s wafer.
When I started to ride off from the garage I put my right foot down on the brake only to have no movement at all from the brake lever. I stopped and tried to loosen it but it didn’t move. It wasn’t enageged but it wasnt moving either so I dont know what the deal is. I remember Stuart (Jackson) mentioning to me that my back brake pad was almost spent, so to think about replacing it soon. I might call him up and get him to fit some new ones for me.
So really that’s about it as far as my bike goes. The GSR is still going strong and after nearly a year of ownership I have crested the 15,000 mile hill. Next service is at 16,000 which will be mid February.
The weather in Scotland has been SHIT. Icy, rainy, windy…it’s all happening in January. It was over a year ago now that I had my accident on the Kawasaki and it was around this time that I did it. Hopefully I can remain crash free on my GSR!
I am looking forward to the warmth of Spring arriving so I can stop wearing 4 layers.
My AGV is starting to fall apart, so I will update that soon.
Thanks for the comments all and please do keep visiting. I am still getting back in to things after Christmas and New Year so posting will increase.
Hope you are all well,
Gordon
———-
Please visit www.gordonfraserphotography.com to check out what I do when I am not riding my motorcycle.
Running snow and Renthal Sprockets
Hello all,
It has been ridiculously cold here in Scotland the past few days, in fact it’s now probably a week. My Klan heated gloves have stopped working and there’s really no point in having the inners on anyway. I can either have frozen fingers and no feel, or have frozen fingers and keep from doing a redline rumble everytime I change gear.
So thats good.
Then this morning I woke up to this:
It's going to be cold today
Cold bums today then. And I needed petrol too. So I went out and checked if I needed to de-freeze my petrol cap, as usually I forget to do this and get to the garage only to find, ach, no. But today it was fine! So I sweeped the snow off my feet, and on I got. It’s not so difficult this riding-in-snow lark. As long as you take it easy and try your best to not get your knee down…
It was a pretty chilly ride in and the AGV seems to be pretty good at channelling most of that -26*c windchill directly at your forehead. The usual crappy visor mist problems occurred and the roads are mega dirty at the minute so the visibility was bad.
I am fed up with this chain.
At the weekend I cleaned my bike thoroughly (first time in 2 weeks 
) and gave the chain a good seeing to after some serious knocking going on. Then I checked the tension…oh dear.
It’s got so much play in it that I could touch the swing arm with the chain. Then I check the tension over the rear sprocket, and I could take the chain away from it around 2-3mm… So I need to adjust my chain. But the only torque wrench we could find on Sunday was a £59 Halfords special and we (Blair and I) didn’t want to part with that much moolah.
Fearing that my chain was on the way out, I purchased a Renthal Final Drive kit, for £119 @ Sportsbikeshop. It arrived today.
Renthal Final Drive Kit
Contents: Tsubaki Alpha Chain, Renthal front and rear sprockets
The front sprocket...steel
we're talkin' bling here folks
So it looks pretty good. I think my justification is that I would probably have to pay to get the chain adjusted, so instead of just getting that done, I’ll just replace the whole thing and hopefully the mystery knocking will cease as well. Plus, I will now have a gold chain and sort of gold looking sprocket. which is ace…its not? oh well.
My next service is at 16,000 miles so I still have 2k to go, and I aint waiting till then to get this fixed.
A guy on the GSR forum has apparently found a cure for the GSR’s snatchy throttle. It consists of adjusting the TPS (Throttle position sensor) and it fiddles with the voltage that controls the ECU, which in turn can be exploited to trick the computer in to thinking that the throttle remains open therefor, not cutting the fuel which leads to the GSR’s snatchy re-entry of throttle.
OOO
The bad news for us all is that it requires a tank/airbox/other really important bits to be removed and then some other really important bits to be removed before you arrive at the TPS. It’s not over then as you now have to configure the TPS by hand…
I guess I’ll print it out and hand it to the garage! haha
Right, well it’s bloody freezing in my “computer room” which is a cupboard under the stairs…so I am signing out.
Hope you are all well,
Thanks for stopping by
Gordon
24, it’s the magic number.
“Compared with wearing a black helmet, use of a white helmet was associated with a 24% lower risk”
Like a big round beacon of white light.
That’s some statement there. It’s taken from a British Medical Journal paper, titled
“Motorcycle rider conspicuity and crash related injury: case-control study”
It’s by a bunch of people who studied the effect of wearing hi-vis clothing compared to dark clothing with relation to accidents. It’s pretty interesting reading actually, and they discover a lot of facts and figures about how wearing hi-vis clothing and brighter clothing makes you stand out more from the background thus making you more noticeable.
Check it out here if you fancy educating yourself.
On the subject of safety, I made an observation tonight, and take from it what you want. I was cruising at 75mph and as always there were people going very much faster, around 90-100mph. There was 6-7 of these drivers tonight and all were female drivers, most with either a baby seat or obvious signs of children. To contrast this, there was a number of times I had to overtake slower cars and every single one was either a young guy or a really old guy.
If you fancy a decent read of a website, including tips to stay safe when riding, check this website out:
http://bmwdean.home.att.net/index.html
It also has a wee story about the guy who has done over 1.4 million miles on a BMW. That’s loyalty for you.
Ride safe all,
Thanks for looking,
Gordon
Review: Puma Brutale Gore-Tex Boots
Wow! A lot of posts today. I guess I missed you all.
Next up then is the boot that could have been so good. But wasn’t. It’s the good looking and brilliantly named Puma Brutale Gore-Tex boot.
Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
If you remember why I was looking for new boots, you’ll remember what sort of standard I was looking to match. I have a pair of Puma Desmo summer boots and I absolutely fecking love them. They are brilliant whatever way you look at them. So when I needed new winter boots, I looked instantly to Puma.
I thought that I should try not to get the Desmo 800 Gore-Tex version and instead look to see what else Puma do, alas the Brutale arrived.
Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
I liked the look of the Brutale and it was a little simpler than the Desmo, which suited me just fine! The requirements were Gore-Tex, comfort and looks, the Brutale seemed like the perfect boot.
Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
As with all Puma stuff, the boot is fantastically designed, with superb design flairs. The heel is made of a reinforced metal and offers good impact protection. There is rubber around the shin bone and is in a similar pattern to the sole.
You can’t really make it out from the pictures but the leather is actually a blue-ish colour. This was a negative for me because I liked the promo images of the blue flashes with black leather.
Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
Never mind. What did they feel like? Well you would think that with the Desmo being such a comfortable boot that this one would be of the same slipper like fit.
The sad answer is no. When I put these boots on, initially the zipper got stuck and I couldn’t get them off again! But apart from that, the heel was a total nightmare. Really sore and clamping on my heel bones.
The boot also felt really stiff. Not much flexibility at all in the joints, especially when the Desmos are so flexible.
- Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
These boots do have Gore-Tex but I didn’t get to try it out as I sent them back immediately.
- Puma Brutale Gore-Tex
So I sent them back. It’s a shame because they had so much promise but I was honestly quite disappointed with them. They were £30 cheaper than the Desmo 800 GTX boots and you can see why
Conclusion? Well these boots look smart and are available in Black and Copper, Black and Black or “Black” and Blue, my ones. So perhaps if I gave them a bit of a chance to break in (and break my heel at the same time) they may have been ok. However I am not that guy unfortunately and know what I could have with the Desmos. These are decent boots regardless and well worth the money even for the build quality alone.
Next up, a quick review of the boots I did get; Puma Desmo 800 GTX! And as you guessed, I fecking love them!
Thanks for looking,
Gordon
