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
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
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
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!
Bennetts British Superbikes @ Knockhill
Just a quick picture post of YamYam @ the BSB practice session today. It was miserable weather and it was ace.
A bigger post tomorrow after the big event. Enjoy.
09-08-08 Knockhill Free Practice/Qualifying
To see all the pictures from the Knockhill BSB Saturday Practice, click here
Holey Moley: Alpinestars Effex Gore-Tex “Final Review”
Wow, what a bum of a week.
The weather has been miserable. Someone at work said the other day, “did you come in on your bike?” and I said, “Yeah?” She looked a bit confused and continued, “is it not really difficult in these conditions?” “Yeah it is but you choose your own path I guess.”
And I wouldn’t change it for anything. I love my bike and I knew when I signed up for this what the negatives would be. I like being able to miss out on the queue on the way to work. I like not having to worry about it. I like being able to sleep longer in the morning because I don’t have to beat the queues.
So yeah, it is difficult and I do end up soaking through, and at the time I think, “this is shit” but then I remember why I do it and it’s ok.
Anyway, this week is over and in a special way. It’s the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th millenium year, 08-08-08. This will NEVER happen again until…actually I dont know when. What happens when we get to 2100? What do we call it? 00? 100?
Oh well.
The news
My boots, my brilliant Alpinestars boots have broke. I am devestated. These were the boots that were with me from the start. The beginning of YamYam. And now they have big holes in them. My camera is dead so I will post pics up when I get home, but there is one great big hole in the sole of the boot and another where the shift patch has worn through. These boots have kept me dry for….well over 600 days of sun, rain, wind, ice, snow, poo, sand, walking to the shops, cleaning my bike in and digging holes in the garden. They were mine. Moulded to my exact foot shape and I knew they were brilliant because I never thought about them. I guess that’s when you know your gear is good, when you don’t notice it. But now the impenetrable Gore-Tex forcefield has been rendered totally useless with 2 great big holes in it. Oh well 
What they arrived like:
Taken from Alpinestars official site
And this is what they departed like:
Used and abused
Shift patch is worn through
Holey Moley in the bottom of the boot
These boots, for £118 or whatever I purchsed them for, are pretty much bullet proof. They offer superior comfort, water proofing, looks, durability. Yeah they dont have much protection or plastic bits but they are a great commuting boot and absolutely perfect for what I needed them for.
This will be the “Final Review,” the first one ever on YamYam, and it’s really sad that these are gone.
A lot of you may be reading this and thinking, “He’s a bit sad to be so upset about a pair of boots!” And you are right. But when these boots have taken you through 4 countries, every single weather condition imaginable, 2 accidents, cleaning my last 4 bikes every weekend and walking up to the shops in them when it’s been raining (which in Scotland is quite a lot) you can start to hopefully see why I am so attached to them.
So anyway,
I should just get another pair right? Well no. I know it’s silly as I would have another pair of these in a second, but I fancy a change.
I am not straying too far from what I am used to though.
May I present my new choice of mega boot:
Image taken from www.gearzone.fi (Google Image search)
So when thinking about replacements for my absolutely brilliant Alpinestars Effex Gore-Tex boots I summed up what I wanted.
I wanted a comfortable, warm, waterproof, durable boot with improvements over the A-Stars boot, namely the shift patch and the sole.
As you know, I bought the Puma Desmo 800′s a while back and I absolutely love them. I actually thought I purchased the Gore-Tex version but sadly I was cheated. Never the less, they are a great warm/dry weather boot and supremely comfortable. So instead of NOW getting the Desmo 800 Gore-Tex version, I had a wee browse of the other Puma boots.
I think I actually saw the Brutale’s in Hein Gericke when I nipped along at lunch one day and they were £120 for the Gore-Tex version. I wanted to buy them right there and then but at that time my Alpinestars were fine.
The Brutales are nice, they look similar to my Desmo’s but come in black with a black velvety swoosh and black metal bit at the back, black boot with blue bits or brown boot with copper bits.
If they had a black boot with copper version I would have bought them, but I dont want a brown boot so went for the blue to differ from my Desmos.
So yeah!
If I am being honest I actually have a pair of the Brutales right now. This is because I ordered the non-Gore-Tex version (again) but have spoken to J&S and they are sending out the Gore-Tex ones to swap.
So instead of posting up the review now, I will wait to give them the usual in depth YamYam treatment.
I am really excited about them. Puma make some of the comfiest boots you can wear and that’s some achievement given my Effex comfort levels were 10/10.
I hope that they are good. I hope that they perform well for the coming 20 months or longer. One things for sure, the Brutale’s have a big boots to fill.
Thanks for visiting folks,
Gordon
Quick Update: AGV GP-Tech Helmet
Quick update here folks.
I have had a lot of emails about my GP-Tech and my experiences with it. I have been asked if it’s worth it, is it a nice helmet, what size should I get?
I think it’s time that I gave an update of how I feel about the whole thing.
AGV GP-Tech: Aye or Nae
Well lets start off with the most obvious question: Would I buy one again?
The answer is yes and the reasons are thus. I didn’t buy this helmet, it was given to me just as the GP-Tech version was released. This leads me to believe that I have one of the first batch of GP-Techs and therfore the problems that I have had with it are surely down to teething problems. So on that basis, hell yeah I would buy one.
This helmet is the best of what a helmet should be; comfortable, good fitting, well constructed, well detailed, great ventilation, good sound proofing. It’s a smart ass helmet as well, which counts for a lot.
It costs an arm and a leg to purchase this helmet, so on the financial basis, no I wouldn’t buy it because I couldn’t!
Next, What is the ventilation like? Is it better than a Shoei X-Spirit?
I dont know because I have never tried an X-Spirit or any other top bang helmet. This is the one and only time for a long time that I will own a top speccer.
I own a Shark S800, a Shoei XR-1000 and this AGV GP-Tech. Blair has a Schuberth S1. Out of all these helmets the GP has by far the best ventilation and that’s surpassing the “open face” feeling of the Shoei. It is a great ventilated helmet.
HOWEVER
The one failing of this helmet/brand is the visors. I absolutely love being able to see where I am going, and I am sure you do too. So when the visor steams up, you may have some issues with it.
The GP-Tech’s visor has a “mist free” coating on it. Now that’s great, but it’s not true. Aye for summer riding it’s ace, no steaming up whatsoever!
At the minute it’s the peak of Scottish rain fall and I tell you what, I don’t half miss my Shoei and it’s pinlock visor insert.
If you refer to my previous post, you will see what an ordeal I had going to work, this is a real deal breaker for me. If AGV incorporate pinlock in to their visors, they will be perfect to go with the excellent helmet. As it stands, it’s a total let down.
Ok, so what size should I get, I am a size x in a Brand Y helmet?
Again, I dont know because helmet manufacturers vary wildly with sizes. An XL in a Shoei might be a L in an AGV or Shark. A Large Caberg might be an XL Arai. Not only that but it doesn’t matter if you are large anything because if the helmet doesn’t fit your head shape, it’s over anyway.
To add another filter in to the mix, within brands like AGV or Shoei, the size of shell/interior varies also.
The best piece of advice I can offer anyone is to go and try the helmets that you fancy on at your local bike shop. The reasons are;
The boys at the bike shop know what they are talking about. They also have the power to discount the price of anything.
I once had my heart set on the AGV Ti-Tech Rossi Gothic and was ready with my credit card to buy it online. I papped out of it and headed to Scott Murray, where I tried on a Ti-Tech and it didn’t fit me. Infact it was borderline torture. Imagine if I had bought that helmet online and with all the online no returns policy for helmets, I would have been stuck with a £400 helmet that didn’t fit me.
The good thing about going to a bike shop is that they also have other brands sitting there. So if you get down and find that the AGV GP-Tech is the wrong shape or it’s too expensive, they will probably have something there that will capture your heart/wallet soon enough.
Another plan of attack is to get the size and helmet you want at a shop, then come home and buy it off the net for muchos cheaperness.
Now I have done enough miles in this helmet to know how it will fair over time and it shows excellent potential as a rock steady piece of gear for the next 3-4 years.
If you do opt for the GP-Tech can I offer you one really important piece of advice: DO NOT GET WHITE. It is the worst to keep clean, it’s the worst for stone chips and although it makes you stand out like a sore thumb, it’s also the one that makes people go, “Eugh, look at all that road kill, do you never clean your gear?” when you screetch up trying to look menacing, having cleaned it just before you left.
I like my helmet and its good enough for me to not want to get my Shoei out of storage. The comfort and safety feeling is just too good to revert back from. Unless I get some new cheek pads for my Shoei….
Thanks for looking guys,
Gordon
Lube it or lose it
Yes folks, that’s right.
Well this week got off to a bad start weather wise, with mega rain all the time. It’s getting tougher and tougher to withstand the cold wet commute but there you go, the choices you make.
The other day I was riding in to work and even though the 6th gear tapping was doing it’s thing as usual, there was another type of noise. One which made me instantly worried.
Now the thing with the 6th gear tap is that it’s coming from around the engine area, however this new noise was a back left hand noise…i.e. drive chain.
The thing is, it was only at 0mph-20mph that it was obvious. It was in all gears as well which was even more strange.
I got to work and had a big look around the chain, wheel, sprocket and nothing was apparently wrong. I thought that a missing sprocket tooth might be the problem but they were all present and correct sir. I had a chat with my boss who had just arrived in the garage and he was as baffled as I was.
So the working day concluded and I headed home and weirdly enough, the sound had gone…until I got to a roundabout and it started again. It was really loud, and I mean seriously loud. It’s hard to describe a noise through text but as always I shall try:
Imagine the bike at rest. First gear, “Clunk!”
Clutch out and bike starts moving, “Bvvvv THUMP bvvvv THUMP bvvvv THUMP!”
The thumping speeds up as I accelerate. It sounds at one point like something is stuck to the back tyre and is slapping against the tarmac as the wheel goes round.
“THWACK! THWACK!”
I eventually get home with nerves fraid. I mean I thought that the back wheel was going to fall off. I get in, take my rucksack off and put the bike up on the paddock stand to have a good look.
Back tyre is perfect, no nails or cracks/bulges. Chain is also ok and the sprocket is all there. Hmmmm. I start the bike up and listen for it, however I didn’t really expect to hear anything as on the way home I worked out that the noise only happens when the engine is under load i.e. I am accellerating fast. If I smoothly and slowly accelerate it’s fine.
So I decide to lube it and see if it makes a difference, the chain was looking a bit dry.
Lube, it's your friend
So after a massive doseage of Lube, the sprocket instantly sounded smooth and quiet, a lot quieter than the racket it was making before the lube.
I head out on the bike to see if it’s all ok and it’s 100% fixed. No noise at all.
I breathe a sigh of relief and of surprise. The last time I lubed it was before the service and when I got it back there was this white stuff all over the swingarm, which I just assumed was the garages lube, but it obviously isn’t that good and had either washed off or dried up.
So basically what I am saying is, my chain was bone dry and it was metal on metal action that was causing the noise. I shudder to think what possible damage/accident it could have caused if I had left it any longer. I shudder to think what possible damage it has done already!
It just goes to show folks, if you dont keep your chain lubed, you’ll have a crappy ride and a fraid nervous system.
Lube is your friend. 
Thanks for stopping by folks, next post will be about my old faithfuls, my Alpinestars GoreTex boots, which on the 6th August 2008, died.
Gordon
July 2008
Hello.
First off what a tragedy to read of the death of Craig Jones. After an extremely alarming accident at Brands Hatch, Craig Jones suffered too severe a head trauma to survive which is very very sad.
Having seen the accident on Eurosport it was pretty clear that there was absolutely nothing that Andrew Pitt could do to avoid Craig’s fallen body and it was just extremely bad timing that his head be struck by Pitt’s wheel. Regardless of this truth, I can’t begin to imagine how Andrew Pitt is feeling at the minute. It’s a very sad day and a sad day for World Superbikes.
Well that’s yet another month over. This is starting to worry me slightly. My months are flying by all to quickly.
I have a story for you and it’s not a positive one, so if you are not in the mood for a grumpy Scotsman with gear issues, please look away now.
It was a very wet morning and it was so wet that I thought, “I’ll have to wear some sort of waterproofing, as my Jacket and Trousers just won’t go the distance.” So I dug out my Ixon Cheap Waterproof jacket but couldn’t find my trousers because Blair still has them.
So I donned my gear, got my dark visor tucked inside my jacket (in case it was sunny later…wishful thinking I know) and zipped up before putting my Ixon over my jacket.
Now here we go.
The collar of the Ixon jacket is very high, like up to ears high. Usually I manage to get the zipper up far enough that I am able to tuck the remaining collar in to my Kriega shoulder straps. However today it didn’t matter.
I headed out to my bike and opened the garage door. Oh. Dear. It was chucking it down. Oh well, here we go.
I must have made it 400m and my gear let in water.
Oh well, I had predicted this and brought extra underwear and t-shirt. But that was the least of my worries. As I headed on to the motorway the rain was picking up density and the spray from the other cars was unbelievable. My visor was instantly transformed in to a frosted window. Then it steamed up.
Now I am usually not a guy to believe marketing hype, but AGV claim that their visors are “Clear, flat, anti-scratch and anti-fog polycarbonate Race X visor with tear-off system” which is nice. But totally untrue. Yeah when I got the visor I sat with the visor shut and breathed really heavy and it didn’t fog up. But introduce the things that actually do make visors fog up, rain and cold and you instantly have a useless visor.
So I couldn’t see for the spray and rain on my visor, which was easily dealt with by a turned head or a wipe of my glove, but when it steamed up there was nothing I could do but open the visor to get some de-misting action going on. That however made seeing where I was going dramatically harder considering that I was now blinded by the ultra high speed water droplets hitting my eyes.
Not for rainy use either
You would think that my ride to work couldn’t get any worse…well as I was travelling along blind, cold, totally saturated and annoyed, my Ixon cheap-shit collar started to vibrate against my helmet, directly at my ear. Now if you can imagine either a pneumatic drill or a woodpecker attached directly onto the shell beside your ear, you have roughly what I am talking about here.
As I struggled to get the collar tucked in to my bag strap or into my helmet liner with my winter big gloves on, yet more water was now seeping in to my clothes. I would get it tucked in only for it to whip out and start banging against my helmet again 2 minutes later.
I think at one point I was so frustrated and deafened/blinded/freezing that I started to whimper. Then I went f a c k i n g BANANAS.
Then to make matters worse, my gloves started to let water in and my god damn mega boots started as well.
It was a dark day for YamYam.
Oh well.
Every wondered what a white helmet looks like after being ridden through a pack of Scottish Midges?
Fly swatter need not apply
So yeah, there you go.
Other July highlights are my bike breaking at a petrol station but then magically working again, and lots of miles.
Thanks for stopping by folks, I really do appreciate it.
Gordon
