Ben Vorlich Anti-Climax
Week 3&4
Hello and thanks for the nice comments on the new bike-less posts.
The past 2 weeks have been up and down really. Not bad up and down but just up and down. We decided to go climb Ben Vorlich, with the potential to carry on towards Stuc a’ Chroin if the weather and our fitness allowed. An early start again, leaving at 5:30am so as to get up and down the munro with time to spare for other daily faffing.
It was fairly mild with a wee wind on the morning of the climb and Blair warned that it was to be drizzly for an hour or so and then the weather would clear in time for our summit. So the usual pre-climb photo of us both, boots and gaitors on and we were off. Blair was wearing his Asolo Flame GTX’s for the first time today after getting them after our Beinn Ghlas climb. He had a bit of a boo-boo with the tongue but got it sorted at the start. He was amazed at the way the water beaded off the boot as we walked through some wee rivers that lead on to a raging white water rapid heading down to Loch Earn as the snow melted. We crossed the rapid over a new Hyrdo plant thing they were installing. Shame it wasn’t already going as it would be generating some power.
The difference between Beinn Ghlas and Ben Vorilich is with Ghlas, you start quite a bit above sea level. Vorlich on the other hand is a 0m start and is pretty steep for most of the climb. There’s no flat plateaus in which to gather yourself for the next climb, its just constantly uphill. Because of this I was finding it tough. Blair suggested I go in the lead, but the issue with that is, Blair walks faster than me and he was quickly pushing me up the hill mentally, causing me to tire really quickly. So I kept my own pace, let Blair ahead to go his own pace and eventually we reached the point before the last incline to the summit. The only problem was the wind had really picked up and the rain, which had started pretty much just after the hyrdo plant we crossed, was now horizontal. The closer we got to the start of the incline, the stronger the wind got. We couldnt even stand and so retreated slightly downhill to discuss the options. The main issue was the incline to the summit was a narrow ridge, flanked either side by snow. To the left the snow was the tip of a 2000ft snow slide. To the right was a 1500ft slide. The wind was whipping right to left and the decision was made to abort the summit. If the wind continued with that power, a slight stumble (which was inevitable especially as we couldn’t stand in the one place when talking about this) would send us on to the snow and down this long snow chute to oblivion. Better to get home disappointed than underground disappointed.
The trip down was quick, with help from the wind. We were the first up and on the way back down we met 2 groups, of 4 and 2 respectively. Both of which decided to attempt the summit, so we wished them luck and continued down. We had lunch behind some massive rock out of the wind, and made a deadline to get down in an hour. With quick step we made it down in 40 minutes which was a wee achievement…
It’s a shame as that’s the second failed summit attempt in 2 climbs, although the summit of Ghlas was achieved, the Lawers goal wasn’t. This will be our next munro, back up Ghlas and up again to Lawers. I hope the snow is away so we can make a go of it.
In other news.
The past 2 weeks have been weird. I’ve been really busy, which isn’t weird but it’s made me constantly tired, which makes the days short. It’s soon February already and I don’t feel as if I’ve done anything of note, besides munro walking. I’m commuting through to Glasgow at the minute, a 1hr 20min journey both ways depending on traffic. I’m driving my sister’s car, which she can’t drive at the minute due to not having passed her test. It’s a good first car for her, but one of the headlights have blown. The right hand indicator is blown too, making the right hand signal flash like a strobe which is hilarious. The right hand window doesn’t go back up once you have put it down, which I found out sitting in a queue. I managed to get it back up again my tapping the up button, but if you pushed it for too long the automatic up kicked in and would send it flying back down again…a bit counter intuitive but there you go. I managed to get it sealed just before the queue dissipated and we were moving again. The radio is broke due to the battery being flat, so it needs some code to activate it again. The temperature reading is duffed too, showing a nice -40°c every morning. The clutch pedal moved with the accelerator which is nice. And the rear view mirror has absolutely no friction left in it, so if you go to flip it to avoid being blinded by someone behind, it ends up at a stupid angle whilst you wrestle with it. It does the job though, so I can’t be too unhappy. I wish I was driving the Mini every day. Not only would it save fuel but the seat wouldn’t be like an ironing board. My back is really sore at the minute, partly through my work in Glasgow but the funny seats in the car don’t help matters.
A few bikers have zipped past me in queues making me pang for my motorcycle again, but for that split second only. I seem to get over it quick and remember why I stopped. It’s mostly wee 600′s and the odd 1200GS, nothing as earth poundingly immense as the MT. It’s funny as when these bikes pass the car vibrates with the exhast notes. I can’t help but imagine what it must have been like when I passed on the MT, especially when I learned how to make it backfire on demand, something I used to love doing down lanes of traffic. I always remember timing a backfire beautifully as I passed a guy hogging the center line. He has his window down and just as my exhaust tip got to his window I got a nice shotgun crack out the back. I then heard “WANKER” follow shortly after.
So yeah. Good times.
February is a strict no fly zone for spending. January took it out of us big style, not helped by Lloyds TSB taking the piss. I called them in September 2010 to cancel our home insurance as we were getting it for £40 cheaper with More Than. The woman I spoke to was a bit shirty but I was told it would be cancelled after the following months payment. Taking their word for it I never checked. But as with everything like that it inevitably results in 4 months of additional payments being taken out. When I called up there was a note of the botched cancellation and a refund was soon on the way, which is lucky. I was pretty annoyed with myself for not making sure that it was cancelled but I obviously have too much trust in people…
I also sold 2 things on ebay for 3x and the same cost as I paid for it, a wee masterplan that came to fruition, so it took a bit of the sting off the bite that was Christmas and the dreaded January wait.
Anyway,
We are still trying to sell our house but nobody is getting mortgages or selling, so the whole cycle of house moving has been brought to its knees. It’s a shame as I am desperate to get started on my new project.
Maybe I should win the lottery. That would solve so many problems.
Take it easy all, hope your January has been good. To February then, for now.
Gordon
Beinn Ghlas and the Lack of Brains
Week 2
I am constantly amazed at the speed of which the Christmas holidays evaporate. It’s such a busy time with visiting people and doing stuff that the days whip past, and before you know it you are back to work and it feels like you’ve never left.
Blair was unflinching in his desire to climb 2 munros in our short holidays, one on Thursday and one on Sunday. Dad was out of the 2nd one due to complete exhaustion. He had a pretty bad bug before climbing Ben Chonzie and the completion of the day tripled his suffering, a bad move perhaps on everyone’s part, but we enjoyed Schiehallion 2 years ago so much that it seemed a fitting way to welcome in the new year.
So it was just Blair and I for the Sunday climb, which I was a bit sceptical about, if not worried slight.y. It’s always good to have Dad there, he’s done hundreds of munros so when he guides or advises on something either before or during the climb, you follow it without question. We wouldn’t have that experience to fall back on and I was a bit concerned. However come Sunday I was well up for it. I had bought new boots (Asolo Flame GTX’s for those interested) so was excited to try them out along with my Christmas gifts from Mum and Dad, which I had used already on the Ben Chonzie climb but found my Tresspass £30 shoes weren’t up to the task.
I got my new boots the day before, Saturday. Blair had already bought a pair of Scarpa Infinity GTX boots from Go Outdoors. However they had called him the next day to say that they were out of stock, so would send him a similar pair that were more expensive, but would absorb that additional cost as a goodwill gesture. So he ended up with the Scarpa ZG65 XCR boots. Me and Em went down to see the wee one and I tried them on and thought they were nice. So that then lead to us looking at boots for me as I had fancied upgrading my Tresspass‘.
We found the Asolo ones on the Go Outdoor’s website and I liked them, but they were £135 and my budget was at most £90, and even then I would have a struggle justifying the cost. However to my delight we had found the Flame GTX’s on a competitors website, and lo-and-behold Go Outdoors have a price guarantee policy (so long as you have purchased their £5 a year Discount Card) whereby they take that competitors price, and discount it a further 10%.
The competitor’s website showed £84 for the Flame GTX boots, so a rough calculation would mean that I would get these for £75.60, almost half price! Blair got upset as he had just got these Scarpa boots for more than £75.60 and they weren’t as good. So he decided that he would send them back and get a pair of these Asolo ones at this ridiculously good price. It was getting on time wise so he grabbed the phone and called the number on the “price guarantee” section of the website and got through to a bloke called Mark. He advised Blair that he could match the price and that unfortunately he only showed one pair of boots in the 9.5 size that we both require. He suggested Blair call the Edinburgh store and reserve a pair there for us to pick up.
So he did that and the Edinburgh folk threw the spanner in the works almost immediately. Although it doesn’t state this on their website or indeed any of the information that accompanies the “Price Guarantee”, the competitor’s product must be EXACTLY the same in make, model and colour. Blair obviously saw that the ones on the Go Outdoors’ website were blue, and the ones on the competitors were black, so conceded this and called back Mark.
Mark then said that the ones on their website were a stock image and that the actual boots they stocked were indeed black as well! Triumph! Mark then did the good turn and offered to send the ones he had in the warehouse, and call ahead to Edinburgh on our behalf to reserve the boots and make sure that everything would run smoothly. The Edinburgh shop closed in 2 hours, it’s an hours drive to the shop from Blair’s house (we had factored in the traffic at the Forth Road Bridge considering it was New Year‘s Eve!) so this would allow us to get there and quickly pick up the boots in good time.
Our last-minute trip to Edinburgh was met with annoyance from the ladies, but we were going walking tomorrow and my Tresspass shoes were still soaking wet from Chonzie and wouldn’t cope with another winter walk, so I basically needed these boots for tomorrow’s walk. Off we went then, hoping the traffic at the bridge wouldn’t be too bad.
There wasn’t a queue at all, we breezed through to the Edinburgh shop in a record 35 minutes. It was bizarre. Anyway, we got there and the massive warehouse shop was still really busy, a good sign. We headed inside and walked around to the check-out, after standing at one that looked like customer service at first, but then turned out to be just another till.
Blair explained firstly his desire to return his Scarpa boots, going through the back story of how he ordered the Infinity’s but had someone call him etc etc. The girl who served us said ok and tried to scan the barcode but there was an issue with that. She got her wee walky talky out and bleeped some bloke. In crackled radio squawk he said he would be there in a couple of minutes. Blair took this opportunity to then explain about the Asolo situation and produced the piece of paper with Mark’s name on it, the order number Mark had placed for the Edinburgh store and the make, model and website of the competitor with the boots at the £84 price.
This girl then headed off to pick these boots up from the reserved area of the store, leaving us standing there thinking this is easy.
Then a different girl came around the till and stood. She then was quickly joined by the radio boy who tried to scan the Scarpa boots. “I think this is the box that we couldn’t scan last week. I’m going to have to print out a barcode.” Off he went. This new girl then enquired as to what the situation was and Blair started his story again. This girl didn’t really look interested but after the story took the bit of paper with the competitors website on it and headed off to check that all was present and correct for the “Price Guarantee”
She returned a minute later with the barcode boy and got that return out of the way. We were now fully concentrated on the Asolo price match. Barcode boy left and the new girl left again to check the competitor’s’ price. Whilst she was away the first girl returned with the boots and she left again. I had a look at the boots in the meantime and they looked good!
The 2nd girl returned and said that there was a problem with the price match, in that it was not going to be possible. Of course it wasn’t. These things never are easy, so Blair then re-explained the story about the phone call to Mark online and how he had supposedly called ahead to make sure this would all go smoothly. The 2nd girl had a wee moment of panic but got on the radio to someone else, and quickly we were joined by another woman, the superior. They had one of those conversations, you know the conversations that two store employees have in full earshot of the customer on purpose. They do it on purpose so that the confirmation between each other of the terms of the price match and the fact that our price match wasn’t acceptable would be heard by us, thus removing the need to have to explain it to us face to face and thus removing the need for confrontation.
It made me agitated.
Anyway, it turned out that the reason our “Price Guarantee” wasn’t deemed acceptable was that the competitors boot was indeed an Asolo Flame GTX in Graphite, but they were selling a size 9, not a 9.5. Blair then yet again explained the story to this 3rd woman, the superior and she then looked a bit panicked. Are these people not trained to deal with these things? Anyway, she got on the radio to someone else and asked them to join us.
All the while I am standing there staring at a 20ft long sign on the wall with the 5 “Incredible Benefits” of the Discount Card. It’s arranged neatly in to bullet points, the 2nd point (I mean the 2nd most incredible benefit no less) was that they would beat their competitors prices and then take a further 10% off that. The most infuriating thing was that this “incredible benefit” was touted all over the place, but at no point were you shown the stipulations and conditions that you need to be able to get this “incredible benefit.”
Anyway, we were then joined by the big boy. We knew he was the manager because he was wearing a tie. Almost immediately he was on the offensive. “What’s the issue here?” And thus the ladies explained about the 0.5 of size issue preventing a successful price guarantee. The manager joined in the awkward conversation between employees right in front of customer to prevent confrontation act, and Blair then brought up his 2nd last wild card. The conversation and subsequent order placement online through Mark on the phone.
Before Blair had even finished his sentence the manager had his phone out and was furiously bashing through his phone book, all the while nodding and “mmhm” ing whilst Blair was talking. In a baffling “we’ll sort this out once and for all” look shot to both of us, he then had the loudest phone conversation in the history of shopping experiences. “HELLO MARIE, IT’S **** (I can’t remember this blokes name funnily enough) FROM THE EDINBURGH STORE. DO YOU HAVE A “MARK” WORKING THERE TODAY?” He said Mark’s name with an emphasis, as if he just couldn’t believe that someone named Mark would ever work at Go Outdoors online.
“RIGHT, I HAVE A MR FRASIER (our surname is Fraser, not Frasier as in Dr. Frasier Crane off tv. F R A S E R. Rhymes with razor or lazer or fazer. And this guy was Scottish too, which is frankly inexcusable.) HERE AND HE SEEMS TO BE UNDER THE IMPRESSION MARK HAS PRICE MATCHED BOOTS.”
His confident bellow gave way as Marie, wherever she was, started explaining the situation to him. His voice got quieter and less cocky after every “right” or “mhhm” to Marie. Eventually he said his final whisper quiet “ok, that’s what we’ll do” and then hung up the phone. He said nothing more, or nothing less than the following, as if it was his final sentence to the world before it ended in a blazing apocalyptic fireball: “Honour it. Honour the guarantee.”
And that was it, he walked away and the young girl began prodding the keypad on her till. Blair handed his Discount Card over to this girl for what must have been the 6th time tonight for her to scan, and I finally and triumphantly slid my credit card in to the chip n pin thing. It felt like we had just had an actual scrap, as if we had scuffled around in this shop with the complete hierarchy of staff before finally emerging victorious with our prize.
The most embarrassing thing for us was, we were going to get these boots after paying for them and saying thank you and accepting their millionth apology for the fuss and time taken, and then head in to the store to have a look at jackets and other stuff!! I tried to make light of this by saying “thanks for this, we’re going for a wee shop so I’ll possibly be annoying you again in bit” but the girl just stood there blinking, not even looking at me.
So we headed in store and across to the jackets and there was a collection of staff, around 8-10 of them, in the center of which was the manager, obviously relaying his experience to his minions. It was made all the more obvious when they all went quiet and turned around to look at us. We carried on towards the jackets and they dispersed around the jacket area and the manager did his best to delegate jobs to them all i.e. “straighten up that jacket, zip up that fleece” etc.
Anyway, I found a nice Gilet (pronounced jee-lay but for some reason I can’t help but say gillit, as in spill it.) and decided to buy it as with the Discount Card it was £20 (£30 without).
This Discount Card really is worthwhile having!
We looked at a few more things and made a conscious decision to go to a completely different till, to someone unrelated to the earlier fracas. We got our wares and headed outside where by now the carpark was empty.
We deconstructed the events on the way home, confused by the way they dealt with it or just the sheer idiocy of the manager, but anyway, the boots were amazing and the fact that we had got them for nearly half price, or 2 pairs for the price of one if you like, was a great feeling. It’s not often you get deals like that.
We were up early the next day, as in 5am early as we wanted to get up to the munro as early as possible. We were both excited about the climb as it had the potential for 2 munro’s in one day as the climb to Beinn Ghlas gets you to a saddle upon which you can then walk along and climb Ben Lawers, in a away you’ve already done the hard bit, you just need to do that wee extra bit and you’ll be at the summit of Lawers. However Dad had vocalised his discomfort with the conditions up there and asked us to carefully consider the conditions and not just blindly head up the munros and get in to a situation we couldn’t get out of.
When we arrived at the turn off up to the base of Ghlas (a car park that used to be a visitor center but was now demolished) there was a car sitting at the top of a wee hill 45° across the road. There was 3 people standing around the car and we concluded they were stuck and came to a stop and watched. 5 minutes passed and the 3 people hadn’t moved, neither had the car. So we turned the car off and walked up towards them. Asking if they needed a hand, one of the 3, a girl, said “no thanks, we’re ok.”
We said ok and headed back to the car, by which point another car had arrived behind us and had stopped. A guy got out and we told him they didn’t want help. The 3 of us then stood watching as the 3 people up the hill stood around talking. Meanwhile the driver in the car would periodically open his door and shout something, then close the door and the cycle would start over again. about 10 minutes passed and Blair had asked if we should just park at the side and walk from here, leaving these tubes to faff about on their own. I maneuvered the Mini over to the grass verge and we started to get ready. The bloke behind us did the same but didn’t get ready. By this point another car had arrived and 2 blokes got out. They asked what was going on and after telling them of the situation, they revealed they had been here yesterday and after the top of this hill beyond the tree-line, the ice on the road that was crippling the car at the top of the hill disappeared. They then ran up the road to the 3 idiots standing outside, who were at this point handing a shovel to the driver, who had opened his driver side door and was chipping away at the ice under his front right wheel….whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat still belted in! It was incredible. And while he was chipping away, the 3 others just continued their standing about duties!
We watched as the two blokes who ran up started pushing the car, defying the idiots’ pleas that they were ok and were handling the situation. We ran up too and managed to get the car in line with the road again and then all ran back down to our cars. We had thought the idiots, who we had now termed students as they were quite young and obviously dim… would just roll back and hit the gas in order to get over the ice, now that we knew it was clear at the other side….but they decided to just roll back down the hill. But instead of getting in the car, the 3 of the passengers directed the driver down this shallow hill as if he was a blind man. Blair stood astonished at the complete lack of fundamental driving ability exhibited by this lunatic, as well as the brainless actions of the passengers. It was bizarre really.
Anyway we, the guy behind us and the guys who had done this road yesterday made way for this slowly reversing cavalcade of stupid, and then the last to arrive gassed it up the road, letting a wee tire squeal out as his then hit the ice and slalomed over it. We sat there waiting to see how the guy behind us did and he as well did ok, so I started the Mini and off we went. I got some speed going but Blair said to slow down. I kept quite a speed up as the last thing I wanted to do was to get stuck. I mean it would be pretty devastating to have stood and slagged these dimwits off, only for us to attempt it and get stuck as well..anyway, we made it quite easy which made the actions of the students even more infuriating. I mean, if these guys can’t even navigate a slightly stuck car to safety, how were they expected to walk up a snow and ice-covered mountain!? They said they were going to park at the bottom and walk up, but the road to the car park was fecking miles away! They would have to walk 3 miles up hill before even getting to the base of the munro.
Anyway, we arrived at the car park and joined the others, who were by now getting ready, in a bit of a giggle at the situation that had just presented itself in front of us. We were the 2nd to get ready and set off up the hill, after the usual photograph of us before the slog starts. We made good time and made it to the foot of the hill quickly, passing the folk who had been up here yesterday. We continued along what we thought was the trail but quickly found that we had taken the branch that leaded to the saddle of the two munros, the return path we were going to take due to its gradual decline instead of vertical. We then met up with the correct trail by heading straight up the side of the hill. It was challenging and really tiring but it felt good to be on the path less travelled.
The good thing about Beinn Ghlas is that it’s not just a constant ascent. There’s several plateaus between the short faces making a 3-4 tiered path that allowed you to have a burst of energy, then have the flat bit to compose yourself before bursting up the next face. It meant we made really good progress up Beinn Ghlass. With Chonzie it was a regular hill path up to the base of the munro and then pretty much constant slope to the top, making progress slow especially with the deep snow. On Ghlas it was more icy and grassy which meant that grip was better to achieve.
However we then arrived that the final face before the summit of Ghlas and this was an entirely different thing. We were standing looking at a face of blue ice, the solid core of ice with a fine dusting of snow on top concealing its treacherous condition. Add to this the lack of footprints in the surface, it was a bit of a worry. Anyway there was a slight path made by someone else’s toes which we decided was the easiest way to get up. When I say toes, I mean toes. Most of the dents in the blue ice, 90% of them were only 3-4 inches deep. You could only just get your toe of the boot on it meaning that you were constantly on the move, you couldn’t stop as there wasn’t enough stability to do so. There was the odd full foot print in the ice which allowed a much-needed rest, but for the most part it was bum clenchingly risky. I would glance over my shoulder and note the ice chute that went from my feet to the base of the munro in one unbroken length. If I slipped here and didn’t get a good anchor with the walking pole, I would be down the bottom in a heap before I knew it. Whats more, the 1 ice axe we did bring was strapped to my rucksack and now really wasn’t the time or place for an equipment change. Blair made me take a photo on the face half way up which I did, but I was definitely glad to be at the top of that section.
We got to the feature lacking summit and had a quick whizz around the view, a couple if photographs and then headed down the ridge to find a place for lunch. On the way down we kept looking at the sheer drop to the left and the fantastic views all round. I then did a massive banana skin and landed on my right forearm. Luckily I had managed to not impale myself with the ice axe that I was now holding in my right hand. Blair asked if I was ok but saw I was laughing so took that as a yes.
We eventually found a wee rock to sit behind to get out the now bitterly cold wind and we got stuck in to lunch. The people who had done this yesterday had now arrived at the saddle with us, after going the path that we had originally started before going vertical. They were obviously wanting to go up Lawers. However we had decided on the way down from Ghlas’ summit that the conditions on that final ascent were pretty touch and go, and looking at the route up Lawers, it looked white from start to finish. We decided that it was just too risky without crampons and an ice axe each.
We finished lunch, took a few photographs and then headed for the route down. We couldn’t find it initially…in fact, we couldn’t find it, so had to make our own way down the north face. It was really difficult as it was mostly hard packed snow and ice, so a lot of slipping was going on. At one point I had slipped enough that my head was nearly between my knees. My red metal water bottle that I got for christmas then slipped out the pocket it was in and I wasn’t able to catch it in time. Both Blair and I watched as my water slid down and down and down and down the mountain and then lost sight of it when it hit a grassy patch. It was either lodged in that, or had then went further down the hill. It was funny but it meant we had to retrieve it now which was going to be more difficult that it already was. But eventually we made it down to the water bottle which was slightly dented but now chilled to such a temperature that drinking it was the most refreshing experience to be had. Amazing.
Anyway we continued down the face eventually getting to the bottom in time to start our incline up to the main path. We bumped in to 3 blokes who asked what the summit of Beinn Ghlas was like as they wanted to snowboard down it. I said it was pretty much just ice so they concluded amongst themselves that it was probably best not to try it and decided to just go up a wee snowy face at the bottom of the munro.
Our descent was quite slow over the ice and rocky terrain and eventually made it back to the car. It was around 4 hours start to finish and we were pretty happy with it. It was good to get the fresh socks on and get moving again down the road.
Em had run a bath for me getting back. This was a new thing to me but Blair had mentioned it on the way down Ben Chonzie. He said getting straight in to a bath after getting home was the best way to recover, so tried it after Chonzie and it was amazing how little my muscles ached. After Ghlas they were still a bit tight but not as tight or sore as they would have been had I not had this bath. So that was great!
Then a couple of days later it was back to work. Which was crap. But it was only a 3 day week which was less crap. I was meant to wash the Mini this weekend but come Friday night the ground was covered in 5 inches of snow again. It’s amazing just how quickly the snow can cover stuff and make it yet again impossible to get anywhere without a lot of fuss. Anyway, we’ve spent the entire weekend in the house except for a walk down to Sainsbury’s for me to get milk….and coffee. And tomorrow it’s back to work. But my journeys to and from work are now accompanied with my new Amazon Kindle! Dad bought one for Mum’s Christmas but after the first one went to his work’s address, he ordered a replacement but never changed the address, so the second one went to his work too…so he then had two, one of which he was going to send back to Amazon but I decided to buy it off him, and it’s amazing. I’ll write about that next week but so far, since Friday, I have read 1 book and am halfway through another. It’s just an amazing little thing.
So there you go. A bit of a mammoth week but I am pretty happy so far with the way the year has started. Work is going to get busy and stressful so I guess I have to enjoy the calm whilst it lasts.
Till next week! All the best
Gordon
Come Visit Scotland. We’ll make sure you can’t leave.
Weekly Update………11…………..It’s December.
Hello all.
It’s been a busy old life as of late. It’s going to be a big update, so if you are looking for a quick read, scroll down to the next post. Grab a coffee/tea, get yourself comfortable and I shall begin.
The last update was November 9th, well the last real update anyway. I was talking about how the train is better than I thought and may be able to stick it out more easily than first anticipated. Well I’ve done the train thing for over a month now and yes, I still agree with that sentiment. So that’s good.
Shortly after putting the bike away for the winter, and realising that I was now bike-less for the next 6 months, I subconsciously must have decided that now would be the good time for a drastic change. What follows doesn’t make for good reading. I’ve sold my MT-01 and YamYam for the first time in 4 years, is Motorcycle-less. Yes. YamYamBiker at present is YamYamNonBiker. It all happened so fast…
Em and I decided to go up to Perth to do some shopping, Em had broke one of the cat’s bowls and wanted to get another one instead of just doing what I said and use one of ours. Whilst she was away getting that I nipped in to halfords for some Zymol. We then met back up and I suggested out of the blue that we go to the MINI garage along the road and check out the MINI Clubmans. I’ve seen relatively little of the Clubmans and wanted to have a closer look, plus I’ve never been in a MINI despite seeing 1,000,000′s of them everyday. You see for ages we had talked about getting a new car. Our Yaris was getting near 100,000 miles and was starting to loose it’s grip on the world a wee bit, and we had spoke about getting a 2 seater sports car because you know, we’re young and have no kids etc etc.
Emma hadn’t really had an opinion on MINI’s or indeed the Clubman’s, so was a bit surprised that the reply to my surprising MINI adventure suggestion was “Ok.”
To cut a very long and probably boring story short (one that I had already written and saved in the drafts but decided against it because it was frankly geeky bullshite) we headed to Grassicks MINI in Perth and luckily enough a Clubman was in the forecourt, and even more lucky was that it was in Black (the colour I had mentioned I would want whilst driving to the MINI garage.)
Emma was unsure upon first visual inspection, a “meh” type reaction. I on the other hand was a bit more enthusiastic. Of course 2 minutes after turning off our car and getting to the MINI’s, one of the chaps came over for the banter. “We only want to know figures to see what we were looking at should we decide that we can afford it.”
And the cut of the story goes here.
We walked out of there with a deal that was pretty amazing, and in the time it took for Steven (the MINI bloke we dealt with) to do all the pitches and figures, I had decided in my mind that if these figures were decent, I would sell the bike, reasons to follow. The MINI gets an average of 60mpg. It’s £20 a YEAR road tax. It’s cheap insurance. It’s the demonstrator so has tonnes of spec. It’s in black. It’s a diesel…etc. It came with 4.5 years of TLC, a service package that covers servicing for that duration. It also came with 2.5 years of warranty left. Because it was a Demo car, the condition of the car was nothing short of mint, brand new.
Having got the figures we headed home to get ready for the Tommy Emmanuel gig that I spoke about in the last post. Whilst Em was making tea, I went over the financial situation we were at, what the bike was costing to run including loan, petrol, insurance, tax, wear and tear etc, same for the Yaris. I then took that figure and subtracted the cost of owning this MINI from it. The saving was around £300 a month! And this was including my train fares. And so from that point it seemed that the decision was a no-brainer. I had decided in my mind at the garage if the figures were good, I would sell the bike and the reasons for that are thus: my MT would sit in the garage 6 months of the year and I would still be paying the loan on it, as well as servicing parts and tyres etc over the 6 months it was garage bound. I had also done the train thing so I knew the cost of getting the train. The £300 saving was just too big an amount to forget about it.
We watched Tommy play his music that night and I was transported away from this situation for a couple of hours, and what a glorious time it was. But come the finish my mind was straight back to the situation at hand. I tried speaking to Em on the way home in the car about it but she was tired so we left it.
I was playing golf the next day so we wouldn’t really have a chance to talk about it, so when we got home I said to Em that she needs to phone Steven and ask what we need to do, should we decide to go for it. And I went away to play golf, all the while knowing that I would probably be going to buy this car in the afternoon. I spoke with Dad on the course and he injected his fatherly concern in to the mix, making me doubt my figure calculations and rational for doing this, but I took it on board and knew that what I had calculated was true and made complete sense. I spoke to Blair on the way home and he balanced Dad’s concern with his own thoughts.
So anyway, this was meant to be a shorter version! That afternoon we went up to the garage and we bought the car. In doing that, I needed to sell the MT. I made the decision fast without really taking the time to think about it. I usually spend weeks agonising over every single decision that has a major impact on our lives, but I also knew that if I took that usual week or so to think about it, I would back out of it. I needed to make the decision quickly so that I didn’t have a choice.
A week later we picked up the MINI and I have to say right now, Steven and the Grassicks folks were top. We’ve done a lot of dealings with garages of Bikes and Cars, and I know it’s a bit clichéd but it really does make a difference when the folks that are selling you something care about what happens after the deal is signed. Anyway.
A week after that I sold the MT to a guy from England. I went up to Mum’s a few hours before hand, got it all sorted, turned it on and listened to the deep twin tick over. I didn’t feel anything, no regret or loss, no sadness. This was a good sign. The deal went well, the bloke gave me a lot of cash, about 4 inches worth and off he went. I got in my new MINI and went to the bank. I went home and made a cup of tea.
I love our new car. It’s brilliant. The saving on fuel is tremendous. The efficiency features like stop/start are just face slappingly obvious. It’s amazing how quickly you realise how much fuel everyone else is wasting whilst sitting in queues. Why doesn’t every car have this? I’ve read somewhere that the MINI Diesel is as close to the Honda Hybrid cars you can get without being a hybrid. And it’s a 1.6 turbo so it shifts!
So there you have it, for the near future I am without possession of a bike. I wasn’t going to be riding the MT for the next 6 months anyway, but it feels weirdly uplifting to have no bike sitting depreciating in the garage. It also feels a bit refreshing to have something new to look forward to.
To be honest the bike was just another means to get from A-B for me, after 4 years and 60,000 + miles of riding it certainly tested my enthusiasm for it. I’ve been there, I’ve done every single weather imaginable. I’ve done the tours, I’ve done the abroads. I’ve done the knee downs and slow downs and you know it seemed like a good time to sever the ties for the time being. I wouldn’t be riding anyway so why not have a complete break, rather than a short breather.
I also gave away 90% of my gear with the sale except my AGV GP-Tech (too many memories to get rid of it), my Wolf gear (too good) and my daily leather gloves and boots. The rest of the gear; winter gloves, other summer gloves, kevlar jeans, older gear/leather jackets etc all went. My old Shark S800 and Em’s old AGV went too. Emma kept her Shark helmet and her Halvarssons jacket for the same reasons I kept mine. That in itself felt good. A cleanse of motorcycle gear, an act that when it comes to starting again, I can start totally afresh!
Everyone I have told has said the same thing, it’s usually pre and postly punctuated with sweary words but it’s usually “you did what!?…” Everyone that knows me or knew of me knew that I was Mr. Motorcycle. So it must be a bit of a shock to learn that I am now Mr. Walkie. But I am still happily unaware of the impact that it has had. I am absolutely certain that I will be on 2 wheels again, but for the time being I am happy not being on 2 wheels. Blair has sold his bike so there really was no reason to hang on to it. I know one thing though, when I do get another bike, I won’t be riding it as much. It just kills the enjoyment and feeling of something special, when you ride it day in-day out.
In other news, the weather over the past 2 weeks has been positively ABSURD. The snow has fallen so quickly, and so “unexpectedly” that within a day the roads were impassable. Within a few days borderline life-threatening. Folk were trapped in cars on motorways with 9 month old babies and no food. Oldies were caught walking down the motorway for some warmth and food. Police were having a hard time and throughout it all, not a gritter or plough to be seen.
We are lucky enough to have a neighbour with access to a tractor and he did the best job imaginable with the circumstances presented. But for everyone else it was just a shitmare of epic proportions. The weather has started to calm down the past 2 days and the snow has started to melt, but a lot has turned to ice…something I found out this morning when I faceplanted after bouncing off two cars with a kettle in my hand. It was sore but I wasn’t hurt. I had also been asleep in bed 4 minutes prior to this tumble, but because Emma is a total grump in the morning, I had to help her fill the washers up before she went to work. I did that, then decided to use the rest of the water in the kettle to pour over the frosty windows. I got in between our car and the one beside it but lost my footing on the stack of ice on the ground and went bouncing around whilst trying to find traction, only to finally lose and slide face first down the path. Emma was out like shot, thinking I had snapped my neck but I was ok. It was like an ice rink. Totally insane.
So anyway. Now I have to find a new hobby as I have nothing to do with myself. Blair and I have decided to start climbing Munro’s next year, and I am going to start drinking….hurrah!
Some photos of the weather over the past few weeks. Enjoy!
Cheers
Gordon
In 5..4..3..2..1…..twiddle thumbs.
Weekly Update 9 – 11/10 – 31/10
Well people. For the first time in 4 years of motorcycling, for the first time since I started, I will be putting my beloved motorcycle to bed for the winter. It’s been a short time coming around and I feel slightly bummed about it, but then I immediately remember the GSR and how much it cost me to run it throughout winter. And not forgetting the volatile riding conditions that once made me feel elite, now make me feel cold. I always said from the beginning, as soon as I start to not enjoy riding my bike I will pack it in. I have held that view throughout and now, despite my perceived “elite” status being relegated, I am giving it a rest over winter.
Last winter was particularly harsh if you lived in Scotland, certainly one of the worst in recent times. This led to my GSR needing yet another £500 worth of replacement parts and another large dent in our already beat up wallet. So after the GSR was sold earlier this year, I made sure that the MT wouldn’t be tempting to ride during the colder season, mainly by only getting 6 months of road tax, but also by running the front tyre in to almost oblivion. I have a story for you.
Last night I was heading home in the dark, as now it’s dark when I leave the office, which is just unbelievable. Anyway, I went for some petrol and then on to the bridge (after nearly being side-swiped by a Renault Clio) and off we went. The usual braking/accelerating tactics continued over the bridge and we got to the other side. I switched to the inside (overtaking) lane as a lot of the cars come off at the first junction after the bridge, causing a bit of braking action.
Once in the outside lane, I was following a white transit van, older generation model and as we came off the bridge they all started to speed up. It had been raining a lot so the surface was damp, bit of surface water here and there but generally ok. Then out of no-where the transit van did an emergency stop. We were travelling roughly 60mph by this point and unlike all other cases of slowing down after the bridge, this was a complete halt manoeuvre.
Instinct took over as I saw a wee puff of either smoke or water from the Transit van in front. The van was closing in quick and I was increasing the front brake pressure subsequently but then the rear wheel locked up (damn right foot instincts are slightly more meat fisted than they should be) so the back end started weaving about in a slow smooth side to side action, and as a result the engine stalled. It felt silky that’s for sure, totally controllable, yet completely out of control……..doesn’t make sense. Anyway I kept increasing the front brake, but the van was braking more and for every second that passed I got closer and closer to hitting him.
As a gauge to the amount of time I was in full braking/weaving mode, I was able to audibly say to myself, “Come-on Gordon, let’s get some stopping action here, come on… come on…come on…”
I would say it was a good 6-10 seconds duration from the moment of brake introduction, to the point at which I was absolutely sure I was hitting the van.
Add on to this scenario of silky weave, hard braking and me talking to myself, was the knowledge that my front tyre only has about 1.5mm of tread on it, so any surface water that would be dealt with, wouldn’t really be that efficiently dealt with in my current condition. As luck would have it, at the point at which I had submitted myself to be picking my bike up from underneath this Transit van, the van released his brakes and accelerated a touch. This gave me the life saving break as our wheel/bumper nearly kissed.
After starting the bike again I quickly down-shifted a few and shoulder checked to the left, shot off up the inside lane and had a wee glance back at the van driver, who then flashed his lights in a weird moment of complete understanding.
I let out a rather embarassing “WHEEEEEOEOOOOOOOOEOOOOOOOOEOOO WHEE WHEE WHEE, BLIMEY CHARLIE!” in order to release the insane amount of adrenaline that was being readied for a complete muscle melt-down, and got on my way. I find screaming or shouting stupid words after a life-threatening moment diffuses the adrenaline’s impact on the muscles (you know, that debilitating slunk that you get in your legs and arms, as if you are about to faint). That and sheer bloody determination to get on with the journey home. If you had a mic in my helmet and listened back to it, I’m sure it would be a good amuser, but for me it seems to be a good way to deal with the adrenaline.
I got in and told Emma who did her usual “…….I hate it when you ride your bike in the rain”.
It would have been a bit of a downer had I hit the van as it might have caused some damage to the head bearing area which could result in a write-off if the frame is damaged, but hey ho. So on Saturday 30th October 2010, the MT-01 will be in the garage, washed and dried, prepared for its storage for the next 4-6 months. In that time I will change the now bald front tyre, change the oil/filter, perhaps install a new chain and sprocket set and generally get it nice again.
The question now is, what will I write about in the meantime? Well I am now going to be getting the train every day, so I have no doubt that I will descend in to some mindless rant about fellow commuters and their idiocy, perhaps write about the failings of the public transport system in Scotland, or just shoot the breeze, with intermediate updates about the MT. Who knows. Perhaps YamYam will turn itself in to a Golfing blog over the winter periods!? Write in if you have a suggestion.
It will be sad not being the select few still on their bikes in Nov/Dec/Jan but then again, I might enjoy not having purple toes and some frostbite to the forehead.
Till then, for now,
Gordon
It’s a sound unlike any other.
Break the mould just this once.
This isn’t a weekly update, but I am compelled to post for many reasons. The first of which starts with the photo above. There is several things wrong with this photo. I wonder if you can see what?
No? Yes? Let me tell you.
The first thing you can see is that this is a motorcycle, obviously. And it’s travelling on gravel. Now, that’s no big deal, but let me elaborate. This, as you can see by the screen identification, is a man named Jed Heath. I’ve never met Jed so I don’t really know much about him. But I know that he shouldn’t be on a motorcycle like this, in some gravel. And he especially shouldn’t be travelling at the speed he was travelling at when he reached the hairpin gravel section of Knockhill Racing Circuit, near Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK. You’ll also note, he’s not braking.
I was at Knockhill this weekend with Rossy Boyo for the Jock Taylor Superprix, a celebration of Mr. Taylor winning the sidecar world championships in 1980. There was the usual support series including the GP400′s, which is what Jed Heath was riding.
We had started the weekend at the pit straight, followed by the bottom of the Seat Curves and the Scotsman, taking photos and getting our techniques in to shape. We drove around eventually to the “Carlube” corner and found it to be a bit lax, although the loudspeaker system which pumps out some irritating twat fumbling his way through times and interviews at obscene volumes was broken, so it offered us a bit of a rest. Following the completion of the Superstock 600′s in which our very own Stuart Jackson (of Jackson’s Bikes) was racing, we headed around to the hairpin for some closer in action shots, and some shade from the sun beating down upon our (or at least my) reddening faces.
The sidecars spun their way around and finished quickly. A man with a small boy turned up with a Nikon camera (with a stumpy looking lens) and a laptop of all things. No bags, just those two items…and his wee boy.
The 400′s, Forgotten Era’s and the 125′s headed out on track at once and I decided to switch to black and white on my camera to try and get some nice oldy looking shots with the Forgotten Era bikes. I was shooting in JPG as well, meaning these black and white’s were baked in to the files (instead of RAW where you can remove the black and white setting should you want to…)ANYWAY. I mention this only to make it clear that I didn’t translate these following photos in to black and white for “effect”, for impact or show. It was just unfortunately the setting I was in when this happened.
So they went round a few times to get their tyres warmed up a bit and the grid set up and off they went. I moved a bit further up the hairpin whilst Ross stayed close to the outer edge of it. The man with the small child/laptop was in between us. And then it happened.
I was locked on to Jed which was strange in itself as I had been resting my now knackered arms in between the Forgotten Era bikes going past. But I had my camera to my face and was locked on to Jed and I was immediately aware that something wasn’t right. Usually by the time they get to the hairpin you can see the front diving and the sound of hard braking, rev’s getting lower possibly some tyre screech. With Jed however, when I locked on to him his bike was still going as fast, there was no dive of the front, no reduction of engine pitch.
My camera was on continuous shooting mode but for some reason it takes two very quick photos, there’s a wee pause and then a third photo. It’s not really “continuous” in any sense of the word. I took the first of the two quick photos as he entered the sand trap. The next quick photo captured the photo above. The next photo, after the short pause, showed him or rather a wheel of his bike, sticking out of the now seriously inflated air fence.
Jed hit that fence with a sound that, like all things of horrific nature, isn’t heard anywhere else. We all knew how serious this could be and my initial reaction, after the air fence impact photo, was to turn to Ross who looked at me with such horror that I swear I have never seen before in anyone. The sound was that of a motorcycle going past you, flat throttle with no increase or decrease of pitch, with some gravel noises thrown in and then a hollow “boffffffffffff”. Then silence. No “OH MY’s” or sweary words. Just silence.
We watched together as the marshals whipped across that gravel barely touching the surface and were in that air fence before the fence came back down. Red flags were being waved ferociously as the other racer’s continued on unaware of Jed’s fate. A few seconds later, after rooting around deep within the tyre fence, a man emerged and stood up, resting himself on the airfence beside his impact point. A collective sigh of relief washed down the spectators box and Ross walked over, shouting how certain he was that Jed was dead. “You can’t go in to a fence at that speed and survive.”
And he was right. Jed was travelling at full speed when he skipped across the gravel and hit that fence. It’s a long straight leading up to that hairpin and these 400′s are quick. How he is standing there, talking to the paramedics, who had arrived shortly afterwards, is a miracle.
We had a moment of reflection, Ross and I, as we watched the bloke get his laptop out the case, and then proceed to upload a photo, presumably of the crash, to somewhere. Instant coverage…
Our day was coming to an end anyway by this point but we watched a few more races and then headed back to the paddock to speak to Stuart before heading home.
I got home and after having a shower and my tea, I sat down to transfer my day’s catch on to the computer. I was interested to see how the black and white ones came out, as well as my longer exposure ones (the really blurred fast looking ones).
And then Jed’s sequence appeared on screen.
It’s been a bit of a thinker for me tonight as I cropped these photos for YamYam. In the photographs of Jed travelling across the gravel, I can see his eyes in one. I said to Em, “This would have a completely different significance had Jed not been so lucky” to which she replied, “you’re full of joy tonight.”
But it’s true. In any number of ways Jed could have not have been so fortunate. His bike could have skipped up at the last minute making him miss the air fence…etc. etc. And this photo would have been the last moment of his existence. His last point of being in the world.
On every Knockhill ticket it states “WARNING MOTORSPORT CAN BE DANGEROUS. Despite the organisers taking all reasonable precautions, unavoidable accidents can happen. In respect of these, you are present at your own risk.”
“…you are present at your own risk”.
I couldn’t help think that the risk involved for us isn’t getting hit by a flying motorcycle or car, it is having to possibly watch someone die in front of us. I mean, I enjoy racing, I enjoy watching it and despite the slightly demonic inclination, I enjoy when people crash (don’t try and take the moral high ground here either, I know you like a good crash or two). But as long as they get up I can feel ok about it, I mean they know what they are getting in to. Right?
Right. But in the same token, this weekends racing made me really think about what these guys bet every time they get on that track. This wasn’t a professional race, it was probably a Dentist or Accountant on his weekend thrill seeker. And the moments before his demise would have been crystallised in startlingly clear digital pixels on my amateur camera in my amateur hands.
Despite the enjoyment I get from motorcycle racing, I don’t know if I like the risks involved, if I’m honest with you.
It isnae the fastest bike, but it’ll pull a caravan
Weekly Update 4 – 07/08 – 14/08
Ah, the feeling of fresh tyres. It’s a strange feeling really. A cross between bum clenching and quick breathing as you try to scrub them in. Every degree of angle you exhibit brings this feeling on, coupled with the thoughts of the back end sliding out behind you as you go over too far. But once you get out to the edge of the tyre, this feeling turns to joy as you are afforded the full use of the tyre.
These feelings are enhanced ten fold if it’s wet. Which it just so happened to be the day I picked the bike up.
Now if you have got this far and have no idea what I am talking about then,
When a tyre is made the inside of the mould is coated in a release agent, which allows the tyre, once moulded to be freely ejected from the mould. Without it the tyre would be a pain in the arse to get out of the mould, and when you are making millions of these, you need a quick way to get the tyre out and the mould shut for the next tyre to be made…anyway, this release agent just so happens to be extremely greasy. So that’s the reason most, if not all motorcycle dealers, servicers and outlets will tell you to “take it easy for the first 100 miles or so” as you leave.
For a great example of why your told to take it easy, see exhibit A:
Now, when I last got a back tyre on the GSR (a Bridgestone BT-021 for those who are interested) I picked it up from Stuart and he said the famous words, “take it easy.”
As I bid adieu he started talking to the next bloke who was waiting and off I went. I pulled out of the garage and started heading along the road, and gave what I thought was a good level of throttle given the situation. Next thing I know the bike is snaking about and the redline is being kissed. “BRAAADADADADADADADADA” up the road. I could just imagine Stuarts face.
I told you that so I could tell you this.
I got the new tyre on the MT on Saturday there, a Metzeler Z6. Now those of you who have read every post on here (thanks Rossy Boy) will know how I don’t ever mix brands of tyre. By this I mean I don’t have say a Dunlop on the front and a Michelin on the rear. It just doesnt work.
Now when I called Stuart to get him to order a tyre he tried to get me a Pirelli Diablo Strada, the same as both my tyres were before the flat rear. He called back shortly after and said that he couldn’t get a Strada rear and suggested the Metzeler Z6… I said “you told me not to mix brands” and he said that basically Pirelli own Metzeler and the Z6 and Strada are basically the same tyre, same profile, just slightly newer tech in the Strada than the Z6.
If Stuart says its ok, it’s ok.
Saturday I headed down and it was wet (great) and there it was, fresh shiny new tyre. We got chatting about various bikes and his race bike was sitting there. I moaned about how the GSR needs the crap revved out it if you want to go somewhere instantly. He agreed saying his R6 race bike needs a lot of rpm before he goes places, whereas the MT is just BOOM you are off.
“Aye, it isnae the fastest bike but it’ll pull a caravan” he said, I burst out laughing. I’ve never heard torque explained that way before much to my amusement.
So we talked some more and I mentioned the unfortunate situation where in order for Stuarts business to be thriving, people need to be falling off their bikes. He laughed agreeingly. Is that a word? Agreeingly. He laughed in a way to suggest that he agreed with my statement.
Stuart you see is owner of Jackson’s Bikes, the place to go if you need absolutely anything done to your bike…unless you live outside Scotland. There are some shockers in his garage I tell you. He was showing me a bike that hit the back of a bus and the engine casings were split as if someone had wanted to show a section of the engine. Clean through. Unbelievable.
Anyway he parted with the take it easy line and I mentioned my last visit. He burst out laughing saying that he was talking to the waiting guy and heard me redlining it up the road. He smacked his forehead in a “oh no what are you doing…” way and was laughing.
So off I went with this insane torque machine, wet roads and fresh greasy back tyre on. It was ok really, I took it easy but taking any kind of corner on new tyres is always a shaky one. By the time I get round to changing my tyres they are usually well squared off/bald. This means more force is needed to turn the bike, to get it over the edge or lip of the now flat area. When a new tyre is on there’s absolutely no resistance and the bike falls to the side. It’s quite shocking and I always get a “oh shit somethings wrong” instant reaction but then realise it’s how it’s meant to be… Maybe I should change my tyres more often. ..maybe not, at £108.63 a piece I don’t make a habit of it.
Anyway, as the week draws to another speedy close the rain is falling like one of those rainfall shower heads….hang on. I need to get me either a one piece waterproof oversuit or at the very least, a pair of brieks. I am growing tired of getting off my bike only for all the water that has collected in my pants to go shooting down my legs and in to my boots. It gives a somewhat bitter end to the journey.
YamYamBiker.com is steadily growing in popularity and visibility. By steady I mean I have a steady view stat of around 170 folk a day… I would love for it to get a bit more popular, so any hints on what you would like to read about would be appreciated, or indeed what you don’t like reading about.
To help me on my way I have been included in various “TOP ###” motorcycle blog posts, including the ones below. Many thanks for that and I hope people start finding and subsequently enjoying YamYamBiker.com.
All the best for the coming week all,
Gordon
Its a big old bus this…
Weekly Update 2 – 03/07 – 28/07
Hello everyone.
It’s been a busy old month in the life of YamYam. Firstly I had my meeting with Glen Richards, to get my artworks signed! It was a nervous time for me for some reason, but anyway it went without a hitch and it was a great experience, Glen is a fantastic bloke. I gave him his complimentary canvas and off he went with it under his arm, to show all the HM Plant boys during his tea! I showed him the Bayliss as well and he loved it, so hopefully the word will spread and I’ll get some more orders!
I’ve been commuting to Glasgow the past couple of weeks on the MT and boy oh boy does it fatigue me. It’s not the riding position at all, in fact it’s the most comfy bike I have ridden. It’s the vibes through the pegs, coupled with the lack of foot movement (on the motorway) makes my feet fall apart after half and hour. It’s not the best and it’s certainly needing some kind of foot restage botch if I wanted to use it as a proper touring bike.
“There is something about traveling at high speed a few feet above hard ground that gets your attention. When the body is right there, the brain tends to be right there with it.”
I was planning on writing a story about the reasons why I believe motorcycles to be safer than cars, but having typed just that in to Google, I found this article here. It pretty much says exactly what I was going to, so there’s no point in regurgitating, I’ll just link to it and write something else!
I have been working extremely hard these days at work…obviously. I have been doing some serious hours an it’s left me with zero time for well, anything. I get home at 3am, I am more concerned about sleeping than updating yamyam or other important things like eating.
After a weekend to forget, even though I already have due to exhaustion, I am now on the recovery and have some free time to do all the things I haven’t been able to do for the past month.
The other night I finished very late through in Glasgow and had forgotten to put my clear visor in my Kriega so had to ride for an hour and a half in the pouring rain with my dark visor on. It wouldn’t have been so bad had it been dry as I could go along with it open to see the road, but because of the rain it was near impossible. But after an hour on the bike and getting saturated through, I was suddenly aware of the cats eyes on the newly laid stretch of road near Kinross. They lit up so brightly that through the dark visor it was almost like a landing strip leading me home. It was amazing, as pretty much that’s all I could see through the visor.
That happened several times over the coming weeks, me forgetting my clear visor, me riding home in the dark, sometimes dry, often wet. I would always love getting to that stretch of road, as it meant I was almost home; the place I have grown to miss through not being there at all the past wee while.
One thing is for sure though, the MT is the best bike to be on when you are knackered and wanting to get home. Once you are in top gear, you just chug along. Nothing else to really think about. That’s what I love about it, if you want to get a thrill, open the throttle quickly. If you want to cruise, just sit back and enjoy. You feel amazing regardless of what style you feel like.
I will be sad when winter comes around again (and at this rate, it’ll be tomorrow)
Washed it for the first time in two weeks today, it was pretty dirty all over and I was secretly worried it had been damaged or rusted, but it was brilliant. All the dirty stains and rusting parts cleaned up a jem and it’s sitting outside my house gleaming in the evening sun.
I am glad I am so fortunate to own such a bike. I see a lot of bikers on the road on bangers and old bikes. I don’t feel bad for them, because they are probably loving it. I just feel fortunate to be able to walk out to the MT every morning, knowing that it will soon be locked up and still gleaming, as the GSR is brought back in to active service. I too will soon be riding around on a banger, but I will also still be loving it.
Sorry for the complete lack of update. It couldn’t be helped.
Cheers
YY
Weekly Update 1 – 21/06 – 02/07
That’s more than a week of update but only this once.
Hello and welcome to my revamped YamYam for the 2nd time this year…the reasons for my changing of the look twice are that I feel YamYam is only seen for the big feature reviews, namely the AGV GP-Tech, MT-03 and the Kwak ER-6N among many. Only the dedicated followers and RSS feeders see any of my other posts, so I think it’s time to shake things up for the benefit of both myself and possibly the readers. I remember starting YamYam as a way to share my experiences on 2 wheels with the world, and as of late it’s turned in to a place to dump my aggression and annoyances. There’s still going to be that but I will try to get back to the good things about biking and my new bike will aid that.
I had my summer holiday the week leading up the 1st of June and since coming back to work 2 weeks later I have been full steam ahead. So what has been happening of late then…?
Last Monday (21st) I got a call to say that the MT was ready. Excitedly I went up Tuesday morning with the intent to leave the GSR with the garage to get the bearings fixed/replaced if it wasn’t too expensive. I arrived seeing the MT sitting outside and got the same thrill I had when I saw it. There’s just something primal about the way the MT looks; beastly, hunched and taught.
Heading in I got the keys for the MT and asked about the bearings for the GSR, around £100 was the reply, ok doke was mine.
We went out to the MT which was sitting beside an enormous Harley Davidson trike. It was absolutely disgusting to be honest, sickly candy blue, big seats, flat dash with radio, sat nav, heated grips etc etc. Then the bloke mentioned that the guy riding it hasn’t got a bike licence…
Apparently if it’s a 3 wheeler you can ride it on a car licence, which was extremely worrying. Anyway, we said our last pieces of “friendly banter” and I got on with my day.
The MT is glorious. I don’t know if you have realised yet, but I love my bike.
When I first got my bike I was sitting at the lights in the middle of Edinburgh and a bloke on some Fazer iteration pulled up and immediately shouted “I want that bike” to me. I opened my visor and laughed. He said something to the effect of:
“Aye, you should have seen it, the other day I got my bike out the garage after the winter, very same day slipped on some diesel and wrecked the whole right side” he said, pointing to the sorry-looking indicator, sadly dangling by it’s wiring out the side of his fairing.
“Aye? That’s a shame” I said.
“Aye. Anyway, want to swap?”
I laughed, this time with more meat. “Aye, why not” I said and turned to see what stage we were at with the lights. Pedestrian is now red so we are about to go.
“Take it easy mate” I said and he returned the wish.
First gear, click, let’s rock. Summer Luvvie #1.
A few days later I was at the very same set of light and I drew up beside a guy sitting on a Varader learner bike. I noticed he was looking at the MT but I am really not the kind of guy to blow my own trumpet, so just let him get on with it and didn’t offer a “what d’ya think partner” look.
He then shouted “WHAT SIZE ENGINE IS THAT!?” and so the conversation begun.
He was a really nice guy, from what a 3 minute rapid traffic light conversation reveals, but you could tell he loved his bike, or rather the biking experience. He excitedly reported how he had just passed his theory test and was about to sit his practical test in a few weeks. He lovingly tapped his tank as he spoke about his commute from Fife and how he loves being out and about on his wheels. It reminded me of when I first passed my test, the sudden freedom and exclusivity that biking brings.
I mentioned I ride from Kinross, wished him well on his journeys.
“Once I pass my test I’m going to get a man’s bike…like that one.”
He offered me lead position and off we went, with a nod goodbye.
It always amazes me how quickly you can have a conversation at traffic lights. It’s one of biking’s great exclusives.
Riding the MT isn’t something for one who doesn’t like attention, for everywhere I go people stop and stare, bikers ask questions, van drivers put thumbs up at dirty windows. It’s a real moral booster, that’s for sure.
Riding from the Forth Road Bridge in to Edinburgh at 8:30am you encounter a set of traffic lights that I like to call “bum clenchers”.
These are the lights that have a habit of changing to amber just as you pass the point that you could have stopped for them. The result is either a bum clencher through the rapidly approaching red light, or an extreme-to-the-point-of-stoppie anchors out braking manoeuvre that one day will inevitably end in a face plant scraper.
Anyway, I was sitting at these lights having filtered through the traffic and I saw a guy approaching behind me. He got alongside and opened his main visor of his Caberg, leaving the Top Gun internal visor down and shouted to me,
“ARRIGHT! THESE LIGHTS ARE SO F*CKING DANGEROUS MAN, SERIOUSLY.”
I nodded, having not bothered to open my visor because in the time it had taken him to stop, open his visor and think of what words to spit out, I had looked at him and his bike.
He was on a Repsol Honda rep, with a top box. There’s a contradiction itself. But then looking along you see that he is wearing jeans and trainers. His choice. Textile jacket, Caberg helmet.
Now I don’t generally dislike folk who wear jeans, hell I’ve worn normal jeans on my bike before. But I didn’t do what he did next.
Seeing my acknowledgement to his spurt of fury over the bum clenchers, he then cracked his main visor down, watched for the lights to go to green and then waited for me to go.
I gave my bike a wee bit revs as we had missed the immediacy of the green light so off I went sounding glorious as I did. He then, and I’m not exaggerating here, ripped past me, red-lining it. He then weaved through all the traffic, top-box shaking from side to side, full bomb only to screech to a halt at the next set of lights. Again he fired off from these lights and continued his high-speed filtering in to the sunset.
Summer Luvvie #2.
Anyway,
I’ve got my meeting with Glen Richards on Friday, with him signing some of my artworks of him on the HM Plant Honda. Should be good but I’m nervous about it. Will take up the Troy Bayliss/Ben Spies to show him as well, I just hope the weather stays fairly decent.
Emma and I went away on the MT on Sunday Night to watch the sunset on top of Cleish Hill, it was pretty nice but the midges and flies made it unbearable so we went for a quick spin round by Kelty and then home again. It was fantastic heading out at 9pm in lovely warm sunshine. I took the main photo from Cleish Hill.
I think that’s it for this weeks update.
Let me know if you like the new look/format.
All the best
Gordon
Summer Holiday Decisions…
I go on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks, and it seems like I may have picked a winner!
The first week of our holidays will be going round houses in the first part, and preparing for the exhibition for my motorcycle artworks. But the second week, oh the second week.
Perhaps:
View Larger Map
Well now.
Its not quite the mammoth trip we did 2 years ago (pretty much to the day actually!!?) but we now luckily know the best roads and places to stay so we can go directly there!
I’m waiting on conformation from the place we stayed last time in a tiny place called Durnamuck. Hopefully all will be well.
The added bonus this time around of course will be the fact that the MT will be our steed, and not the GSR!
Its pretty much the same as our last Scotland trip except we are cutting out the north east leg. I am already EXTREMELY excited about the chance of going back there again, it’s unbelievably beautiful.
Updates soon,
YY
p.s.
This is the place to go if you want the best road in the world…
View Larger Map
50,000 miles and counting
On Sunday the 2nd May I crested the 30,000 mile mark on the GSR, just over 2 years after buying it. It was a weird feeling really, I was excited about it, enough to show Emma whilst we headed down the motorway sliproad (“Aye, very good” she said)
But at the same time as being excited about crossing another milestone I couldn’t help but remember what 30,000 miles has done to the GSR’s health. Anyway,
Since Jan 2007 I have covered over 50,000 miles on 6 different motorcycles: Yamaha MT-03, Buell Xb12Ss Lightning, Kawasaki ER-6N, Suzuki GSR600 and my latest Yamaha MT-01. It’s a good feeling knowing that I am beginning to get in to territory that relatively few bikers (in the UK anyway) reach, and I’ve only been riding for 3 and a half years.
It’s funny how I’ve come full circle from first getting my MT-03, and then swearing never to return to Yamaha after the way they treated the “incident”. But I am so glad I did, because my excitement for motorcycles and love of being a biker has been reignited, and it’s raging out of control. I had become complacent and the daily drudge in to work on my bike resulted in it being just another day whenever I sat on it.
I am also glad that I chose the MT as my new steed. It’s crazy how many people have gone out of their way to comment on it since I got it 2 weeks ago. I’ve never had anyone come up to me like that since owning the Buell 2 years ago. I think it’s something to do with the V-Twin roar, or the oddball looks but whatever it is, people warm to it.
So I shall continue on and on, sitting upon 2 wheels every day as my A to B.
I must say a little word about the tragic death of a biker just down the road from me. Saturday was a glorious day to be out on the bike, and we were out as well. It seems that no matter how nice the weather there are still people dying on their bikes. I always feel sad for these unfortunate people, but always always sceptical. I don’t know why really, but whenever I hear of a biker dying, I always think of the biker doing something wrong or riding beyond theirs or the conditions limit. Sometimes its just a freak coming together in the middle of nowhere.
My scepticism isn’t helped much after witnessing a bunch of high-vis clad bikers wobbling all over the road on Saturday, one of which left his indicator on for 10 minutes. I want to stop these bikers and slap their dishes. Get a grip. Ride safer. But then why should I?
Take care out there please, and keep your head screwed on.
Onward.
YY
Stop going fast around corners you…you…
A guy was telling me today at work that he was out on his Ducati Multistrada at the weekend and noticed the rozzers in his mirrors.
Carrying on as normal he suddenly found himself being blue-lighted and pulled over. He said that the cops suspected he either stole the bike or was drunk, so he got the breathaliser and then told,
“You are going to fast in the corners. Stop it.”
I burst out laughing.
They gave him a caution and sent him on his way.
Brilliant.
How to keep warm on a motorcycle…
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Hello y’all,
Things have been quiet on the yamyam front for the past week or so due to me starting another artwork. However this one is zipping along nicely so I should be able to get some posts up soon. Anyway, as I was trawling through backlogs of stuff I found this and thought you should see it!
Well…it’s certainly one way of keeping warm. I saw this in Glasgow last year around November.
Brilliant.
Check out www.gordonfraserartwork.co.uk to keep up to date on my artworks.
All the best
Gordon
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
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!
Suzuki GSR600 – Well Well…
My GSR and I have a chequered past. Our relationship started out so well and quickly turned in to a nasty affair.
I have to date done 22,800.5 miles on my GSR, that’s since January 26th 2008. 19 months of GSR experience has left a sour taste in my mouth and I am done. Last week for the 3rd time my throttle began sticking. In an attempt to see if it was just a fleeting hiccup in time, I gave it a few days. By the 4th day the throttle was so awful that I would twist it and it would just stick open, a definite annoyance especially at traffic lights, when I would sit stationary, idling at 8,000rpm. Thank goodness I don’t have after-markets, or it would be atrocious. For now however, I’ll stick to ridiculous.
I took it to the garage this morning after speaking to them yesterday. I got in to the garage around 9:15am and handed the bike over. I knew it would be something to do with the throttle linkage or shaft, as that was the problem before. I got my £6 a day SV650 and off I went, fully prepared to ride back only hours later when they had fixed the issue. Sure enough, 12pm came and I got the call.
Upon arrival my bike was sitting outside the garage waiting. I headed inside and spoke to the bloke there, who spent a few moments muttering to himself and staring at the computer. “He’s going to charge me for this” I thought, and when he started speaking I actually thought he was.
In a nutshell he basically said that Suzuki are getting a lot firmer with regards to warranty jobs and my problem here, the throttle linkage being totally corroded, would start to become un-warranty-able… He said that it’s a “maintenance” thing and I need to look after my bike. I said that I wash it every 1-2 weeks, but then mentioned that it sat outside every night as I don’t have a garage. Would that contribute to this corrosion?
“Oh aye” he said, going on to mention that the condensation from both the rain and the hot engine will sit on the throttle assembly and turn to rust. This will then start corroding away. I told him I spoke to the warranty boy there and he mentioned it was a sealed unit. He agreed but then said that the moisture can get up through the bottom of the engine and basically that I need to clean my bike even more regularly including taking the tank off and cleaning the throttle assembly.
I got charged £6 for the SV, even though I had only had it for 3 hours.
We had a chat outside when he was checking the loan bike over and he openly admitted that Suzuki has made their life a lot tougher about the warranty jobs. They now have to submit pictures of the problem, Suzuki then decide aye or no to a warranty issue. He also mentioned that he thinks the reason why is because down south somewhere a garage was claiming warranty jobs, fixing the broken parts on the bike and keeping the new parts from Suzuki, then selling them thus doubling his money.
Fair enough. But.
If Suzuki are going to start saying no to issues like seized throttle bodies, then what the f*ck is the point in having a warranty? I have therfore come up with the following conclusion:
Suzuki manufacture motorcycles that are sold in the UK. These motorcycles are perfect for anyone and everyone wanting to get on 2 wheels at respectable prices. However, if you do want to buy a Suzuki, you must never ride it, and more than that, you need a warm dry garage to keep it in at all times. You must also clean it after every ride, regardless of if it’s wet or dry and forget right this second riding it in winter. PFFF
Also, where in the manual does it mention cleaning the throttle linkage below the airbox?
The side of my bike looks like a mess, but that dark splatter and massive patch on the casing is actually oil. It seems either that I now have another leaking engine part or the garage today went a bit overkill with the lube for the throttle bodies, because it’s everywhere. I’ll have to double check this as I only just noticed it after being out at the bike to take photos.
Well about 10 minutes ago I got a call on my mobile. It showed “Private Number” which usually is my Mum, because her phone is a dork. Anyway, I answered “HEeeeeeeelllooooooooooo?” and an Englishman replied, “……hi.”
Oops.
It was a guy from Suzuki GB, giving me a courtesy call about my email I had sent on Thursday. In this email, done entirely though the Suzuki website, I had written down every single problem I had with my GSR since buying it new, and just hung it out there for Suzuki to either respond to it, or forget about it. I was really expecting the 2nd one, but much to my flabbergastery, the bloke from Suzuki GB called me to say that he had received the email, had gotten in touch with my garage and had started the path to making me happy. He said that the amount of issues I have had was a bit strange and he was going to try and set it straight. Then he said cheerio.
Amazing. A quick phone call just to say hello and yes, we are going to do something. I am really delighted about this effort to let me know my issues are being listened to, but I am a bit apprehensive as to what will actually happen. I will obviously keep you in the loop.
Anyway,
Update on the bike over, next: The Bridgestone BT021 Sports Touring rubber, good? Hell yeah.
G
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:
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
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
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Please visit www.gordonfraserphotography.com to check out what I do when I am not riding my motorcycle.
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
The Countdown Begins…
Well, actually it already has.
2 days to go and I am getting mega excited. For those that don’t have a clue what I am talking about, we (me, Em, Blair and Kirsty) are riding around Scotland, anti-clockwise. Perth to Inverness to Freswick, to JOG, across the very top of Scotland to the North West, down to Ullapool, then down again to the Isle of Skye, where we shall stay for 2 nights and head around Skye, then down via Oban to Lochgilphead where we decide if we want to (read if we can be arsed) go round the Cambletown twig, before heading back home to Perth….breath.
It’s a 7 day trip starting from this Friday, 23rd May till Thursday 29th. All the B&B’s are booked and we are gearing up for the long journey, which will take us round the very pinaccle of what Scotland has to offer, and by gum I am excited. I hope the weather is going to stay nice, but we’ll just have to wait and see! Looks promising though.
So anyway, to prepare for the trip, I spent tonight working out how to mount my helmet cam on the bike to capture some of our journey. After 20 minutes of non-starters, Dad came out and asked what I was up to. He then did a Dad special and managed to rig up a mount for the camera. It consisted of an L-bracket hacksawed a wee bit, with a jubilee clip and the mount for my dogcam. A few moments later and we had a rig! It looks like THIS:
CHECK THAT OUT!! HAHAHA, brilliant.
So there it is! It works a treat! There is no vibes from the bike and it is solid as a rock with a little bit of solid adjustment should I need to. The angle of the camera was pretty much perfect as well, with maybe some down angle needed.
The Dad Special. King-ding-a-ling.
I have a video of my quick jaunt with the dadcam mount but I will refrain from posting it up……..
It’s brilliant, and well hidden so when we leave the bikes out it will hopefully be safe.
So there you go. I will maybe take some stills from the video to show you what it’s like, and then the Scotland Tour 2008 DVD will go on sale….haha.
The HID light is excellent and I have found out why the high-low beam thing was bust, the gaffa taped wiring loom obviously has a loose connection, because when I turn the bars to full lock left, the full beam works….so I’ll have to sort that out on Thursday when I am off! I also had to re-fit my stock wedge bulbs because the bloody japanese LED ones started flickering again. HOW ANNOYING IS THAT. It’s like a really bright strobe light going off at the front of my bike. Oh well, it looks cool with the warm top half and cold bottom half….sort of…:(
Note the reflection off of the screen, smart.
I’ll post before Friday and then it’s a week of (hopefully) glorious riding pleasure.
Thanks for looking folks
Gordon
January 2008
2008 got off to quite a bad start, but I’m past that now and want to look to the future. I will now do a monthly post as well as the random through the week posts so I can talk about the month and what’s to come for YamYam.
I have commited to Suzuki now, the details have all been set up, the finance agreed, the insurance fixed and the Kwak ready to go. The story for getting the GSR went something like this:
I emailed the guy at the garage and as stated before the deal was £1900 for my bike in exchange for the GSR @ £4295, leaving £2395 to pay. After speaking with my mechanic and a few other folks it turned out I was getting offered shit for what is really a good bike. So I emailed the garage back and asked if there was anything that they could do price wise, for either bike. I said I felt a bit disappointed about not getting a comparable sum for my bike as was offered from other dealers.
A firm “no” was given, but I was offered the explanation that the reason the bike part exchange price is so low is due to the prices of their bikes being so low anyway, so in actual fact, it’s all relative. I was also given the 0% finance lark and the cheapest price for a GSR in the UK as additional reasons for going with them.
I emailed back saying fair enough, I agree that the 0% is good etc etc, but I am really at the last stop as far as bikes are concerned. I explained about what happened with the Yamaha MT-03 and how Yamaha handled it, then about the Buell disappointment etc and that I hoped Suzuki would take a more vested interest in their customers etc. This would be the last bike I could possibly get so I hoped it would be the right choice.
Then I got an email thanking me for my understanding reply and assured me I would be looked after properly. Then he said as an added bonus, they have now upgraded me to a GSR600s model, with the additional nose screen worth a whopping £250. Which I checked out and he was telling the truth!
So that has really made it for me, I have been given the crash mushrooms and the “s” model upgrade to sweeten the deal, as well as the Alpha Dot etc etc. It really doesn’t matter now that the Kawasaki is going for such a low price, it’s been balanced with the options I have been given. So there.
I will pick up my bike tomorrow morning @ 10am. It’s due to be pi$$ing it down but I’ll keep my fingers crossed that something changes.
Insurance wise I got fully comp, helmet and leather cover and NCB protection for £420, which is an absolute steal compared with Bennets @ £595 standard (i.e. no helmet cover etc) and ebike @ £650, same as Bennets, no helmet cover. So I am chuffed about that. Plus the Express Insurance that I went with are official Suzuki partners so they do deals on Suzuki’s. Done.
All in all I am really excited about tomorrow, I am excited about a fresh start, I am excited about the faster and better handling bike. I am excited about the dials, which is like a mega computer compared to the ER6′s bog standard dials.
What will 2008 hold for YamYam then? Well the Scotland trip is a go-er. We still haven’t planned the route but we are going for around a week, counter-clockwise around the Scottish coast. I really can’t wait.
I’ll keep you updated with the new bike thrill.
Thanks for looking folks, I really appreciate the comments and views that you give.
Cheers
Gordon
Repair Bills and Suzuki
Goodevening all.
This weekend was a mixture of good and bad. But lets be positive and start off on the good.
Got the ER6 back on Friday, one of the windiest days so far this year. It was looking ace in the dark, really shiny and it was cleaned quite well. Got all my still dirty gear on and headed home from the Garage. It was a weird feeling riding for the first time after the accident. But moreover it wasn’t a secure feeling on the ER6. Really twitchy.
The repair bill was quite reasonable. The parts list was as follows:
-
Gear Lever £25.98
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Generator Cover and Gasket £52.62
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L/H Front Indicator £23.67
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Front Brake Lever £25.45
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Rear Brake Lever £20.30
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R/H Footpeg and bank sensor £46.62
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Clutch Lever £7.67
So there you go.
On Saturday I went to the Suzuki garage and started arranging the GSR. I chatted away with the guy about it all and gave some details, £200 holding fee which they refund me in a weeks time….silly, and some details about the ER6, at which point he asked what the condition was of it. I said that it was good condition and that it was a test ride bike so has marks on the footpeg hangers. There is also a crack on the fairing. At this point he took interest and asked what sort of crack etc. And eventually he said well we need to do a workshop check before agreeing on the price for the ER6. He wants it in showroom condition so may need to order some parts in. Ok I said and off we went, agreeing that Saturday was the time to do it all.
When I arrived home i went out to the ER6 and took the front fairing off to inspect in in the kitchen and it was scraped to buggery. If he sees this he’s going to know that it was dropped etc so I need to replace it.
So I will call the Garage tomorrow and get one ordered as I dont really want to go in Saturday and they say “ooo it’ll cost you £200 for a new one so we’ll take that off the part exchange price..” when it actually would have cost me £50. At least it gives me proof of them trying to pull my pants over my head. But it’s all depending on what the boys at Suzuki deem to be “Showroom Condition.”
We’ll just have to wait and see. Me and Em went out for a 2 hour ride today and I put the helmet cam on her this time. Which shows a really smart angle. I’ll convert it tomorrow and post it up to let you see. However the lens gets dirty again. I am starting to think that this camera will only be really good in the complete dry weather. But it was a good ride out and already my confidence has came back.
I also got my quote through from Express Insurance, with £395 as the official quote.
So yeah, I’ll keep you posted on what happens with Suzuki.
Thanks for looking folks,
Gordon
YamYam Motorcycle Accident #2
Hello everyone.
Last night I had a pretty major accident. I made a video of the damage and explain what happened. I’ll add a diagram of it in a mo.
2nd day on the bike in 2008 and a major crash notched up already. Bring on the rest of the year…
