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  • A Lovely Ride, A Broken Bike.

    20:04 on July 15, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , , Suzuki,

    It’s Thursday 9th July and Gary decided to organise a little trip to get some more miles under my belt; around 50 miles of country roads with a few stops and a practise on some gravel. We also invited Mikey along for the ride. I won’t go on about it too much; I was a little shakey, still nervous round tight bends and couldn’t open her up because of the amount of revs I’m limited to, but all in all it was a nice ride. The gravel was a little bit scary but I managed it ok, we had a run in with a crazy Bandit lover who was admiring Mikeys bike a little too much!

    Biking-002

    After our ride we decided to join our friends at the local pub for a pub quiz. Just as I put my bike on its side stand and went to get off, the bike decided she loved me too much and came with me, side stand pinging back up and to my complete horror she was on the floor (admist a lot of swearing and throwing of gloves by me). Thankfully Gary and Mikey were there in seconds to pick her back up. We checked her over maticulously; broken clutch lever, a scratch on the mirror and a scuffed handle bar, not too bad really, much better than I was expecting!

    Biking-004

    About two hours later around 23:00 Gary and I go out to make our way home. I Get on my bike and turn her on, pull in my poor broken clutch, press the ignition and nothing… Dead. Well at least we know that my recovery works, I paid for it in my insurance premium (Carole Nash) so why not use it?! I’m making good money sense, right?! We tried everything we could think of to get the bike working but she just wouldn’t start so we had to call them. When he arrived, the recovery man couldn’t get her started either and so loaded her into his van and took us home.

    Come Saturday after purchasing a new clutch lever, costing £20.30, we removed the old one and replaced it, she worked again! At least the experience gave Gary a chance to show off his manly mechanical skills, well done :)

    Zuki is fine again; all ready for the next ride!

     
  • My New Bike

    22:58 on June 28, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , Suzuki,

    I picked up my baby yesterday; Saturday 27th June 2009. With just 4 miles on her she was so pretty sat there in the showroom with her colour-matched top box fitted!

    The Gladius is definitely a nice little bike, from the moment I sat on her and started up the engine I knew we had made the right choice, she purrs like a kitten! I’m finding riding a bit scary after having been off a bike (apart from test riding the Strom) for almost three months, but the Gladius is helping me through it. Nice handling, nippy little engine, great dials and my favourite part – she tells me what gear I’m in!

    gladius-002 gladius-007 gladius-012

    We did 24 miles yesterday, just a little ride around town, went to show Kev and then out on to a dual carriage-way and a country-ish road; nothing too far, nothing too fancy, just settling myself back into it. Today we have just got back from another 25 mile ride; we went down to Poole Park, stopped for a few photos then on to Sandbanks for a ride around the peninsula and a couple more photos. We finished the ride via the Wessex Way (dual carriage-way) and then along Castle Lane to home.

    gladius-016 gladius-018 gladius-020

    All things considered so far I believe the Gladius was a great choice; it’s a really good first bike, I feel in control and I feel happy! :)

     
  • Weeeeee! Finally!

    22:18 on June 25, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , Suzuki,

    After three moths of searching I have finally found a motorbike! After all the trouble, let downs and problems I had trying to find a second-hand bike I have ended up just going for a brand new one. Buying new might be a bad idea, but when I can pick up a brand new bike for only £1k more than a secondhand bike with 30k miles on it, you’ll forgive me for my choice! Here it is, the Suzuki (SVF 650) Gladius…

    gladius

    The Gladius isn’t the adventure bike we were originally looking for, it’s no V-Strom and it’s no F650GS, we have infact gone in a completely different direction. We thought it made more sense to forget about buying a bike to do the trip on and get on with just buying a bike that would be a good first bike for me, that combined with the amount of time we were wasting looking at second-hand bikes when I should be out there getting experience led us to the Gladius.

    I’m picking it up on Saturday, I’ll let you know how I get on!

     
  • The Givi Upgrade

    08:24 on May 29, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: Givi, , , , Suzuki,

    My Givi luggage arrived this week and I spent a couple of hours yesterday putting everything on the bike. A word of warning to anybody trying to fit both the Givi top case mount and the Givi PLX side case rails; don’t try and fit the top case mount first, you’ll end up having to unbolt everything you just bolted on because the side case rails need to be attached first!

    I don’t claim to be an expert mechanic; I never manage to pick up the right spanner first time, but I do like to have a go. I know fitting a couple of pannier rails and top case mount isn’t exactly rocket science, I also know most people wouldn’t even class it as mechanics but anything I do to the bike that needs a spanner or a torque wrench makes me feel great; I’m a real man, tinkering out in the garage with my tools, you know what I’m talking about guys.

    It took me about 2.5 hours to fit both the rails and the top case mount, everything is now fitted and feels pretty secure. I’ve uploaded images to the gallery so you can check them out there. This is the first modification I’ve made to the Albino, the one that absolutely needed to be done and I’m pretty pleased with the results; the boxes look good and I’ve now got 122 litres of storage space, a tad more than the 30 litres I had on the Monster.

     
  • Welcome, Strom.

    00:46 on May 19, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , Suzuki,

    On Friday I picked up the V-Strom and despite the typical British weather deciding to ruin this event there was no turning back now. I was unusually nervous riding the bike home that day, I’m still not sure why but it felt very big and very different to the monster I’d just left behind. A few rainy miles later I was home where getting the bike into the garage proved to be a challenge; there’s a lot more bike to move around our driveway now and I had a couple of unsteady moments before finally getting her in safe.

    strom-005

    I was dreading rain again on Saturday but it never came, instead the wind decided to show it’s ugly face. I decided to brave it; I’m not going to be able to pick and choose the weather when we’re on the road so why bother doing it now? I rode to the Purbecks, a favourite spot at Creech Hill, battling with the wind along the way but determined to carry on. My confidence grew as I rode, learning what the bike was capable of as I went. After 50 miles my back was fine, my bum wasn’t numb and most importantly I still had sensation in my hands! I rode until I ran the tank down to empty and took her to a petrol station to fill up; the cost was £16.56 and the trip counter has been reset, I’ll keep you posted on mileage.

    strom3_small

    If I was still nervous about my decision on Friday, this ride had eradicated it, I’m fully confident I’ve made the right decision now. I have a feeling this bike will eat the miles, and it’ll keep me comfortable while it’s doing it. The most unusual thing has happened too; the V-Strom’s ugly looks might actually be growing on me, I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship…

     
  • Insurance woes

    22:24 on May 12, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , Insurance, , , Suzuki,

    The Ducati Monster 695 is a fairly aggressive bike, its good looking and I’d say it’s also fairly “sporty” in nature. These are some of the things I would associate with high insurance cost. I renewed my policy in March 2009, I’ve been riding for almost two years now, I have 1 year no claims bonus (only 1 due to moving halfway through the year to a different insurer for the Monster) and the cost for this renewal was £195 TPF&T.

    The Suzuki V-Strom 650X is built for touring; it’s big, it’s ugly and probably the least “sporty” a bike could be, in Ben’s words “It’s a Grandad bike”. When I phoned up the insurance company I was expecting to pay around the same price as I had done for the Monster and hopefully incur no additional cost, unfortunately I couldn’t have been more wrong. The insurance company wanted an extra £241 on top of the £195 I’d already paid for the Monster, more than double the price. To worsen this blow; if I had been getting the V-Strom a month ago and not had to change my insurance to a new policy (this is costing me money bizarrely) total price would’ve only been £359 instead of the £436 I’m having to pay now.

    So just a tip to anybody planning on buying a new bike; get an insurance quote first!

     
  • One down, one to go

    11:09 on May 10, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
    Tags: , , , , Suzuki,

    As you know, a couple of weeks ago Gen and I test-rode a white Suzuki V-Strom 650X. When we got back to the dealer after Gen’s ride, I asked if I was able to purchase the test-ride bike; I liked the white colour and as the bike had been used as a test-ride bike I was hoping I would be able to get a fair bit of discount for this practically brand-new bike.

    I’ve been waiting almost two weeks now to find out (who would’ve thought it’d be so difficult to get a salesperson to sell you something) but on Friday I went in to see the bike again and have now put a deposit down. The bike is going to cost £4,795 cut down from its new price of £5,450 which I guess isn’t too bad considering it’s only done 350 miles. The bike has a full warranty and the first service will be thrown in for free; something I did manage to negotiate despite my poor skills.

    goodbye_monster

    I’m trading in my Monster 695 for this bike, I will be sad to see it go but I do believe I’m doing the right thing; for once I’m trading style for sense. Just for anybody who cares I’ll be getting £2,650 for the Monster (5,600 miles) as a part-exchange value against the V-Strom leaving me with a lovely £2,145 bill to pay – so much for that mortgage deposit!

    V-Strom DL650 Test Ride

    The bike should be ready for me to pick up on Tuesday so that’s me sorted for a bike, now we need one for Gen; one down, one to go.

     
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