Well it’s gone.
My brother said it perfectly;
“Most people, when they pass their test, they get a banger. Then they get a better banger. Then they get used, then new, then dream bike…You’ve went, test, new bike, dream bike. Of course you’ve got to come down.”
As I handed over the keys to my Buell I didn’t feel anything. No sadness, no regret. I was moving on. But then upon returning home from the garage, I hit rock bottom. The ER6 is a great bike. It’s fast enough, nice riding position and good handling. But it just sucked that I had a bike that wasn’t as nice as the Buell.
Not only that, but on the way home a few irritating things appeared. The mirror has a really loud vibrating noise at any RPM. The front tyre is crap in the wet (See further down) and the bars are hopeless. But I knew all these things when I made my decision, and all of them can be overcome with some thought and money.
As seen below, I have ordered some drag bars. These should come pretty soon, if not today and I’ll post some pics tonight. The mirrors will be sorted too.
The front tyre though, is a big problem. I arrived at Em’s house and picked her up. I was on my way down in the emotions department and just wanted to get home to sulk. So off we went and Em kept saying how great the pillion seat was. I headed up the hill beside the graveyard only for the front to go light and I lost both traction in the front and the rear. It was pretty scary, but controllable. Em was like “What was that?!” and I replied, “oh nothing, just the bike losing all grip on the road…”
We then got on the motorway and headed up 15miles to our turn off of the motorway. As I headed around the slip road we hit a shiny bit of road and again, the front lost grip. Very very unsettling and not good for either of our hearts. Arriving home I had a look at the tyres and found, to my amazement, that the rear was a Bridgestone and the front was a Dunlop…Now some may disagree here, but I have always been told, never ever mix and match tyres, especially not different brands. And here I had a BT020 rear and a D202 (I can’t remember the make so I made that up…) No wonder it felt weird.
So I added the anger to my downer and started picking holes in it.
Then we had to head off and get Blair’s new bike. His brand spanking, really smart GSR600 in red. Off we went and I was extra careful due to the tyre situation and the wet leaves on the road.
Eventually we got to Cupar Motos and headed inside. Blair had talked about some Alpinestars Gore-tex gloves on sale for £59.99. I told him to shut up. Gore-tex is dear. But there they were. I think they were called Jet Roads…but I tried them on and really nice fit. Comfy, warm and snug, and most importantly, Gore-tex lining. I have Alpinestars Gore-tex boots and not once have they leaked or let me down. So I shall be picking some of those up on Saturday.
We had to hang about for a while because the guy was talking to a couple who had just bought a GSXR-1000 race replica bike…he’s going to die then….
Eventually we got seen and B did all the paper work etc. In the meantime I looked around the showroom and saw the GSR600 demonstrator that had been offered to me at £300 plus the Buell. I was thinking “why didn’t I just buy it?”
We headed outside and the guy brought Blairs bike round from the back. It looked amazing! The red was so nice in the sunlight and it was pristine condition. I left Blair with the guy talking about how to start it and sat on the ER6. It’s not that bad I thought.
It started to pour down and Blair was on brand spanking new tyres, on a brand spanking bike, on a brand spanking Licence….not good. I made sure to say take it easy and he did. We got home and everyone came out and had a look at the two bikes…
Come Saturday night I had started to emerge from my depression and started thinking about what mods I could do to my bike…
Sunday was a recovery from the Saturday night, our housewarming party a year on since first moving in! It was a great night and a good time to think about something other than the day’s events. I got up early (9ish) and started work on my bike. I wanted it looking brand new.
2 and a half hours later it was cleaned. It was really mucky, so much for it being cleaned for me picking it up, but it looked brand spanking! I was really chuffed. I also rotated the gear selector round a bit so I wasn’t trying to touch my shin with my toes and it works perfectly now.
29th October 2007
So today I headed in to work on my new bike. It was remarkably easy. The gear shifter mod was great. Flicking through the slick box was no problem and holding a steady 70-90mph was no problem. But I needed to get the front tyre issue resolved, and my insurance as I was still only covered for the Buell.
When I got to work I called up the insurance folk and I am now covered for the Kwak and they are refunding me £344!! I don’t want to think about how much the Buell actually was to insure, but my policy runs out in January 2008…so with 3 months remaining, I am covered for the new bike but have nearly 350squids refunded…hmmm
So that was good. Then I emailed C&J Wilson, the place I got my bike from and told them about the tyre issue, and also that I had noticed that only 1 side of the bike had decals on it, the other side was plain…was this because it was dropped!? Who knows…
They emailed me back saying the tyre will be replaced free of charge and a new decal has been ordered! Result!! Not only will I have matching tyres and matching sides to the bike, but I’ll have £344 to spend on getting stuff for the ER6!!! Ahhh.
Ill post up a mods list in the next post and once I get home I’ll put up some of the pics of my new bike!!
Sorry for the extremely long post!
Thanks for reading folks, and keep checking back! I am now 9th when you do a google.com search for YamYam!!! OOO
Gordon
Welcome to www.yamyambiker.com
Hi Gordon,
Sorry to hear about your rather nerve racking tyre experiences! I’m afraid to say though, that’s Dunlop for you..: I have pasted a couple of quotes from a CBR forum of which I am a member -
“the D209’s I had fitted to my 600fn were the worst tyres I have EVER had…..they were fine in the summer but as the roads became damp and cold they were shocking and once you lose confidence in your tyres on a ride out you seem to tense up and make the problem worse..”
“Dunlops… I avoid them like the plague. When I bought mine it had a dunlop on the front and a continental on the rear. The front just slipped and slipped and in the end I lost confidence and replaced it..”
So it certainly wasn’t down to you - and I would agree whole heartedly that you should really avoid mixing tyres if you can help it.
As for your ER6 issues, I think this is all down to your ‘imagination’ (for want of a better word) and the fact that you have had to give up your dream bike and take a different option. It’s rather like having to give up your beloved sports car to swap for a saloon or people carrier (depending on how many children become involved!) … honestly dear I didn’t mind ….
Having had a break of 20+ years since my Boy-Racer days on my ‘greased-weasel-shit-off-a-stainless-steel-shovel’ liquid-cooled Yamaha RD250LC way back in the early 80’s, I returned to Biking on a 6 month old Honda CBF600NA-4 bought from eBay. After a year I decided to move on and that the Triumph ST1050 was the one for me: Four days of test riding and numerous 150mph+ stints around Fife & Central had me whipping the money from my instant access ISA .. But I’ll just have one last test ride on this stupidly large Yamaha V-twin…
As you will be aware, history saw me order a brand new MT01 there and then!
Yes, I STILL hanker for an ST1050, but I also want a Suzuki B-King, a 2008 Hayabusa, a BMW F800ST and last but by no means least a 2008 Harley Davidson VRSCDX Night-Rod Special in Black on Black!
I won’t get rid of my MT01 because each time I ride it I remember why I bought it that day - It’s f****ng awesome! The sound just makes me smile from ear to ear as I crack open the throttle and project the thundering 1/4 ton of metal towards the horizon..
But actually I think it wouldn’t matter what the machine was - Biking is a feeling unto itself; exciting and raw no matter how much you do it.
Enjoy your ER6 for what it is - Exciting, exhilerating, fast and dangerous. Biking is a pleasure enjoyed by a minority and generally misunderstood by most.
The ER6 will still leave those Ford Escort cage drivers sitting at the lights fuming and will still give you the pleasure of filtering past the queues of Edinburgh traffic.
Ride safe, take care over the winter and enjoy spending that £340!!
Laz
Tremendous words of wisdom and very encouraging. I am getting used to it even now, 2 days on. I think this might be better than I had first imagined!
Thanks for reading Laz, I appreciate your support very much.
Winter is here, it’s dark, wet, cold and the best days of my life. I can’t ever get used to the feeling of filtering past the queues of traffic at the bridge. “Ahhhh…you fools in your cages, I laugh at thee. See you in 3 hours!”
HAHAHA
Gordon
Cheer up Gordo, At least you have access to dream bikes. The list of bikes available to y’all across the pond gets longet every year. You’ll get the traction thing sorted on the first sunny day.