There is an old saying "time flies when you are having fun". It don't seem that it has been 3 years since I learnt to ride. I have owned two bikes in that time, still do in fact. What an eventful time it has been. Owning my first bike, the little Suzuki GS500. I still don't see why it gets berated so much. It is a great first bike and an ideal commuter. Having said that when I first had it it never seemed to run right and then there was the first winter where it wouldn't start at all and was left in the garage until the spring. The little GS is now waiting patiently to be sold at my parents house.
ER6F - Great bike!
Then I went on to my brand new Kawasaki ER6F. That had a turbulent first few months too. Got it in September and then ran it in for the first 500 miles. Never had to do that before even in a car. Being stuck at 55mph (4000rpm) made for some interesting trips. I tried my hardest to avoid motorways and dual carriageways, and I almost succeeded. Once ending up on a dual carriageway and being overtaken by a lorry, that wasn't fun at all. Running in for me is a time to get to know your bike. You can try out the handling without the worry of extra speed and it is surprising what fun you can have a low speed on a few country lanes! Then December came. It was a wet day and I pulled into my local Morrison's to get some milk for work. Just as I pulled into the car park a car pulled across the parking area straight into my line to travel. Nothing I could do but dump the bike. There was a sickening crunching sound, thankfully not from me but the bike as the fairing trashed itself (not that I walked away unscathed either). Fortunately it was all low speed so the damage to me was only to my knee and shoulder.
Land's End Carpark
It ended up taking close to 2 or so months before I had the bike back but when I did I was so glad to have it back. Thankfully I was given a Suzuki Bandit 600 while mine was convalescing. Didn't really like it, much to heavy for a naked plus none of the protection that I get from my ER's fairing.
After two summers that were rained out, finally got to go on a biking trip. Five of use down to Land's End over the Easter break. It was an absolute hoot and the weather was very kind to us. Compared to the congested south I live in, the wide open roads down there are wonderful to ride round. I envy the people who have it as their 'backyard' so to speak.
I have been to the NEC and ExCeL shows which are both great fun to go too. Just waiting now to see what the new styled NEC show will be like this year. I attended the Westminster M25 parking charge protest, amazing to see the M25 clear of traffic just before hundreds of bikes go past.
If anyone out there has some 3D Anaglyph (Red/Cyan) glasses then here is a 3D picture of my old GS500 I took. First one is of the bike itself and the second is where I tried to get a little 'arty' with the engine cooling fins.
Have update to what I hope is a more pleasing theme for the blog.
Last Monday I was involved in an RTI (Road Traffic Incident) as the police would say, my first one too. I don't what to go into details yet, but suffice to say the bike has suffered damage as have I. Bike is currently off getting fixed so have a hire bike, a Suzuki GSF650. Its an okay bike, but can't wait to have mine back again. I'll write a review on the bike soon.
Hoping to get my old GS500 apart to do some maintenance on that as well, getting it ready for sale next year.
I'll admit that I have lusting after the ER-6F ever since I saw its refreshed looks back at the 2008 NEC show. Today I finally got my chance to ride one. I arrived at ADT Kawasaki after having got a little lost and stuck in roadworks in Southampton. Before being allowed to take the bike out I had to sign a disclaimer saying I'd pay the excess of the insurance should I damage the bike. After that given the once over with the controls and the "if this light comes on don't got any further" talk. Finally I was able to get out onto the road.
The first thing that should be said is that I do not know Southampton at all well, in fact I don't know it at all other then the roads I came in on. After heading out I just went where the roads took me. Initial thoughts on the bike were really good, the acceleration was excellent and most importantly the brakes worked so much better then the GS'. The problem was the traffic, it was a nice sunny day and everyone was out. However as my confidence grew with the bike I started to do a little filtering. One of the comments that I remember reading about the ER6F is that the mirrors show nothing other then your elbows. Not something the I noticed, yes there was a large view of mine, but once adjusted wasn't any more of a problem then I have with my GS.
Bimbling along at 30mph one thing I did notice is the vibration from the engine. My GS being air-cooled has tons of vibration due to the lack of water to dampen it, but I was surprised how much there is on the ER6F. Considering that this new '09 model has the rubber mounted engine etc. I expected much less then I got. The riding position did make up for some of that vibes that I got, it was an excellent posture for riding around town in all the weight of my body feeling shared across the pressure points (bum, shoulders and wrists).
Eventually I somehow ended up on the M27, not sure how but I did. This was the first opportunity that I had to really open her up. Pulling onto the motorway I was stuck behind a car doing 60mph, as soon as I could I checked and pulled out into the middle lane and opened the throttle. The grin that was plastered to my face was immense. I am the first to admit that I have not been on many powerful bikes, I haven't ridden any. My most powerful bike to-date has been my little GS500. If this is what 70 odd BHP feels like, I am glad I have yet to ride a superbike. I was doing a large amount of speed before I realised what I had done! Quickly I backed off the throttle, got the bike into sixth gear and cruised at 70mph. You notice when you are doing 70mph on my GS, even with the little fly screen which takes a brunt of the force, you know you are at speed. The ER6F's fairing done its job at keeping most of the wind away from me, to the point where the speed was creeping up and I hadn't noticed because I wasn't being hit by the wind. Again the vibrations were becoming noticeable again at certain speeds. It is almost as if there is a number of revolutions the engine has to do and it sets up a minor resonance though the bike.
Eventually I managed to find my way off of the M27 and back onto the streets of Southampton. Another item that I soon realised compared to the GS is how stable it is at lower speeds, walking pace. I find with the GS I am having to make constant corrections if I am doing anything less then about 10mph, but the ER6 was letting me go along at almost walking pace with no problems. Due to its narrow frame and seat gripping the tank was easy and provided a surprising amount of grip. Seeing as I was back to low speeds, the engine has a great purr to it and a double thump noise from the exhaust, most importantly the engine has tons of low end grunt. With that it made getting away at lights a simple matter, not something to be worked at as with the GS.
I am sure I am going to find flaws with the ER6 eventually as I did with my GS. I love my GS, it is my first bike, let along my first big bike. It has done the unenviable job of taking a very green rider, and all the problems what go with that, in its stride. It has been restricted, dropped, knocked over and come away saying "is that all you've got?". For the most part it has been a dependable workhorse that I will be sad to see go. Still I don't have enough room for two bikes so it will have to go!
All that is left to do know is wait for the call on Monday to say that the finance has gone through and then wait for the bike to turn up. This may be the longest ten days of my life!
As I was planning on a short trip I thought that given the rear tyre had been brought up as an advisory I would get it changed. A few hours later I was removed of £82 and had a new tyre with nice deep treads. Now all I need to do is just ride carefully to get rid of the release compound.
Although I have never ridden a powerful bike as such, since taking off the restricter for my bike I can say the bike is much better for it. Firstly it is running much better and smoother, but more importantly it is pulling much better. Before sixth gear was only really for cruising at 70mp, if you opened the throttle in that gear you would only accelerate slowly. Now, although still best to drop a gear, it can actually pull the bike into a faster speed from 60mph. Despite only gaining around 13bhp, it feels like a totally different bike, making over taking much safer.
Well my 2 years are over and now I can ride any bike I want :D
Given that it has taken time to have some nice(r) weather I have been able to get the bike out and remove the restrictor kit from it. Not only does the engine seem to be running better now, but the increase in power (albeit a small increase the GS500 isn't known for its power) from 33bhp to its native 47bhp. Not much but does enable a far better acceleration curve and is able to maintain its speed even with a strong headwind on the motorway.
At last I have my GS500 back in my grubby mitts. Finally it is running nicely, hats off to the guys at Nick Robinson. Although I have to go to work tomorrow I am hoping to go for a little ride out at lunch time.
Well I hope anyway! Parts turned up on Saturday and it is going to be installed tomorrow so fingers crossed I should be able to pick the bike up by the end of day.
So had a call from NR again today. Thanks to their dedicated work the problem with my bike is now known; a sticky valve due to its shim(?) being too tight. I'll admit my knowledge on the components of engines is limited! Anyhow, the bike has been a pain in the proverbial as to gain access to the valve the engine needed to come out. The exhaust bolts are fused to the engine and would need to be drilled out, so to save money they have removed the engine with exhaust attached. Next while gaining access to the innards of the engine one of the engine bolts was badly corroded and snapped, again this will need to be drilled out by the looks of it.
Aside from that problems with corroded and snapping bolts at least the problem is now known and should be fixable. Although not given a time, I am hopeful I will be able to pick the bike up this Friday.
Had a call from NR yesterday and it seems there is no compression in cylinder two when cold. The current thought is that it is the exhaust valve so hopefully it is a "simple" as a valve replacment and I am back on the road again.
It seems I have nothing but bad luck with this bike. It has gone back in to have its engine checked out as it is only starting on one cylinder, yet when warm runs on both. So far the guys at Nick Robinsons haven't found the cause of it. Here is hoping that when they do find out what it is, it is a cheap fix, though I have a funny feeling it won't be. Just my luck really. If anyone who may read this has any ideas let me know.
How long has it been since I posted last?! Well to be honest there hasn't been much to write about this month. Had a tooth fall apart which facilitated a visit to the dentist, on about the wettest day of the year. However I was kept totally dry by my Frank Thomas jacket and Richa trousers (textiles rule!).
Biggest thing this month was getting the chain and sprocket set changed on the bike. Now I probably should have done this myself however it is too cold to work on the bike much this time of the year, and such a fiddly job, I left it with Just Motorcycles. Not only were they able to fit me in the very next day after I called, but it was finished in a single afternoon. I wonder if that speed is simply because there may be less work this time of year? In any case, if you have a major bit of work to be done to a bike, now would be a good time of year to have it looked at!
Since the new set has been replaced, the bike pulls so much better and a lot smoother. Well worth keeping up on maintaining a chain and ensuring the is is lubed and tightened to its specs. That is why mine was replaced, if I had looked after it better I could have kept the old one.
The only other thing to have happened, actually on my way home from picking the bike up from above, was the glue failing on the heated grips. I opened up the old girl accelerated away, then suddenly lost power as the throttle closed slightly. Thankfully I wasn't far from home and gently got her back and applied loads more glue. Hopefully it won't happen again.
Had the first chance to use my heated grips today and all I can say is that they are excellent! While I'll admit the ends of my fingers were still cold, the rest of my hand stayed nice and toasty and when I stopped the tips soon warmed up.
Due to the fitment of the new grips my old bar ends wouldn't fit as the grips are slightly longer. As such I asked my Father if he could make up some new ones for me with the exact fitting needed. He has and I have a nice set of aluminium ends for the bike. I just need to polish them up and clear coat them (stop the from tarnishing) and I can get them installed. Picture on the right.
After having had them in my possession for almost a year now, I have finally got my heated handlebar grips installed onto the bike. Not that they are working yet, as Maplin currently have the relay I need on back order, but they have been fitted and the throttle doesn't have any problems.
I toke so long as because they aren't official Suzuki grips they don't have the grooves and flange recesses that the original throttle has. As such a Dremel was needed to remove them. However I didn't want to risk wrecking my original and kept an eye (occasionally) on eBay for a cheap replacement. Finally one came up that I won and I set to work hacking it apart.
Once all the unnecessary bits were removed I installed them onto the bike, ran the cabling down into the headlamp and back down towards the battery. I could wire them direct to the battery, that is a risk though if I accidentally (or someone else) leaves them running and I come back to a flat battery! Hopefully I should have them wired up by next weekend. Just in time as the weather gets colder.
1 week in and it seems that the leak fro the valve cover gasket has been stopped. So far I can find no indication of the leak coming back so fingers crossed that is solved. One little thing is to make sure that you have the bike on very level ground before checking your oil level. I thought the road just outside of my house was reasonably level, however I check last time by bringing it into the garage (defiantly level) and it showed that I had a sump full of oil. Outside on the road it was saying I was getting a little low.
I have had a persistent leak on the no.2 cylinder valve cover. Spent the morning replacing it, surprisingly it went really well. The biggest problem was getting the cover to come off, but a bit of timber and a hammer soon got that off. One thing that I found out about it was that the Haynes Manual suggests that this can be done without removing the engine. Now this is technically true, however it fails to mention that you need to also remove the breather cap to be able to get it out from under the frame. Other then that it was reasonably easy to change.
Now comes the time to see if it really does stop this annoying leak.
Oh and my tickets for the NEC Motorbike show turned up this week, really looking forward to it now!
Got a couple more stickers about a week ago from GSTwins.com. I have used the site for loads of information about my bike as it is dedicated to the Suzuki GS500. As I had used the site to help me out, I donated some money to help them, and got a couple of stickers which are now taking pride of place on the rear fairing.
OK so they aren't earth shattering changes. I can't see the point of doing that much to the bike as I am not planning on keeping it for too long, but here is the small list of what I have done to the bike:
Screen Brake and Clutch levers Mirrors Alarm Dash lamps changed to LEDs
As posted up a while ago I changed my helmet to an Aria Chaser. Here is a picture of it on the beach when I went down to the coast.
I have always had problems with my right side mirror with it not holding its position. This didn't use to be a major problem, just and inconvenience of having to adjust it regularly. However recently it became harder and harder to get it to keep in place, and now refuses to give me any view other then the floor. Had it been the left side I wouldn't have worried so much, but as it was the right it makes overtaking much harder as I am unable to see what traffic is coming up behind me. So I brought some new ones from Busters. As the bike is merely to get me through my restricted period on my license I didn't want to have to spend a fortune replacing them. Hunting through Busters website turned up a pair for a mere £12. I was worried that they may be really poor quality but decided to give them a go.
As always with Busters the item was in my hands a short two days later (well with my neighbor two days later, I wasn't in when it was delivered!). Once I had them I got them installed on the bike. Unlike the ones that I have taken off, the new ones have a slight reduction in the reflected image. I guess, should they have been factory fitted, it would have the little sticker saying; "Warning, objects may appear smaller then they actually are!". This seems to be a good thing in reality as it shows less of my shoulder and more of the road around me. Have yet to take them out on a good old road trip but hopefully they will be as good, if not better, then the last pair!
