New bike..

Yeah, bloody sucker!

Hammo

 

Beats the shit out of me, honestly... I've just had a spin on a '96 ZX-6R
(the ones Kawasaki were so nervous about that they set the valve clearance
service interval at 6,000km) that's done 72,000km and feels tight as a drum,
and there's no shortage of 50-, 60 and 70,000km old R1's, Fireblades and
ZX9's that still hit just as hard as they ever did.

And if J5 is listening, I wonder how my old FZR600, almost 15 years old and
with who-knows-how-many hefty crashes and extended periods of hibernation
behind it, is going.

But, since there's also no shortage of late-model sportsbikes with shredded
gearboxes and buggered valvetrains (a couple of GSX-R1000's I know of have
started blowing major amounts of smoke with less than 20,000km on their
clocks), you'd have to say that manufacturing tolerances probably still
leave something to be desired, and some people score bikes which are put
together just that little bit more snugly...

....it'd also help if people stopped thinking that if bike x puts the front
wheel up with a dip of the clutch at 9,000rpm in 2nd, it means that it'll
also do it at 12,000rpm in 3rd and 14,000rpm in 4th, if only they try hard
enough.

 

I think Pat was at my house today. Left a note in the mailbox saying
'If you want your parcel, it's at the post office'.

Theo

 

"Neil Downe" wrote

(wistfully) I remember elections.

Theo

 

what ???

they actually last that long mechanically
and/or they actually get to get to that sort of kilomteters without being
crashed beyoud recognition ??

hmm Phil sold it to a mate of his and it could be still hiding in his shed

and some people just **** bikes

exactly Habib

 

Off the top of my head:
-Mark Stenberg the psycho lawyer's first-shipment '98 ZX9. Just passed it on
to his son with something like 65,000km on it, still going strong.
-A just-as-fast mate of his is supposed to have more than that on his
similarly-fit 99 R1, and this is after it's been brough back from a pretty
big stack at Eastern Creek.
-One of my mates bought a 20,000km-old R1, and put another ~30,000 on it in
the past three years, all of them caning the absolute bejesus out of the
thing (think 3km-long 5th gear balance-point wheelies; I'd be 150m back,
watching the odo tick over and shaking my head), the only casualty so far, a
dodgy 2nd gear, replaced without drama. Lunacy as usual resumed immediately.
-Another mate's '99 R1 is up well over 60,000km as well. This is the one on
which valves didn't need adjusting after 55,000km.
....other than that:
-First-shipment '00 GSX-R750: 62,000km this past February. Guy marshalls at
Filco ride days.
-'99 ZX-9R: ~25,000km in 18 months in the hands of the first
attention-deficient headbanger owner. Something of the order of 50,000 in
the hands of the second since. On its second gearbox, rest of the motor
still solid as.
-First-shipment '98 R1: **** knows, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was
pushing even 80,000 by now. Guy raced Xtreme in its inaugural season and
would ride 99% of people out there into a ditch (the only guy on here to
dust him out on the track, I imagine, would be Daron). His thing used to be
to pootle on the straights, then divebomb into corners on better than 50%
throttle. Hands down one of the top 5 riders I've ever seen.

There's bloody hundreds of them out there. Hell, at the rate I was going, by
now, my R1 would be up over the 75,000km mark (and I wouldn't've sold it,
either; scary how attached I was to that bike)

But that's just the thing. Of the blokes I listed above, most
ride_very_fucking_hard._Not just kamikaze speeds through the twisties,
either but also 90-minute wheelie sessions and the odd burnout to farewell a
rear tyre, precisely the sort of thing which is supposed to kill a bike.
Most of them aren't_that_fussy about maintenance (oil at
manufacturer-prescribed intervals, not the paranoid twice as often, grease
for the head bearings and the rear shock linkage when they get around to
it).

This is why I'm genuinely surprised when I come across 15,000, 20,000km old
sportsbikes which_are_fucked. What do these people do? Sit in their garages
and try to play their favourite R&B tune on the revlimiter in neutral?

Ya-allah.

 

Distant past. I got them erection things figured out. Once every
10 or so years, a bunch of people come from the Erection Board
or something, and ring ya doorbell.

I've learned that if you answer the bell with "Hello?" and
they go "We're from the Erectile Commission", and you go
"IF YOU RING THAT FUCKIN' DOORBELL ONE MORE TIME I'M CALLIN'
THE COPS" then you automatically get taken off the erectile
roll, and you never have to vote again.

(And before any harsh bastard interjects, yes, erections are
still perfectly achievable!)



G

 

I would, but I don't think they'll let me take them on the cruise ship!

Damien (otherwise I'd have a box full!)
GPX250 (stolen) -> CBR600

 

On 22/12/03 2:42 PM, in article

Ha, it has contracted the GPz11 gremlin. Pressing and holding the horn was
a cure. You could google that up if you want!!

HTH

Hammo

 

} "Pat Heslewood" wrote
}
} > Pat'll be there to pick it up today---he said he'd be there...
}
} I think Pat was at my house today. Left a note in the mailbox saying
} 'If you want your parcel, it's at the post office'.

Got one of those too, yesterday. No wonder Pat can't ever appear at
event if he's dashing around the globe like that.

The parcel was for the upgraded ignition box for the GS, BTW.

--
// Rik Steenwinkel '85 R80ST Skippy bike
// Enschede '91 R100GS/PD The Great Unwashed
// Netherlands ('76 Honda CB250G Bouwpakketje)
// "Far away is only far away '90 K75C Kommutabike
// if you don't go there" '81 MZ TS250/1+LSW Badkuip