Two wheels good.

[bub2006]

I miss my old trike. Also miss two wheels. Keep thinking of my bike test but I don't fancy spending all that money to end up not being able to hold a bigger bike up and have balance issues.

[Hooli]

I spent yesterday sorting my 14 out & bar the numberplate that hasn't arrived it's MOT ready now. Took longer than expected as found the clock cluster I'd glued back together had come apart again, not sure if the glue didn't work or the scum broke it. But useful tip, the primer you get in the special glue kit makes normal superglue work fine on it.

There's still a crease in the exhaust as I'm crap at panel beating but it's a lot better than it was & looks as tatty as the rest of the bike not worse now. Plus as a bonus the new ignition switch works with the old key, so I didn't need to change the fuel cap or seat lock. Oddly the new key doesn't work in the old locks though, so must just be a worn ignition as per normal on these.

I washed all three outdoor bikes too, so that was a full day spent around my garage.

[Hooli]

Why do you own the bike(s) you do? What made you choose it/them over other bikes?

I don't think that any I own are what some people see as "penis extentions"

GSX1400 - cause I went into try a Triumph Tiger 855i & found it too cramped in the legs. Sat on the 14 & felt at home instantly. Bloody salesman, I bought it the next day even though I had no plans to buy a bike till spring. I got it Oct '07.

Triumph Bonnie, I only got my bike licence to get a classic for pottering about on. I really should get it on the road this year.

Hornet 600, adopted after I'd fostered it for months as I'd got used to having it around. Great run about for work etc.

HD, cause I wanted a new touring bike & don't like sports tourers or adventure bikes.

Not sure if any of mine count as penis extensions either, but tbh I don't care. I like riding them & that's what matters.

[Hooli]

Oh, yesterday was a year to the day when I got the HD. It ticked over 14k on Saturday & so far the only bit to fall off has been the rear reflector cause the sticky tape died. Still enjoying it, which is lucky as I'm still paying for it too.

[DodgeRover]

Why do you own the bike(s) you do? What made you choose it/them over other bikes?

Lots and lots of trials bikes, I never wanted to do Moto X so took up trials, bikes were cheap compared to other sports and despite selling quote a few I still accumulated more, I enjoy rebuilding them just as much as riding them to be honest.
At one point I decided to try and get one of each model a couple of manufacturers made...

[Warren t claim]

That depends. The GT550 was given to me as a company bike because nobody wanted to buy it and it wasn't tidy enough to teach on. When it died on its arse at MOT time I was just told to sell it and keep whatever it went for. I then started using whatever was left over i the training school until a few weeks later a neighbour in the flats I lived in left a note under the wiper of my taxi asking me to phone him regarding a bike he wanted gone as he was moving out.

I knocked on his door and he lead me to his garage. What greeted my eyes was a gleaming Suzuki GSX600F Teapot that hadn't been used for a few years. I bought it as is for £300 and agreed to move it to my garage the following day. At the agreed time I was pleasantly surprised to find that he'd got it running for me! A quick test ride revealed that all it needed was a back tyre for the MOT which Dean the bike dealer sorted for me later that day. The main issue with it was that it'd spent a few years on the sidestand meaning one carb was a bit gummed up. Jimmy The Hillbilly did a carb strip and clean for £40 and I was a happy bunny. Andy The Doorman, who at that point owned the bike school, agreed to pay 80% of my costs for tyres, chains and servicing if I agreed to use it as an instruction bike. This was fine by me as Les who owned the bike shop that did our repairs agreed to put 20% on top of my servicing bill.

Despite this generous deal I made a point of only using the Suzuki whenever I had to and would try and blag the RF900/VFR800i/R6/Fireblade or whatever else we had knocking around at the time. One bike I did my best to swerve was a Yamaha FZR600 Genesis because it was impossible to ride smoothly at slow speeds and not the easiest bike to demonstrate a perfect U turn on. Its only saving grace was that it could be bump started within a distance of 4''.

The Yamaha was flogged to a punter despite us trying to talk him out of it. The fact that we agreed to let him buy it was based on him being one of our better learners who'd probably not kill himself on it. Another motivation for taking his money is that Dean had given me first dibs on a well used but tidy Kawasaki GTR1000 with about 90,000 miles on the clock. The general condition of the GTR split opinions as to whether it'd been owned by a bloke heavily into European touring or a long distance despatch rider. Rider reports on the GTR in UMG always state the same two points. The first is that the sidestand is like balancing an emu egg on a cocktail stick and the second is that the engine is far too peaky for a touring bike and lacking the low down stomp for a tourer. IMHO only the first part of that is true.

[Warren t claim]

Here's a Confessions Of A Motorcycle Instructor tangent that I'm pretty sure I've not told yet.

At one point our school was owned by a nightclub bouncer and the jury is still out as to whether we were just a glorified money laundering operation. One plan was to expand a bit upmarket. As I had a sales and corporate history I was told to suit up and see if I could strike a deal with the source of well heeled punters, our local BMW and Harley dealership. This brainwave was caused by Andy flicking through a bike magazine and reading an article about a Harley dealer selling zero to hero courses for about £900.

After a few fruitless attempts at trying to schedule a meeting with their dealer principal came to nothing due to his pit bull receptionist I decided to chance a cold call. I put my best funeral suit on and drove to the posh dealers in Andy's E46 M3. I park the M3 directly in front of the plate glass palace and head to the door. I'm immediately mistakenly assumed to be an ABC1 sales prospect and attract shiny suited bike salesmen of extreme youth, all with wide tie knots, like blood attracts sharks.

I ask to speak to the dealer principal. I'm told that if I'm there to buy a bike then the sales staff could deal with me. I answer that I'm there to maybe do a deal on a fleet of bikes. The sales staff insist I take a seat and within 5 minutes a confused dealer principal greets me with an outstretched hand.

He did look a little confused. I don't blame him either really as it must be a rare sight to have a potential fleet sale in the world of BMW/Harley dealers as I assume all plod bike sales are done through head office. I explain who I am and where I'm from and hand him the bike mag with the aforementioned article page open. He says that HD dealer support has already emailed him the article and although he was impressed, he really wouldn't know where to start when it came to training.

For a corporate bod, he was pretty laid back and keen to see the Warren way to not just offer a full service, but to also win conquest sales from other dealers in the north west along with the chance of some good local media publicity. What we agreed on was that we'd need a couple of Harley 883 Sportsters which just scraped over the 47bhp minimum limit at the time and a couple of Rotax powered BMW GSs. Much to my surprise, he was more keen than I was to make this happen, to the point where he was offering us instructors a free loan of not just Harley or BMW bikes when We were teaching his punters but also insisting that he'd give us instructors the corresponding Harley/BMW gear to wear whilst training his customers as he believed that corporate image is crucial to offering full customer satisfaction.

I'll continue this tale shortly....

[DodgeRover]

I spoke to a friend earlier, he thought he had about 48 bikes at the minute, I don't think he has ever sold anything while I've known him, but it may be more as he was saying he had seen some he had forgotten about..

[Hooli]

MOT passed yesterday and the short run out to check everything is ok turned into a 280 mile day for a pint at Whitby.

There's a few bits I need to tweak. Think there's a slightly sticky piston in the front brakes and I need to change the clutch fluid. Basically though she's all good and I'd forgot how much I enjoy riding her.

Going to fix the bits today. Can't tax her yet though as the online service refuses to let me and I don't have the V5 back to visit a post office.

PXL_20230317_112218572.jpg (798.58 KiB) Viewed 209 times

[brandersnatch]

MOT passed yesterday and the short run out to check everything is ok turned into a 280 mile day for a pint at Whitby.

There's a few bits I need to tweak. Think there's a slightly sticky piston in the front brakes and I need to change the clutch fluid. Basically though she's all good and I'd forgot how much I enjoy riding her.

Going to fix the bits today. Can't tax her yet though as the online service refuses to let me and I don't have the V5 back to visit a post office.


PXL_20230317_112218572.jpg

Nice one. I haven’t ridden mine since October. It’s so odd. Going from 1000 miles a week to nearly nothing. I don’t miss the A12 in the rain though.