A Ride Denied

No engine start today

I had planned to head out for a good long fun ride on my Daytona today. Part of the ride I would be riding with a bunch of folks headed north to Cairns on “The Long Ride” which is a charity multi day bike ride. While not heading off for the full trip I planned to ride with them today at least, before heading home. The bike was ready as I’d completed the first service last week. Still in restricted RPM but it was a little higher.

I had also almost finished sorting out my video camera for riding. I have the helmet mount and camera sorted, the only trouble I am having is getting a good mic set up so that I can record my comments as I ride. Actually the latest test went well in reverse. The camera mic really only gets wind noise, but I set up another mic in my helmet. Only it didn’t pick up any talking, but it did pick up the engine really well.

And lastly, Mrs wasn’t working and she wanted my home by dinner. Fair enough. It’s dark by then anyway.

And I felt weak and sickly all evening last night. While I might commute when I’m not feeling  100% doing a full day ride isn’t a good idea.

So no ride…

Both bikes sitting quietly in the garage.

Its Still a Secret

I’ve been keeping the secret of my new bike from all of the riders at my work. Until I do, I will have to keep posting my thoughts here as some are aware of my VFR blog, so no good posting it there. I plan to arrive early on my first day back and leave it parked before most arrive. That will get the buzz going as they all try to figure out who’s it is.

I didn’t have the kids to look after today, but the weather was looking a little threatening. I took a chance and headed into the hills to the north west of the city for the first serious outing on my new bike.

OH WOW! Not sure how else to say it. Why didn’t anyone tell me to buy a supersport bike before. This bike is so easy to ride quickly and so confident that while I didn’t break any records or (almost) any speed limits I still have a grin after getting home after lunch. The bike just wants to go and go. It takes lots of control to keep your licence on this kind of bike I’m sure.

I dodged all the rain and spent about 2 hours in the mountains. Got home, had lunch and gave it a wash before it was time to grab the kids from school/childcare.

I did get both bikes out for a bit of a photo shoot…

 

You sick of it yet, I’m not

Slipped away for 10 minutes

The recovery after my surgery seems to be going really well. With my parents here helping me and a break in the weather I slipped out of the house for a 10 minute ride, around the block, up the freeway and home again.

Damn its a fun bike!

Second Ride.

You might also notice that there have been some posts added to the blog. I’ve decided that since I’ve added so much more bike stuff recently I’ll consolidate my VFR blog to here as well. I’ll keep posting there, but will copy them here as well, just easier to archive things from here. Also the other website occasionally crashes and I suspect WordPress is better supported than it (no offence to the couple of hard workers maintaining the VFR one).

Daytona 675R

[I'm reediting this, half of it makes no sense]  About 11am this morning I rolled out of the stealership on my Daytona. I was pretty nervous of course, but after a few traffic lights and that, I was settled into the way the bike moved. Its very easy to ride. I did discover very quickly that I can’t see the lanes next to me in the mirror, but I hear that is pretty common on supersport bikes. But so far that’s the only thing I don’t like.

I rode home, trying to stay under the break in engine rpms as directed. It was tough as the bike just wants to rev. At home, I first checked it would fit in the garage with the VFR and the two cars. Check! Then I wolfed down some lunch before rolling back out onto the driveway again.

I didn’t have as much time to spare for its first ride as I had hoped, so I headed first to drop in on my other bike shop to show off. These guys have been servicing my VFR for about 6 years and I’ve chatted to them about which bike to buy.

After suitably wowing the mechanics I rode off (I’m such a poser,lol), heading for some nearby roads to really test it out. I spent about an hour riding about in the lower mountains, getting used to it. New engine needs running in, so I have to be gentle and restrained. Its also got brand new tyres of course, so they need to be bedded in for the first 100km or so as well, otherwise you end up on the road watching your bike slide away.

So it was a gentle, but extremely fun hour or so, before I turned back for home. If you want to see some video of the bike (not riding videos yet) check out here.

And for everyone else, here are some photos.

Now it will sit in the garage for a while as I am having an operation today, and will be a week or more before I’m allowed to ride again. First service is at 800km, I hope it doesn’t take too long to get there as I can’t wait to try this bike out completely.

More waiting

Almost there. Hopefully Tuesday. Still better off than the guy who paid his deposit the day after me. He has to wait until May or June. If you order one now you have to wait until August!

O Canada

Down under is currently hosting a Candaian from the VFR website I frequent. He’s been here a week and already clocked up 2000km on the 2000 VFR that he procured for his time here. Wow.

I spent the week trying to pick a day to take off and go for a ride with him, but work commitments made it impossible. I suggested we catch up on Saturday for a short ride up the Putty to the Grey Gums. While the weather initially was forecast as showers, I was convinced it would be clear by Saturday. I invited some of the regulars from work, but with the short notice and they didn’t believe me regarding the weather, only two turned up.

Of course it dawned a little cloudy, but the kind you know is going to burn away leaving only sunshine… perfect. We left Windsor with me leading. My first time leading a group and while I kind of enjoyed not playing catch up the whole time, I didn’t really like it. So it was a easy ride up to the Grey Gums Cafe.

At Grey Gums, see the two blue VFRs

We stopped here for a coffee break. The plan was to head back again down the Putty and home. However we pulled out a map I had brought along and started talking with our guest about where he wanted to head and what his plans were. Turned out he really wanted to head north, ending up near Brisbane.

Well, says we, you’re already a couple of hours on your way. With some of the best roads around stretching north towards Brisbane it was suggested that he head north from Grey Gums. It was only about 10am so he had a lot of (very nice) daylight to use up.

So I bid farewell to our guest and turned to follow the others home.

We headed almost the same way home, with a little detour to the Sackville Ferry. There’s another ferry on the river, I didn’t know about this one either. It wasn’t really a great detour as the road wasn’t in the best shape. Though much nicer than the north side of Wiseman’s!

Sackville Ferry

I arrived home sometime around 1pm. As I write this, I presume our guest is winding away north, enjoying roads such as Thunderbolt’s Way. I hope to catch up with him on his return this way.

It’s almost here

The shop has my bike… yes, I’ve decided to buy it. My money isn’t quite ready so I have to be patient for a bit over a week.

Here is MY bike.

And the wait goes on…

The wait for the Daytona continues. In the meantime I snuck down to the local Suzuki shop and took the GSXR750 for another test. This time I spent a while on the freeway followed by some time in the local city centre. I wanted to try long straight riding and what city riding is like on a bike that is more aggressive in its sitting position than my VFR.

Actually I found it a total non-issue. And so we can tick off another thing I was a little worried about for the Daytona.

Oh, if it turns out I don’t like the Daytona, I will be very happy with the GSXR as I really enjoyed riding it again. If it had ABS and a fuel gauge, it’d be a close thing. However, I get so many other things for the extra cash, plus the rideability of the triple over the inline 4.

The bike shop called on Thursday, the ship that the bikes are on is still expected on March 16 to Melbourne. From there I guess they go through Customs etc, so maybe a week or two after that, they’ll be in the shop!……..

On another note, I’ve picked up a Sony Action Cam, similar to a GoPro, but it was about $250 cheaper. I’ve tested it a couple of times in the car, as well as one time on my bike. That was with it taped to the top of my helmet, going really slowly just around the block. I haven’t yet got a mounting set up that I am happy with, so more videos will have to wait. Check me out on YouTube, under the same channel as this blog.

So far it has performed ok. The main limitations is the lack of mounts, and the terrible wind noise (basically all that can be heard) at speed. I have ordered a couple of bits to try a better solution for mounting it. I will also try to get an external mic in order to fix the wind noise problem…and I will start to post some videos… expect even worse dribble than this blog but with video!

Another Test Ride

The Daytona’s arrival in Australia has been delayed. Which is actually a good thing. It gives me some more time saving money before I get it. It also gives the Internet more chance to put news and reviews from other owners out there.

In the meantime, my dad and the salesman both suggested I try the Triumph StreetTripleR as some way to start to get some idea of the new Daytona. It’s not a bad suggestion, while tuned a little differently with a different seating position it is the same triple engine and similar in weight etc.

This afternoon I had a little time to spare so I dropped into the shop to check one out.

Sitting on it, I recalled my Ducati test ride last year. They are a similar style bike, but I felt more comfortable on the Triumph. I can’t say that’s because the bike suited me better or if my expectations were closer to reality after that experience. I left the shop and headed to the freeway, planning to get onto some side streets on the way back to the shop.

My main goal was to see what it was like sitting about in traffic, whether I was swapping gears all the time getting about a slow speed.

After a short dash up the freeway (heavy traffic so not much chance to let it have its head) I hit a couple of local roads I knew as I headed back to the shop. Traffic was easy and even from low revs the bike was happy to pull away, exactly what I was looking for. It was also happy in one gear at city traffic, makes it easy to manage and you’re not pulling in the clutch al the time.

The brakes were great too, big initial bite almost caught me out as it’s a lot stronger than my VFR. But again, that was easy to get used to and ride merrily along.

Overall, I was really happy with the performance in the areas I was looking at.

BUT I didn’t like it. After two rides of the “street fighter” style bikes, I’ve not liked them. The seating position feels even more upright than my VFR. They’ve both been slim between my thighs and I like to have something there to grip.

And at the end, I’m more happy with how I expect the Daytona to feel.

Flipped

The bike choice has flipped right over. I’ve put some money down on the Daytona 675R. They are due into the country in mid March and if I’m to have any chance to even look at one in the next couple of months, you basically need to be buying it.

And to be honest, I only have the couple of concerns about it still. The seating position, though it shouldn’t be much different to the GSXR that I have ridden already. The other, is the difference between a 750 and a 675. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but you never know.

I do plan to have a ride of the new 675R Street Triple to get some idea of the engine response etc. Won’t be the same, but closer than anything else.

But they are small concerns, and the pluses are pretty good on paper. Plus the Daytona is slightly more exclusive and I’d have one of the first in the country! I can pose all over and people will follow me and I will be famous…. and rich…. lol!!

And really you should avoid blog entries without them if you can, so here’s some more pictures.