I Forgot!

I had a sudden ghastly thought that I don’t think the Ninja was serviced AT ALL last year. By the book, it’s 6k or 12 months. I had in my head that all the work done last year when it was knocked over basically covered the service. So I had in my head that it was soon, but not immediate.

The chain and sprockets were pretty new and the tyres as well. These were all replaced after the MotoGP trip. As they had to replace the radiator later and the engine case when it was knocked over, that’s the oil and coolant changed too. That all happened in late 2022 and early 2023.

I was in the middle of running my pushbikes through servicings, when I thought, hold on, when was the last one.

And I panicked. It looked like I’d missed a major. Then after I booked it in, I realised that it appeared my last service was just after 43K and there is a major at 48K. THEN I discovered (because I’ve only been doing short trips it has snuck up) that the bike had 53K on it. I’d almost missed the next service. This has never happened or even close across 4 bikes and several cars and more than 20 years of ownership.

After all this anxiety, the servicing went well. I got another Z900 as a loaner. It’s a shame I had no where to go that day. But I did see how much fun a playful and slim naked is for traffic. And other rides on the Z900 have shown it to be a fun ride.

Since then I was looking at some info to update my records (I have a spreadsheet that tracks kms and time on various parts – like tyres, chain, etc of my bike)(really, are you surprised that I would do that?) when it looks like my rear pads seem to have decreased in wear over the past few services (was 40%, then 20% and now 10%).

BUT

THEN I DISCOVERED

that back in November of 2022 I already did the 48K service.

Soooo, now I’ve done an extra one (can’t see that as a bad thing for my bike, but my wallet doesn’t agree). And I get the relief of the “no, I didn’t miss a servicing feeling”.

I might get a little check over just before MotoGP, but with pretty fresh tyres, chain/sprockets maybe about 30% worn and everything else fresh I don’t think it will really need it. As long as I ride it to keep the battery charged etc, mechanically it should be set for the trip.

Not a good day – update

Holed radiator.

Expensive.

Take a few days. (Yay, parts are in stock)

On the plus side, they’re letting me hold onto the Beemer until then and it’s still a bit wet and gloomy so not a lot of riding planned.

Expensive day and I didn’t even get my jacket fixed 😦

Not a good day

I have been trying to get my gore-tex raincoat to a repair shop since for a while. It was one of the things that I had not been able to do in my last holidays. With the flooding rains for the last few days, it was looking like this holidays would be the same.

So today (Wednesday) when the rain eased off a bit, I decided to head to the city to drop it off. I figured on the bike, I could filter through the traffic as usual and it wouldn’t be too hard. I might get a little damp, and the bike would need a clean, but that would be the worst.

It wasn’t.

But just as I reached my destination, I disappeared in a cloud of steam. Now, other riders will confirm that when you ride in the rain, you often get steam from the radiator when the bike gets warm, as the hot radiator evaporates the external water. This time, it was like I’d turned on my own smoke screen defence. I could see the coolant in the tank was fine, but without a temp readout of the bike, I was a bit unsure.

Shortly, the overheat came on, and the red “master caution” light. This was really worrisome. So I stopped almost immediately to let the bike cool, while I ran my errand.

Of course, the shop, though it said it was open, was not.

I turned the bike back on, and everything seemed ok.

Shortly into the ride back home, the red light, the overheat light and the FI lights all came on. I was deep in a freeway tunnel, and decided that I would trust the bike and ride to the bike shop. I could still see plenty of fluid in the tank, the ride was a cool day, along the freeway, so heat build up should be manageable.

However, the heat warnings did not disappear, as you would expect if the bike had been hot from the slow filtering in the traffic and now had the cool breeze of speed. Apart from the warnings the bike sounded and felt fine.

I rolled into the bike shop and said “help!”.

So the bike is in the shop at the moment. They gave me loaner (so nice), this time a BMW F900R. So a naked twin, fitting in the same market as the Z900 I’ve ridden a few times.

I haven’t really formed any opinion of it on the short wet ride home. Still getting used to where the controls are etc.

Then to add to the day, I overtook a car in my suburb, only for a cop to pull me up on it. I am not sure if I’m going to get a ticket, he didn’t give me one on the spot. I wasn’t speeding and while there were double lines, they only started after I had finished my overtake. However, I’m not sure how obvious that would have been from his perspective coming towards me around a slight bend. He has my details and said he would review the recording later. I guess I’ll just have to wait. Will be annoying as it will be my first ticket in about 18 years.

No top box, and still feeling very new on the bike I decided that the other errands I had today would be safer in the car. Boring, but after the way the day had been going, I didn’t want to be paying excess for writing off the beemer as well!!

A zed

The other week my bike went in for a regular service. As (almost) usual, I had the z900 as the loan bike. Now I’ve had this loan bike a few times, but never really ridden it anywhere as I was working from home, so bike shop to home is 15 mins on city roads. And it was fine. And this time was expected to be no different.

Until they called that day (Friday) and let me know that they had a few staff sick and might not finish my bike until early next week. That was fine as they would let me keep the zed for the weekend. Wasn’t planning any rides so…

Only that isn’t what happened exactly. I ended up on BOTH Saturday and Sunday getting a couple of hours to head up the Old Road (Old Pacific Highway). This was a fun chance to have a go on this bike.

And it was nice. Very light and quick, like the Daytona. More upright and comfortable than the Daytona. But with EVERY bike that I’ve own being a full fairing bike, every time I ride this, it feels like the whole front of the bike is missing… But good fun. If I was only city commuting, it might be a great choice.

They didn’t call on Monday and I was busy Tuesday. So I still had the bike on Wednesday which was a public holiday. So…. up the Putty, just to Colo Heights and back and back down to Colo River, and back, and back….. err..

More fun. What really surprised me was the lack of wind when on the freeway. While I think after several hours it might prove tiresome, the tiny fairing around the instrument cluster seems to keep the airflow smooth over the upper body.

Even better, I had seen some photographers on the Old Road, and after a few hours facebooking over the past couple of days I have….

me on the z900, Old Pacific Highway

Special thanks to Central Coast Sports Photography. Great shot. Even see the road reflected in my dark visor….

oh, one last thing. I talked to another Z100SX owner at Colo. She get’s almost 400km from one tank, quite different from me where I start looking for more fuel about 280km, but have made 340km. I must try a distance run with a jerry in the back as that is quite different.

Playing with the Zed

Service Time. 30k. So my Ninja went in for a service and I rode out on the Z900 again. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know if they will help you out…

I thought that this would be a good chance to really get to know it on more of my daily ride, rather than last time which was bike shop to house and back (about 10 mins each way) when I didn’t really play with it. So a little poke through the local streets before off down the highway to work. Ducking off the freeway for a nearby bakery that sell awesome char sui banh mi (Viet pork rolls). And then to work.

I’ll be honest, it felt much more comfortable riding on the freeway on the Z900 when compared to the BMW F700GS from a couple of servicing ago. Even though the GS had a small screen it felt like I was hanging on trying not to get blown off the bike. The Z900 didn’t feel like that. And I thought my neck might be aching the next day from trying to hold my head in the airflow, but that didn’t happen either.

It was a nippy little thing, short first gear and nimble too. A little disconcerting at first without a screen and a chunk of bike ahead of me. I’m also unused to handlebar mounted mirrors. Everything seemed (dash, mirrors, the front of the bike) like it was all squashed up in front of me and I always had to look down to see anything. Easy to get through traffic though.

While it was fun, and I took a couple of side trips on the way home. I was happy to return it. Though, I definitely will push for a naked style bike if one of my daughters ever looks for a learner bike.

Got my Ninja back, new front tyre and pads. I find that one of the effects of spending most of my 30km commute on a freeway is that my bikes tend to wear their fronts first. So 22500km from the Road 5 front and still going on the rear. New pads are as far as I can tell, the first for the bike. Again, a lot of cruisey freeway work means they don’t get worn very quickly.

Loan Bikes – always an experience

My Daytona had a service yesterday. As always I asked for their loan bike to get to work and back. 

Getting a loan bike from a shop is always an interesting experience. First there is the initial curiosity of what exactly it is going to be. You know it’s going to be something small, they have to cater for learners after all. 

Then you wonder what state it is in. Sure it will work and have a tank of fuel, but it’s unlikely to be in perfect shape.

So I rolled out of the shop on a mighty Ninja 300 (don’t get me going, again, on Kawasaki’s naming conventions!). First impressions are sluggish (but that’s not really fair stepping off the Daytona) and small. The distance from the seat to the ground was noticeably less than the Daytona. Strangely this made it kind of awkward later when I was filtering. 

Actually, it was a pretty good little bike, and the other dramas on the day were more related to other road users. Oh and getting halfway to work and remembering that I couldn’t use the toll road on this borrowed bike and had to detour on to the slow road. However, getting back on the Daytona afterwards was like coming home again 🙂

But I’ve had some other interesting bikes over the years. Usually a very sad looking CB250 from one shop. It seemed like every time I used it something else was wrong with it. On one occasion, it was missing the side stand. This would be fine as there was also a centre stand, but some previous rider had actually managed to bend this out of shape. Made it very awkward.

It was close to my favourite loaner though and fanging it along up to 110kmh on the freeway I did always keep waiting for it die, but it never did.

One time the same shop gave me a slightly less battered GS500. This was horrible and I asked that they never let me have that one again. I would rather hoon about on their CB250

A previous shop gave me a Honda 650 Duelsville (I think that’s it’s name) I renamed it the Dullsville. Bland and boring. Great commuter (and I later met a guy who had one for just that). I think the more recent NC750 should be much better.

I’ve talked previously about the time the shop gave me a GSX1300R Hayabusa. That was interesting. This shop had earlier given me a GSXR600 when their loaner hadn’t been returned unexpectedly.

To be honest, I’ve almost ridden more different bikes through shop loan bikes than test rides! I think I’ve test ridden the 

• 2013 Ducati SF848 Streetfighter
• 2004 Honda CBR600RR
• 2013 Triumph Street Triple 675R
• 2013 Suzuki GSX600R
• 2015 Honda VFR800F

(Can you see where I was shopping and ended up with the Daytona)

What different bikes have you ridden from the shop?