From Joy to Pain and Back Again! Part1

Collection-

Early last summer we embarked on the 3 hour drive to DK Motorcycles to collect Fruit'n'Barley's nice new (well we say new) ZX6R. It stood resplendent in the sunshine in it's shiny yellow and dark purple/black paintwork and F'n'B was a happy boy. With papers signed and keys collected it was time to head the 160 miles back home. The journey home was a fun one with F'n'B continually blasting past us on the M62, I swear you could sense the big grin on his face behind his helmet.

Once at home it was time to do what all blokes with a new toy do, stand around staring at the thing for hours, poking and prodding and having all manner of people wanting to sit on the poor thing, the poor lad was itching to get out on a proper ride having been sat around for what seemed like months without a bike.

The first couple of rides were a bit of a trial, one or two moments which served to keep the concentration up were experienced, not that F'n'B was riding like a loon, but the last bike he rode was a Honda CB500 on his Direct Access test and the ZX6R is a totally different animal. They say that the first few years are a steep learning curve once you've passed your test, well, so is running out of petrol on your new bike on the way back from a run to Hartside cafe, lesson learned me thinks.

F'n'B's confidence was building nicely with each ride out and he was certainly handling the power of the bike with no real problems and it looked like we were in for a great summer. But alas, disaster was just around the corner, and it was a particularly expensive disaster for poor F'n'B.

Part 2 coming soon..................

Kinky wheels

When I bought my Blackbird back in September '08 it had black wheels, and while I thought the bike looked great the combination of Purple/Silver paintwork and Yellow decals with Black wheels didn't really make sense but that's what it was.

It was when I was chatting to the original owner, the guy who had the bike painted, and he said to me "I see you have painted the wheels Black, they were Yellow when I had the paintwork done"

So, a plan was put into place, I didn't want to send them off to a powder coaters in case the colour was shite, so I decided to give it a go myself. There are plenty of "how to" guides on-line and I felt confident enough to give it a go. I bought the gear, and set to. With the front wheel sanded down and the primer applied I was starting to feel a little nervous, but when the 6 coats of MG Yellow were added I felt a little better. All that remained was to apply 4 coats of clear lacquer and the wheel was done, and I was really pleased with the results.

I popped the wheel on the bike, stood back to admire the results and set about attacking the rear wheel. With both done I must say I reckon the bike looks great and really brings out the Purple. I get one or two comments from the guys I ride with "Oh my god! It's a council gritter" yeah, thanks for that Zippy.

Please feel free to comment.

Bungle

Burping!!!!!!!!!

A quick call out to any guys who have pics of Fruit'n'Barley's bike, both pre and post- op, I am gonna do a piece on the bike hopefully covering the full story from purchase to tragedy to oil filter burping? and back to glory again, yay......... So giz a shout if you possess any piccies

Ta

Bungle

New Bike for Zippy

Winter is drawing in and poor Zippy does suffer from the cold, bless him. Well, he certainly likes a nice woolly jumper to keep him nice and snug, and he would love a retro naked bike, plus we all know what his preferred bike colour is, so, I have searched and searched for something to help the lad out and I think I have found the perfect machine.

Welcome to your perfect bike Zippy

Bungle

Brits in WSB 2010

Admit it, next year is gonna be awesome, there where a good number of Brits competing in this years championship but next year we have the return of Mr. Toseland and the possibility of BSB champ Leon Camier riding for Aprilia. James Toseland's team mate for next year will be WSS champ Cal Crutchlow and with Haslam on a full factory Suzuki its gonna be a cracking year. Bring it on, Who's up for Donnington?

Bungle

VFR1200F

The new Honda VFR1200F is released soon. When I first caught a little sneak preview I was intrigued but also worried, especially since this bike was pencilled in to become the new Blackbird and VFR800 replacement, the last thing Honda needed was to ruin the reputation of two fantastic bikes. Honda's early press releases stated that the bike was going to be a "Super Tourer", all well and good but thoughts of a big Deauville did creep into my mind, that, I'm afraid to say would have been a massive blunder on Honda's part.

When the concept pictures appeared in the press, everyone was taken aback the bike looked fantastic, although it was clear it was never going to stay that way come the final production model.

So, when the final production model appeared in the press, I have to say I was a little underwhelmed. But, after a reading a couple of test ride articles and staring at the piccies, I can now proudly say that the bike is Effing gorgeous, and I want one, now, or I will hold my breath for a really long time.................

Bungle

Whitby and Pickering

A Sunday morning blast to Whitby was planned, and along for the trip were myself, Zippy, Papa Phallus, Fruit'n'Barley and Pathfinder. Fuelled up we set off toward Guisboro, just outside Marton we were at a set of lights waitng to move off when up in front there was a thick cloud of smoke coming from the front of the queue, we knew there were a few other bikers there and we thought one of them had done a burnout when pulling away from the lights, as we got closer we noticed a puddle of engine oil on the road, ouch, a huge Kawasaki cruiser thingy was pulling away from the lights when it's engine shat itself dumping oil over the hot exhaust (that explains the smoke then). Once through Guisboro we headed over the moors road to Whitby, this is a great road, not super technical but very busy and timing your overtakes keeps things fun and interesting without being dangerous, we all arrived at the Whistlestop cafe with big grins on our faces.

Checking out the other bikes at the cafe, we noticed a pair of SP2's, rare enough to see 1 never mind 2 together, oddly enough along for the ride with these two behemoths was an Aprilia RS125, oh well, must make for an interesting ride.

After a bit of a break we decided, advised by Pathfinder, to take the road to Pickering. Another cracking moors road, undulating and flowing with stunning views. While we were taking our time and picking our overtakes carefully I took a look in my mirror and noticed one of the SP2's coming up behind me, no careful overtakes for this guy, followed shortly after by the second one, they sounded fantastic i want one, another quick glance in the mirror and there was the RS125 right behind me, "no way" i said to myself, he overtook me and the other guys in our party. There was no way i was having that, so , I waited for a gap in the traffic pulled out and shot past the little Aprilia only to pull in again when traffic got heavy again, once again the little stinkwheel overtook us all, this was getting embarrassing.

Once more traffic cleared and we soon dispatched the RS and headed on back to Birk Brow via Hutton le Hole, where we stopped for an ice cream, the roads back to the A171 Whitby road were bumpy, almost empty (apart from sheep) but loads of fun and a little scary.

All in all it was a great run out with Pathfinder showing us a few cracking roads that were new to us and will be visited again in the near future.

Bungle