I gots me a new bike (again). Rant included! For FREE!

**zeocen** · 25th April 2008, 00:05

Welp, I downgraded.

Or upgraded?

Richard Mc F is gonna be pissed at me! But alas, it had to be done. My Blackbird was just not getting the attention it deserved, working 7 days a week, I never had time to take it out and it was sucking me dry on commuting, I had no option but to suck in my pride and let him go. Yes, it was a boy.

HOWEVER, the silver lining turned out to be silver, gold, platinum and every other shade of awesomeness, that is, the Kawasaki ER6F/Ninja 650r.

This bike, is more than a 'step up' bike that people seem to label it as. To say I am gobsmacked at the handling and performance of this middleweight twin is an understatement, yeah I love my kawasaki's, but this.. this is something special.

Do I miss the CBR1100XX Blackbird? I miss it's custom trimit.co.nz seat, that's about it. I covered a mild 308km today on the ER6F and I loved every god damn second of it because I was once again CONTROLLING the bike, I was changing gears, I was weaving, leaning, counter steering, it was letting me do it all, I was working with it and it worked back. I had nostalgic memories of the GPX250, engine knocking around, kicking gears in coming in and leaving corners, just, wow. I can actually do stuff than just stay in 6th gear and get from A -> B in 0.00002 seconds.

Now I really loved my Blackbird, but my current situation, I couldn't warrant keeping it. The ER6F, although the looks are quite love/hate, is an outstanding bike that doesn't get enough credit. I downgraded, to an upgrade in fun. THIS is the bike I will keep until the engine dies, it is *me*.

Things I will be looking at changing:
New exhaust, I don't know why everyone says it's quiet? It's a good volume, but it is 15lbs so I would like to shave a few pounds off and get a nicer tone.
Lower bars, this will be in the farrrr, far future, coming from a ZZR1100 and then a CBR1100XX, the high rise position is a welcomed change.
Front forks, Race-Tech Spring and Emulator Package. Dropping it into the stock forks seems to change the bike radically and becomes a very happy track bike so people say.
Windscreen, the small wind screen buffers on my chin guard which means my already noisy Arai helmet becomes super noisy, I usually wear earplugs anyway so it's not so much of an issue, but something I'd like to do.
Cup Holder, because I fucking can, shut up.

I realise this is a long post, but I actually thought I was falling 'out of love' with bikes, turns out I just needed to actually put some damn thought and rational into my bike purchase. I don't see me going back to litre bikes for a very, very long time.

Please forgive the photos, gijoe1313 was at the helm of the camera and my instructions ("no take the photo from behind the sun! no, there, no, stop, wait, argh!"), it looks much, MUCH, prettier in person.

**gijoe1313** · 25th April 2008, 00:07

I dunno, these kawa fanbois just keep mooshing on about their prosthetic enhancements ...

**Jeaves** · 25th April 2008, 00:08

Congrats on the purchase Zeo

**DingoZ** · 25th April 2008, 00:15

Noice pick......... Glad to hear the "Feeling" has come back..

**yod** · 25th April 2008, 00:18

so have you sold the blackbird? i was semi-interested.....

ahwell

**zeocen** · 25th April 2008, 00:22

Ahh sorry mate, yeah it's gone to a very eager lady in Chch. Had quite a lot of interest, understandably

**Lucy** · 25th April 2008, 00:23

Congrats on getting a fun bike! These were on my list after seeing Minnies, nicely done.

**DingoZ** · 25th April 2008, 00:29

Just had a looksee at the piccies. Is it brand spankers....?

**xwhatsit** · 25th April 2008, 01:54

That's a shiny wee sickle. Does it go?

I know what you're talking about -- involvement. Same thing I keep whining about with the GSXR6 I straddled briefly; no sense of `doing' things. Just sit there and look somewhere and it zooms off and does everything. Doesn't really feel terribly exciting.

At 200kph around a race-track it's probably a different story and makes sense; same with the XX, it is probably marvellous at a steady 100mph between here and Invercargill, but as a work-a-day bike it's not right.

**Romeo** · 25th April 2008, 02:18

Beautiful bike, Mordeth will be pleased. It would look great with a TrimIt seat on it that's for sure!

**skidMark** · 25th April 2008, 02:38

Turns out you arn't a fag after all.

**musicman** · 25th April 2008, 05:29

Originally Posted by zeocen

Things I will be looking at changing:
New exhaust, I don't know why everyone says it's quiet? It's a good volume, but it is 15lbs so I would like to shave a few pounds off and get a nicer tone.

Nice bike!

I was considering one of these for when I get my full licence.

Saw one in the city on Customs St a few weeks ago, waiting at traffic lights, I was a pedestrian. Turned away then turned back and saw that it had taken off, but I never heard it take off. So yes, definitely get a new pipe!

**zeocen** · 25th April 2008, 09:03

Originally Posted by DingoZ

Just had a looksee at the piccies. Is it brand spankers....?

Yup, braaand new! Got her on Sunday from Mt Eden (customer service there = wow! Amazing!). Put just over 510km on it, need to up my game a bit!

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

That's a shiny wee sickle. Does it go?

I know what you're talking about -- involvement. Same thing I keep whining about with the GSXR6 I straddled briefly; no sense of `doing' things. Just sit there and look somewhere and it zooms off and does everything. Doesn't really feel terribly exciting.

At 200kph around a race-track it's probably a different story and makes sense; same with the XX, it is probably marvellous at a steady 100mph between here and Invercargill, but as a work-a-day bike it's not right.

Yeah man, exactly. I need to be involved in it, I'm not saying litre bikes don't have a place on the road.. the big ones, ZZR1100/1200, Birds etc, they are absolutely gobsmackingly awesome in the right hands, and an assfull of luggage + pillion, it warrants having one, but me? Not so much. I have all the time in the world to crawl back up to there, for now 650 is a very nice range.

Oh well, another day, another planned ride around the south of Auckland! Might have to book that 1,000k service earlier than I thought.

Thanks for the congrats guys!

**zeocen** · 27th April 2008, 14:34

Well, 1047 kms on the clock, figured I'd give it a 1000km review.

*wipes a tear* I'm home.
Lets be clear.. I was a very 'moderate' rider before this, I carved up my share of corners on the GPX and was known to scrape a few toes and the odd peg on the ZZR1100 but nothing major, all in all I was very timid but this bike just BEGS to be thrown over and abused.
It ate everything up, and being a 'moderate' rider I did infact slip up a few times.. nothing major, just wider than I would have liked, going over a bump mid corner, the bike tells me off and then gets on with it's thang.

Going along the Waikato twisties yesterday it was a thing of pure beauty, it's stuff like this where you really wouldn't care if what you were riding was a rainbow bright fluro bike, because it's *that* rewarding from riding. I was riding with gijoe1313 and he was well and truly gone from my vision, rather than try keep up I decided to use SH22 to test my abilities on the bike.

Damn! I'm a pretty good rider! Or at least that's what the bike led me to believe, I'm not a bad rider, but there's a lot of room for improvement in all areas, this bike lets me improve, improve and improve. I'm considering keeping the stock bars on full time, the seating position is VERY nice for the corners. We all know the shocking road of SH22 and some of these bumps caught me off by suprise, I was coming around a bend and hit a bit of sunken road, bounced around, bike said "no probs mate, small wheel base and all, sheesh, you really had a shit time with the litre bikes, didn't ya?", and I was back on track! On the one time I went wide and got too close to the centre line that I liked, I just looked further around, dipped in a bit more and the bike went on rails and followed me. Awesome.

All in all, this is what motorcycling is about. Learning what you can do, knowing what you'll eventually be able to end up doing, getting back to the good stuff, everything.

My bum was a bit sore on the way to Hamilton after 3 days of 200 - 300km riding each day but it's a small price to pay for the absolute fun I have on this bike, no matter where I go. And as fate would have it, while getting some munchies the other day I noticed the latest KiwiRider mag with "TESTED: Kawasaki Ninja650r" on the front. Of course I had to see what they had to say about it, and I will end this rant with the ending statement in the magazine as it sings very true to me, as ego ruled my other bike purchases.

"Ego might convince us to buy something faster, but that's a shame because this is a real bike, for real roads, and for real people who want to ride all the time, in a variety of conditions."