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Wolf
25th January 2005, 14:08
G'day all

Just by way of introducing myself:

I've been riding on the road since I was 18 (I'm 42 in August) - mucked about on farm bikes since I was about 10.

Over the years I have owned a variety of motorcycles. In approximate order:

Yamaha RX125 – 2-stroke single
Suzuki TS125 – 2-stroke single
Yamaha RD350 – 2-stroke twin
Honda CB360 – 4-stroke twin
1966 Puch SR150 – 150cc 2-stroke single, pre-mix
Suzuki GT50 – 2-stroke single
Suzuki GT125 – 2-stroke single
1954 Zόndapp Bella 154 – 150cc 2-stroke single, pre-mix
Honda CB550 – 4-stroke 4 cylinder
Suzuki LS400 – 4-stroke single (current bike)
Suzuki GSX250 - 4-stroke twin (current bike)

Regrettably neither the LS400 nor the GSX250 are on the road at the moment. The LS's cam assembly is totally stuffed and the GSX stops running after about 2 minutes. So far, fixing the GSX looks more promising (at least it does run) as it will cost less to fix and it's more powerful than the LS400! (21.6kW vs 17.9kW)

I've also had the fun of riding my brother-in-law's GT550 triple while I was staying down in Wellington.

I hope one day to get my "dream bike" - 1980's BMW R100CS.

I took one for a test spin years ago in my TS125/RD350 days (so I was relatively inexperienced, the most powerful thing I had ridden was the aforementioned GT550) and I absolutely loved it. BMW's claim of "The Ultimate Riding Machine" is not wrong!

My test ride of the Beemer was amusing:

I was, as I said, relatively inexperienced so I decided I would take it easy - unfamiliar machine, damn-sight bigger and more powerful than the RD or bro's GT, no way I could afford the excess if I wrote it off etc.

Rolled out the driveway of the shop at 40 and took her up the road a way. Gradually took her up to 50 and had my first surprise - changed down a tad suddenly and found that she yawed wildly to the right.

I wasn't that inexperienced and near death does wonders for my reflexes so I corrected and throttled off properly for all subsequent gear changes. It pays to respect high-torque shaft drives whose flywheel and clutch plate both rotate in the same direction (I understand that in the "K" models they were set to counter-rotate to lessen the tendency to yaw).

Took the bike home and got a friend to snap some pics of me on it (as you do when you're young and get to ride a 1000cc BMW).

Then I took it back to the shop:

Hamiltonians may know Whitiora Bridge. I left Casey Ave, close to the bridge, accelerated smoothly to 80 and shot across the bridge. As I left the bridge, the lights at Victoria St started to change so I stopped at the lights. Went up to Tristram Street (back in the days when it was a straight right-of-way all the way down before they ruined it with all those roundabouts), shot down there at 80 and took it back to the shop.

Getting off the bike, I had my second nasty surprise for the day - I suddenly noticed that the speedo was calibrated in miles per hour, rather than kilometres per hour as I had assumed (after all, the Germans have been using the metric system since the dawn of time).

So much for "taking it easy"! I had left the shop at 64km/h and moved up from there. The sudden realisation I'd been zapping around town at up to 128km/h was knee-wobbling to say the least. The idea that the bike had yawed wildly to the right at 80km/h is the stuff of nightmares.

A good friend of mine once told me his BMW K100 "rides itself" - after riding the older R100, I believe him. I honestly did not realise that the bike was going 1.6 times faster than I thought it was going - it handled better at 80 miles an hour than my other bikes handled at 80km/h.

Mind you, the only other time I had ridden at 80mph was on my old RD350 - took me the better part of a long straight to get up to that speed and the bike was juddering like a bastard (more experienced riders thought I was an idiot for riding the RD at all as the frame was slightly twisted).

Why a 1980's R100? In a word: Carburettors. In several words: I know jack about fuel injection systems but I can at least strip and clean a carb if I need to.

Cars: hate 'em. "Coffins on wheels" as they say. Ever try to bail from a car if it's about to slide into a truck? Twice I've voluntarily parted company with the bike to avoid a potentially fatal encounter. Never want to be trapped in a car under similar circumstances.

Drive a car when I have to (my kids are too young to pillion on the road).

StoneChucker
25th January 2005, 14:22
Hi wolf.

Welcome to the site. Thats a great test ride story :2thumbsup Thats also quite a selection of bike's you've owned!

Hope you get your dream bike in the near future.
Eitherway, keep an eye on this forum, and there are heaps of meetings and rides you can join in on.

Regards,
David.

Ms Piggy
25th January 2005, 14:28
Welcome along Wolf :)

Riff Raff
25th January 2005, 14:39
Hi welcome to KB :wavey:

LB
26th January 2005, 04:53
Hi Wolf. Welcome to the KB gargre.

I've had numerous BM's (R80, R850R x 2, R1150R) - they're great bikes. My husband had a K100RS for 12 years. the four valve boxers are totally different bikes to ride than the two valve boxers.

.

outlawtorn
26th January 2005, 10:20
Hi Wolf,

Hope you have a howlin' good time :killingme

C-ya

inlinefour
26th January 2005, 23:22
welcome and enjoy :)

LB
27th January 2005, 04:35
.
.
PS:

Hubby's still got an R1100S - lovely bike (almost as nice as a Ducati!)
.
.

Dodgyiti
27th January 2005, 08:40
G'day, and nice intro.
Fuel injection to me is a godsend over carbs.
You don't have to know jack about it because you will not be constantly balancing or adjusting it, totally reliable, and if it isn't, you just unbolt the problem bit and whack on a new one. :blink:

Biff
27th January 2005, 10:19
:spudwave:

Wolf
27th January 2005, 10:51
.
.
PS:

Hubby's still got an R1100S - lovely bike (almost as nice as a Ducati!)
.
.

Probably cheaper to maintain ;)

vifferman
27th January 2005, 11:05
G'day yourself, Wolf. Welcome to Kiwi Biker! :spudwave:

EFI is good (when it's working well....)