kave
21st September 2008, 15:56
My wife and I have been planning to take January off and tour around New Zealand. Originally our plan was to take two bikes, her on a 250 and me on my 350, unfortunately due to her sustaining a head injury the plans got altered to doing the tour 2-up. Although a Suzuki Goose is a very fun bike with a full racing crouch riding position, handles like it is on rails, and has enough power to get me into trouble with the police, it is not suitable for a month of touring 2-up.
I got permission from she who must be obeyed, and started looking for something along the lines of a 650cc Bandit. Unfortunately I soon realised that due to my lack of funds I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for people who were trying to downsize their bikes, and offering to do trades. Finally I found Xman, a fellow KBer, who was looking for something a little more sedate, offered him a few dollars on top of the swap (more than I could really afford, but it's only money), and now I am the proud owner of a GSX-R 1100M. Roughly twice the weight of my 350, and more than quadruple the power.
The weight almost caught me out the first time I had to stop on a corner, and I had to leap off the bike, catch it, and leap back on. I am still not particularly confident on it yet, but I made it home safely, and I think with regular practise it will be the perfect bike for what I am planning on doing.
I got permission from she who must be obeyed, and started looking for something along the lines of a 650cc Bandit. Unfortunately I soon realised that due to my lack of funds I would have to broaden my search. I started looking for people who were trying to downsize their bikes, and offering to do trades. Finally I found Xman, a fellow KBer, who was looking for something a little more sedate, offered him a few dollars on top of the swap (more than I could really afford, but it's only money), and now I am the proud owner of a GSX-R 1100M. Roughly twice the weight of my 350, and more than quadruple the power.
The weight almost caught me out the first time I had to stop on a corner, and I had to leap off the bike, catch it, and leap back on. I am still not particularly confident on it yet, but I made it home safely, and I think with regular practise it will be the perfect bike for what I am planning on doing.