Originally Posted by
light
The death of a GN 250.
Sorry to say the GN was in terrible shape
Pleased to hear that the rider is OK, but I have mixed feelings as to whether or not the death of another GN is a bad thing.
Let me explain.
My wife owns one. Actually, technically I own it but it's effectively hers.
It is Chinese built and cost me 3 grand brand new with a year's warranty. The engineering standards used in building this machine are, in some areas, truly appalling. For example the axle nuts are so loose on the threads that I do not tighten them up properly for fear of stripping them. The bike chewed out the speedo drive gears on the front wheel in about 3000 km and when I replaced them, I discovered that the originals had so much backlash, it was a wonder that they ever drove at all.
However, in the important areas like brakes etc, it seems sound enough, although I keep a close eye on it.
Frankly, it is about what I expected in a $3000 motorcycle and in my opinion, like the old Skodas, is actually good value for money.
Now, my wife is eligible to sit for her full license next week and indeed has booked to do just that. I think that she will succeed. What concerns me about all this is that the odo on the GN reads a total of about 6500km, 800 of which I contributed, running the beast in. The rest has been spent mainly commuting on the Auckland Southern Motorway, which I suppose says something positive about my wife's traffic management skills. However, in terms of passenger miles, I believe that this same motorway is actually the safest road in the country and so I guess the discussion is moot.
My point is that she has very little open road experience and next week could well be in a position to legally climb on our Trumpy and disappear in a cloud of dust, shit and small stones.
We recently went down to Hawkes Bay to stay with rellies at Porangahau Beach and so I encouraged her to take the GN. This meant that I could toddle along behind her on the Triumph and keep an eye on things such as preventing impatient drivers from tailgating her.
It is about 500 km from our drive to Porangahau and we went down via Raglan. The trip down was over 2 days, stopping overnight with friends in Reporoa, but coming home directly. So I guess we covered about 1200 km in 3 days riding.
I learned quite a lot about my wife's riding; -
1. She actually does quite well, riding within her skill limits and with good situational awareness.
2. In adverse conditions, such as head winds or up hills, she has no hesitation in wacking the GN down a gear or two and wringing the tits off it - poor little thing.
3. She is a very courteous rider and as soon as faster traffic collects behind her, she finds somewhere to pull over and let them past.
I learned a good deal about myself and the Sprint too: -
1. Following a GN for 3 days improves the Triumph's fuel economy from about 19 km/liter to about 24.5 km/liter. The GN did about 34 km/liter on the way down and about 31 on the way back.
2. I learned restraint. Believe me, sitting on a 120 hp sport/touring machine and pulling over to let boat trailers, people movers and campers go past in the twisties, is the absolute epitome of restraint.
3. I also learned that GN's are such good value for money, that if the little shit had given us the slightest trouble on the way home, I would have had no compunctions at all about chucking it in the nearest ditch and putting the wife back on the Trumpy's pillion seat.
So.... sad that another GN has died???
No mate - they are expendable.
I may not be as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I always was.
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