Bikeless. Sob, sniff.

[Hitcher]

Last Saturday I bid a fond farewell to the Mighty FJR, now en route to Los Angeles.

Yesterday, Mrs H and I mounted her usually reliable Suzuki Bandit, and sallied forth for a day of two-up riding. El Bandito acquitted itself in its usual impeccable manner until we attempted to accelerate away from the Maungaraki lights. Poof. Just enough momentum to coast into the roadworks island area, dismount and see what the problem was. No ignition. Plenty of battery, fuses OK, albeit very wet and corroded.

When she bought her Bandit, Mrs H got Dave Andersons to fit a Scotoiler. In their efforts to get everything stowed tidily under the seat, they had turned the fusebox upside down. So rather than turning rain and other moisture off as Mr Suzuki had intended, instead it acted like a funnel, collecting water amongst fuses and relays.

TSS to the rescue. Pip squirted CRC and jiggled fuses around. Ignition! Woo hoo!

Off again we were. Blatting magnificently in the soon-to-be-winter sunlight.

Just before we reached the Kaitoke watersupply side road, at about 110kmh, we had ignition failure again. Squeezing in the clutch, we nearly made the Kaitoke Gardens carpark. Having seen Pip in action, I jiggled fuses, but to no avail.

Sigh.

The Bandit now resides in a locked shed at Kaitoke. After a $40 taxi ride to Upper Hutt railway station, the Metlink public transport network eventually saw us safely home.

TSS will be uplifting a very dead Bandit from Kaitoke on Tuesday.

What a waste of a couple of great riding days. Mutter, mumble.

[munterk6]

and all because ya let some muppets fit the scott oiler for ya...tsk tsk, I hope you make them pay for the hassle and inconvenience.
I never let anyone do any work on my vehicles, if and when they do fail, Ive only got myself to kick up the arse!!

[Nasty]

Bummer Hitch ... life just really ain't fair sometimes ... oh well a couple of days to catch up on housework?

[Trudes]

Arse biscuit indeed tagger!!
Bugger Hitchers!


must refrain from saying anything nasty about Suzukis

[FROSTY:Me]

Thattl teachya fer sellin the best bike built in years

[Hitcher]

Thattl teachya fer sellin the best bike built in years

The FJR ain't sold. It's going to the USA to cart us around when we join it in Los Angeles in mid July.

[Swoop]

Hopefully the Gremlins are having their wicked motorcycle-related way with your bikes here.

... Much better than having them strike whilst "over there"...

[Colapop]

The FJR ain't sold. It's going to the USA to cart us around when we join it in Los Angeles in mid July.

Indeed sir, not bikeless as such, merely separated (albeit by some thousands of kilometres) soon to be reunited.

[Pussy]

There, there, Hitcher... not too many sleeps till you're reunited with the FJR

[MIXONE]

I nearly felt sorry for you until I remembered that in a few weeks time you will be riding around in the California sunshine while the rest of us plebs get wet,cold and winter shitty!

[DingoZ]

Hopefully there is some recourse available for you from Andersons, as they certainly have changed things around which has contributed to the current problem...?

[gijoe1313]

Poopers So, an out of spec fitting of a crucial component led to the demise of two days riding? Arse!

Ah welps, never mind ... just think of all that lovely American scenery you will be partaking of when you re-unite with a bike handily arranged for that purpose!

[James Deuce]

Did I, or did I not, offer one the Zed?

Come and get it tomorrow morning.

Over & Out.