First bike... advice please

[Zealot]

Yea it's the black/red GPX250 for $2750 that he posted - I got it a bit cheaper than that though. IMO it's a fair price, it's not perfect, but it shouldn't be hard to shine up - needs a clean and some elbow grease to get it shiney again. My mate rode it and reckoned the brakes/steering/etc appeared fine, so I bought it.

I've been seeing heaps of bikes, but they're generally either overpriced, or utterly raped. This one has 36 000 kms, and those appear genuine from the wof history. I figured if I paid $4-500 more for an FZR with 55 000 kms, when I'm finished with it it'll have 60+ kms, which will make it harder to sell compared to a GPX with 45k kms.
Anyway, picking it up over the next few days hopefully.

While I'd like to say I'd have time to come on rides, my life is pretty much hell for the next year

TY 4th year Engineering, plus another very large time commitment. If I want to get 1st class hons I need to be studying like crazy for the next fortnight til my two exams (got psych109 this friday, biggest roffle, it's easy as), then spend my 3 weeks of "holiday" camped out in the labs and/or workshop working on my Final Year Project. I seriously cannot wait for next year - got a year of BSc next year to finish up on my conjoint. Will be easy time-wise. My class is ridiculously competitive and works very hard. I spent ~100 hours on my last design project, and ~40 each on two 15%ers.

AGV helmet is arriving tomorrow, got some mint gear I'm about to order from the states ( <3 the exchange rate - but it's difficult to find a place who doesn't overcharge on shipping ), so gloves and jacket should be a fortnight or so at a guess. Just waiting to see if another of my mates wants to order another pair of gloves at the same time (flat shipping rate). I would say I want to support NZ businesses, but quite frankly, I'm almost an engineer. My brain/hands are what will make me money over the next 40+ years, so I'd rather spend what money I have to get the best gear possible, whoever it comes from.

[motorbyclist]

As I said, I tried on an AGV helmet that was that size and it was basically perfect. Cheers for the advice though.

Going to see that GPX tonight btw - I'm interested but will let you know my thoughts.

whoa i thought that was invaderzim posting about buying gear, not you!

Ok, I just bought that GPX250. I'm tired of checking out dropped/thrashed cbr/zxr/fzrs - this one has original paintwork and has never been dropped as far as I can tell. There are no scuffs on the side of the handlebars or scratches on the fairings. Rather ridiculous in the 250cc market these days. Plus it was a fair bit cheaper than most I4s, so I'm not complaining.

Now my helmet/gloves/jacket just have to arrive

wait, first bike or was it you who had a certain incident involving a hornet900 "colliding" with your zealot?

(really hate to see people buy "bargains" when they don't know it's about to cost a lot in repairs or be endless trouble - hate to see people knowingly sell them without full disclosure too)

the helmet'd be bid, bu i'm pillion, so it woldn't be tht big a deal(would it???)

considering a crash is a crash nomatter where you are on the bike, yes it does matter...
...................... ........................... ........................................

(less dots and more punctuation plz, yopu're getting hard to read)


(ps i'm free from tuesday onwards for bike shopping)

[Zealot]

whoa i thought that was invaderzim posting about buying gear, not you!

wait, first bike or was it you who had a certain incident involving a hornet900 "colliding" with your zealot?

You wouldn't be 2nd Year mechanical?


Yep, first bike here. I wouldn't be buying a 250 if I wasn't on my learners. 400s are much more awesome for hte money.

I'm half a mechanical engineer anyway, and I'm familiar enough with cars and vehicles in general to spot a dud. Well that's the idea anyway. I didn't pick up anything grossly wrong with it and checked most of the things I could think of. It's difficult to pick things up when you're not a biker though...

[BANZAI]

hell ya... fully agree with u there man!!! haha, for example, catroons..i swear, things like gijoes aint got shit on the japanime! (big fan man... name it, and chances are, i've seen it or it's on the to see).... haha... but americans can pull off some things. their choppers are ok, but the the muscle cars are where they shine... (oldschool stuff tho)... their new things have lost the flare.

dude!... teach me japanese! i wanna make a trip there at some point in time, if note before my grad, then def in the first year after grad..... haha... where abouts u from (in japan)

Anime is great, but just Anime Fans are bunch of strange ppl

Yea Mustangs and KITT is cool (teh-heh) but meh, nimble small british lightweight or howling italian beauts are waaaay better (or Japanese enginnering)

I'm from Kyoto btw. Very nice place Take some Japanese General Ed paper!

[motorbyclist]

You wouldn't be 2nd Year mechanical?


Yep, first bike here. I wouldn't be buying a 250 if I wasn't on my learners. 400s are much more awesome for hte money.

I'm half a mechanical engineer anyway, and I'm familiar enough with cars and vehicles in general to spot a dud. Well that's the idea anyway. I didn't pick up anything grossly wrong with it and checked most of the things I could think of. It's difficult to pick things up when you're not a biker though...

2nd year mechatronics
do i know you?

yeah, cars and bikes are vastly different beasts - after a few hours working on bikes you'll soon realise how retarded cars really are
pays to have someone "in the know" around. wobbly swingarms, bent forks, shot bearings, loose chains (inside and out), chassis damage, misfiring, shot clutch - the last two a "driver" might spot, but the rest are a bit more specific and are more common than you'd think (man if only i took the fairings off my bike before buying it)

[BANZAI]

considering a crash is a crash nomatter where you are on the bike, yes it does matter

I just checked the helmet closely.

Ah, Made in China!!!

Its a Kylin, I can't see any DOT sticker on it. Looks new, no sign of scratch on surfaces but it have very strange crack near top of visor. Hmm could be the built quality is very bad.

Very dodgy........ LOL

When I get my full, I will tell my pillion to get their own helmets then

[Zealot]

Ahahahah! Enjoy 4th year you poor bastard.

I hope like hell they take our advice and restructure the courses. You will be seriously screwed in 4th year otherwise. I've lived in the labs for the past 6 weeks, and it has been seriously gay.

I assume you're taking machines and mechanisms then? I know 2nd year mechanical finish exams on Monday, hence the question.

And no I don't think I know you. However, feel free to come and say hi. I'll show you the mecha labs if you like, where you will be spending 4th year Take a right near 4.501 and you'll see it

I realise there's a big difference, which is why I took a mate with me. I don't think he's a mechanical genius (neither am I really), but it's more than I could get out of it.


[And if you still haven't realised, I'm 4th year mechatronics, and I don't mean to scare you into switching to straight mech. It's a good course, but has a ridiculous time requirement in 4th year]

[Zim_Invader]

considering a crash is a crash nomatter where you are on the bike, yes it does matter...
...................... ........................... ........................................

(less dots and more punctuation plz, yopu're getting hard to read)

(ps i'm free from tuesday onwards for bike shopping)

that was a bit (mind the phrase), blonde of me. hehe, wrong helmet size, and i was cool with that. shit that was bad. (my excuse for that = too much study!)(brain stopped working). yui, don't worry bout the helmet, i'll meet u guys there direct.

haha! my bad. (the dots have always been out of habbit. wil cut it down)

free from next tuesday.. sweet! i'll get in touch with the owners of the bikes i'm interested in and see how many are cool with viewing thereafter. (next weekend, maybe sunday? after my 2 hectic papers). - kyle, u cool with that too? we could just pass through motomail this week then, and thus save on our time away from study (it'll be the quick break). plus, i could always catch the link to motomail, no biggie there.

[Zim_Invader]

Anime is great, but just Anime Fans are bunch of strange ppl

haha! cheeky bugger! (nothing witty came to mind in time!)

was planning on doing a jap visual arts paper or something, as my general. apparently it's really chilled, and fully internal assessments, which is a massive plus! Kyoto huh. got a friend of mine who lives there too. but she works in osaka (mad trip to and from work everyday). don't know how she pulls it off. when i go, i gotta land in tokyo tho, and i'll make my way around from there - dude, landing in the middle of the city is mad! imagine the people that live right there. they get to see it everyday. the lucky buggers! (ofcourse, jet fumes and noise aside, it's all about the planes you see!).

[motorbyclist]

Ahahahah! Enjoy 4th year you poor bastard.

I hope like hell they take our advice and restructure the courses. You will be seriously screwed in 4th year otherwise. I've lived in the labs for the past 6 weeks, and it has been seriously gay.

I assume you're taking machines and mechanisms then? I know 2nd year mechanical finish exams on Monday, hence the question.

And no I don't think I know you. However, feel free to come and say hi. I'll show you the mecha labs if you like, where you will be spending 4th year Take a right near 4.501 and you'll see it

yeah my locker is right by the lab

i hear you guys have access to my locker between 9pm and 7:30am, so it can't be THAT bad

can't be much worse than 2nd year thus far
this last half of the semester has literally been100% workworkworkwork then 5 day break, mm2, day break, 223, day break, 242

half of that work (which is half doing shit twice) is due to the IDIOTS running the design paper and everything being due on the same fucken day/week with all the tests etc - and did i mention the next to nothing study break?

i actually slept through the deadline for my mm2 project that i finished a week early because of an all nighter for the 223 project - and it looks like i'll get zero marks for my 2 hours late project (talking to an ex doing BA, she lost 5% marks on an essay for handing in over a week late!)
now i have to get over well over 60% of the MM2 exam in 8 hours time to scrape a C-, and have had 3 days to learn the whole course in.... partly my fault there

and of course, had i done the electrical paper rather than machines and mechanisms, i'd have 3 days for 242 and a month for the electrical paper. it is SO DAMN frustrating how they deliberately organise this shit to have the worst possible timing - and they can't say it's unintentional cause they (should) know full well when our other exams/tests/assignments are

1st year was almost as bad for exams, but the 2nd year workload is really unbalanced, being "reasonable" for the first 8 weeks and then "nightmare mode" right up until AFTER exams only a week into the break

[Zealot]

I think it was the same for us in 2nd year, I disliked design intensely, though the warman project was rather cool.
Believe me though, 2nd year will seem easy when you get to 4th year. I think pretty much everyone in the class is working on assignments 9-5 at least every week, and probably sometimes on weekends/evenings, and spent the last fortnight in the labs til at least midnight each day. Obviously some people were marginally more organised, but even they stayed til late most nights.

The problem is that 3rd year is very easy time-wise. I think our class rep has raised it with the staff, not for our benefit, but for future years.

You don't have a proper design paper, and the two electrical papers are quite easy. If you did 208, analogue circuit design will be easy, similarly with digital circuit design. The lecturer (KC, you may have met him) is very good, which is partly why. Last year, 90% in Digital Circuit Design only got you a B+... So they're introducing more content into both. Imo they should be either making 208 compulsory (and hence making the 3rd year electrical papers more in-depth), or dropping 208 altogether and leaving the 3rd year papers alone.


Personally I'd prefer it if mechatronics was a 5 year degree and was a double-major in mechanical and computer systems engineering. There's a huge amount of each that we have to cut - imo another year would be brilliant. I'd love to take some more electrical papers (communications, more embedded stuff), and some more mechanical (eg third year MOM, thermal/fluids stuff)

[ital916]

3rd year mechanical ftw

[BANZAI]

got a friend of mine who lives there too. but she works in osaka (mad trip to and from work everyday).

don't know how she pulls it off. when i go, i gotta land in tokyo tho, and i'll make my way around from there - dude, landing in the middle of the city is mad! imagine the people that live right there. they get to see it everyday. the lucky buggers! (ofcourse, jet fumes and noise aside, it's all about the planes you see!).

Ohhh "she"... Kim! you gotta be friend with him! He can introduce Jap-girl for you!!!!

Is tokyo have airport in middle of city? I thought they are located near port.

I only went to Tokyo like 3-times. Strange place....

[klyong82]

Ohhh "she"... Kim! you gotta be friend with him! He can introduce Jap-girl for you!!!!

Is tokyo have airport in middle of city? I thought they are located near port.

I only went to Tokyo like 3-times. Strange place....

Forgot to tell you that I know someone who is half Japanese and she is very very very dear to me....and she is a model!! hehe

Hey all...Quasimoto having 07 glove clearance for $40 + $8 postage....get in quick I am about to order a set of blue gloves...brand new race gloves....

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=75110


By the way Banzai I might be off to tokyo next year ....woohooo if the uni approves it..

[motorbyclist]

Personally I'd prefer it if mechatronics was a 5 year degree and was a double-major in mechanical and computer systems engineering. There's a huge amount of each that we have to cut - imo another year would be brilliant. I'd love to take some more electrical papers (communications, more embedded stuff), and some more mechanical (eg third year MOM, thermal/fluids stuff)

yeah i myself didn't see the point in doing 208 if it wasn't a prerequisite for 308 so opted for 223, but unfortunately i already knew most of the course anyway (meanwhile 90% of the other students were all "wtf" while me and a few others are screaming "they havn't done that since the 80's! wtf, update the material you useless lecturer who sounds like you don't know what you're talking about" - seriously, if you're going to talk about engines actually understand and have some practical experience with them. we don't need a phd to read us labels on a diagram

and i've already been thinking of doing a 5th year to round everything off ever since looking at the mechatronics papers, and i agree we really do need it - don't we do a "mechatronics" paper? i thought that would combine alot of the mechanical/software/systems stuff we need into a mammoth of a paper

did you do that extra paper in 2nd year about software or something? it's an elective that becomes your 5th paper in the one semester. is it worth it?