Well, last week on my way to the NASS my ol' faithful Honda Rebel died on me on the motorway. This bike's taken me to all four corners of the North Island, i've had my best biking experiances on it, I rode it hard and finally, like a good work horse, it met it's day.
Managed to melt the crank which meant a new engine, not in the books for me since i've been looking to upgrade bikes since I got my full on the 1st of August last year..
Finally some enthusiasm to actually go and get one. I scowered Trademe, found a beautiful cafe racer, an SRX 600 single cylinder, went to go check it out and it was sold as soon as I knocked on the door to the person who snuck in 5 minutes before.
Went home a little gutted, looked on Trademe again, and there it was.. my dream bike of the past 2 years. A Yamaha FZX 750, better known as the 'Mini Vmax'. It was in my price range, in great condition, it was a dream come true. Except.. it was in Opotiki, a mere 350km's away.
Plans were arranged to catch a bus down and ride it back, and then all there was to do was wait. This morning, I woke up at 5:30, and caught the bus at 6am. A rather dull, dead silent bus trip for 6 and half hours and I finally arrived in Rotorua, buses are bloody slow..
Transferred buses to do the final 2 1/2 leg to Opotiki, the bus managed to get pulled over by the police and every passanger got a nice $100 bill for not wearing their seat belts, except for me. Call me paranoid but I hate cages and always wear my seat belt. Saved me much needed cash.
Arrived in Opotiki, tired, miserable from the trip but desperate to see the bike. What a beauty.. The ludicrous amounts of chrome, the two short fat exhausts sticking out each end like rocket launchers, the intimidating inline 4 engine I was satisfied, to say the least..
Pleasentries (and money) exhanged and the bike was all mine. I had atleast 350km's of road to get to grips with this new monster, and I was more then happy to do it. I was going to show the bus how to REALLY get around the country.
At first, I was jerky with the throttle, intimidated by it's power, I braked hard before each corner and nannied it round dare I even entertain the thought of dropping it. This lasted all of about.. 50k's...
Then, did I start to discover what this bike could do. It was described as a traffic light racer, and I can understand why. 0-100 before my brain even comprehended what was going on, and it just kept on pulling like that.. Through all the gears up to fourth (at that point the speedo was off the clock with still two more gears to go... shall need a new speedo me thinks..)
Along my journies I caught up with a middle aged man and his mistress in a red ferarri.. what a fantastic looking car. A lovely growel from the exhaust, but it was more bark then bite. He took offense to me passing him and gave chase, this became alot of fun. He passed me on occasion, and I passed him many more times. He couldn't even come close to the pure acceleration this bike offered, or the max speed the mental rider was willing to bring it to.. I pulled over in a gas station, he followed, pleasentries were exchanged again and we went our seperate ways.
The whole ride was pure bliss, everything I had hoped and wanted, and then a hell of alot more.
Atlast, I have a big bike. I can see why you wouldn't want to go back to a 250..
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Originally Posted by Nagash
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