Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Right On Man!!!

I couldn't agree more.

I am tantalizingly close to having the bike back on the road. I spent most of today getting a roadworthy inspection and chasing down third party property insurance (compulsory here in Aust) so I could get the bike registered today.

Firstly I had the bike booked in for its roadworthy inspection and I had been stressing about this moment for a while. Since I used many aftermarket parts I thought I might have a few problems passing but I needn't have worried.
All the guy did was check the VIN and engine numbers were right checked all the lights worked and that the tyres weren't bald. He also squeezed the front brake lever and saidsince you didn't die getting here the brakes must be fine.

I got all the paper work and headed home relieved that theinspection part was over. Once home I rang around for quotes on the CTP insurance and I am glad I did as they ranged from $417 to $629. Once I located the cheapest she said I would receive the paperwork in 5 to 7 working days! I want it on the road sooner but I needed to take the paperwork to the motor registry for the registration. An hour and a half later I located a place I could purcase the CTP over the counter so I could get the bike registered today. So I finally wander into the registry this afternoon with all of the necesarry documentation and receipts and see my nice new numberplate sitting there only to be told I need another damned inspection.

Due to the bike being less than ten years old and was written off I was told that the bike required another inspection with the VIU or vehicle identity unit. I told them that I had read all of the requirements for re-registration on their website and this was hardly mentioned. The lady says, No, it is on there that you would have needed this inspection. This is ALL it says "All second-hand vehicles requesting establishment of registration (including interstate and imported vehicles) may be selected for an additional inspection by the RTA's vehicle identity unit. You will be notified at the time of registration if you are selected.". I was not happy.

So tomorrow I get to go on a nice ride up the coast as I asked for an inspection as soon as possible and the best they could do was 45min-1hr away. It will be a good chance to blow some cobwebs out of me and the bike.

Well the mighty Bandit is officially/legally back on the road.
I had a nice wet ride to get to the last of the required inspections but it was worth the trip as it was pretty much just a formality to check on the VIN and engine numbers and to certify all of my receipts for the repairs made.

Obviously I have not had a chance to take the bike for a ride of more than a few minutes since I bought it so it was a good oportunity to see how it went overall. With the fairing removed I was expecting a lot more wind buffeting but I was surprised how much protection just my guages gave me. I wouldn't want to ride around the country but it wouldn't be a chore to sit on 140 for a few hours.

Being a wet ride on a new bike (which still have the stock tyres that from all accounts are terrible) not to mention my first decent trip since my accident, I must admit I was a little uneasy for the first few km's. To the point of going around corners and thinking about all the things I could hit if I came off at that particular moment.

15-20 minutes later all of that negative thought was behind me and I was just enjoying that feeling of being completely aware of your surroundings that you can only get whilst riding. The smells, the feel of the air, everything is just battering your senses instead of being cut off from the world by metal and glass. I will never tire of it.

I also seem to be having a problem with the fuel petcock. If I start the bike on "prime" it runs fine but as soon as I switch to "on" it drops cylinders and eventually stalls. I rode the 45 minutes up the freeway with it on "prime" and thought the ride would clear out any small blockages so as soon as I rode into Gosford I switched over to the "on" position. Within a minute I had to pull off down a side-street where the bike eventually stalled.
I let it sit for a few minutes, switched back and away she went. This weekend I will have to check all the fuel and vaccuum lines to see if it is anything obvious and at worst pull the petcock off and check it out.

On top of that I plan on raising the back of the bike a few inches to give it a little quicker steering and improve the looks somewhat. It is a simple process that should only require a couple of hours to fab up a couple of shorter dog bones.

I just read through your whole blog for the first time, and all I can possibly say is... wow. And replace the tires

It's always nice to see someone getting back on their bike after they have a spill, and I got one am honored that you decided to share all of this with us. Hopefully some of the squids out there will at least learn something about protective gear.

Keep the rubber side down, I wish I had. And the risk is totally worth it isn't it? I wouldn't give up riding for anything.

I had my first decent ride on some nice twisty roads today. One of the great things about only working till 10.30am is that the rest of the day can be used for nice lazy rides on relatively empty roads. There is a nice road 10 minutes from where I live that is a Mecca for motorcyclists in the Sydney area as it is about 50kms of a good mix of bends that most cars tend to avoid due to the freeway which runs in the same direction.

I decided that I would just have a nice casual ride and get a feel for the bike as I am still getting used to it. I took a couple of before and after shots of the rear tyre as the chicken strips the previous owner had left on it indicated that they were a less than spirited rider and I needed a comparison.

Before:


After:


I was surprised at how sore my leg got in such a short space of time. I was only out for about an hour and a half but I could hardly walk once I got off the bike. I must say it was more than worth it.

Another thing that was a cause for a bit of concern was the rapidly decreasing sole on the toe/side of my right boot. Due to the large amount of nerve and soft tissue damage the accident caused I have lost a lot of feeling and movement in my ankle so it made it hard to tell exactly where my foot was sitting on the peg. I would be tucked nicely into a corner only to feel and hear my boot dragging on the ground. That will definitely be something I will have to concentrate on in the future.

I took my camera with me on the ride with the intention of taking a few nice pictures of the area but as usual I was having too much fun to bother stopping. Maybe next time...
I did get one shot of a rest break when my leg, and I must admit, my unacustomed backside got a little too sore. It is a beautiful area right on the Hawkesbury river with a lot of nice cafes etc that tend to cater to the bike crowd.

Sevulturus wrote:I just read through your whole blog for the first time, and all I can possibly say is... wow. And replace the tires

It's always nice to see someone getting back on their bike after they have a spill, and I got one am honored that you decided to share all of this with us. Hopefully some of the squids out there will at least learn something about protective gear.

Keep the rubber side down, I wish I had. And the risk is totally worth it isn't it? I wouldn't give up riding for anything.

The risk is definitely worth it. As you said, I do hope that some people read this and realise that proper riding gear can be a pain to put on all the time but in the event of an accident it more than makes up for it.
It is good to hear someone say that it is nice to see me back on the bike after the accident. I have had months and months of people looking at me with these incredulous expressions on their faces when I tell them that I have every intention of continuing to ride a motorcycle.
They just don't get it.

My wife has been remarkably supportive throughout the ordeal and is very aware of the passion that I have for riding so she knew I would have no intention of quitting. She has been harrassed by friends and family about me riding and in some instances been made to feel like a less than caring wife for "allowing" me to ride.
I got the bike back on the road on the Friday and on the Saturday she and the kids drove up to Brooklyn via the old road and on the way passed a fatal motorcycle accident. The police had just arrived and the ambulance was on its way so the poor rider was lying on the side of the road covered with a white sheet. His bike was still wedged underneath the guardrail he had hit and all his riding buddies were standing around forlornly. When she got home she was the most shaken I have ever seen her. She knows riding is dangerous, but to see the worst case scenario laid out in front of her was just too much.

Tomorrow I plan on going for a nice group ride with a bunch of blokes from work. Since we all ride bikes at work, a lot of us also ride our own. There should be about ten or so turn up for the ride on everything from an '05 GSX-R1000 to a Honda 650 motard and everything in between, and I am looking forward to it muchly.

Today was an absolutely cracking day for a ride. The sun was out and there was a slight breeze blowing so it was perfect for a nice leisurely ride. Or so I thought.

I was of the impression that I rode pretty quickly, but always at a speed where if I was nabbed by the cops I would keep my license. Well, today was a real eye opener for me.

The only other time I have partaken in a group ride was many years ago during a motorcycle awareness ride. There were over a thousand bikes on the day and we had a police escort so things were pretty stop-start.

Today was a completely different kettle of fish. Ten of us started out at a local service station and headed down to a lovely area called Berowra waters. We crossed the river four times today so as a result the only photos I took were either on the ferry across or waiting for it.







There was a fair mix of bikes: Kawasaki ZX-9R, Honda CBR900RR, Kawa ZZR600, KTM 600 motard, Honda XR650, Honda CBR250RR, Suzuki GSX-R1000, A Honda CBR600RR, a nice Moto Guzzi that I forgot the model of and my 1200 Bandit.

A couple of the riders were a little slower so they settled in down the back and there was another bloke and myself that were just getting back on bikes after crashes so we started a little hesitantly. The funny thing is the other fellow just getting back on re-registered his bike about a week after mine and has the next number plate in the sequence, so we must have looked like a pair.

The pace was set about 40 above the posted limits but sometimes we were nearly doubling it. I love to ride fast but since I am still getting used to the bike and my lack of confidence in the tyres I was a little slower than I wanted to be in the bends. I had a couple of loose moments overcooking it coming into a few corners and berated myself through the next couple until I had sorted myself out.

One habit I do have to get out of is getting on the gas too early coming out of a lean, especially on the right hand side of the tyre. That was how I managed to crash back in May and did it several times today as well (lit up the back tyre, not crashed).

We stopped at the Wisemans Ferry pub for a few refreshments and a meal and saw all sorts of bikes come and go as this is a popular ride on the weekends. An HD club roared up on some type of poker run to pack the place out so we decided it was as good a time as any to head off.

All in all it was a great ride a little over five hours long including a lunch break and four ferry trips and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

One more for good measure:

Well, I am finally back delivering mail. It has been nearly six months since my accident and the doctor and I agreed that I was now in a good enough condition to get back out on the bike and deliver mail. Surprisingly my employer, Australia Post, were not as enthusiastic about the decision as I was. Who would have thought that my boss would not be happy when I came in and said I am right to do my job again?

I have had to deal with Aust Posts rehabilitation and compensation department back in 2000 when I broke my wrist and I ended up having several run-ins with various individuals due to conflicting opinions. Mainly one that they were telling me to get back to work because everything "should" be fine when it so obviously (and painfully) wasn't. They sent me off to see several seperate specialists and chose to ignore the evidence from my treating specialist regarding the extent of my injury. This dragged on to the point of me taking 12 months leave without pay to give my injury the rest and recovery it needed plus try out a few different things before I went back.

So you can understand my astonishment when I told them that I was right to work and they said that they would be happier if I had a more gradual return to work program over the next few weeks. We have come to an uneasy agreement where I will only be on the bike for about two hours a day, as opposed to the usual four or five for the next week. This should apparently give my body time to adjust to the demands that I am placing upon it. Craziness.

I have well and truly caught the bug of modifying my bike. I have owned several bikes over the last 13 years and at no point did I do anything other than to maintain the bikes in their stock configuration, but my Bandit is a completely different story.

I am really not happy with the handling of this bike as opposed to my '96 Bandit. I thought that the handling could only improve over the years but I was wrong. At this stage I am going to replace the tyres with a nice set of Avon Vipers which I have heard nothing but rave reviews regarding the handling. Next I will replace the stock rear shock with that of a Hayabusa, a not uncommon modification in Bandit circles which will raise the back end an inch or so and give the back end a little more control. After that I would dearly love to put a set of GSX-R front forks on, partly for the looks of the USD set-up but also to improve the skittish nature of the front end that I am currently fighting.

The seat and duck tail will have to go also as they are just too bulky in their stock form but I am still yet to decide what to use in its place. I like the look of the K5 GSX-R tail and there shouldn't be any shortage of damaged parts off this type of bike so I should be able to do it relatively cheaply. I have seen several guys put R1 tail units on but call me a purist as I hate to see non-Suzuki parts on a Bandit. It is just not right.

Like a lot of things, all I need is the $$$...

Glad your feeling better after your accident.

Sounds like you have the 'street fighter' bug alright. It ain't all that bad, as far as possible afflictions.

If you haven't already stubbled across it, this site has tons of good info about Bandits, old oil-cooled 'Zuks and what can and can't be easily done to these bikes.....
http://oldskoolsuzuki.info/

Mintbread wrote:No, I am going to keep her completely naked.

Very funky i love it. ?