Possum responded to the question of reliability of BMW bikes. He wrote, “The only BMW engine issues I have heard, relate to the yet to be released F750 / 850 models. They are on the European market (release date here is November), and I found a site that claimed 1385 bikes went back to BMW with ‘unacceptably high rates of wear on certain engine components’. The worn parts were not mentioned, and it was claimed the machines were all dealer demo bikes. Interestingly, despite being bitten on the arse previously, BMW have had these engines made by Linfan - a well known Chinese engine builder. Do you remember the 650 singles that BMW marketed about 6-7 years ago? Chinese engines, wheel bearings and other bits. Disappeared off the showroom floor after a short while. I think I would have preferred Rotax to do the job and paid extra for the privilege!” I do remember those 650 singles. I think that some models had Chinese engines and some were still Rotax (as the very first of that series was). I actually said at the time that anyone buying a BMW would not be happy about having engines and other bits made in China! That’s not what you pay the higher price for, is it!
Possum also replied to the comment about Raptor’s latest movements. He wrote, “Dress like a clown, win clown prizes! Unless you are a drug dealer disguised as someone who rides a motorcycle of American origin, you have nothing to be concerned about. I have had some interaction with RAPTOR people and they are very focused on ‘certain elements’, so a bunch of grey hairs out for a Wednesday Wobble have nothing to fear.”
Possum had some further comments to make about Queensland, where all this Raptor thing first started. “QLD is a different place altogether. I went to Cairns and back a couple of years ago, in a small group and didn't even see a Police car. The joke with QLD at the moment (and there are many jokes about QLD), is they have followed Victoria's example. ‘Q. How do we solve our road toll? A. Let's find the State in Australia with the worst road toll and do what they are doing!’ So now QLD is booking people for less than 5 km/h over the speed limit - just like Vic. Dumb idea. Now, just like Vic. you have a State full of people looking at their speedos instead of where they are going, and as a direct result, the number of front to rear collisions has gone up!” Yes, it really si silly! Overly strict policing of uselessly low speed-limits creates greater havoc on eth roads because, as you say, people are too concerned about looking at the speedo to make sure they don’t drift just that few kph over. The results of this, as you indicate, speak for themselves.
OCTOBER 2018
Some riding friends (fellow members of CMA), Michael and Karen, are currently on a riding tour in Europe. They’ve posted some fabulous photos on Facebook of their journey, and described wonderful places they’ve ridden and visited. I so wish I was there enjoying it! But not so much, after their latest post. “A chilly start today. We ride over the Pindus Mountains. We take a different route as the normal one has snow, fog and slippery leaves on the road. We still get the fog, visibility sometimes down to 10m. So we follow the white centre line and use the GPS to warn of hairpin bends. After an hour and a half we emerge and have a well-earned coffee break. The rest for the journey is windy and has at times sand and gravel and plenty of cow poops.” Following the white line and using the GPS to warn of hairpins? Er, no thanks, you’re welcome to that!
There were quite a few comments on my Facebook page on my owning my current bike for 10 years; most congratulating me – or the bike – on having it that long. Not on Facebook, Ivor commented, “That is a long time to own a bike! As you probably know, I don’t change bikes very much. You get used to what you’ve got, don’t you. I intend keeping my Triumph for a bit longer yet.”
Con had a different, but equally valid, point about my 10 years of ownership. “The downside to that is you fall away from the market. A change every few years sees you not too far behind the new price, but after 10 years or so the gap between value of your old bike and a new one is a lot bigger. So it’s harder to buy new, and you end up maybe buying 2nd-hand”. Yes, that's true, Con. Although it actually costs you more, in the long run, to keep updating every few years than updating less frequently. That’s because the depreciation from new to, say, 2 or 3 years old is pretty horrendous. Obviously it doesn’t cost as much money to update from a 3 year old bike to a new one as it does to update from a 10 year old one, but the amount you would’ve paid to update, say 3 times in that 10 year period, if you add up the costs of each update, would be much more than what it would cost to update from the 10-year old one just once. If you know what I mean. The trouble is we don’t put that money away, so when it is time to update, we have to find a big wad of cash, which often isn’t available. It’s a kind of win-lose situation, whichever way you do it.
NOVEMBER 2018
My mention of the Honda CX500 got a lot of comments on Facebook. Grahame said, “I used to chase my mate who had one while I rode my Z750 Kwaka. 160kph+ at night on a winding country road. I couldn't keep up because the Kwaka would begin to weave at 160 and I had to back off a bit. I did stupid things when I was young, but that CX was an excellent bike.”
Phil said, “Sadly, the CX became known as ‘The Plastic Maggot’. They had a serious issue with the timing chain-tensioner in the early days but these were the subject of a factory recall. Sadly, a black mark against the model is often hard to erase and the bike suffered from that reputation for the rest of its life. I test rode one when the model was new and was very impressed. Another example of Honda doing something different just for the sake of being different.”
Charles said, “They were the motorcycle courier's bike of choice in London back in the 80s.”
Martin said, “They were an awesome bike!”
Ivor remembered them being popular as courier bike too. “Back in England they were the bike to have if you were a courier. I don’t know why particularly, because they weren’t small and thin to whip in between cars and things, but couriers sure did love them”
Stephen wasn’t so impressed though. “I owned a couple (a 500 and a 650). The only bikes I regret owning. A great idea poorly executed.”
Nai said, “Beyond the timing chain-tensioner was bullet proof.” And there were more comments too.
Referring to the video of the crazy riding I posted in my Blog on November 14, Brad wrote, “I’m thinking that your wife was meaning 'more guts than brains'. And if he had brains he wouldn’t be doing that in the 1st place.” I totally agree!
Brad, replying on Facebook to my post of the article on “Dodging a bullet”, wrote, “I ride always assuming that I can’t be seen by motorists, don’t take risks because I worry about the hassles if it goes pear shape, never argue my right of way, take just that little bit longer to do the journey if it means I’ll be able to do it next time. Even with all that strategy I’ve had the odd close call over the years but so far so good, well except for 1 kangaroo which came from bush at night directly to my right but as I was travelling slowly due to the amount of roos I’d seen that trip. When we hit I was able to maintain enough control to safely pull up, but if I’d been doing the posted 100 speed limit then it would have been a sad story. So yes, my rule is just plain don’t take risks on 2 wheels, the odds are too high of injury or worse.” Great comment, Brad! That's exactly the approach we should have! And yet how many riders just power on regardless, assuming they are in the right (or assuming they'll be okay even if they aren't in the right). “Ride to survive” as the slogan says. It's much better than the alternative!
Con, also referring to that article, wrote, “Yeah, fate, or how the ducks are lined up, or something. The question of what could’ve been had we got to somewhere just that bit earlier or later blows your mind if you think about it too much. And it happens both ways. The bloke that has a crash with a car can say, ‘But if I was a few seconds earlier or later it wouldn’t have happened’. It’s scary stuff. If we thought about it too much probably none of us would ride at all.” Yes, someone described it as “the lottery of time”: the win, or lose, result of being at certain place at a certain time – or not being at a certain place at a certain time. Phil, who wrote the article, had a major crash a few years ago when he hit a truck head-on on Macquarie Pass. The truck – as trucks often have to do – swung out onto the wrong side of the road on a blind bend, and Phil arrived at that point just as it did so. He caught the front of the truck with his right side, breaking his right leg and a few ribs on the right as well. A few seconds earlier or later, and it wouldn’t have happened.
Rory, also on Facebook, replying to the same post, wrote, “Caution, mindfulness, situational awareness, I guess fall into the soft skills definition, but are far more important when sharing the road with other users. I’m not a hard core knee dropping boy racer so the soft skills are what I practice, they have kept me out of most trouble so far.” Absolutely, Rory! Those sort of “soft skills” will go a long way to keeping you from hitting the “hard road”!
Rory, again on Facebook, commented on the item on the Adelaide Toy Run, which he said wasn’t well advertised. He said he didn’t know about it until he saw the bikes on the day.
I had an interesting little exchange on Facebook with Boris, (not one of my regular readers, I don’t think, but yes, that Boris). He commented regarding the item on the Yamaha Niken, and said that the increase in front-end grip was 40%, not 80%. I respectfully asked where he got that figure, as I wanted to make sure I had the right one. I’d seen the figure of 80% quoted in the test video I put up, and the explanation for it being 80% seemed logical. He replied that he had got it from the designer Takeshi Kaieda, and said, “That’s almost twice the grip”. I thanked him for the information, but pointed out that an increase of 40% was a lot less than twice, to which he replied, “I’d suggest you work on your maths”. Huh? I replied that it would need to be 100% to be twice. (If you have 2 apples and want to double the number you have, you have to add another 2 apples – increase by 100%). I heard no more after that. (So who has to work on their maths then?). But it appears that he was right about the 40% though. Well, as I said to Boris, the bloke that designed it should know! Also, I did some checking and saw that figure quoted in a couple of other articles, attributed to Yamaha. So thanks for correcting the info I had, Boris.
DECEMBER 2018
“He fell off”. “He crashed”. A few people responded with that info regarding the item on F1 champ Lewis Hamilton taking his bike for a few laps around the Jerez circuit. Yes, he did. He wasn’t hurt, but admits his ability on 2 wheels is much less than those at the front of the MotoGP field.
Chris sent me this. Some of these would be pretty true, I reckon!
"Here are the reasons why Millennials don't ride motorcycles:
1. Pants won't pull up far enough for them to straddle the seat.
2. Can't get their phone to their ear with a helmet on.
3. Can't use 2 hands to eat while driving.
4. They don't get a trophy and a recognition plaque just for buying one.
5. Don't have enough muscle to hold the bike up when stopped.
6 Might have a bug hit them in the face and then they would need emergency care.
7. Motorcycles don't have air conditioning.
8. They can't afford one because they spent 4-6 years in college trying to get a degree in Humanities, Social Studies, Art History or Gender Studies for which no jobs are available.
9. They are allergic to fresh air.
10. Their pyjamas get caught on the exhaust pipes.
11. They might get their hands dirty checking the evil oil.
12. The handle bars have buttons and levers and cannot be controlled by touch-screen.
13. You have to shift manually and use something called a clutch.
14. It's too hard to take selfies while riding.
15. They don't come with training wheels like their bicycles did.
16. Motorcycles don't have power steering or power brakes
17. Their nose ring interferes with the face shield.
18. They would have to use leg muscles to back up.
19. When they stop, a light breeze might blow exhaust in their face.
20 It could rain on them and expose them to non-soft water.
21. It might scare their therapy dog, and then the dog would need therapy.
22. Can't get the motorcycle down the stairs to their parents' basement."
I like it! Some funny ones in there!
John wrote in response to Geoff’s latest adventure, and said, “A great trip and read.” Yes, it sure was.
We still get new people finding the web-site. Phillip, who recently joined our mailing list, wrote, “While I'm sure a lot of people emailing you say the same thing, it bears repeating that they're some of the best real world reviews I've seen.” Thanks, Phillip; comments like this are much appreciated, and very encouraging – it is what the web-site was originally (and still is) all about, presenting road-tests (and general views on motorcycling) that are more “real world” than some you read and also more relevant to the older rider. So, thank you.
One of our readers, Chris is selling his 2005 Yamaha MT-01.