Forum Replies Created
- Posts
On a more serious note:
“Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are probably right.” Henry Ford.
A long lost friend once said “Life is what you make it, so get out and shake it !”. I think it was his original. So hello Terry Hunns, wherever you are!
…exceed the 167 mph reading that I managed on the speedo of my old ZZR1100 before running out of M3 some years back. OK, so taking speedo calibration into account, it’s only likely to have been a true 155+, but it is still a target !!!
Nice to hear that you still have the GPZ. My GPZ was the only bike that I have ever bought new, and in many respects I wish that I had held on to it. Oh well.
“Hell of a commute from Norwich to West Mids, have you moved there or are you renting/hotelling?” – It’s a short term contract so at the moment I am staying in a hotel in Allesley (Coventry) and nipping home at the weekends. I am unsure if the contract will be extended, so, as always, we shall have to wait and see. There is obviously more automotive stuff around Brum/Cov than over my way, so I may end up being that way in the longer term. If so I may get the opportunity to meet you again in person. Watch this space…
“Good luck at Land Rover Gordy.”
Well, it certainly was an ‘interesting’ first week!
On another note, I think we’ve met before, did you have a GPZ900R a long time ago?
Yup. It was a long time ago too! If you know Radar personally then I think I know who you are. Was it you that had the GPZ and the 944? (…he said, straining his aging and poorly lubricated memory…)
So what bike do you ride Gordy?
Is the garage half empty or half full? At the moment I spy my early model Fireblade and trusty Suzuki RF900. Unfortunately owing to a spell without income both sit there untaxed and unused. It’s so sad. However all is not lost as I have a new contract and start work again next Monday (…hello Landrover, Solihull…). So new work means funds will be available to get at least one of the family back on the road in time for summer. Yipeeeeee.
Life is what you make it, so get out and shake it…
The RG500 was put into production. It suffered the same ‘bean-counter’ de-specing, ‘legal-limp-dick’ detuning, mass-market production-reality problems that afflicts everything else that is formulated, designed, manufactured, marketed, distributed and supported by a ‘nice’, ‘responsible’ multi-national corporation. In other words, like the RD500, it was far, far less than it could have been. And anyone that eulogises about the RG or RD really has absolutely no grip on the realities of what their worshiped bike could have been if the product managers were not such a bunch of lack-lustre, careful, sensible, namby-pamby, company-man, conservative choir-boys.
Obviously this is just a personal opinion, but one backed by 25 years of automotive industry design experience… so bring on the arguments… step this way…
Yeah, my coldest moments were Apprenticeship derived too. (God bless Perkins Engines, and all who sailed in her.)
Lots of us used to do it in all weathers at that time (about ’79 to ’81, until we earned enough to buy ‘sensible’ cars to supplement the bikes). These days, well, I’m not so sure. There are those that can not afford the luxuries of a car, and there are those that still choose to do it in all weathers for their own personal reasons. For those, I feel, it’s a lifestyle choice – in other words it’s a philosophical idealism rather than a pragmatic reality choice. Nothing wrong with that as this life really is ‘each to their own’; it’s not my choice though… : )
“You gotta love a new Yamaha!”
You sad git.
But enough of the personal stuff: how about an M1 in the RD 400 red / white ‘speed-block’ graphics? Or a Honda RCV in the early Fireblade Urban Tiger scheme? Or Carlos Checa’s bike pre-painted in ‘post-crash colours’ to save time and money ! (Keep smiling peeps)
Riding in all weathers? Yup, been there, done that and hated every moment of it. All on a CB100N and CB250N when a car was just a distant dream. And my water-proofs were demonstrably non-waterproof. Oh those damn freezing foggy, icy mornings; fenland village to Peterborough was 15 miles of sheer hand-numbing, body-numbing, face-numbing hell. Can’t think of anything good to say about it.
