Hi, my name is Biker Kaz. As a biker I want to share my riding experiences with you through my blog. Please see more about me in the Me, Myself and I page. I am Editor of CrewOnTwo part of ThePitCrewOnline and cover World Superbikes. I also blog for Bike Stop. Please subscribe to my page and follow me on social media - see the links below - thank you.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Friday, February 21, 2020
A grand day out at the Bike Show
What
a great day out! What’s not to love – bikes. Classic bikes, new
bikes, old British bikes, gorgeous looking bikes, a few ‘Um…
really … I’m not sure about that….’ bikes; racing bikes and
that’s before we’ve even got on to the clothing, accessories;
coffee stands and of course the Thunderdrome where there is
actual bike racing going on!
This
year’s London bike show was held at the Excel in Docklands. For me,
this is a bit of a faff to get to by train (I had to catch a train to
Euston, then the underground to somewhere or other then the docklands
light railway) but you can get to it by car/bike. Normally there are
a few of us that go every year to the show and so afterwards we like
to find a pub to get something to eat/drink hence we go by train and
this year was no exception.
If
you’re like me, you walk into the Excel and you’re like ‘Whoa,
bikes, lots of bikes :-) :-) :-)’ and I’m back to being a little
kid in a sweet shop with my eyes going everywhere looking at all the
lovely things on offer!
In
the Thunderdrome there are free races at regular times during the day
with, among a few others, Peter Hickman, John McGuiness, Michael
Rutter and James Hillier. Always worth a watch, it doesn’t seem to
matter where or on what machine one is racing, but when that visor
goes down the red mist descends and the competitiveness that lays in
all of us, comes out and one must win. The races are all in the
nature of good fun of course and you can see they are having fun
racing each other.
This
year on display as a celebration to Britain’s most famous
motorcycle rider, Barry Sheene, were nine of his racing bikes
(including two of his winning bikes) which were flown in from
Australia. This was an amazing sight to see and really good to be
able to see the bikes ‘up close and personal’.
Most of the main manufacturers were there there including, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki and BMW along with a few of the smaller ones such as CCM, MV Agusta and Royal Enfield.
It’s
good to be able to wonder round the bikes and sit on them (well, most
of them). It’s especially good if your looking to buy a new bike as
you can get a real feel for the bike and talk to the people on the
stand about stats etc and any mods that are available. They also seem
to have a selection of branded clothing available to buy – well, it
would be rude not too :-)
I
did happen to find myself sitting on the new Ducati V4 Streetfighter.
OMG I want one!!! It was in the only colour a Ducati should be in –
red! If you look at the stats for this, I think it’s safe to say
this is going to be a very fast bike :-) :-) :-)
My only small
criticism would be that the first essential change you need to make to
the bike would be a tail tidy. To be honest, I would not leave the
showroom without one on it!
A
friend I was with took a shine to the new Triumph Rocket. This is
apparently all new, not a carry over from the previous model and has
an incredible 2.5 litre engine. A match for the Diavel perhaps?
Twenty
three times Isle of Man TT winner, John McGuiness, could be found in
between races propping up the bar at his own pub giving you a chance
to have a chat with the man himself over a pint or two.
Inspiration could be found for those of us seeking adventure on a bike in the Adventure Zone with various companies offering information on tours available in various parts of the world as well as books for sale; Bonhams brought with them a selection of rare and exotic bikes from the Giancarlo Morbidelli collection which were fascinating to look at and a real privilege to be able to see and the National Motorcycle Museum brought a host of exotic bikes so we could have the pleasure of looking at them.
Besides bikes, bikes and some more bikes, there were also clothing manufacturers at the show offering for purchase a selection of their goodies. You could fully kit yourself out to ride a bike by coming to the bike show from base layers, protective trousers and jackets to boots, gloves and helmets.
That of course is just the start, you can then go on to kit out your bike with accessories such as luggage systems, sat navs, go pros and then you can kit your garage out too with paddock stands and lifts, tools, cleaning products….. honestly, the list is endless. Just make sure you bring plenty of pennies with you (or your other half’s credit card :-) )
All in all a great day out, well worth a visit and I’ll be back again next year.
BK
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Friday, February 14, 2020
My Z900 - Part 2 - Mods
Following on from
Part 1, as you know I truly love my Z but I couldn’t resist
changing a few bits, although it was the performance edition and came
with a few extras such as rear seat cowl, front screen, tail tidy and
an Akrapovic exhaust end can.
As standard, the Z
does not have any sort of stone radiator guard which I personally
think is something of an oversight. So before I had even picked the
bike up I ordered one from eBay. This was fitted straight away and
not only serves a very good practical purpose, but looks rather nice
too with a nice small discreet Z900 logo on it.
When I took the demo
Z for a test ride it had a small screen on it and I did notice a bit
of wind hitting me on the chest but the Z I was buying had a slightly
larger screen and, I’ve got to say, this made all the difference, I
don’t feel the wind buffeting now. So if you have a Z900 I would
heartily recommend this as an upgrade as it is it very small and
discreet but makes a bigger difference than you would think just by
looking at it.
I added R&G
crash bungs (which go on all my bikes!). I think these are quite
discreet but will save the day if you drop it in the garage or at low
speed.
The other half can confirm this as thankfully it was one of
his own bikes that he dropped in the garage. I hope he’s not reading
this as we’re not supposed to talk about it!
Heel guards,
these came from eBay and were only cheap but look so much better
than the standard ones. I did try the usual suppliers first but
nobody seems to make them for the Z900.
As I don’t take
pillion (I tried this once with the other half,
but it made the bike so heavy (too many pies!) I won’t be doing
that again) I have a seat cowl. I took off the rear foot pegs and added an Evotech
bracket for the exhaust and a blanking plate for the other side.
This, in my opinion, really enhances the
streetfighter look.
Onto the exhaust,
now this was a bit of saga. Unbeknown to me, when you buy a new bike
the exhaust has to conform to EU standards and therefore it still has
a CAT in it which makes it too quiet, well for me anyway!
Even though
I had the Akrapovic end can, as this is a factory accessory it was
not much louder than the standard exhaust so although it was a really
nice looking quality product, it now lives in the shed.
So here started my
journey to finding my new exhaust that had to fit certain criteria:
1. Loud;
2. Looked good on my
bike;
3. Not too
expensive.
Never before have I
paid sooo much attention to other people’s exhaust pipes!
Everywhere I went I checked out exhausts and where possible asked
them very nicely to start their bikes so I could hear the exhaust.
The NEC bike show
was approaching and I did a bit of research beforehand (this mainly
consisted of which exhausts looked the nicest) and went to the bike
show with a couple of mates. I dragged them round virtually every
exhaust manufacturers stand and came home with lots of brochures.
Still I didn’t know
what to do as although they look great, some were very expensive and
you can’t actually hear any of them at the show. Doing some more research on
the internet, I came across Delkevic which is a British company. The
exhausts look really nice and they looked really good value. In the
end I thought ‘Oh well, let's try it.’ and ordered one.
My friends said how
pleased they were that they had spent the whole day at the Bike Show looking at and
researching exhausts instead of looking at new bikes which was their
whole reason for going and that their time was completely wasted :-)
I went for a
complete Delkevic system with a carbon stubby end can. The cat has
now gone and the exhaust looks absolutely awesome and sounds even
better. It is loud and every so often is it pops and bangs and spits
the odd flame. Love it.
The only change that
gets made now is to put on the original pillion seat when we go
touring so I can fit my microscopic tail pack on the back. This is in
fact a tank bag but is at least some sort of token effort to carry
the smallest amount of luggage I can get away with.
I still firmly
believe it upsets the look of the bike but I do accept that I have to
carry something for long trips. Got away with it for Belgium last
year ….. waiting to see if I can get away with it for this year’s
European trips.
Really do hope the other half is not reading this.
BK
Friday, February 7, 2020
My Z900 - Part 1
I love my Z.
When I did my CBT
the bike I used was a Yamaha YBR 125. Before I did my CBT I had never
ridden a bike before and did not even know what each lever did. It
was such an easy bike to ride and I felt so comfortable on it that by
lunchtime I was out on the road with the instructor. After my CBT I
brought a YBR to practice on. After a few weeks of practising on my
own I then started having lessons with Steve at Beacon Motorcycle
Training in order to get my big bike licence.
The bike I rode
during my lessons with Steve was a Kawasaki ER6 which, again, was
such an easy bike to ride and I was happy on this. It was light
enough for me to easily get it off the side stand and I did enjoy
riding it.
When I passed my
test I wasn’t sure whether to buy a ER6 as that was what I was used
to but after looking around I ended up buying a Honda Hornet 600. For
me, it was a perfect first big bike and I enjoyed riding it, it had
plenty of grunt for me whilst I was a new rider and did everything I
wanted it to do. As my instructor, Steve, said, he taught me how to
pass the test, I now had to learn how to ride. This I have since
realised is very true.
After a couple of
happy years on the Hornet I decided I wanted a bigger engined bike.
Here was where the difficulty lay. I found that bigger bikes were a
lot heavier than my Hornet which, for me, I was not comfortable with.
I do have difficulty getting bigger bikes off the side stand and some
I cannot even get the bike upright. Being able to do this easily for
me is my main priority. I sat on a lot of bikes and took a few out
for a test ride but still I couldn’t find ‘the one’.
I had been looking
at a Triumph Street Triple and we were out for a ride one day and
came across a Triumph garage. I was looking at the demo Street Triple
and was just going to ask if I could take it for a test ride when
another customer beat me to it and went off on the demo bike. I asked if I
could have a test ride when the bike came back and the salesman said
to come back in a couple of hours.
So off we rode and
we stopped at On Yer Bike, Aylesbury for a cuppa before heading back
to the Triumph garage. Whilst there it always seems obligatory to
have a look around the new and used bikes to see which bikes we can
drool over.
I was in the
showroom looking at the Kawasakis and Tony wheeled out the Z650 for
me to have a look at. Tony asked me what sort of riding I liked and I
replied I’ve got a Hornet 600 and I like lots of overtaking. At
which point Tony said ‘Ahh, okay then’ wheeled the Z650 back and
wheeled out the Z900 that was sitting in the showroom all shiny and
winking at me.
It was light enough
for me to get it off the stand easily and I felt really comfortable
on it and I really liked the look of it. I took it for a test ride
(uh oh said the other half).
OMG it was awesome,
it was so easy to ride, it’s light and nimble, it’s comfortable,
the riding position is perfect, I loved it. On my way back on the
test ride I was even overtaking, I was that happy and confident on
it.
I got back to On Yer
Bike with a huge smile on my face and bought it the one in the showroom.
My Z is the
performance edition which came with a few extras namely an
akroprovkic end can, seat cowl, tail tidy and screen. In part 2 next
week I will tell you about the modifications I made to my Z even
though it was a new bike! I thought buying a new bike would mean that
I wouldn’t need to make any but it seems I was wrong.
I absolutely love
riding my Z. I have had it just over two years now and have done some
12,500 miles, been on a few long weekends away in this country and to
France, Germany and Belgium it is sooooo comfortable for long rides.
Proof you don’t need a bike designed for touring for long trips,
buy the bike that you want because you love it and make it work for
you.
Beacon Motorcycle Training
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