Daves Blog

I snatched 10 minutes today and upgraded Wordpress to version 2.2 which is the latest all singing and dancing version. For those who don’t know that’s the software that this blog is running on. It’s given me a few extra features but not necessarily any I’ll use lol. The upgrade went very smoothly with no problems which is a good thing especially in this day and age of more complex software. I must admit I’m not always that impressed with the server I’m hosting on. The problem is that the database server is remote from the blog itself and it just seems sometimes to run real slow.  It’s something I’ll keep an eye on and address of course if it becomes too bad.

I decided and ordered a Blue Flame plain titanium dual oval exhaust. So it should end up looking like the pictures below except in plain titanium. I let Meike choose the finish coz she’s much better at such things than I am. I made the final decision by the way after listening to both Scorpion and Blue Flame videos on YouTube. I much prefer the sound of all the Blue Flame clips.

Continuing my search for a better (smaller) exhaust for the Bandit I think I’ve narrowed it down to two: Scorpion simply because it won the Ride Magazine exhaust test in 2006 and required absolutely no tuning mods to the bike and Blue Flame because I like the looks of it. It just so happens that it also came second in the same test. I made enquiries to both and Nigel at Blue Flame even sent me some pics showing what one will look like on my bike…

You know of all the finishes available (Stainless, Carbon, Titanium and Coloured Titanium as illustrated)… I never thought I’d like the look of the Coloured Titanium, but in these pics I think it looks pretty good. I’m undecided though because I think a plain Stainless Steel or Titanium would look better… Gee, why does there have to be a choice lol.

I like the idea of the dual port design too because apparently it gives the possibility of four different noise levels. As I’ve said before, I’m not interested in making loads of noise and as both this and the Scorpion are sold as road legal (with the baffles/blanking plates in) I’m hoping they’re not seriously loud.

Anyhow, as usual… Watch this space lol.

The weather this last weekend was apalling. It rained almost constantly and the wind was blowing quite strongly for most of it. Of course it’s to be expected with it being a holiday weekend. Consequently I only got out on the bike on Saturday morning. To top it all, this morning the sun’s shining and it looks like being a beautiful day.

I found a write up on Two Brothers exhausts on the web which implied they are extremely noisy and far from legal in the UK. It also mentioned that their db killer does little to dampen the noise. So, despite it’s good looks, it seems one isn’t for me afterall. Instead I’m now looking at some others including Blue Flame, Yoshimura, Micron, Carbon Can Co., Scorpion and Fuel. There seems to be such wildly varying prices that to be honest it’s all very confusing. It’s a great shame you can’t listen to them beforehand lol. I might have to attend a few Bandit meetings and listen to what others have before deciding. There again, the Fuel exhaust apparently scored very highly in Ride Magazines Rider Power Survey in 2006 and they seem to be very well priced. They’re not currently listing one for the 1250 but I’ve emailed them to find out. If their pictures are accurate then their carbon end can would match the grey of the Bandits frame nicely.

I hope the weathers much better next weekend so I can get out more but unfortunately the current weather forecast is showing rain on Saturday. Still, what do they know? lol.

I got out for an hour on Saturday morning and managed to put another 60 miles on the Bandit. It was tremendous fun and even though I’m obviously still familiarising myself with it I really can’t wait to have a better opportunity to ride it much further and test more of it’s capabilities. So far absolutely nothing has unsettled it, despite the condition of some of the roads round here, or given me any reason for concern. Unfortunately we have Meikes family staying with us at the moment and my family were visiting in the afternoon so I really couldn’t stay out any longer. Today, despite having family to entertain the weather has been absolutely abysmal and so I wouldn’t have been out riding anyway.

Later in the evening on Saturday I fitted some dark blue wheel rim tape to the Bandit which proved to be more difficult that I’d imagined. While I think it looks great with the bike stationary I know I haven’t got it perfectly round and so I’m sure it’ll give the impression of buckled wheels when I’m on the move lol. I may buy some more and try to do it again only better. I’ll post some pics when I next take some to show the effect. I also fitted one of my SOC (Suzuki Owners Club) stickers.

If there’s one thing I think looks out of place on the bike it has to be the oversized exhaust. So far the best replacement I’ve found looks wise has to be the carbon VALE exhaust from Two Brothers.

I think this looks good. I’d like to know what one sounds like too because I really don’t want a loud system. Something a little more noisy will be OK, but I don’t have a desire to wake everyone up within a 10 mile radius. It may though be difficult to ascertain this and so I might just have to buy one and fit it to find out.

I snatched a half an hour between conference calls yesterday evening and took the bandit to the garage for some petrol. Obviously not an exhaustive ride especially as I need to take it easy running it in and scrubbing in the tyres, but wow… what a blast! I think we’re going to get along just fine. The handling felt very positive and sure footed for the little I tested it and it was so easy to turn and direct it. Even on very uneven road surfaces it felt as solid as a rock. This is the first bike I’ve had, including the Goldwing, where I’d swear the speedo is completely wrong. When everything around me and my sensations told me I was doing about 40mph the speedo said 60 - yikes. My licence isn’t safe if that keeps up. At some point I’ll put my GPS on it and see what that thinks as a comparison.

The weather this morning is glorious but we have family coming round this afternoon so next ride… in about 30 mins time lol.

Neil arrived a little late having got lost… which unfortunately isn’t unusual for people trying to find us the first time. He then spent an hour or so going through the bike and the hand over stuff. Unfortunately then it was time for some work conference calls and so I haven’t ridden it yet. I might get the chance on Friday but it’s more likely to be Saturday…

Looks great! Eat your heart out Mr. Prescott… two bikes Dave has arrived lol.

Heard from Neil at Steve Jordan Motorcycles a little earlier on and he’s delivering the bandit this afternoon… fantastic! In fact it should be here some time within the next hour or so. With a holiday weekend coming up I just checked the weather forecast and it’s pretty bleak… rain forecast on all days. Still, as they’re consistently wrong with the forecasts, it could yet be a glorious weekend. I’ll live in hope that once again they’ve got it spectacularly wrong lol.

I got the first accessory/bling for the bandit a couple of days ago. It has black wheels and so I thought some wheel rim tape would look good. I got dark blue to match the bike from eBay and so we’ll see how well it stays stuck on once I get round to applying it. I’ll probably do it pretty quickly while the wheels are still clean.

Now the shopping starts in ernest lol. Intercom, fenda extenda, possibly a hugger, maybe a seat under tray (whatever it’s called) and maybe a radiator cover. Problem there is that all the radiator covers I’ve seen are bright and I like the fact it’s black. It is exposed though so a cover may be a good idea for reliability. One thing I am absolutely convinced will have to go is the exhaust tail can… it’s HUGE! I’m not interested in waking up the neighbourhood or in sounding like a formula 1 car on steroids, only the looks. Watch this space lol.

Signed on the dotted line and took a few pics…

Here’s one of them…

Should be with me any day now… yippee.

Had a great weekend. The weather was absolutely glorious on Sunday which made a pleasant change for our village fete. For the last few years it rained almost non stop, so much so that we were calling it a water festival and not a fete. It was so nice that I went down on the Goldwing and it was great to see a couple of trikes and 5 more Goldwings turn up from the Thames Valley region of GWOCGB. Thanks for coming folks, it was great to see you all.

Unfortunately the only photo I have is of my Goldwing taken by my father in law.