Simon Oosthoek's Motorcycle Stuff
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Simon Oosthoek's Motorcycle Stuff |
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I started taking motorcycle lessons on 28 April 1998 and I passed my (first) test on 27 August 1998 after 17 lessons. The bike was a Suzuki GSF Bandit 600S. The first two lessons, I spent trying to learn how to control the clutch in a way that didn't stop the engine...
I wanted to try some bikes before deciding which one I'd like to buy. The first was a Suzuki Marauder (VZ 800), a custom model and quite a nice one too! The problem I had with this one was that the wind blows you off the bike at 110+ km/h and the seat is crap (for me anyway) as it hurt my tailbone quite early on in the ride. That was the day after my exam.
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The second bike I rented two weeks later was a Suzuki GSX 600F (see picture below), which was better in the wind, but felt a bit too small for me. This was the first bike I took passengers on: my mother, some bloke I don't know (I can explain this...) and a friend from the archery club. |
Of course, I immediately started to find secondhand bikes that were affordable for me. A couple of colleages had bikes for sale, so I tried a Suz GSX 750 EF from '86, a Honda Magna v45 VF750 from '84, a Suz GSX 600F from '88 and a Honda Sabre VF750 from '83. But then I went to look (yeah, just looking....) with another colleague at Safe Motors in Hengelo. Before I knew fully what was going on, I was buying this big monster: Kawasaki ZX-10 Tomcat 1000cc....
(This was around 17 September)
 Another GSX600F photo |
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nl.motorfiets trip on 10 October 1998
Well, now come the real lessons, not that sissy stuff of getting a piece of of paper from a gullable guy from a stupid commercial institution...
If you haven't guessed it by now, my tomcat is frontally challenged... I sort of drove (NEVER use the front brakes in a corner without knowing why and how to compensate for the effect!) it off the road in a curve and hit the fence, or rather one fence-pole, head on with the front-wheel. Luckily, most of the energy of the impact was used to reshape both the fence-pole and my front-fork and subsequent parts (radiator, exhaust-pipes). There was also significant damage to the side-plastic. Luckily I got separated from tomcat at a very early stage (I think), because the only physical damage I suffered was a bruise and some muscle-aches the next day.
| Overview | Overview of the situation, with my bike and me standing against the offending fence. |
| The fence-pole | The result of 340 kg of tomcat and me at about 70km/h (I'm not sure exactly) bouncing of the fence-pole. |
| Front view | This is not straight! |
| Front view 2 | And I have a flat tire too.... |
| Messy road | This road has become a bikers challenge... |
| Could be worse | It doesn't look too bad from this side (I think) |
| Cheese | See, I can still smile! |
| tow-away | Thankfully I don't need to help get Tomcat onto the truck. |
| in chains... | Halfway up... |
| What a sad sight! | Tommy won't be riding for a little while :-( |
| More will follow | I've made some pictures of the halfway stripped wreckage... |
The Suzuki GT185 Project
1 Januari 1999
Some luck has brought a Suzuki GT185 into my hands (although it will not be on my name, but I can ride it until my Tomcat is working again). This is a two-stroke 2 cylinder engine built in 1975. No fancy story yet, but here are some images of the project to get it and get it on the road again.
(10 Januari 1999)
Today I got a good deal on a secondhand ZX-10, which was a little bit more expensive than a set of new parts to fix my first ZX-10. Here are some pictures:
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Before I go on a ride with a group of people on this machine, I want to have 5000km on it by myself. Preferably also a driving skill enhancement course. I won't make the same mistake twice, because I know this bike is not the best for unexperienced drivers like myself, I do know that without the distraction of driving in a group I can safely learn to drive on this machine.
I like to discuss and read about motorcycle stuff in the newsgroups. I read rec.motorcycles (sometimes) and regularly read nl.motorfiets, the Dutch equavalent.
Mijn Wie-is-wie pagina voor nl.motorfiets...
Zie ook de
Kalender, de Wie is Wie pagina en de
FAQ voor deze newsgroup.
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Dit jaar heb ik als motorrijdend medewerker meegeholpen met de Batavieren race. Het verslag hiervan is te zien op de pagina achter de link hierboven. Uiteraard met foto's.
