Blue’s WordPress Blog

Saturday was good.

I post a bit on visordown.com and one of the guys there organised a ride-out from Red Lodge around Suffolk and Essex starting at midday. So I set off - leaving the kids home alone - at 11.00am and blasting down to Red Lodge. This mainly involved riding on the wrong side of the road as the A11 was clogged with bloody tourists and people whose lives have ended (i.e. drivers of diesel-fuelled people carriers).

One of my mates from the ZRXOC made it but left too early - the pace quickened (considerably) later with alleged speeds of 120+ in places (and I saw 150 and accelerating sitting bolt upright on my local closed road on my way home).

He also missed the most expensive soft drinks in the world evah at the Swan Hotel in Lavenham: £2.50 for my orange and grapefruit and £3.50 for a pint of lemonade (well syrup and fizzy water from one of those pumps) for a bloke with a SV1000 which was pulling some absolutely minging wheelies.

Photos from our cuppa stop at Finchingfield are here »

The woman in the tea shop was - ahem - rather attractive too

I said my farewells when we got to Newmarket as I thought I should get home around tea time, but that meant missing out on a barbecue, more’s the pity.

I’ve just written a small review of the Kawasaki ZRX1200R over on my new bike review web site:

http://www.reviewspermonth.com/

Towbars

Anyone who saw me, Blue Rex and the trailer at any of last year’s trackdays will know I was using Mrs. Blue’s Fiesta to do the towing. This was because I drive an ancient Mondeo ST200 that Ford hadn’t seen fit to get rated for towing, so my local Ford dealer wouldn’t fit a towbar. Note that every other Mondeo was rated, just not the ST200…

Last summer, I was chatting to a neighbour who’d had a nice demountable one fitted to their Ford Galaxy, so I rang the place he’d had it done - Broadland Towbars near Norwich - and they said it could indeed be done*.

So on the 20th, I went to their place for 3½ hours whilst they fitted a rather nice Brink “Brinkmatic Classic 2506” - this involved some cutting of the rear spoiler, but it’s not really noticeable unless you’re looking for it specifically. It’s demountable so when not in use the ball section is stowed away in the boot and means the lines of the car aren’t spoiled. It takes less than a minute to fix and demount the ball section as well. Cost was £310 + VAT fitted.

So this year, I have my car to drive with all the toys and comfort and more space for crap my useful stuff in the boot. Marvellous!

*Apparently, the Mondeo ST220 is straining its clutch as it is, so if you try towing anything it breaks…

Sunday 23rd

Loaded Blue Rex onto the trailer, hitched it up to the Mundane-oh and headed for Castle Combe in Wiltshire with Extreme Towing… Stayed overnight at the Crown at Giddea Hall which was comfortable and not too pricey.

Monday 24th - Castle Combe Trackday

The day started misty and drizzly which is bad, but I was at the circuit early for noise scrutineering. The circuit has a tight noise limit so they check the noise output of your bike. I’d already fitted a decibel killer to the Akrapovic system but had taken along my OEM end can and a specially made adaptor to marry the can up to the Akra headers. Amazingly, I didn’t need it as the bike got through first time.

I decided to finally break out the PVC… Yes, my Respro SLICK Racing Wet Weather Suit actually got some use, over a year after I bought it. I had to get my wardrobe assistant (actually a guy called Ian from the ZRX Owners Club) to help pull it on for me over my leathers which, like all of them. has all sort of padding (and hence ridges) at the shoulders. Couple that with the Respro being tight to start off with and it’s not a job you can easily accomplish by yourself, especially if, like me, you have a shoulder that dislocates itself at the drop of a hat.

I looked like this (click on the thumbnail for an intermediate-sized version):

As the morning progressed, the track dried out and it was a slightly less cautious Blue who was photographed (again, click on the thumbnails for the intermediate-sized versions):

and

If you look closely at the first of those two images, you can make out the video camera.

And here’s some footage:

My onboard footage (camera slightly loose + floppy screen = shaky stuff)

Onboard footage from the guy on the white CBR600 which overtook me

All in all, it was a good day. I did have to leave immediately after the first afternoon session though as Mrs. Blue was working in the evening and I had a coaches’ meeting for our football club to attend. Still, more extreme towing and I was home in a trice.

So, let’s have a little look at Sunday, 26th March. What’s so special about that date?

Well for the women, it’s Mothers’ Day (or Mothering Sunday).

This year, this means I shall be foregoing the pleasure of riding down to the Ace Café London for a gathering of the ZRX Owners Club at the Ace’s “Kawasaki Sunday”.

But what else is under threat that day? Well how about:

• 12.45pm to 2.00pm BBC1 MotoGP from Jerez; and
• 3.00pm to 4.30pm ITV1 British Superbikes from Brands Hatch

We’ll ignore the World Rally Championship coverage from Spain directly after the BSB showing.

Bastard!

Courtesy of “Bikes (Motorcycles) in the Fast Lane - Daily Motorcycle News” comes the news that the Hells Angels MC is suing Disney for trademark infringement.

That would be someone suing a company reknowned for protecting its own copyright and trademarks.

How so? Well Touchstone Pictures is making a film this year called “Wild Hogs” with Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and John Travolta. The plotline is:

“A group of middle-aged wannabe bikers look for adventure out on the open road, where they soon encounter a chapter of the Hell’s Angels.”

And therein lies the problem: “HELLS ANGELS and the skull logo (R) are trademarks owned by Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation, registered in the USA and in many other countries. All logos and designs of Hells Angels are trademark-protected (TM) and protected according to international law. Copying and other use is not allowed.” They claim that Disney are using their trademarks to promote the film before it’s made.

So according to the excellent “Bikes in the Fast Lane” site’s reporting of an article in Moto Journal, the top 5 motorcycle sales in 2005 were:

Italy
1. Yamaha 600 Fazer/FZ6 - 10,834
2. Honda 600 Hornet - 8,217
3. Kawasaki Z750 - 5,149
4. Honda CBR 600 RR - 4,421
5. BMW R1200GS - 4,095

Germany
1. BMW R1200GS - 6,779
2. Honda CBF 600 - 4,859
3. Suzuki Bandit 650 - 3,420
4. Yamaha 600 Fazer/FZ6 - 3,286
5. Suzuki GSX-R 1000 - 2,947

France
1. Kawasaki Z750 - 7,160
2. Yamaha 600 Fazer/FZ6 - 6,474
3. Suzuki Bandit 650 - 5,475
4. Suzuki SV 650 - 3,420
5. Honda Hornet 600 - 2,687

Spain
1. Yamaha 600 Fazer/FZ6 - 5,421
2. Suzuki GSX-R 600 - 2,988
3. Honda CBR 600 RR - 2,893
4. Honda CBF 250 - 2,778
5. Suzuki Bandit 650 - 2,425

UK
1. Suzuki GSX-R 1000 - 2,534
2. Kawasaki ZX-6R - 2,213
3. Honda CBR 1000 RR - 2,083
4. BMW R1200GS - 1,980
5. Yamaha R1 - 1,936

Now, whilst four of the UK’s top 5 being sportsbikes is probably a healthy thing, as far as I’m concerned, the level of sales that implies is pretty pathetic, isn’t it?

Slightly perturbed by this, I went and had a look at the MCIA’s web site and found December 2005’s figures with the 2005 totals.

It looks as though Moto Journal had ignored total PTW sales, because Honda’s learner-legal 125cc bike, the CBR 125R, was actually the year’s top-seller with 2,738 unit sales.

Somewhat more disappointing for me is that Kawasaki only sold “approximately 150″ ZRX1200Rs in the UK in 2005 whilst Triumph sold 757 Speed Triples.

I’m really a little bit pissed off.

On the plus side, the BBC is to show live coverage of MotoGP this year. Excellent news.

Also on the plus side, ITV will be showing live coverage of the British Superbike series this year. Obviously they realised just how thrilling the racing was last year and decided to give the public something exciting to watch, rather than F1 processions {yawn}

On the minus side, there’s the Superbike World Championships. Last year, Channel 4 decided to schedule its highlights show to a short slot in the wee small hours of the morning and then use up most of those slots with Warren “Interesting As A” Pole boring us to sleep. This year? I can’t find any mention anywhere of any terrestrial TV coverage of World Superbikes. Arsebiscuits…

I managed to acquire a set of front wave discs by Braking and fitted them the other evening.

They look the business, I reckon.

I’ve also fitted the fairing I got cheaply from eBay now that it’s been resprayed the blue rather than its original red. I need to decide whether to get a set of decals for each side, but they’re around £25 each!

Thumbnails are below, click them to see larger versions.

So today I drove down with a mate (with the Bandit 1200) to the Alexandra Palace to have a look around the show. This was formerly the Road & Racing show or something similar but has evolved from being a trade show for bike racers to a mini-version of the main NEC November bike show (and that much further South too).

Disappointing to see that Kawasaki didn’t see fit to have a ZRX on their stand. Triumph, on the other hand, had one of the quite amazingly wonderful Daytona 675 on theirs. It had a different saddle - presumably from their options list - and a seat cover for the pillion that added to its good looks and no doubt comfort too.

Very narrow-waisted, being a triple, but for such a small bike it was amazingly comfortable for a six-footer like me. I really, really want one for trackdays now.

The Blue Flame Perfomance stand also had a 675 on their stand fitted with their exhaust which appeared to have two stoppers for the outside exhaust holes held in place with circlips, presumably so you can remove them for more power and noise.

I ended up with a bargain: a pair of Bridgestone BT012SS tyres (like I already have fitted for fast road/trackday use) for £150. Cheapest online deal I can find is £185 and I usually pay over £200 for a set.

I also bought a rear brake line kit - BSR Aerotek braided hose and fittings - and as I walked away from the stand, there was a nagging doubt about it … confirmed when I got home and discovered the same set sitting on the shelf in the garage!

The final purchase was a full-sized numberplate for the bike trailer to match the ST200’s as I’ll be towing with that this year, with a mention of the Motorcycle Prizes web site URL along the bottom.

If you want to see how slowly I was riding at Brands, here’s the video, uploaded to Google Video.