Well, I picked the new bike up on Friday – shame about the cold and the snow flurries that day but never mind! I’ve been out on it pretty much all weekend, which explains why there has been no post up until now. This is just a quick update from work really… Pics of the bike and a longer accompanying post to follow!
Well, I’m now the proud owner of an R1! I won’t pick it up for a little while yet, but I put a deposit down on one yesterday and sorted my insurance out.
When I went to the showroom I still couldn’t decide between the silver or blue colour, but when I saw them together it had to be silver. The ram-air intakes have been painted silver to match the upper fairing and the wheels are painted to match the mid-fairing (something which I hadn’t noticed in the pictures), on all the other colours these items are just plain black. I got a good deal from Rex Judd thanks to my friend Peter.
Last night it hadn’t really sunk in and I was feeling indifferent about it all, but today I’m very excited and just want the bike right now!
I spent the back half of the easter weekend with the gang at the 1st round of the British Superbike series at Brands Hatch. Saw some awesome bikes (including the 125s and 600s from the support races and the new ‘Big Bang’ Virgin Mobile Yamaha R1) and had a really great time. Got a chance to use my 70-300mm lens on the new camera too.
I’ve put some photo’s up here – there’s many more (about 500 in total!) so I’ve picked these one’s out as being the best. Jay took some great pics too.
P.S. – Jay – this one’s with love from Serena 
Right, I’ve decided on the R1 over the ZX10R. I keep seeing loads of lovely bikes out there that I want – and not just 1000′s, Jay brought his GSXR750 out last Friday and I have to say, it’s a fantastic bike. It comes down to this… At the end of the day, there’s now way I can come close to the reaching the edge of performance of my current bike, so in those terms it doesn’t really matter which 1000 I get. Therefore, I ought to get the bike that I think looks the best and I feel most comfortable on – and that’s definitely the R1.
Now all I have to do is decide on the colour… I have to make my mind up soon because I need to buy the bike next week!
Yesterday was “Superbike Sunday” at the Ace. Plenty of my friends turned up with their bikes and took part in a photoshoot, so I took the opportunity to use the new camera. I was quite surprised that, while I was using a proper digital SLR camera, the people that were actually meant to be taking the photos were only using a Sony Cybershot. Photo’s are here (I decided to try out Picasa’s web page export function – it seems pretty good). Unfortunately, the day came to an abrupt end when there was a bad accident.
Later, I had a nice meal and watched “DodgeBall” with a friend. Excellent film, very funny, 9/10.
Took an R1 out for a test ride again today in an attempt to make my mind up about which bike is going to replace my R6. It was a nice dry day around here and, seeing as I had a little more experience with the bike, I pushed a little harder than before and was well rewarded (95mph 1st gear wheelies anyone? Don’t tell the shop!).
Getting back on the R6 was awful, it seemed so slow!
Taking a look at a calendar this afternoon made me realise just how little time there is left to get my new bike sorted out. Yamaha currently have a 0% finance offer on R1s, which runs out on April 3rd so I really ought to make my mind up before then. Plus, I have to get insurance sorted out and think about selling my current bike too. The bad news is that Yamaha haven’t released the new 2005 colours yet, and I don’t think they’ll have them out in the next three weeks so it looks like I’m stuck with the 2004 options, which means no “Silver Storm”. The good news is that Colin Collins have (so a little bird tells me) received a new ZX10R from Kawasaki which is meant to be used as a demo bike, so hopefully I’ll get to try it out after all!
Typical! It’s the first decent day we’ve had for a long time. The sun is shining, the roads are dry and I also have the opportunity to leave work a little earlier than usual. So I phone Colin Collins in Harrow, as they’d brought a used ZX10R down from their Letchworth showroom for me to test ride, thinking that finally I would get to go out on it and compare it to the R1. It turns out that they sold it on Saturday.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate that if a customer wishes to buy a bike then the salesman isn’t going to say no. However, I do think they should have called me to let me know the situation and arrange another bike to test, not wait for me to call them and certainly not treat me with the nonchalant attitude I experienced when I did! Whatever happened to customer service? I guess my cash will be going elsewhere.
It seems odd to be getting such cold weather at the end of February, especially after a relatively mild winter. I decided to go straight home from the Ace on Friday night, rather than go into the west end and our regular meeting place for tricks. As I was leaving the car park I saw one car slide into the rear of another on the icy road. That kind of confirmed my decision! Hopefully the worst is over and we’ll have some good weather in time for when I get my new bike!
Yet more decisions to make before buying my new bike, and time’s running out! I was at a bike shop on Saturday and was looking at the Kawasaki ZX10R as an alternative to the R1. It’s significantly cheaper at the moment and is a fantastic bike. I’ve arranged a test ride on one for sometime this week (weather permitting!). According to the press, the Kwak’s smaller and lighter, with more power than the R1 but it’s just that bit more difficult to ride, making it slower around the track. However, they also say that with the right modifications (different tyres, steering damper etc.) it would be the best bike out there.