Accessories

I’ve successfully used a Sportbikecam camera mount for my Kawasaki ZRX1200R for some years now, using a large Sony DV camcorder. I’d recently bought a much smaller Sony DCRSR57E Handycam Camcorder With Built-in 80GB Hard Disc Drive (61hrs) – Silver from Amazon – it was far cheaper from there than from anywhere else, online or on the high street.

So with another trackday looming at Rockingham next month, through the Motorcycle Folly as usual, and a three day special at Jerez in September with Tracksense (not sure whether to use Wilf or the ZRX for this one), I thought I’d better get myself sorted with another mount.

I’ve therefore ordered an SBC24 through Camera-Mount.com who are the UK distributors. I’ll post how it goes in terms of fitting, etc. when it arrives.

Another gesture that Roger made when he sold me Wilf as the alarm was fecked was that he’d send me the rear hugger and throw in a carbon end can. These arrived at the office yesterday and I brought them home today, along with the replacement Meta alarm I’d bought.

Turns out it’s a Micron carbon can which looks like it’ll be fairly loud, but also is smaller and much lighter than the OEM can. I fitted it in minutes and fired up Wilf to be greeted with a much deeper exhaust note which wasn’t that much louder after all. We’ll see what it’s like on the road in due course.

Second accessory was a satnav mount that fits into the stem, the “Telferizer”. Using this, the TomTom Rider v2 can be fitted either up in front of the instruments or – better still – just above the tank indent. Now all I need to do is sort out the power lead to the battery and I’m good to go without worrying about the batteries running out. A really nice bit of kit and recommended.

Well that was annoying.

This evening, I drilled four big holes in the garage wall and screwed on the Abus WBA 100 Granit Wall Anchor and then screwed it all to the wall. So far so good. Final touch was to screw in the bolts that hold the plastic cover on and … the screws are too short! Grr!

Still, it’s sturdy and will be excellent to chain Wilf to when the trailer and ZRX are back in Norfolk or elsewhere.

Oh dear!

The Meta M357T-V2 alarm that had once been fitted to Wilf was removed by Roger when he got the bike. He had tried to refit it before selling Wilf to me but failed. And apparently if the wire telltales that identify the leads when the alarm is new are missing now – as they are – then it’s pure guesswork as to which of the black wires is which.

So I’ve now had to order a new one from elsewhere and I will have to arrange for the alarm to be fitted when it arrives.

So after a bit of a nightmare journey to get to Birmingham, I did the deal and Wilf was wheeled out of Roger’s workshop. At which point it began raining…

We’d fixed the TomTom Rider’s RAM mount to the clutch lever bolt and I plugged in the address in Grimsby and off I went. A couple of coffees later and I set the TomTom to my home address. One annoying thing was that when riding, I was not allowed to change my destination to a previously stored one, no doubt due to some idiotic ‘safety’ feature. No doubt they’d want me to pull onto the hard shoulder to do this … where a number of accidents happen!

Anyway, on arrival home, I checked the trip statistics and discovered that my moving average speed for the 380 mile journey had been xxmph. Oops! Best not put the number.

OK, my back ached a little but having spent five hours in the saddle, it had turned out to be a remarkably good high speed tourer. Maybe I need to rethink my choice of bike for the RBLR1000, a 1,000 mile ride in 24 hours I’m doing for charity.

One little side-effect that was a tad unpalatable was the effect buying Wilf has had on my insurance premium. I renewed by insurance for the Kawasaki ZRX1200R fully comprehensive for £133.32 – I’m 47 and have been riding for 30 years with no accidents and just three points on my licence at the moment. That was with eBike Insurance, who I’ve found to be cheapest for the last couple of years and who aren’t overly concerned about modifications, providing you list them.

So adding Wilf to the policy and making sure that I was showing that both bikes will be staying down here in London from time to time over the summer, the additional premium was a whopping £474.12! Eek!

I’ve also spent another hundred quid or more on another Abus chain and a ground anchor in addition to the Meta alarm on Wilf who is also marked with SmartWater. Click that link for more details of what that is. Surprisingly, adding the chain and anchor would have done nothing to decrease the premium but had a theft occurred whilst they were not in use, the excess would have increased, so I have not added them to the policy on the basis that the insurers don’t want me to use them and it’s my choice if I do or don’t.

We’re all safe and legal now and ready to pick Wilf up later this morning…

Welcome to my shiny new blog set up especially for my fun and games with a 2004 Suzuki GSX-R750 K4.

I’ve bought it mainly for trackdays, both in the UK and abroad, but also for the occasional hoon.

The deal has been done and I am collecting it on Bank Holiday Monday, May 4th from the Midlands and then riding it the long way home to London via Grimsby and Lincolnshire Wolds for a quick hoon with my mate Wazza and his Rizla Replica GSX-R750 K2.

The bike’s present owner is an Instructor for the Motorcycle Folly and I made the mistake of saying that I really liked the 750 Gixxers as an all round package, especially for the track. Roger said it was for sale and suggested I take it out for a session on the recent Folly trackday at Castle Combe. It was sooooooo easy to ride fast and was so controllable, that it practically sold itself to me.

I’m intending to use my new TomTom Rider v2 satnav to guide me home, so that should be fun setting it to work. If not, I’ll have to rely on a small map book, Google Maps on my Nokia and signposts!