I’ve been obsessing over a Japanese ‘potato potato’ (Harley sound) cruiser for a while. I finally settled on a Kawasaki Meanstreak, 72hp, relatively good ground clearance, mag wheels, and less of a Harley clone than the others. I inquired about a few, and got a £4k loan to buy one, but it had sold. But not to worry, I finally got my new bike.
A Yamaha MT09 Tracer. An 115hp, trials bike style, performance sports/ tourer triple. Obviously.
I had a bit of an ordeal buying it. For once the seller was right on my doorstep, under 2 miles away. I had been looking at bikes in Southampton and Scotland, so that was a minor miracle. I went around on Saturday morning to look at it, (bloody lovely) came home to do the online checks, (all good) and rang the guy to say I’d have it. Then I rang my multibike insurance company and told them to cancel my two bikes and just insure the new one. They quoted me £1,100!
ONE THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED OF HIS MAJESTY’S POUNDS STERLING!
Big nope. They said it was because I list it as kept on a public road (on the pavement, under the front room window, chained to the wall) and the bikes are such thief magnets. OK, I can see that. Still nope. I rang the guy back and told him I couldn’t buy it.
Someone online suggested I tried someone else. The guy at my insurance company had said I might be able to get it for £100 cheaper if I shopped around, I believed him and was still not willing to pay it. Just out of curiosity I did a check on Compare the Market, the cheapest quote was £311 but they wanted £1,000 excess. The next cheapest was £350 with £500 excess. The quotes after that were all £500 or more excess, so I went for that. If they are thief magnets I want the minimum excess.
Inexplicable. How can my old insurers, who said they ran it through multiple providers, claim to need three times as much? The guy said they could only get 4 quotes because the other companies refused to insure me. He even tried to say I could save a bit by getting third party only insurance. Spend, say, £800, then not get a penny if it gets nicked. I took him at his word but I couldn’t understand it, I’ve had a Fireblade, a full-on race bike, and the insurance was low hundreds. Anyway, I got the £350 insurance and cancelled the shit out of my multibike policy. I paid £299 for my multibike, which renewed a few days ago. I got £266 back.
It’s an amazing bike. It’s light, quiet, nimble, gentle as a lamb, then you twist the throttle open…SWEET JESUS! 115hp in your face, all at once. Hahahahaha! Weeeeeeeee! It’s a 2017 bike so it has fuel injection, rider modes, ABS and phenomenal front brakes. Literally one finger braking. Two fingers and the front end dives. It’s what MCN call a ‘tall rounder’, a belting all round bike dressed up in the style of a trials bike. It’s a bit too tall, really. I’m on tiptoes to put my feet down. I’ve ordered a second-hand lowering kit and shorter side stand. This bike ticks all the boxes. Commuter, long distance cruiser, and out and out crazy if you want to. To that end I’ve listed the VFR750 for sale and today I’ve replaced the fork seals and oil on the SV650. I still need to give the SV650 a damn good clean (there is oil and grease all over it from me working on it) and I need to rag the arse off of it to test the oil seals have seated properly, then I’m going to list it for sale. I’ve dug out a bunch of other stuff from the shed and listed that as well.
I did my first overtime shift last week. I think I’ll do three a month until I’ve paid the loan off. That should be £600 a month or so towards it. If the bikes and my bits sell, that will be another £1800 towards it.
I’m still waiting on the payment from the Pru. That’s been over a month. They should be giving me about £3,500. If they ever get around to it. I’ve just spent a frustrating but ultimately fruitful hour trying to find a letter from the Pru. I found one with my policy number on, then through a lot of trial and error managed to reset my password and pin, and work out which year I joined the scheme. With this knowledge I am invincible! I’ve sent them an email asking where’s my dosh.
Still nothing from the DVLA. I’m hoping they are going to leave me alone. A confirmation letter would be great, mind.
5 heatwaves this year, a massive drought, the grass is brown and crunchy, I get a new bike and it starts raining. Of course it does. The gods mock me. Right work tomorrow, to my bed.
Oh, it’s easy to forget. You notice the loony right enough, but take relative sanity for granted. I’ve been so sane I’ve been feeling happy and mildly obsessive again. Hoorah! I actually don’t mind work now. After Sainsbury’s and the panic attacks it’s taken me a long time to settle down. I’m no longer anxious, on the verge of panic, waiting for something terrible to go wrong. Now I just drive to my drops, which are usually really easy to access, take my time with the driving and take it all in my stride. It’s such a wonderful relief, but unless you think about it you just take it for granted. I’m mentioning it now, just to take a moment and appreciate it.
Right. Bed.