Friday, August 30, 2013

Introducing DR Ropata and his first patient k1w33d (me) - Dr/Patient privacy is being thrown out the window - Part 2

The bike I wasn't quite ready for...

So now I had the GS. My first ride was out past Eastbourne to Muritai but that was after a few hiccups trying to leave the shop. Every other bike I had ridden in the past was basic. I climbed on the bike, turned on the ignition, made sure the bike was in neutral, engaged the starter while giving it a little gas...wouldn't start. Tried again. Bike on, in neutral, starter button with a little more gas this time...still no go. The bike was trying to turn over but wasn't firing. Mechanic comes out and sees me trying to start it and says to me "This bike has an automatic choke. You shouldn't touch the throttle when starting it." OK, bike on, neutral, start with no gas...the battery is dead. Mechanic wheels the bike back into the shop and gets a new battery installed. 15 minutes later I get back on the bike...on...neutral...no throttle...starter button...YESSS!!! Bike fires up, click it into gear...DEAD :( Try again, bike fires up, click it into gear, DEAD. F@rk! Put it back into neutral so I can wheel it around the corner away from the workshop, try starting it again, click into gear, bikes still running, finally :) so like I said I headed out to Muritai and enjoyed the ride out there, parked up and took the first pic of the bike which is the third image from the first part of this blog. Grabbed some lunch on the way back to Lower Hutt and spent the rest of the day riding around the Hutt and in the hills above SH2. Every chance I got I was on the bike and when I wasn't on the bike I was reading forums and watching videos on how to ride.
A week later, I considered myself good enough to do a little trip on the bike, so I packed my backpack and the tankbag and headed for Auckland to see my son. My father lives in Turangi so I left Friday after work, stopped in at the old mans place for the night then carried on up the next day making sure to stop at Hatupatu rock to ask for a safe journey.


I booked a room for the night in a motel down the road from my sons place and his mum dropped him off. He loved the bike which was good because I had some plans to get him a bike for Christmas.


Headed back to Turangi the next day for something to eat before carrying on back to Wellington. The only drama I had with the trip, apart from only getting to spend one night with my son, was the pain my butt was experiencing. I swear, it would have been a sight for cars behind me as I was spending a lot of time with my head/chest resting on my tankbag and my ass sticking up in the air trying to get some relief. Shortly after this ride I ordered myself an Airhawk cushion which I highly recommend. I ordered mine from the States (link) which came in at around $100 cheaper than buying the ones I found on TradeMe.
One of the best decisions I made while learning to ride was joining up with the slow-rides some of the BRONZ Wellington members had organised. These rides ran on Tuesday evenings and usually consisted of around an hour long ride with a couple of stops to give feedback. Not only did this give me a chance to ride with experienced riders, something that a lot of new motorcyclists don't get a chance to do, but it also opened a line of communication to organised rides and rider safety courses.
Just before CHristmas, I found a bike for my son and picked it up from Whanganui. It was a little PY90 (based on Yamaha's PW80) and had a four speed centrifugal clutch which is good as the kid can learn to use gears without having to worry about the clutch.


Two days before heading up to Turangi to spend Christmas with my son, the temp light came on on the GS. I checked the coolant level at home and it was empty. Only three days earlier it had been fine. I checked the oil when I took the side cover off to look for leaks and the oil looked like hot chocolate. I took the bike to Motomart as the bike was still under warranty and they said they would look at it. It turned out to be the water pump seal and I would not get the bike back until after New Years. I took the car to Auckland to pick up the kid then we headed down to Turangi. He was over the moon when he opened the shed door to see his present. I was a bit gutted that my bike was in the shop but it meant that I could spend more time showing my son how to ride his bike and get lots of pics and video.



After a week in Turangi we came back to Wellington and just after New Years I got my bike back so we headed back to Turangi so I could ride with the kid. We had just under a week left before he had to be back in Auckland so we made the most of the time together and it was the most fun I have ever had.



Back in Wellington, I continued doing the slow rides but also started following the Adventure Riding forums and ended up going on a ride with a few Wellington riders out to Lake Ferry and then on to Cape Palliser. There was a little sandy section along the beach from Lake Ferry to Whangaimoana and I had never ridden sand and to top it off I had road tyres on the bike. It was suggested that I take the road around to Whangaimoana and meet up with the rest of the riders there but pride, ignorance and confidence in the hours of Youtube videos I had watched helped me to decide to attempt the sand. The last bit of advice I got before heading off to the Beach section was to keep my speed up and my weight back so as we got to the first sandy section, I gunned it in third gear got up on the pegs and ended up with a huge tank slapper moment which I was able to recover from (just). For the rest of the sandy section I stayed in first gear and got the paddles out and apart from one small climb where I did not have enough momentum (I ended up getting off the bike and walking it up) I made it through unassisted. I was ecstatic at the end of the sand section and the feeling stayed with me for the rest of the trip.


The chain and sprockets were getting a bit worn so I had them replaced $$$. Done a few more trips up to Turangi and Auckland always trying to take a different routes and then it was tyre replacement time $$$. When the waterpump went, I decided that parts took too long and were too expensive for the BMW and started looking at getting a Suzuki DR650. I shopped around and found one that I was keen on and spoke to the dealer. He told me about the bike and we worked out a deal for the BMW as a trade and things were looking good. I was almost ready to make the deal but the GS had one more surprise for me. We had a big storm in Wellington and as I left work and headed for my bike, I reached into my pocket to get the key and nothing was there. I checked all my other pockets and went back to work to check around my desk. Nothing. Went back outside and looked along the 150 metres between work and where my bike was parked. Still nothing. I ended up calling a tow truck $$$ and caught a ride back home. I only ever got one key with the bike and called the bike shop hoping that they might have the spare there still but no such luck so I ended up ordering one from BMW $$$. While waiting for the key I contacted a few other bike shops and went to see Jimmy Mair at TSS Red Baron in Alicetown. Showed him what I was getting and asked if he could match it. He took my number and called me back after a couple of hours with a deal that blew me away. The original bike was a 2010 model with a few extras added and Jimmy had just offered me a brand new 2013 DR650 specced out the same as the original bike I was looking at and for only $500 more. He also offered me $500 more than the other shop was going to give me for the BMW. I called back to the first shop, told them what TSS was doing for me and they told me to take the deal as they could not come close to the offer.

In the next part
Ropata comes home.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Introducing DR Ropata and his first patient k1w33d (me) - Dr/Patient privacy is being thrown out the window - Part 1

Patient History: In October 2012, a change was introduced to the motorcycle licensing scheme (LAMS - Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme) which allowed learner riders to ride motorcycles up to 650cc (up from 250cc) as long as the bikes fell into a certain power:weight ratio.
Now I am a bigger guy (usually around 130 kg - 135 kg) so this excited me as I had wanted to get a motorcycle license for a while but couldn't see myself riding a small 250cc bike along the motorway at the rev limit pulling 80km/h. I started looking at what bikes were available and had settled on getting a Hyosung ST7L Cruiser but just had to wait for the latest shipment to arrive in NZ.

2012 Hyosung ST7 LAMS

I had my finances ready and a bike shop in Auckland had just confirmed a new shipment was arriving over the weekend so everything was looking good. While I was waiting I went in to TSS Red Baron where I had originally seen the non-LAMS ST7, to sit on it and daydream about how much fun I was going to have. I had a look around and saw the DR650

2012 Suzuki DR650SE

I had a look at the DR and to be honest I thought it looked too much like a farm bike, the seat was narrow and hard, there was nothing modern about the engine (air-cooled, carbureted engine) so my interest was short lived. That night however, I thought it would be awesome to get a bike for my son who was 9 at the time and the only real options for kids is dirt bikes or quad bikes and it would be cool if I had a bike that I could ride trails with him.
I booked myself in to sit the Basic Handling Skills test on Saturday and showed up that morning really nervous as it had been around 17 years since I last rode a motorcycle. With the changes to the licensing came a change to the BHS course and I had spent the last month gathering as much information as I could from the internet so apart from no practical experience I was as ready as I could be. The test itself went good and I easily passed the test. I finished at 11:00am and checked my phone to see if there was any licensing agencies open and there was one in Wellington which closed at 1pm so I thanked the tester/instructor and jumped in my car to make the journey from Upper Hutt to Wellington in time to sit my license. I easily passed the theory test as well and scored perfectly so I was now licensed to ride a motorcycle.
I went back to Lower Hutt and had a look at what Motomart had on offer and had spent around 20 minutes slowly making my way from the showroom bikes at the front of the shop to the used bikes near the back when I spotted her. Tucked into the corner of the showroom floor at the back of the shop was a yellow 2004 BMW F650GS.

My 2004 BMW F650GS

I wasn't even sure if it was for sale, there was no ticket on the bike and it was tucked so far into the corner I couldn't even look around the bike. I flagged the salesman who had been sitting at his desk the whole time I had been in the shop and he quickly made his way over to me when he realised I might actually be there to purchase a bike. He started clearing space around the bike to free it from the corner and I was reminded of the block game where you have to slide the blocks to clear a path for the main piece to exit.


As soon as I sat on the bike I was in love. It was comfy, and I could easily reach the ground with both feet. It had ABS, EFI, Auto choke, liquid cooling, an under seat fuel tank to keep the centre of gravity low. It did not look like a farm bike but had a sort of ruggedness about it. I told the salesman to hold it until Monday and I would get back to him. I spent the rest of the weekend reading up on the GS and by Monday morning I had made up my mind that I would not be getting a cruiser, I now had my heart set on an adventure bike. I took the day off work, negotiated a cash price with the dealer, got a cheque cut and purchased the bike and some safety gear and I was off. So began my biking addiction...

In the next part 
I will give details on some of the adventures, trials and tribulations I had with the GS and lead in to the introduction of Ropata