The FastDay Forum

Well, as CreekyPete couldn't be bothered , I thought I'd start a biking thread.

So, are there any other bikers out there... or wannabe bikers?

I've been riding 13 years now and absolutely love it. I started off with an Aprilia 125, but it was a nightmare and kept cutting out on me (although the garage I bought it from said it was because I was a new female rider!!) until it cut out on one of their guys, then they realised that I was telling the truth!

So, then I decided to do my direct access so I could choose any bike. I then got a CB500, followed by a GPZ500 followed by a ZZR600 - if you know bikes, you may notice a theme... I like twin exhaust bikes

Then I got the bike I ride now and have rode for nearly 10 years - my lovely red VFR800 vtec.

Would love to hear about what others ride

Dolly

hi
i ride a scooter - can i join your thread?
i am 45 and learnt to ride 4 years ago, i had a Gilera but that got trashed twice courtesy of oil on the road and then a car not looking where he was going
now i have an Aprillia 125 - i wish i had taken the direct access but now they are making larger cc scoots i might trade up to a 250 next time i replace

Ride Safe

jeniben

Welcome jeniben to our two-wheeler (with an engine) thread

I loved my Aprilia 125, but that was before I grew into bigger bikes. The bigger scooters are really good now, as are the 125's (they don't look like little bikes any more - the only way you know is when you hear the noise they make lol

Sorry to hear you've had two offs. Oil on the road is a major concern. There were a few oil spills on the roundabout this morning that I had to avoid!

Safe riding

Dolly

I'm trying to figure out how to post a picture of me and our bike but can't seem to even make it an avatar. But anyway, we have a bright yellow Honda VTR 1000 Firestorm. It is beautiful. I don't have my own license yet but it is in the plans. I'm quite short so I am looking at bikes with a low seat so I can reach the ground. We had a nice ride last Saturday and really hope this season is better than the last, we hardly got out at all!

Welcome NikkiN

Your VTR sounds lovely. How short is short? I put off getting the VFR as I could only touch the ground with my tiptoes, but when I bought it I had the seat sculptured and made a bit thinner, allowing me to reach the floor a bit better, so there is always that option

Dolly: patience is supposed to be a virtue! I was getting there, honest...
Anyways, I restarted biking in 2004 as a result of company relocation - twice as far away but incentives for people who did not want to relocate, which included an annual bonus for those who did not come by car of £800, plus 21p per mile. I did the journey for a few months in the family diesel, learning how to minimize fuel consumption, then decided to try biking on an old Honda 90 which had been for the kids to play on. It proved possible to do a 72 mile round trip but it was slow and fairly grim in bad weather so I sought executive approval (OH) to buy a modern version, the ANF125 Innova. This was much better and I spent a year and 11,000 miles at 160mpg making money hand over fist! November 2005 I did Direct Access and picked up a new Honda CBF 500 the day I passed my test. This was OK but it was a cold winter and I froze several times in the next few months. By then Suzuki were offering a touring version of their DL650 Vstrom which had heated grips and a top box so the Honda was traded in in April 2006. I still have the Vstrom, with 47,000 miles on the clock, as my runabout but I also have a BMW R1200RT which OH and I were going touring on - but it hasn't happened yet. This bike is still under 10,000 miles at 6 years old. It is OK and will be a great tourer but the 650 is so much nicer to ride for journeys up to an hour or so that the BMW gets left in the garage. Younger son rides the 125 when he is home from uni, big son has an Enfield 500 (Indian made) of his own which he loves even though it has 'character'. None of us ride much for fun, it is usually to get somewhere quickly & cheaply with easy parking in town!

I'm 63 inches tall, don't know what that is in centimetres, sorry. I have heard about lowering the seat on bikes so that may be an option too.