Eunos Chump

I've made an effort over the past few days to calculate the fuel economy of the YBR, and as you can see it's impressive, especially as I spend most of the time with the throttle wide open. Spent most of the day at Rob's helping install his new bath, and as always there were leaks and I have to return tomorrow.  He feeds me chips and cake though, so it's fine.

Passed the theory test today, despite scoring zero on a hazard perception video!  There are 14 of these clips and the earlier you flag the potential hazard, the more you score (with the maximum being 5).  I was more than a little surprised about this 'cos I'm just ace at driving and riding things, and I've hardly died at all during the past 26 years on the road.  I've been thinking about it all day and I reckon it was the one featuring a sharp right turn onto a humpback bridge; it was such an obvious hazard I don't think I even flagged it, and was looking for an oncoming vehicle or suchlike.  I got all the questions correct though, thanks to the DSA official guide book I borrowed off Rob, it's mostly common sense but there are some questions on very basic first aid and bike maintenance which could catch you out. The test centre staff were VERY ODD.  They were all in their 60s and were behaving like school teachers with a lot of unruly children; all the candida...

I learnt everything I know from this video... I've just realised I've done 470 miles in the past week on the bike, that's hours of dawdling fun.  Engine gets better all the time though, I could almost describe it as 'torquey' in the lower gears.  I won't though, because it suggests the engine may have some actual horsepowers, which of course is ridiculous.

I still absolutely love riding the bike, have I mentioned that enough on here yet?  It's a good job nobody reads this, 'cos they'd be really bored by now and might be tempted to wander off and do something damn stupid, such as paying good brass to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 .  Then they'd really know the meaning of disappointment, and perhaps even mild anger. Rode home from Wokingham last night, past midnight.  First time in the dark on a bike, and the old YBR headlamp is RUBBISH on dipped beam.  Yet on full beam, it's EVEN WORSE!  It brightly lights up around 1 metre ahead, then it's black, then in the far distance you can see it's dimly lighting up road signs.  It's bizarre, because apart from that the bike is highly efficient and very cleverly designed. Bought Russ a new bike today, a red BMX.  He's almost too big for it already, but then he's not big enough for the next size up and still needs stabilisers, which enforces small-ish whe...

The YBR reached 1000 miles today, so it's now fully run-in and WARP SPEED is available.  However, I can't find the button for that so I'll have to stick to 65mph for now (and even that requires a favourable incline). I've booked my theory test for next week, and been out this evening practising mod 1 manoeuvres including the emergency stop from 30mph.  The YBR has impressive brakes!  I'll have to do the test on a more powerful bike though, so I'll have to book some training that includes bike hire and test.

I went out with my new motorbike gang yesterday, and we rained down mayhem on Henley-on-Thames, there is literally nothing left of it but flaming ruins and driftwood.  Imagine a Viking raid, but on Yamahas.  I'm surprised it's not been on the news.  It was definitely not just me and my mate Rob, not breaking the speed limit once, and retreating to a tea shop when it started to rain for teacakes'n'jam, OK? Bike is close to 1000 miles now, running-in almost complete.  It's running nicely, and my riding is 90% good (an examiner may disagree though).  I bought some kevlar-reinforced jeans today, to reduce the need to change trousers at each end of a journey (I'm planning to use the bike all this week), still haven't got a neck-cosy thing though, so I've normally got a cold neck before I'm even into 3rd gear! Current fave upgrade bike is a Suzuki SV650, looked at one today in a showroom at Farnborough.  I'll have to get my finger out book the theo...

I've been farting about most evenings on the bike, I love the thing and have upgraded my status to not-quite-totally-incompetent.  Today I used it to commute to work for the first time, now that'll it do 60mph (it was reluctant to do 50 before it was run in).  I made damn sure the weather was going to be fine, and avoided the madness of the Basingstoke ring-road by taking back roads.  The Hog's Back was jammed, so for the first time I found myself filtering down the middle of the road.  After 25+ years in a car, it felt like extreme cheating!  An Audi R8 driver had to make way for the awesome 10BHP of the YBR and it's power ranger rider.  But with changing clothes and related messing about, it actually took an hour rather than the usual 45 minutes in total, and it was the same on the way back.  It was great fun though, and probably cost me all of £3 in fuel, so I'm using it again tomorrow. In other news, Mrs B's Berlingo is in a bodyshop after some o...

Back at work now, so it's more difficult to fit in bike time.  Did some U-turn and figure-of-8 practice this evening, in prep for the Mod 1 test I reckon I'll be booking soon.  Had quite a lot of fun hooning around the town centre like a teenage wazzock too.  Still having the occasional stall when moving off, and some inelegant stops, but every day brings improvement. I must spend 2 hours a day looking at other, bigger bikes I want to buy in the future.  Current fave remains the CBR600.

Put another 80-odd miles on the bike today during a couple of runs, I even had to put some more fuel in (£9.46, outrageous).  Again, much better than yesterday, I've had quite a lot of fun zipping around.  Spent some time practising right-hand turns and smooth controlled stops, both need some work.  It was quite breezy today and at 50mph it was quite unpleasant, perhaps a screen would help.