Beginner Biker Adventures | Trials and tribulations of a London biker, from newbie to seasoned commuter

Making Good Bent Fairing

Four-Blue-Fazers-Fettling — Four blue Fazer’s in for a fettle

Today I attempted to make good the damaged fairing from last weekends off. The damage isn’t too bad, just a big crack and scuff on the right hand side. However the fairing brackets are bent and thus the headlights, clocks and fairing all point to the left somewhat. 🙁

Enlisting some help from the decent chaps on the FOC forum, we spent the morning removing the fairing and bending everything back. In the end there was four of us Fazer owners, all with blue bikes and having a good fettling session. It turned out rather straight forward to remove the fairing, but bending the brackets and gauging when it was true again was not. After a lot of errming, arring and lots of judgement by eye everything sits pretty much straight again now.

Tags Repairs

Riding

Fazer’s Owner Club, Lofo Ride Out

Post author By Arthur
Post date August 5, 2013
No Comments on Fazer’s Owner Club, Lofo Ride Out

I went for my first ride out at the weekend with the FOC (unofficial Fazer’s Owner Club), London lot (LoFo). We started off in High Beach, Epping at the well known tea hut, then made our way North up through Great Dunmow, Saffron Walden and finished up near Royston.

The the plan was to meet up with the (slightly more) Northern branch of FOC and then ride back to Epping together. Everything started off well, but the day didn’t continue as planned.

Tags Ride Out

Uncategorized

London Shard Mini Adventure

Post author By Arthur
Post date August 3, 2013
No Comments on London Shard Mini Adventure

Not really motorcycle related, but definitely London related; here’s some snaps from a recent mini adventure I had up to the top of the London Shard to check out the view across London.

Thankfully, the weather was top notch and the view stunning. Could pinpoint landmarks for miles around. Tickets aren’t cheap at £25 a pop, but you won’t get a view like this anywhere else. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in town.

HMS Belfast, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Docklands.

Tags London

Maintenance

Polishing Clear Motorcycle Screen

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 31, 2013
No Comments on Polishing Clear Motorcycle Screen

The clear screen on the ZZR400 was really showing its age when we bought it. It was incredibly misty, scuffed and well, just not very clear. Ideally, we’d like to swap it for a nice new screen, but in the meantime, I went at it with some Meguiars PlastX polish. This is a fancy plastic/acrylic polish with microscopic abrasive particles, designed specifically for all kinds of plastics. Perfect for lights, screens, and indicators, I even used it to good effect on my turntable lid!

It’s no good against deep scratches, but it will sort out tiny scuffs and get plastic looking shiny, glossy and transparent again.

As you can see from these before-after shots, it has made quite a difference. I’m sure if I removed the screen and polished up some more it would look even better.

Tags Cleaning

Hardware

Fitting R&G Crash Bobbins to Kawasaki ZZR 400 (or 600)

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 30, 2013
No Comments on Fitting R&G Crash Bobbins to Kawasaki ZZR 400 (or 600)

Over the weekend I fitted some R&G Crash Bobbins to the ZZR400. Sometimes more affectionately known as frame sliders, these lumps of hard plastic stick out from the side of the bike with the intention of stopping your precious fairing from getting scuffed or cracked should you drop your bike. Since my wife is a little on the short side and the ZZR400 is quite heavy (as it’s just a sleeved-down version of the ZZR600), we figured crash bobbins would be a prudent move.

Tags Crash Protection

Courses/Tuition

One Year Ago Today I Began This Adventure

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 26, 2013
No Comments on One Year Ago Today I Began This Adventure

motorcycle-theory-test-booking It was exactly a year ago today I began my adventure in biking. One year ago I took my motorcycle theory test, the first step into getting onto two wheels. Granted I could have done CBT first, but I knew from the off I wanted a full bike license and a big bike.

Looking back, I can’t believe how fast time has flown, how much fun I’ve had, for how long I put up with the stinky, hot, crowded tube! Most definitely not looked back, (other than the odd ‘life saver’ glance over shoulder!)

Motorcycles

New Bike! – Kawasaki ZZR400 E

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 22, 2013
No Comments on New Bike! – Kawasaki ZZR400 E

My wife finally sourced herself another motorbike. After passing her test in ’98, first riding a crappy YB100, then a VT250, but sadly bikeless for the last 12 years. Now she has picked up this classic Kawasaki ZZR400 E off a good friend. It’s getting on a bit, not in perfect nick, but solid and maintained since a recent full rebuild.

The ZZR400 is a veritable pocket rocket. Jap import, sleeved down version of the ZZR600. Great handling, plenty of beans, loads of fun from 8000 rpm up.

The seat has already been trimmed a bit to shave a couple of centimetres off to aid stability for my short-legged wife. Some crash bobbins are also on order to protect that precious fairing. Watch this space for more antics on this bike.

Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

Hoo Rag Bandana / Neck Gaiter Review

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 19, 2013
No Comments on Hoo Rag Bandana / Neck Gaiter Review

The wonderful people at Hoo-Rag recently sent a couple of their Bandanas in for review. Less well known here in the UK, however, the Hoo-Rag is a big product over in the US. Essentially it is a tube of material that can be worn in a multitude of different manners. As a biker, I’ve been wearing it predominantly as a neck gaiter, but of course, it need not be just for ride-outs on the motorcycle.

Hoo-What? (Why?)

The key thing about the Hoo-Rag, is it’s made from a single seamless piece of soft polyester microfiber tube. No annoying seams, or labels, just one nice stretchy, soft tube to protect your neck from the wind, cold, dust, insects and so on. Wear it around your neck, over your face, or go all ’80s rocker style and wear it as a headband or bandana. With such versatility and loads of different patterns available, there should be a Hoo-Rag to suit almost everyone. They even do one for your Dog!

Tags Base Layers

Hardware Maintenance

Fixed Broken Meta M357T V2 Alarm Immobiliser

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 11, 2013
16 Comments on Fixed Broken Meta M357T V2 Alarm Immobiliser

Last week the Meta M357TV2 alarm and immobiliser on my Fazer started playing up. It refused to make any sound when arming and disarming, just silent flashes of indicators. When deliberately triggering the alarm it remained silent and I just got hazard lights flashing. The immobiliser did however continue to work. Then later in the week, it started to make a noise again, just extremely quietly. Very odd. Obviously I kept my lack of alarm hush hush until I had remedied the situation.

Reading up, it seems that after around 10 years the internal battery on these alarms starts to give up the ghost and causes these kinds of issues. I also came across accounts from those who left it and it deteriorated further to the extent they couldn’t disable the immobiliser – eeek!

Tags Security

Maintenance

MOT Passed!

mot-test-cert Big sigh of relief, bike passed MOT without issue. Top stuff. Big yearly service sorted too, filters, oil, plug, brake fluid, carbs balanced etc. The Fazer is running super sweet now. Thanks to the top chaps over at Pole Position (London), very reasonable price. Really must bone up on some of the basic service items myself though.

The mileage history on the certificate is quite telling, barely 100 miles was put on the bike between 2011-2012, however I’ve clocked up 6000 since last July! Definitely not a fair weather biker, the Fazer is most certainly being used. Was advised the rear pads have only got about 2000 miles life left in them. Must not forget about them.