April 25, 1998
After a long hiatus over the winter months I was finally prepared to haul my poor bike out of deep hibernation. Playing Moto Racer on my PC just isn't a substitute for the real thing and I'd been getting more and more irritable as the cold, wet weather dragged on. Finally though, a break. It was a cool but sunny Saturday and I had my friend Darrin drive me down to Cycle World to pick up my "baby".
I was to have had some work done to the bike (brake lines replaced, new tires, new pads, etc.), but due to a lack of stock, the brake improvements would have to wait. The tires were fresh though so I had to be somewhat careful for the first few hundred kilometres. While getting my bike, the service personnel informed me that during installation of my front tire they'd managed to scratch the edge of my front rim. Wonderful! No problem they assured me; they'd have it painted when I brought the bike back for the brake lines. I think instead that I'll get the rim edges polished…decisions, decisions.
On the ride back home I was headed up the 400 when a red, white, and blue CBR600F2 with rider in matching leathers came tearing up from behind and blew by me. Seeing as how I had to scrub the new tires in anyhow, I moved to catch up to him. My bike, while great on the streets and twisty stuff, has a limited top end and I found the ride quite buffeting as we approached 220 km/h. I should note here there was little traffic at that time of day and the highway is straight and wide making it easy to see far ahead. We played a bit of cat and mouse, changing leads for most of the ride up to my exit. As I waved goodbye I became acutely aware that I was fast approaching a sharp right turn on the ramp and, having new tires, I needed to scrub off some speed. I pinched the binders nice and hard. Having only driven a car for the past six months I'd forgotten what a treat it is to have really decent braking ability. The bike slowed down in a big hurry with little fuss and I can only imagine how much nicer it'll feel with better lines and pads.
After getting home and grabbing a bite to eat while allowing the bike to cool down, I set about installing my new D & D slip-on exhaust. The whole process took maybe half an hour and when I started her up...WOW! Is that a low-flying jumbo jet? These things sound just wonderful! I only hope my neighbours share my opinion. I also installed a new front fender fashioned from carbon fibre to match the finish on the new canisters.
Since the day was so nice, though on the cool side, Darrin and I decided to go for a ride. We stopped by his house to pick up his GSXR750 and headed out towards the Forks of the Credit River in Mississauga - a fairly nice twisty road; one of the few in the area. We were maybe a half an hour into the ride when Darrin came tearing up beside me waving me over frantically. As I pulled over and slowed onto the shoulder I could hear an odd noise coming from the left side of my bike. I looked down to see my spanking new exhaust canister dragging along the road! The bolt had come loose and dropped off at some point and the whole left side had slowly fallen to the ground, pivoting about the mid-pipe connection. Fortunately, there was very little damage - just a small scratch in the metal ring surrounding the exit end of the canister. Now I had to find something to hold it all back up. Darrin headed back from where we had come to see if he could locate the missing bolt while I looked around for a loose piece of wire or something…I have to start carrying some zip ties for just such emergencies. Fortunately, I had stopped only a few hundred yards from a farmhouse and the gentlemen who lived there handed me a large bucket of nuts and bolts and told me to help myself. Ten minutes later we were back on our way (Darrin never did find the lost bolt).
The rest of the day was uneventful. I never did get a chance to really let the bike run free, as I'm paranoid about new rubber and was being careful to properly scrub the tires in. I only hope the weather starts to co-operate better as I find myself needing to hear that beautiful exhaust note again and again.