Thank You, and Goodbye, My Little Honda Fit.

Well, today was the day. Title transfer is complete and the little Fit drove off with its new owner.

The Fit had been under storage policy since July, and it was rarely driven for a while even before that. I finally came to the decision to sell the Fit a couple of months ago. Even then, I was a bit hesitant since I really did like this car. So I posted a note on my Facebook page so that only my friends can see it, and get first dibs at a reduced price, before I actually put it for sell on a public site.

Turned out one of my very good friend, who I've known since high school, was in fact interested, but needed a bit of time to deal with her other vehicle first. Since it was a friend, I held the car for her. and today, we completed the transaction, and she took posession of the car.

It's been a great vehicle. In fact, the only car I've owned that I never had a single thing go wrong during then entire ownership experience (I know it's only been 5 years, but I've never actually owned any vehicle for more than this). And just last Thursday, my Sienna minivan started leaking power steering fluid. By today, it was making a pretty horrid sound after making left turns. I'm guessing I'm looking at a steering rack replacement, on a 2005, with actually less KMs than my Honda Fit. I think I'm going to regret selling the Fit.

But hey, at least it's going to a good friend, and I'm gonna be able to see it all the time. Maybe she'll even let me drive it once in a while.

Thank you, my little Fit. and Goodbye.

Dead Battery, and Putting the Fit Away... For now.

Well, I haven't really driven my Fit since I swapped wheels/tires. In fact, when I did try to start the car, the battery was comepletely shot. In fact I tried to revive it with a digital battery charger, but it's apparently completely dead.

A quick search on fitfreak.net will show that the stock Honda battery does not last long, and a lot of them suffer an early death. Many even before warranty is over. The unfortunate thing is, the small sized battery in our car is quite rare, and seems no one currently makes an aftermarket 151R Group sized batteries. So you're stuck to either purchase the battery from Honda, and possibly suffer an early death again, or as some owners have done, trimmed their battery tray, and installed a larger group 51R sized battery into their Fit. Depending on the brand, some are a tight fit, barely clearing the air box, while others are pushing against it. But at least it's an option. An option that's cheaper, more readily available, and with higher specs and capacity than the stock battery.

Anyways, since I wasn't driving my Fit these days, and my Sienna's insurance was up, I decided to transfer my insurance on the Fit to the Sienna. I then put storage insurance on the Fit and parked it in my garage. It was a bit sad, but currently I have no intentions of selling it. It's still a good little go-around. I'm sure I'll plate it again in the future.

My New Bike

I got my new bike!!


After finding out my Ninja was a write-off, I started looking at Craigslist and other places for a replacement. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, and was actually considering buying a standard cruiser like a Harley Sportster or a Triumph Bonneville. However, I saw the ad for this Bandit, and I was intrigued. After asking the selling the history and condition of the bike, and settling on a very reasonable price, I couldn't pass it up.

It's a GSF650SAK7, better known as a 2007 Suzuki Bandit 650S ABS. The Suzuki Bandit is a long running series from Suzuki, and is quite a popular bike in most places in the world. The interesting thing about this bike is that the 2007 model was the first year of the new liquid-cooled, fuel-injected 650cc motor. However, it was also the final year the 600-class Bandit was sold in North America. In fact, the U.S. never got this model. And after a one year hiatus, Suzuki brought the GSX650F to North America. The new bike is in fact just a full fairing version of the Bandit I have now. So basically, I got the same thing as the new bike, but without the pretentious super-sport looks.

This bike is heavy. about 100 lbs or so heavier than most of its competitors in its class. It's because it has a full primeter frame, and it was also build to support a 1250cc motor. In fact this bike has more load capacity than a Honda Goldwing.

The ABS is a good option for me to have on this bike, considering it might have helped when I slipped on gravel on my last bike. With the kid now, I won't have as much time riding, but I hope I do get a chance to enjoy this bike a bit. In fact, the Wee Bandit can make a very good light Sport Touring bike, which is what I originally wanted to get into when I started riding. I'm considering putting some hard cases on it and hopefully go for a long ride sometime.

My Bike is a Total Loss

Just got the call from insurance today. They decided to write the bike off. :(

In reality, all they needed to do is to bend the rear brake lever back, replace the bent right clip-on, bar end, and get a new front fairing so we can remount the turn signals, and the bike would be perfectly safe and street-able. Yes, I know the brake lever was scratched up. Yes I know the rear right fairing and mufflers are scratched. And there are probably many more things we need to do for the bike to be "perfect" again. However, the bike wasn't perfect to begin with. In fact, that's part of the reason why I bought it; it's my first bike.

So it's the start of the season and I don't have a bike anymore. That's the sad part. However, I can also look at the good. I was thinking about selling my bike this season or the next anyways to get something different, and my declared value is about right for what I'd hope to sell it for anyways. So it's like I didn't have to look for a buyer. Plus now when I have some free time, I can spend it more with my kid.


Well, so long my Ninja. You've been a great first bike, and I'll always remember you.

My Motorcycle Oops

Well, I had planned to do this for a while, but today, I finally got around to cleaning my air filter on my bike. I had not done this since I bought the bike, and figured it was about time. I had all the cleaners and oils ready to go for a while, and have read the instructions here a few times. So off I went to take the bike apart.

Old bikes, gotta love them. You have to remove your gas tank just to get to the air filter... and to most everything else for that matter...

Anyways, the filter was definitely dirty, but everything went pretty smooth. I put the bike back together, and figure I'd go for a short test ride and get some gas.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it back home in one piece. Well, I did, but the bike didn't. There's been some construction near the off ramp to my home, and there was some gravel in the middle of the turn. I let go of the brake and straighten up as much as I could, but since I was already engaged into the turn, going straight would mean a head-on collision with the giant exit sign.


Anyways, the bike went down, and me along with it. My gear did it's job and protected me for the most part. However, since I was wearing jeans, and not proper riding pants, guess where I got hurt? Yup, my knees. The padding on the palm of my gloves were shredded. If I didn't have gloves, that would have been my hand. The shoulder armour took a good impact and slide. Aside from my knee being cut open a little, all I had was a bit of bruising on the side of my waist. I'm a believer! Wear gear when you ride!!

Oil Change for the Sienna (56,397km)

This will be the first oil change on the Sienna since I've owned it. The oil looked clean enough when I picked it up at just over 50,000km. So I left it in and was expecting to change it at the same 5000km interval as my Fit. But the oil change was delayed a bit since I wanted to do it at the same time as when I had to change back to my summer tires since I don't have a separate wheel for the van's snow tires.

Well, that was delayed too since it's already almost end of April, and I live on the Lower Mainland, where we have not seen snow or sub zero temperature in a while. When I finally changed my Fit wheels over last Thursday, I also picked up the Sienna's summer tires from storage and made an appointment to get my tires re and re, and do the oil change for the van.

So the summer tires went on, and the oil got changed. I also asked them to check the rear pad while the wheel was off since I've been hearing light metal grinding from the rear. Sure enough, the rear pads needed replacing. So the whole service cost me a bit more than I had anticipated. But hey, it's the babymobile. If it needs it, it will get done.

EM1 (SiR) Wheels Back On

My goodness! I haven't updated this blog in a while.

Well, if you read my last post in January, you probably guessed that I've been a little bit pre-occupied with the new addition to the family. And to be honest, I've also been driving the Sienna a lot more than the Fit lately because it's just much easier to haul the baby and paraphernalia around.

In fact, there's a thread on Fitfreak.net that talks about how the front seats have to be moved almost all the way forward in order to fit a rear facing child seat in the back.

Anyways, I finally managed to put back on my EM1(SiR) wheels today. I miss these wheels on the Fit. The offset is just so much nicer and much more flush to the fenders. They've also got brand new Yokohama S.Drive tires I bought along with my General Altimax Artic winter tires back in November. Once I give these tires a good run, I'll post my review here.

Oops... baby needs a bath again... Gotta go.

Baby On Board

Remember me buying the Toyota Sienna minivan? Remember why I bought the minivan? Well, the reason has finally arrived early this month. (you think I wasn't updating this blog often enough before? you just wait. =P)

He's lucky he's so cute. Otherwise I would not put up with his multiple late night feedings, diaper changes, constant need for attention, and... I don't remember anymore. In fact, I don't really remember anything before the baby anymore. ;-)

Other than the necessities, I haven't splurged on the baby until now. I know I payed WAY TOO MUCH for a piece of vinyl sticker, but I couldn't help it.

Boxing Week Battle Scar

I didn't go out to brave the crowd for Boxing Day shopping. Partly because there wasn't any really good deals to be had, and also, I didn't really need anything at this point.

But then, I did eventually find a couple of items I wanted. Since the sales usually last the whole week now, I decided to head out and pick up a couple of items; a Blu-Ray, and a printer.

Maybe I shouldn't have. Because I came home with a new door ding, well, more like a gash on my front passenger side door. Very high up, so must be a van or SUV. But it's a nasty one. Looks like they hit my door, and didn't stop right away and kept pushing for another 3/4 of an inch. Nasty! Maybe it wasn't worth going out for the sales after all.

On the upside, I manage to sell my stock Dunlop 14" tires I mentioned in my previous post rather quickly. Of course, pricing them low helps.

Oil Change #13 (66997km) + Winter Tires Mounted

A Lot going on these days, and I was again a little late getting my oil and filter changed. But got it done today with the standard 5W20 and Honda oil filter.

The tires I ordered from JC Whitney I mentioned in my last post took a while, but they had finally arrived. I'm happy to say that it was as stated in their website; no additional taxes, duties, or brokerage fees were applied. I had them mounted on Tuesday when I had some free time, and will now list the stock Dunlop SP31 tires cheap as I will no longer need them with these dedicated snow tires on my 14" steelies.