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.

New Real Snow Tires

If you've been following my blog, you'll know I've gotten by with all season tires for the past 4 years. (wow, I've had this little Fit for just over 4 years now!) The first two years were with the stock Dunlops 14" on factory steelies. Then 2 years ago I only had the worn Kumhos that came with my used EM1 rims. That was also the year wih the huge snow dump, so I the Fit was pretty much parked. Last year, I managed to find a set of stock 14" wheel/tire combo to replace the ones I traded, and at least I could drive in light snow.

However, with the light weight of the Honda Fit, it's really not a great winter car, and to really be useful in the white stuff, you want proper winter tires. I mentioned in a previous post that I bought a Toyota Sienna in anticipation of my growing family. Well, this also means I need to make my vehicles ready for winter since my wife is due in early January. Luckily, The Sienna came with a spare set of winter tires. But the Fit still needed help.

While looking around online, I found JC Whitney. I already knew of the company because I had lived in the States when I was younger, and would request some of their mail order catelogs even though I was still too young to own a vehicle. However, I never thought of purchasing from them here because normally shipping anything from the US to Canada, especially larger items, are prohibitively expensive. However, it would seem from their page here that they only add $11.99 to your order to ship to Canada. This, along with their regular shipping charge, supposedly covers for all taxes, duty, and brokerage fees. I was skeptical, but other canadians have ordered and said that it was legit. and as long as the tires are 16" and under, this works.

So I decided to place an order for a set of General Altimax Artic in the stock 175/65/14 size. And since I'm now getting dedicated winter tires, I decided to also order a new set of summer tires in the form of Yokohama S.Drive in 195/55/15 size to replace the factory Michelins I got last year for the EM1 rims. It would seem that the one tire that had some camber wear was because there was a nail in the tire, and the seller must have driven with it flat or low for a while. The last time my car was up on a hoist, I noticed that tire, which luckily I placed in the rear, is now starting to show a couple of bubbles on the inner side wall; a sign or sidewall failure. So that tire is no longer safe. The price for the two set of tires was much better than what I could have gotten locally. So I'm just waiting for these to come in so I can mount them on the Fit.

In the meantime, I went in today and put the winter tires that came with the Sienna on the van. I didn't pay much attention to them when I bought the car. but as it turns out, they are also General Altimax Artic tires. Same ones I had ordered for my Fit. A copy of the Gislaved Nordfrost 3 tires from Sweden, the General Altimax Artic (both under the Continental umbrella) had fantastic reviews and are a good value. I feel better that the van, and soon the Fit will have proper winter tires on this season. With pregnant wife now, and kid later. I think it's money worth spending.

LED Gauge Lights for the Bike

My buddy decided to change his car dome lights to white LEDs. However, within the batch he ordered, there were some that were a bit too 'blue' for his liking. So I took his 'leftovers' and put them behind the gauges of my bike. So I guess this qualifies as the first mod for my bike.

These are nice T-10 wedge base bulbs with 4 SMDs on each bulb. Very wide angle and very bright. Yes these had a noticeable tinge of blue, but They're still mostly white. So the redline on the tach and temp gauge is not washed out by blue and is still clearly distinguishable. The before and after photos are taken with a point and shoot, but the ISO, exposure and shutter speed settings were set the same. You can tell by the matching ambient lighting in front of the bike as well as the glare off the warning lights in both photos. So the photos are an accurate representation of the LEDs brightness.



The results are great. Many cheaper LED bulbs are either too dim or the angle is too narrow. These SMDs doesn't have either of the problem. I followed the simple directions here for the install. And it took very little time. I don't ride at night too often, and the riding season is almost over for me. But I still enjoy the results.