revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Did about 100 miles this morning, left about 05:30, home about 07:30, Ipswich - Beccles - Bungay - Ipswich, roads were nice and quiet, had breakfast at Beccles

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 6:07 pm

Supermofo wrote: Fri Aug 02, 2024 5:56 pm Maybe miss it out then, just do Manningtree and then go north west from there

If you go from Manningtree to Harwich there are two good roads, the back way through Ramsey (tight and twisty) and the main road to Horsley Cross (wide sweeping bends).

You could go Mannigtree, Harwich, Walton/Frinton/Clacton and then use the A120 to get back to the A12, if you go through Thorpe Le Soken watch out for the huge pot holes in the High Street.
experience.

Cheers for that, having a look at the map I reckon I'll come in via Heybridge, cut under Colchester, down on the b roads towards St Osyth, left to Thorpe Le Soken and follow the twisty road towards Harwich, cut left again before Harwich proper and take the Ramsey road to Manningtree

Did think of doing the coast road but looks dead straight and presumably will be busier.

After a stop in Manningtree I'll decide where next, probably stick with the plan of Hadleigh/Sudbury

Did you get a mushroom in your puncture or have you still got the plug in it?
Only asking because I had to pull the nail out of mine today, you could hear the air hissing out, turned out to be a 3 inch nail, put a plug in, which appears to be holding air.

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2024 8:52 pm Did you get a mushroom in your puncture or have you still got the plug in it?
Only asking because I had to pull the nail out of mine today, you could hear the air hissing out, turned out to be a 3 inch nail, put a plug in, which appears to be holding air.

I've still got the sticky plug in it that the AA put in. Seems to be holding up fine. Bike had been sitting almost a month since I last checked pressures as only ridden it once I think till yesterday. Both front and back needed 2 psi so I think the plug is still doing it's job fine. I've done a fair mileage since the puncture. Didn't see the point in shelling out for a proper plug as I'm going to get new tyres in spring.

You may recall back in April I was a twat and let my seat fall off the side causing a small split in the vinyl. Been searching for a 2nd hand seat since. All the ones I've found are pretty poor condition or fairly pricey. Then the other week I read on the GSXS forum that the later 21 onwards model (face-lift) seat fits, including the cosmetic upgrade seat. An OE seat for mine is £186! This is a new 2021 upgrade seat from a Suzuki dealer for £130.
It's a tighter fit than standard but in some ways is better as the OE seat left a gap between the front and rear seats, whereas this is now gone. Think fit at the front is fine.
Seat itself is made from...something that looks a bit leather ish. Looks nice I think and has a GSXS logo embossed on it. Was worried the red stitching would clash with the blue but the 'S' in GSXS is in red so think it works. I like it, and it's a Suzuki part.
I had planned to get the OE seat turned into a comfort seat for longer trips but will see how this is first. On the GSXS forum some people say this is more comfy than the OE seat.

OE seat


New seat





In other news I washed it the other week ready for hibernation, hence the missing belly pan. I'm still planning on giving the underneath of the engine and the cat a good going over with GT85 before replacing the belly pan.

Battery got removed whilst I was faffing with the seat so that's in the house now for winter charging.

Winter plans are to fit the exhaust end cap I bought back in May!! To replace the damaged one. And fit the R&G radiator guard. Had this a while but waited till the bike was clean first.

And thats it I think till Spring

Looks even better than the original seat.

Jolly spiffing old bean.

The seat looks better than the original

The new seat is definitely a visual improvement over the original. If it's comfier as well I'd say that's a result!

Like a lot of us my bike has been stuck in the garage under a cover doing sweet FA since late Nov. So nothing to update on the bike itself but insurance renewal came though..£70 more than last year. Lucky me! Was about to do a comparison search when I noticed the very next email after my renewal was from Confused telling me my renewal was due and their 3 cheapest quotes. Seems their cheapest was £20 more than my renewal from Bennetts, was from a company I'd never heard of before and had an excess of £900 So looks like I'll be staying with Bennetts and be coughing up more this year. Joy.

On a brighter note just booked a 4 day trip to the Peak District in June. Should be 6 - 8 of us so something to look forward to. Gonna ride up Friday, ride around Sat/Sun and then back home Monday, staying in/near Chesterfield. Never been to the Peaks so yeah should be good. Brother is sorting all the routes and look good so far.

Bike wise I have been thinking of a couple of changes. Namely some Brembo road pads so see if they are an improvement over the OE pads. I've done 8k miles on the OE pads and still loads left on them. They aren't terrible but the brakes aren't great either. Interestingly it's still a thing on the newer versions as I noticed MCN have just put some Galfer pads in theirs.
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn-flee ... rake-pads/

Another thing I am looking to do is to refresh/upgrade the suspension. Thinking of booking a date in with MCT in Stowmarket as they always seem to get good reviews in everything I've read and they aren't far from me. Going from the GSXS forum when they've been to MCT the consensus seems to be new shock and then getting front springs/oil right for me plus adjusted by someone who knows what they are doing. Shock wise I'm thinking either Nitron or YSS I guess. Probably just the base versions as not taken a pillion in 15 years except twice to the MOT station to help a mate so £200 extra for remote preload is probably not worth it.

Anyone got opinions on Nitron Vs YSS? Or others? Not Ohlins though as don't want to go too spendy.

I hated the Brembo pads mine came with as standard.

Regarding Ohlins. I bought one for my 2007 jobby. Also used it on the 2009 and 2013 models.

Sold it for 2/3 of what I paid new, after 11 years.

Have a look second hand. £100 for a refresh then sell it on when time is due.

Supermofo wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:36 pm Bike wise I have been thinking of a couple of changes. Namely some Brembo road pads so see if they are an improvement over the OE pads. I've done 8k miles on the OE pads and still loads left on them. They aren't terrible but the brakes aren't great either. Interestingly it's still a thing on the newer versions as I noticed MCN have just put some Galfer pads in theirs.
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn-flee ... rake-pads/

Another thing I am looking to do is to refresh/upgrade the suspension. Thinking of booking a date in with MCT in Stowmarket as they always seem to get good reviews in everything I've read and they aren't far from me. Going from the GSXS forum when they've been to MCT the consensus seems to be new shock and then getting front springs/oil right for me plus adjusted by someone who knows what they are doing. Shock wise I'm thinking either Nitron or YSS I guess. Probably just the base versions as not taken a pillion in 15 years except twice to the MOT station to help a mate so £200 extra for remote preload is probably not worth it.

Quite a few years ago I took my 2001 FireBlade to MCT, and they were really good. You can sit in their workshop whilst they do their work and they'll chat over what they're doing with you. Before I booked I spoke to them on the phone and they were really helpful in providing advice as to what might need to be changed. It was a £500 bill at the end of it, but the bike felt much nicer!

I always found SBS Street Performance pads to be very good and a noticeable upgrade from the OE pads on any bike I've had. I used Brembo back when you could get them silly cheap from Italy and they were pretty good too. I think I preferred SBS though.

I've put a YSS on the LC and that works really well,but it was starting from a very low base (40 y.o. OE shock...!) I think they're probably best value for money. Nitron are a fair bit more spendy I think, but as with most things, you get what you pay for. Never heard a bad review of a YSS though.

I fitted a YSS shock to my SV650S,compared to the worn out standard shock it's a massive upgrade.
I've never used a Nitron,they're more expensive but if you keep your standard shock you could sell the Nitron later.I'm thinking about fitting a new rear shock to my Street Triple & subject to price I'll either buy Nitron or Maxton .

Yorick wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:41 pm I hated the Brembo pads mine came with as standard.

Interesting, I believe mine has the same calipers as yours. Maybe the same pads from the sound of it. I assume like the tyres even if they are Brembo they are probably made to Suzuki spec. The OE tyres were horrid and you cant actually buy them from Dunlop. I was thinking proper Brembo would be decent. Will take a look at the SBS as well as used to use SBS for years.

Supermofo wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 6:09 pm

Yorick wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 2:41 pm I hated the Brembo pads mine came with as standard.

Interesting, I believe mine has the same calipers as yours. Maybe the same pads from the sound of it. I assume like the tyres even if they are Brembo they are probably made to Suzuki spec. The OE tyres were horrid and you cant actually buy them from Dunlop. I was thinking proper Brembo would be decent. Will take a look at the SBS as well as used to use SBS for years.

I've used SBS for many years. Can't complain.

Mine has Brembo calipers which are great. Pads, not do great

Oh. Another idea. The standard rear shock on mine is amazing.

I did same lap times at Portimao on my 100% standard bike, as fully tricked up race bike I hired.

If it's same fitment, you might get a cheap second hand one.

Fitted a top spec YSS to my GSXS750, it was a massive improvement over the standard very cheap shock, thinking about fitting one on the Honda, but the standard shock is actually alright for me, just as well because it's not got a great deal of adjustment.

I used to know Darren at MCT when he worked at Revetts in Stowmarket, but that was 30 years ago, I don't think I've spoken to him for about 20 years.

I briefly lived in Sheffield in the early 90s, used to ride in the Peak District a lot, the A6 from Buxton to Matlock was superb, there are a lot of speed cameras on it now, other good roads were the Via Gellia road, the A5012, A515 and the A57, dunno if I'd want to stay in Chesterfield, apart from it's church spire I thought it was a bit of a shit hole, but speak to Mango and KFB, they both live locally, when we used to go back in the mid 90s we used to camp opposite the Square and Compass in Darley Bridge.

I work close to Chesterfield.

The locals like it, but they're all inbred.

There's lots of nice roads in the peaks, I do a lap from my house that takes in the Strines, the Snake and Holme Moss, but it misses out the more southern areas and the Hope Valley, Winnats, Cat and Fiddle, etc.. I occasionally take a back road route to CMC at Clay Cross

If you live in the Hope Valley, when you're ill they take you to hospital in Sheffield. Live in Hope, die in Sheffield.

Give me a reminder nearer the time and I'll probably just ignore you.