Test rides, cock-up's and finally a brand new bike on order.

[nrml76]

Sometime back, I posted a 'which bike should I buy' thread. I finally got my arse into gear and headed over to a dealer (Marriot's in Birkenhead), and tried out some bikes for size. To my great disappointment, the R1, R6 and ZX6R were the first to be ruled out. The riding position was not very kind to my already dodgy back and wrists. That left the Z1000 and the Fazer 1000. I booked a test ride on these two, for the following weekend.

The following weekend (last saturday), I went over to Marriot's, and they had an orange Z1000 waiting for me. I was a bit unsure of the styling intially, but it slowly grew on me. I fired up and set off, with a reminder from the guys at the dealers that it would need some fuel fairly soon. The riding position on the Zed is excellent; very natural, and no undue strain on any part of my anatomy. The best thing about this bike is the awesome engine! I don't normally use the word awesome, but in this case, it is totally justified. It is very smooth, and just keeps pulling harder and harder the more you push it. I have never ridden a bike with a smoother engine. The power delivery felt very linear, very useable and unintimidating even at reasonable speeds. The gearbox has to be the slickest I've ever seen. Not a single false neutral. It felt like a hot knife cutting through butter. The bike is very agile, flicking into turns with barely any effort needed. Wind protection is non existant. The little bikini fairing is just for show.
The only real downsides to this bike are a rock hard seat (I had to stand up on the foot pegs every few minutes to releive the pain in my bum after half an hour) and an annoying vibration through the foot rests. The vibration did not bother me intially, but became a bit more irritating with time.

I stopped at a petrol station to refuel, and set off back to the dealership. Along the way, bike stuttered slightly, and a warning light flashed, but there weren't any other problems. After I got back, they wheeled the Fazer out, and siphoned some petrol from the Zed into the Fazer and started warming it up, but then the Zed wouldn't start. Silly old me had for the first time in 17 years, filled up with diesel instead of petrol . So we turned off the Fazer, and both bikes ended up going to the workshop to get stripped and cleaned . In all fairness to the guys at Marriot's, they did not bitch and moan in the slightest, eventhough they had every reason to. However, I did have the mick taken out of me, and everyone in the shop that day had a laugh at my expense .

Five days later (yesterday), I returned to test ride the Fazer. After everyone having a laugh at me again (I am never going hear the last of this), I got on the bike and started off. The first thing that struck me was that the first gear seemed very tall. Once I got moving, I noticed that the seating postion was very forward and upright. The tank is quite wide, where it meets the crotch. It wasn't an uncomfortable seating position by any measure, but it took some getting used to. The handlebars were wide and flat, almost like a motocross bike. The engine was quite smooth, power delivery unintimidating lowdown, and the gearbox reasonable, but neither the engine nor the gearbox was as impressive as the zed's. Top end seemed better on the fazer. I am not sure if it was the engine or the wind protection or a bit of both which made the difference. The Fazer was not as flickable as the zed, but wasn't a bad at cornering at all. The seat was a tad softer than the zed's and there were no annoying vibrations.

I found the Fazer a more practical bike for all round use than the zed, but for city use, the zed would probably be more fun. I was put off by the rock hard seat, the annoying vibrations through the foot rests, and the fact that it wouldn't run on diesel . As I will be using the bike for 100 mile daily commutes on the motorway, wind protection is fairly important to me. The Fazer also gives you the impression that there are a few more ponies waiting to be unleashed, with some after market kit, while the zed feels that it's balancing act has been optimised, and aftermarket add-on's will take away from one aspect of its performance as much as they would add to another, but this is purely subjective.

I ended up ordering a graphite coloured Fazer on the 0% scheme. It works out to about £250 or thereabouts per month. Insurance is going up to £228 per year fully comp. I will be going to pick it up next week. My thanks to the guys at Marriot's. I would recommend them to anyone.

I have a ZR-7S (ideal tourer, commuter, bike for the vertically challenged or first big bike) for sale at a very reasonable price, if anyone is interested.