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chrisnj

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  • Current Bike(s)
    1996 BMW F650

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Surrey (Guildford / Woking area)
  • Interests
    Bikes, Cars, Boats, Computers and Golf

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  1. You said I could post non Yamaha pictures, so here I am. Not the best as I had limited time and a busy drive that day so no time / space to setup the shots, plus I wanted to get out and ride! Its a HD FXDF Dyna Fat Bob. I've got some saddlebags and different speedo and some skull fuel gauge and fuel filler cap add-ons to come later this month that were part of the purchase deal but not available at the time of collection. I will also probably be looking at a stage one upgrade of new air filter, some louder exhausts and a tuning gizmo that goes with all that. Maybe when I can find a compliant Yamaha garage with bikes I can test I will find the errors of my ways, but so far I'm pretty happy with the ride and I wave or nod to all whatever your riding so if you come a across me on the road do wave or nod back. I'm actually finding that scooter riders are the worst ones for not doing this!
  2. Absolutely and I'm not going to wear a waistcoat or have tassels anywhere on me or the bike! Could look to get some Yamaha stickers to put on the tank and be ironic ;-)
  3. So figured I should update the thread of what's happening.......... Sorry guys, but I've decided to go the Harley Fat Bob route. It was a bloody difficult decision and would like to thank all who contributed from this site as it really helped to be able to get ideas etc from you all. The Yam XVS is a great bike but the dealers round here are really shooting themselves in the feet I think if it is as good as everyone says it is by not having demo bikes they can get hold of. That was really bothering me a lot and the final thing my missus came up with was, you've always wanted a Harley, what would you feel like if you get the Yamaha are sat at some lights and a Harley pulls up next to you. Are you going to think wish I'd got the Harley. I thought probably I would. I did also think when I'm broke down at the side of the road on the Harley and I see an XVS go by will I think I wish I'd bought a Yamaha :-) but I didn't share that with her! It seems I've caught the Harley itch and I'm just going to have to scratch it. If after a couple of years the itch is gone and the HD image in my mind is tarnished then I know exactly what the next brand of cruiser will be I will be looking at. If its not a violation of the site and nobody minds too much I will upload a pic of my FB when I get it and you can all give me grief about it :-) I might also lurk around here a bit if that's ok as you see a fairly friend bunch of people. One thing I will say about the XVS950 though for anyone considering this bike. Throughout my research on the internet I only found 1 guys in the US with any real criticism for the bikes and I find that quite amazing as generally for most other things you look for online you normally find loads of people posting complaints. I think that says something about the bikes and something about me being bloody stupid but we'll see! Chris.
  4. yeah I saw that bike and these guys are not very far from me. Shame I'm down in Somerset this weekend or I'd be over to see this one. Guessing they might even allow a test ride as its a used bike?
  5. Iallasro, that is a wonderful gesture mate, thank you. Sadly the club meet is a bit of a way away from me and even if it wasn't I already have some commitments that weekend but I really appreciate that offer. I'm also hoping to have a new bike one way or the other before then anyway :-)
  6. Almost makes me want to buy the Harley now to try and improve the image of their riders :-)
  7. Well I went to the Yamaha dealer today for another look at the XVS950 and a chat. I can have it interest free or for cash they'll give me £500 off. Having a quick look on autotrader then I think I might be able to push a bit more off for the cash deal as there seem to be some other dealers looking to offload new bikes or ones with just 'delivery miles' (I guess they've been used for a demo) for about £1k off. These dealers are a little way away from me but if I could get a new one for that sort of discount that would be sweet. Buying a 3 year old one looks like I'd only save another £1k-£1.5k so to have the full 2 year warranty and no hassles with MOT's for a while I think I'd prefer that. So upshot is I've got a £99 refundable deposit on the Yam until Tuesday, so need to see what I can negotiator not. Interestingly I was chatting to the mechanics while getting my BMW MOT'd and asked what they thought of the two bikes I'm looking at. They thought both were good bikes and they said despite what you read online they find the newer Harley's pretty reliable and if they do have issues they are not that hard and not too expensive to work on. They were similarly complementary though of the Yamaha's. They also thought the Yam would be a smoother engine but that if I'd ridden the HD and hadn't found it too heavy or too shaky (which I didn't) then I had a tough choice.. Thanks lads :-) Its a real bugger that the dealer can't get one I can ride as I'm sure that would help my deliberations and its still a worry that I'll buy the Yam, ride it out of the showroom and think bollox I should have got the Fat Bob. I'm in the West from later tonight for a few days so might have a scout around and see if I can find a dealer down there that will let me ride one. One question for those who have ridden the XVS950. What's it like through the lower gears i.e. what speeds can you comfortably get up to in 1st and 2nd gear and how low can you go in 2nd and still pull away comfortably. My BMW is shit for this. You can hardly get up to 15-20mph in 1st without revving the crap out of it and it being very jumpy, but in 2nd if you slow down to 20mph it shudders like jelly and you really have to ride the clutch or change down and jerk around like a rodeo horse. One thing I really liked about my test ride on the Fat Bob was you could use 1st quite comfortably up to about 30mph and rolling on and off the throttle in 1st was quite smooth without having to slip the clutch too much. 2nd gear was quite happy to go below 20mph and not feeling you needed to change down or slip the clutch a lot and would easily take you up to 45-50mph smoothly. Is this just the difference between my little 650 engine and the big 1690 block in the Harley and how would the XVS950 engine compare in this scenario? Thans Chris.
  8. Trouble maker ;-) Had a look at it and it looks like a nice bike although I must say to me it just looks like a bigger XVS950 and maybe more comparable to the FBob I'm looking at. As their prices new are similar then in this situation I'm probably seduced by the brand and favour the FBob. Also while I'm prepared to take a punt on the 950 and get it without a test ride, there is no way I'm spending 13k on a bike and not riding it first. Sure a used one will be cheaper but as I said I want a few years of not getting greasy hands and no MOT worries. I used to have MG, Fiat & Alfa soft-tops when I was younger so not adverse to getting my hands dirty, so suspect the day will come when I'll start tinkering with a spanner, but at the moment I just want something I can get on and enjoy the ride and the Yam XVS950 is looking more and more like the one..... Oh and when it happens pics will be forthcoming.
  9. Thanks guys, some good advice and I think the scales are really tipping in favour of the Yam. I don't think used is the route for me at this time although I'll have a look around and see what's out there. I know you throw away at least 20% of the value away the minute you leave the showroom due to VAT and possibly more but one of the more important things for me at the moment is limiting the maintenance issues apart from the routine stuff like servicing and tyres and not having to worry about MOT's for a few years. So a new bike that has a warranty and that I can keep serviced by the dealer for a few years is the route I would like to go. Although I don't think Harley's are as problematic as some on the internet think, I do also believe that the Yam is likely to be cheaper to maintain and has a better chance of being less trouble. In fact for me one of the negatives I hear people talking about on the Yam i.e. all the fake 'plastic' chrome could be another advantage to me as the bike will need to live outside (under a cover) most of the time so less of an issue with rust and I guess cheaper to replace if the plastic deteriorates. Gonna have to stop sitting on the fence soon and say f.ck it and go buy something before we run out of decent riding weather :-)
  10. So you guys have been quite friendly to me since I've been here and I think I know how this will go given the focus of this forum but I'm just about at crunch time now….. Harley Fat Bob or Yamaha XVS950A I'm really really torn on this. I thought I wanted the Harley and I'm sure at some point I will have one. I've test rode the Fat Bob and its nice, but I also think the XVS is a great looking bike. I'm 10 months into getting my full licence if that has any relevance and really struggling to decide which one to get. Money wise although the XVS is about half the price of the Harley I would be getting either on finance and the Harley is £2k deposit plus £200 a month on PCP for 3 years. The XVS is £2400 deposit and £200 a month for 2 years. So not a lot of difference for the next couple of years except at the end of 2 years I'd own the XVS but not the Harley. Either way the way I look at it in the short term the costs are the same and affordable. Oddly on checking quotes with Bennetts the Harley is about £120 a year cheaper to insure? Maybe the the final straw for the Harley is the wife thinks I should go for the XVS then think about the Harley in a couple of years when I have more riding experience…... Who thought a mid-life crisis and buying bikes would be so complicated... What do you lot think then? :-)
  11. Thanks all. Point taken on the road rash risk if you don't wear gear and I think the joy of age is self preservation instincts become higher so there is no way you'll get me on a bike without some protection. I went and got a wicking t-shirt from a 'outdoors' shop today and will give that a try and see if its better in the hot weather for me. Amusing reading the thoughts on the origins of the kick/side stand. Interesting the link to horses, get that, although does beg the question why did the convention build on mounting a horse from the left rather than the right? Any horse riders amongst us? Might do some google searching on this one...
  12. Strange title for a couple of questions I have. One kind of serious and one for a bit of trivia... 1. So what do you guys wear in the summer when riding. I've got some kevlar lined jeans which while the kevlar lining makes them a bit warm in this (current) weather I can live with that, but what tips do you have for jackets? I see guys riding around in just shits and even t-shirts today but I have a bit more self preservation than that should the worst happen. Am I destined to always end a ride with a soaking t-shirt under my jacket or is there another way? 2. Why do bikes always have the kick stand on the left hand side? Well all the bikes I've seen do? Is this just a convention thing 'cos the first bikes did? Is it a right-handed conspiracy? Do left handed people find it harder getting off the bike on the left? I'm right handed so all seems ok to me but just interested if anyone knows why? These sort of things bother me sometimes - usually after drinking alcohol. Chris.
  13. Thanks kind of figured that was the case. I guess the market is more limited / profit margins smaller and a lot of model choices with bikes.
  14. Still considering the £3.5k 650 Dragstar and going to have another look at it tomorrow. While out for a ride today though I stopped by my local Yamaha dealer and looked at a new XVS950A in all black. They are offering at on 0% finance over 2 years with £2.5k down. Seemed a good deal to me and quite tempted. Nice looking bike. They don't have one as a demo though so bit worried about buying without riding. Is that normal for bikes I'm quite new to bikes so don't know. Would never buy a car without trying a similar one first. Anyone got views on the 950 that they want to share / comparisons to 650?
  15. Thanks guys for your words of wisdom all useful stuff. I'm not too worried about filtering as I should be doing a fair bit of biking in the US as the years roll on and you're not allowed to do that there so don't want to get too used to it, although I know that would be the main advantage of commuting on a bike into London. I'm guessing for me its not really going to be a regular thing as much as I would like it too so was just interested on any experiences. I'm not far from the A3 so its dual carriage way for a good part of the journey then the sh#t roads that we get in our capital once you're 10-15 miles out. I get what you mean about the seat height being less important than peg reach. That seemed fine on the one I sat on and that I am looking at, the bit I was worried about was whether it would get difficult or uncomfortable when coming to a stop and needing to put the feet down. It didn't seem an issue on the FatBoy I rode but the draggie felt lower when I sat on it so hence my interest in seat height. Anyway if someone with 33" inside legs is ok then I think I am 32" so should be fine. I guess a quick test ride will answer that better for me than any debate here. I have to disagree about the negative comments on the HD's though :-) No offence and each to their opinion I guess. A few weeks ago I got to ride 2014 models of the Softtail Breakout, Dyna Fat Bob and the Softtail Fat Boy. None rattled, didn't feel as heavy as the stats indicate and overall were all a great ride. Although the Breakout was bit of a beast but in a nice way. The Dyna Fat Bob was actually a really easy bike to ride and I could see myself even commuting on that one if I had it it rode that well, but at the moment £12.5k for the Fat Bob and £16k+ for the other two is just too much for me when the bike would mostly live outside and consequently will suffer so a lot of money to drop. The £3.5k I'm looking at spending on a 2005 XVS whilst still a lot of money is a bit more palatable to me if I have a bit of rust to sort out in a couple of years. Sounds like the XVS will be a good next bike for me though while I crave the HD's a bit more and sort out my garage situation. One more question. The XVS I'm looking at is a Classic I think looking at the mud guards front and rear so has the extra weight I'm reading about. How easy is it to strip some of this off to lighten the load so to speak with out resorting into hacksaws so I might preserve some of the resale value when I one day move on? Thanks Chris.
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