One Month Break from Regular Biking

http://kawasakier6.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-kawasaki-er6fninja-650r-looking-for.html

Well, I have dropped the idea of getting the iconic 916; but there has been a chap, F whom has been getting in touch with me about Green Hornet even when I was overseas after the advert was posted.

Anyway, I told him that I wasn't very keen to sell Green Hornet no more since I have binned the 916 idea; but he requested to view the bike anyway. So I thought, "There's a few days of public hols anyway when I'm going to laze around at home; so if he could come over when my kid is sleeping, I'll let him have a ride around the condo vicinity- since he's so enthusiastic about Green Hornet".

So he came over, with a mechanic no less, and was all praise for Green Hornet. Believe me, this bike gets treated like a princess :)

And voila, he made an offer of RM31k for Green Hornet. Granted, he needed a month to raise the remaining RM28k vide a personal loan that he's going to apply after the holidays; but he makes a good future owner whom seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the bike.

A handshake and a cash deposit amounting to RM3k changing hands later, he reiterated his concern that the mileage of the bike may increase a bit too much over the one month grace period so I told him that I won't be riding the bike too much for the time being. We agreed that mileage would not increase by more than 50 km, which should be no issues.

Well, let's see how things go with his loan. Until the actual bulk of the cash changes hands, I'll refrain from thinking of a replacement bike.

Actually, I am pretty sentimental about Green Hornet so a part of me actually don't feel like letting it go. Ho hum.

Time for a New YTX12 Battery

As a preventive maintenance, fellow bikers have advised me to have a spare YTX12 battery around as bike batteries, like car batteries, are good for 1 - 2 years and you wouldn't want to be caught with a flat or dying battery when you are out riding far from home. Indeed, the thought of pushing a 650 cc bike is not an appealing idea. There are, of course, cases of the original batteries lasting almost 5 years (as read from Ferno) but I think that those cases are the exception rather than the rule.

I checked with my mechanic on the battery change; and he informed me that some bikers change their battery on an annual basis for peace of mind. At least, the chances of having to push the bikes would be lower; plus if it was a car, you could always call for a toll-truck to jump-start the car, but if you jump-start a bike from a car, you may fry the ECU or electronics.

A replacement YTX12 battery would typically cost less than RM250, so it would seem like a small sum to pay for added peace of mind that your bike would always have enough juice to keep going along.

Time to install that new battery in my Green Hornet then.

So much for the 916 idea, mate...

 

Readers would know that I posted an advert for Green Hornet's sale on 25/12/2012, as I had been offered a fellow reader's ride. I'm already not riding enough with my busy business travels, so it would be rather wasting for me to hog 2 nice rides- so I toyed with the idea of selling off Green Hornet and topping up some RM20k for a Ducati 916 from the nineties. 

It was just as well that I had a business travel shortly after posting the advert, and was so unable to show the prospectus buyers on the excellent Green Hornet. I have no doubt that it would have sold off in a jiffy otherwise; as bare-spec ER6-f of the same year was already selling at around RM26k - RM30k, with the higher-priced ones being low mileage examples.

One of the sales on Mudah had similar Givi Italy side-panniers and a Yoshi exhaust can, and that bike was going at RM29,740. My Green Hornet was decked with so much more after-market branded accessories that costed some RM10k; so if it had been sold at a similar RM30k, the buyer would have gotten a bargain bike price at RM20k only.

There were some offers to trade-in some readers' bikes eg Ninja 250r, Blade 650r, etc but the bike that I was considering was the iconic Ducati 916.

After I came back from my trip, I arranged to test-ride the reader's 916 and I understood his point why he wanted to change to a more chiropractic-friendly 1,000 cc sports tourer or easy-rider. No doubt the bike was way beautiful and I would have loved to have it for my weekend ride; but the bike's nature needed you to ride it hard and the very sporty riding position was not really conducive to slow rides.

In the end, I decided that I would best hold onto my Green Hornet, which has been a really reliable and nice ride. The search for an alterntive ride continues then...