Hayabusa

Small progress...

Not too much progress on the kit itself. I started assembling the rear corners, with the correct way of putting it together being the last one I tried. I've now officially run out of nuts and bolts that RTR provided with my kit, so I'm waiting on them before I can continue with that part.

The steering rack hasn't got much further either, I've been too busy at work to pop to the workshop to get the bearing off the rack pinion, it's stuck on pretty firm! I definitely want to get that sorted this week so that I can get the quick rack in and on the car. However, I can't finish up the steering column as I'm waiting for some parts for that from RTR too.

There is something I can crack on with now though, I've just got back from collecting the donor bike. It was quite a journey, after spotting it on Preloved a week ago I contacted the owner who was in Edinburgh (I'm in Birmingham) and after a couple of chats decided to fly up to see it. I'd booked a one way ticket, so it was really all-eggs-in-one-basket as if I didn't like it when I got there I'd have to hitch hike home or something.

So this morning I started the journey by driving to work, leaving my car there, got some odd lucks because I was in my biking textiles and boots, and walked to the train station. Two trains later I was at Birmingham International, so a quick mono-rail journey to the terminal and I got on the midday plane to Scotland.

At the airport, Gary, the guy who was selling the bike met me. I was initially confused as his description of himself was 'big guy wearing glasses and t-shirt', although when he eventually found me (not many people get off a plane in biking gear), he wasn't wearing glasses at all (they were in his pocket), so I think I can be excused from that :)

I parked next to a bin, that isn't a top box.

Turns out that Gary is a sound bloke, not only did he pick me up from the airport, we had a good natter about biking before going out on a test ride. He was on his TL1000 and i was on the 'Busa. There was a little issue with the front brake sticking as it had been stood for a while, but who needs brakes on a 200mph bike huh? It's not like I was planning on a 5 hour ride home on it or anything...doh!

Back at his place and we got the business done, I insured the bike but couldn't tax it (it was SORNed), as the DVLA couldn't see the insurance as it had just been done. So I decided to ride home tax free.

I hit the road at about 3:30pm, along some great roads which eased me into the bike a bit. It was nice and dry for the first 45mins but then the road got damp and after an hour I stopped for a comfort break. Just as I got inside, the rain broke and tipped it down, but stopped as soon as I went outside again, good timing!

Onward to the motorway, which is where the bike really showed its legs. The Hayabusa's are legendary for being a quick bike and up til then I was a little disappointed with the performance, compared to my KTM it wasn't that quick at lower speeds. On the motorway though, it was a different story, it went from 70mph to ..urm... 71mph (I'll let you use your imagination!), very quickly. The speedo reads up to 220mph and although I didn't get it anywhere near that, I could feel the potential. Best stop for fuel.

Another stop and another well timed shower and I was back on the road, full of KFC (mandatory on a long UK road trip) with just 100 miles to go. My luck of dodging the rain ran out at about Stafford, but still it was only light rain, but at night it really made it hard to see where I was going and for some reason everyone stopped indicating and driving like an idiot, so I eased off a bit and tried to get some circulation back in my body.

Finally I was off the motorway, and back in Birmingham, just a short trip down the A38 and I was home. However, I soon had that horrid thing in my mirrors, the blue lights of a Police X5 flagging me down. 

For the record, the officer was very pleasant

The policeman said "Mmm mmm mmmmm", so I took out my ear plugs and asked him to repeat that, and it turns out that his computer had told him that I didn't have insurance. I explained that I'd just riden back from Scotland five, I mean six hours ago (good catch), and showed him an email from my insurance company providing that I had insurance. He was fine with that and off I went.

So there we have it, a car journey, 2 trains, a monorail, a plane, another car, and a 5 hour bike journey later and I was back where I started but with a Hayabusa in my garage.

The 'busa in it's new home

My KTM is still off the road since the nice lady with the Land Rover pulled out on me, so I may hang fire for a couple of weeks before starting to take it apart.