Crazy old Motorbike in France!!

I'm staying in Antibes for a few days, and spotted this awesome old motorbike!!

For those of you know dont know about Antibes, its a pretty crazy place. Its an old French seaside town on the South Coast of France situated between Cannes and Nice. There are loads of traditional old buildings, and normal French shops with real life French people going about their daily lives, but what makes it crazy is that there is also a huge marina stuffed full of multi-million pound super-yachts owned by people with more money than most small countries! There is a real contrast between the locals the the super rich yacht owners,  so seeing an old motorbike like this really got me thinking about who rides it!!

Is someone really riding this as a daily commuter machine?? or is it a bit of fun for some super rich oil tycoon?? The lock securing it to the cycle rack looked in pretty good condition, so its not been there for long, which makes me think this really is someone's daily ride!!

What do you think?? any idea what make/model bike this is? how much power does the single cylinder engine perched above the front-wheel produce?? can he do front wheel burnouts??

New Tyres for the GSXR - Battlax 023R

The tyres on my new bike were looking a bit squared off, and the tread was very low, so i ordered some new tyres.

After reading some review i decided to give the Bridgeston Battlax 023R's a try. These are supposed to be Sports Touring tyres with a harder compound rubber in the center for high mileage and softer more sticky compund rubber on the shoulders for going round corners quickly.

Now they've been delivered, the next step is finding someone to fit them for me!! - thats a job for the weekend :)

My New Summer Toy - GSX-R 600 K7

So, after many year out of the saddle I decided to get back into motorcycling.

My first ever motorbike was a very old Yamaha DT50 (with twin rear shocks!) which my Grandad bought for me as a present when i was 10 years old. We spent many happy hours stripping it down and putting it back together, and i've loved bikes ever since.



I passed my bike test when i was 17 years old (many years ago!) but because of living in London, its always been difficult to own a bike. Without secure parking, bikes are too easy a target for thieves and vandals, so apart from a short stint with a Gilera Runner SP180 (that people kept trying to steal!) i've not ridden on the roads for about 6 years.

Now that ive moved out into 'the sticks' (Sevenoaks Kent), and i have a secure double garage, i decided i no longer had any reason not to get a bike, so i started looking and found this very clean, '57 plate Suzuki GSX-R600 K7.  The GSX-R (or GIXXER) was always one of my dream bikes as a lad, so the possibility of owning one was pretty exciting.



The bike was being sold by a dealer down in Southampton, so i popped in to take a look. I liked what i saw, but i didn't show too much interest. When i got home i found the same bike for sale on eBay with an "Offers" button, so i clicked the button, put in a cheeky offer (£250 less than the asking price) fully expecting the offer to be rejected. The next morning i woke to see an email saying my offer had been accepted - I was soon to be the proud owner of GIXXER!



So i HPI checked the bike, transferred the cash and arranged for it to be delivered to my mum's house in the New Forest saving myself an expensive delivery charge from Southampton to Sevenoaks.

The plan was that i would go visit my mum, check the bike over, take it for a short ride around local roads to get back into "Biking Mode", then ride the bike the 110miles home. Of course this meant that my first ride on a bike for over 6 years would be a 110mile ride on motorways on a powerful sports bike, that i'd never ridden before - Needless to say, many people thought i was crazy!!

The day of the ride came, and i was so excited - not at all nervous (i don't really do nerves). I got on the bike, fired it up, and immediately got back into "Biker Mode". Having learnt to ride as a kid, the controls were all very instinctive, and I had no problems remembering how to ride. In fact it was just like being a teenager again on my Aprilia AF1-125 that i had when i was 17.

After a local ride round my old neighbourhood, and stopping off to show a few old mates my new toy, i set off for the epic first ride home...

130miles later  -yes i took a few detours ;) i got home. I had a sore bum, but apart from that it was a very enjoyable ride.....  Feels good to be "A Biker" again....