At the time I was commuting 90-minutes to work and thought a motorcycle might improve on this time.
Although it did save on a little time, it was not without problems.
The first problem was an accident. In April 2010 I was riding down the breakdown lane of the M2 motorway alongside stationary traffic and another motorcycle pulled out between the cars into the breakdown lane at 90 degrees to me. His front wheel hit the side of my bike, and my foot.
I somehow stayed on my bike, but he fell off his. We both had minor damage and went our own ways. Although I think it was technically his fault, he was a bit "shifty", already had a story for the police or insurance company, and I didn't particularly want to give him my personal information. The damage to my bike was just a broken foot rest and cracked plastic clutch cover and I continued on but stopped when I realised it had caused an oil leak so I had to trailer the bike home.
Ironically, around a month later when I resumed riding again after repairing the bike and after my foot healed, I got pulled over by police in almost exactly the same location for riding in the breakdown lane.
Another problem was when the bike developed a charging fault which was hard to rectify. I broke down and had to push start the bike multiple times and eventually made it close to home, where my father-in-law brought me a charged battery to make it the rest of the way.
I did some research and there was a common problem with the charging system in this model and the recommended fix was to replace the rectifier/regulator model with one from a different bike (FH008?) and upgrade the wiring. Fortunately this solved the problem.
I really enjoyed the power and engine characteristics of the vee twin, and 650cc is plenty of power, particularly after only having previously ridden a 250cc bike.
I added a small panel with lights to tell me when it was in first or second gear (the only gears that already had sensors) and with a switch to turn on the cooling fan manually. I also fitted an aftermarket centre stand kit.
After a couple of years I no longer need the bike for commuting to work, and with the birth of my child, I decided to sell the bike in early 2012 with around 67,500km on the clock.
Over my ownership, the bike averaged 5.3 l/100km fuel consumption. I replaced the rear tyre once and changed the oil twice.
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