buying bike gear off ebay

I checked my transaction records on eBay and found that I haven't purchased anything in 1.5 years!

Anyways, I bought myself some gear for my Honda. I needed a replacement Voltage Regulator/Rectifier as the OEM part is toast. It won't charge the battery anymore, so eventually the bike will splutter to death again like it did last Christmas. I also bought a set of wing mirrors as my current items are scratched (due a drop when when I first bought the bike). Hopefully it will make the bike more appealing as they're probably the most scratched items on the bike.

I also bought an Evo-tech fender eliminator for my GSX-R600. The stock fender is massive and cumbersome looking. Frankly, it's ugly. The new fender will help to tidy up the rear-end of the bike heaps.

serviced the Honda; new oil in Suzuki

I was able to service the CBR250RR with Chiev's help on Friday night. We changed the oil, changed the spark plugs, changed the coolant, bled the brakes and put in new brake fluid. We couldn't change the oil filter because the bolt holding it in was rounded. Even if we could get it off, we probably couldn't get the plug back on afterwards. I did not like the prospect of fuel leaking onto the rear tyre will riding.

Most of the work was fairly straight-forward. Take the side fairings off and all the plugs are pretty much at hand; except the spark plugs. They are right in the bowels of the bike (under the radiator). Curiously, and annoyingly, the spark plug arrangement is grouped by sparks 1-2-3 and the 4th spark is on its own. The number 3 spark plug is a bastard to get to. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something dividing spark 3 and 4, so the only way to get to spark 3 is to reach right in from the spark 1 side. Given that there's not much space, it's quite a challenge undoing the spark with 5/8th spark plug socket, socket extender and ratchet. Let's not forget that you still have put the new spark plug in. After the service, I took the bike for a quick spin around Chiev's area. The gearbox felt a lot smoother than before. I'm not sure if the engine revved smoother (it felt like it did), and the brakes felt about the same. On the whole, it was a good exercise and I learnt a lot from it.

I bought all the gear during on the Friday (while I was at work) from Peter Stevens in the city. The gear included 2x 4l bottles of Motul 5100 10w-40 semi-synthetic oil, 2x 500ml bottles of DOT5.1 Motul brake fluid, 4x NGK spark plugs, an oil filter for the 250RR (which we didn't use), and Motul Inugel Ultra coolant (also didn't use, as I forgot to buy distilled water).

On the Saturday, I changed the oil out of my 600. I bought a Suzuki OEM filter from Peter Stevens the day before, and used the left-over Motul oil to do the service. Let me say, this was far more nerve-wracking than working on the Honda as the bike is only 3 weeks old and the last thing I wanted is to scratch-up the fairings. Thankfully I got some help from Chiev (again), Adrian and Jack. The left side fairing proved to be a difficult one to get off. There was one fastener that just wouldn't budge, but somehow Adrian managed to pop it off.

Before I got started, I dropped into Bunnings and bought myself a nice 43 piece Kincrome socket set to do this work with. Sure, I only needed the 17mm socket, extender and ratchet; but it's nice to have a good complement of tools, and I'll look to do more of the work myself in the future. I'll need an oil filter wrench eventually, as I had to get Chiev to get the oil filter off with his own home-made 'seat-belt' contraption. I also dropped into SupaCheap Autos and picked up a oil pan and some funnels.

So we drained the oil, changed the oil filter, tipped in new oil, put the bike back together and fired it up. After firing-up the bike a couple of times to check the oil level, I decided to jump on the bike and take it for a quick spin around my area. The gearbox felt a little smoother but I think the engine might have idled a little better. Could be placebo. But I think it was worth changing the oil, even though it's only 550km till my first service. I'll bet the old oil had been sitting in the bike for ages before I bought it.

the Honda CBR250RR lives!

I got some help this weekend with my broken CBR250RR. Chiev was good enough to drop by and then go over to Adrian's place to scope out the bike. The first thing we did, aside from wheeling it out of the shed, was to take the seat off and have a go at the battery. With Chiev's multimeter at hand, we tested the voltage of the battery and found that it was down to a hopeless 5.5 volts. The battery is probably past it, so we pulled it out and swapped in a spare that Chiev brought along. It turns out the spare wasn't in good health either, as it had spent a full night recharging but could only manage 11.5 volts out of a normal 12.4 volts.

So we upped ourselves over to a1 Motorcycles in Ringwood and bought ourselves a new sealed battery. After grabbing some lunch (fresh home-made hamburgers!), we headed back to Adrians to setup the new battery. First we put the acid into the battery, and then we waited 30 minutes before we could use it.

After connecting the terminals to the battery, we switched on the ignition and got headlights and the 'idiot' lights on the instrument cluster. Pressing the starter button, the bike fired to life without any struggle. Needless to say, I was very happy. The quote that I got for a gearbox replacement is ~$1600! It's easier to replace the engine and gearbox as a unit, rather than fiddling with the delicate parts of the gearbox. Thankfully, after wheeling it onto the road and giving the bike a shakedown, there wasn't anything else wrong with the bike. Looks like my initial dismay over the suspected broken gearbox was completely off-the-mark.

We now suspect that the regulator that recharges the battery may be past it's life. So I'll test it out next weekend. After a full service and clean, I'll look to sell the bike.

being promoted

It was communicated to me verbally this week that I am being promoted. Today, I received an email confirming that from March 1, I will be promoted to Consultant and I will have my renumeration adjusted accordingly.

prognosis of a broken CBR250RR

I am confident the gearbox is royally shagged on the bike. I went to Aidz's place, as the bike is stored there, and wheeled it out onto the road. I checked all the important bits prior to starting it with a rolling-start. There was plenty of fuel in the tank (near full), the position of the fuel petcock was set to On and the Kill switch was set to Run. I had Jack push me down the road and I clutched-out and gave it gas. The bike spluttered to life, but it didn't rev-out as you normally expect. It just sounded like someone going "Ahhhhh" when a doctor sticks a paddle in the patient's mouth. The rear tyre locked-up immediately and I was skidding along the road. As soon as I clutched back in, the engine would cut out. Looks like I will have to take it into a service shop to get the bike assessed.

Anyways, on a happier note, Aidz installed his new Akrapovic under-tail exhaust on his CBR600RR. It sounds great, with a nice bassy idle and plenty of volume. It makes me want to ditch my stock exhaust for something nice, like a Taylor Made shotgun-style exhaust.

sore foot, and blisters on my forearm

Adding to my health woes is my really sore foot. It's not the entire foot; just the ball (joint) of my right big toe. I can't really walk properly at the moment. This happened about 2 weeks ago, but then it went away. Unfortunately, it seems to have flared-up again. I hope I'm not get arthritis or something.

I also have blisters in the middle of my right fore-arm. I'm not sure how they developed. I suspect it was all the riding I did on the weekend. It must have been the armour/kevlar in the jacket for the right elbow rubbing against the skin. This has never happened to me before on my old CBR250RR, but I suspect that the new bike's bigger engine is the partial culprit. Since the engine it bigger, there's more vibrations through the handlebars. This obviously transfers up my arms and into the jacket. I just hope that these blisters are not the result of my health woes/anomalies or something else sinister.

a thorough weekend

The weekend that just past was a fairly busy one. Saturday morning was spent mowing the lawn (yay, not!) and I went to see the doctor to get my blood test results. Aside from high enzymes in my liver, everything else was within the recommended ranges. I think the high enzymes were due to me being on antibiotics. Surprisingly, my cholesterol was low. There was nothing in the results to explain why I've lost so much weight. I will be following-up my blood test with another blood test in one month to see if anything has changed.

I spent the rest of my Saturday afternoon riding my bike. The weather was warm but my friend Adrian was more than up for a ride. He had just gotten his bike back from repairs (thanks to some idiot running into him). We cruised around town and just enjoyed our time out on our bikes.

Later that night, I went out for dinner with a close friend for Shabu Shabu at Kura. Shabu Shabu is basically a Japanese style steam-boat, but the spread was distinctively Japanese and yummy. We ordered some Kim-Chi and Chicken Yakitori to go with our Shabu Shabu, and we finished off with Sesame ice-cream. On the whole, a very nice dinner!

My Sunday was spent mostly riding my bike. Well my morning and afternoon was spent entirely on the bike. I met up with Adrian again and we cruised around some more. We initially went down to Metro Honda in Ringwood to check something, but the store closed. So we continued onto Mt. Dandenong Tourist Road and headed up the mountain. This was a good chance to break-in the engine some more and to vary the revs. I've managed to scrub my rear tyre to within 1/2 an inch of the edge on both sides. We did lunch at The Glen after coming down from the mountain, and we finished up cruising around some more before heading home.

new bike! chronicles of a k7 suzuki gsx-r600

I have a new bike! I went and bought myself a K7 Suzuki GSX-R600 as a run-out model from a1 Motorcycles in Brighton. I originally wanted a Matte Black/Black colour; but truth be told, the Pearl Blue/Black colour on the GSX-R750 has always appealed to me. Unfortunately, Pearl Blue/Black isn't available on the GSX-R600. But to my surprise, a1 had a colour-swap version where they swapped-over the Pearl Blue/Black off a 750 onto a (originally Matte Black/Black) 600. There was also a Matte Black/Black 600 on the showroom floor, but they wouldn't let it go for the on-road price I wanted. I wasn't willing to pay 1 grand more just for colour.

I was initially in two minds about the colour. On the one hand, it's not an original colour for a 600. But it is genuine Suzuki fairings, and it makes this 600 somewhat unique. And frankly, the Pearl Blue/Black is an awesome colour. I was also in two minds about buying the bike. It is an expensive outlay for what it amounts to i.e. being a toy.

All of this came about because of my broken Honda CBR250RR. I was speaking to Chiev, and he was telling me that a1 Motorcycles in Brighton were doing deals on all run-out models. He also arranged for me to have a test ride on a friend's (Vince) friend's (Phu) GSX-R600. I was definitely delighted to have a go, but I also had a great sense of trepidation as I was jumping onto a bigger displacement bike that had a higher seat height than I'm comfortable with.

Now that I've had a few goes riding the bike, I'm much more comfortable with the bike given that I can't flat-foot on it. I'm on tippy-toes when I'm seated in the center of the seat. Riding the bike back from the shop was an interesting challenge, to say the least. Given that the bike has fresh rubber (and wax protective coating) and given that it was raining (!), I wasn't entirely keen about the ride home. But the bike and I made it back in one piece, thankfully! It's too early to say how much I really like the bike, since I'm still running it in, but hopefully there will be more good weather ahead and I can explore the bike a bit more.

wanting new bike

Well I reckon I'm leaning towards getting a new bike right now. It might very well happen this weekend. I'm looking at a K7 Suzuki GSX-R600 - preferably in a black colour.

This does beg the question: why do I have expensive tastes in things that depreciate? I guess I can console my burning wallet with the fact that I can't take my money to the grave, hey?


Hopefully I can get a good deal that I can't walk away from. Fingers crossed!

so weak now

Went to the gym on Sunday and I struggled to do the weights I normally do. I couldn't do much cardio either. Almost passed-out twice. I hope my weight-loss isn't the result of me losing my muscle. I really should get protein supplements to help my recovery. Taking 3 days to recover from weights is getting a bit ridiculous.

somehow i'm losing weight

I've had a couple of friends tell me that I'm looking slimmer. Naturally I didn't really take stock of this, as I've been slack with exercise and diet. I haven't been to the gym in 3 weeks, and I've been eating a lot more than usual. Lately my appetite has been huge.

So, this morning I decided to weigh myself. The scales I use isn't the most accurate, but to my surprise I've lost 6kg since the last time I measured myself. I don't know if what I'm doing is helping me lose weight (it can't be!!), but hopefully I don't put the weight back on.

what to blow money on

Well firstly I finished Metroid Prime 3 on both Normal and Hard difficulty. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I wish they didn't simplify the control scheme for the weapons. I liked the old system and being able to switch beam weapons. I managed to get 100%, but since the game now reveals the location of all items (if you choose to), this isn't such a huge achievement.

I'm trying to play through Super Paper Mario but I'm finding it hard to get through. It just seems like such a slog. I might have to put it down and pick up a copy of Super Mario Galaxy soon. I mean, I will have to pick it up.

I would very much like to get my hands on a Digital SLR like a Canon EOS 400D. The great cost of SLRs isn't the body, but the lens. I'd like to pick up photography since I'm taken a keen interest in trying to compose a good shot rather than taking happy-snaps. Unfortunately, I've a broken hard drive that needs replacing and also a system to rebuild.

On top of all of that, I have a broken bike that needs fixing or selling. I've been talking to Chiev, and he tells me two of his friends would like to sell their K7 Suzuki GSX-R600s at a good price. I might EBay my bike as broken; or, if it's not too expensive to fix, then maybe I'll fix it first before selling.

nose bleed on train

I'm not sure if it's lack of rest, but I've been getting nose bleeds this whole week. I smashed the bridge of my nose on a staircase when I was a little kid. As a result of that, I'm very susceptible to nose bleeds. It tends to happen more often in summer and also when I don't rest enough.

So, today on the train, one snuck-up on me while I was dozing-off. I got myself a nice big red splotch of blood on my white shirt dead-center 2 buttons down from the top. Gahhh. It's one of those impossible ones to hide, and I couldn't exactly go into work with a bright red eyesore on my shirt. So I had to duck into Myer to buy myself a business shirt. Luckily I found a nice one on special, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise?

trip to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - the Beijing leg

I went to Beijing for the second leg of my trip. Unlike Kuala Lumpur, I've never been to Beijing before. Or China for that matter. Given that my mandarin sucks, it would definitely be an interesting experience. Thankfully, I have a good friend who is currently residing in Beijing. It was good of him to let me crash at his place during my stay. He had to work odd hours from 12pm to 8pm every weekday. This had its advantages, however, since we could make use of the morning to do stuff.

Beijing itself is a nice place. My friend described it best as a 'bigger version of Melbourne'. Beijing is a very flat city with no obvious elevation changes. It is also a very big city and, customarily, it's not exactly clean or smog-free. In fact, smog is one of the those things that plagues Beijing. Perhaps it was by the grace of God or some higher being, but when I arrived in Beijing, the sky cleared-up and it was sunny for almost the entire duration of my visit. My friend and I joked that I must be blessed or something, because the fog returned when I left Beijing.

Since I was only staying for 6 days, there wasn't all much time to get the most out of Beijing. Never-the-less, I think I did an admirable job of fitting in as much as I could in the 6 days. I visited the usual suspects: The Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and the Ancestral Palace. The Ancestral Palace was a mistake. I thought I had walked into the Forbidden City, but I was mistaken. It wasn't a complete loss, however, because it wasn't nearly as popular as the Forbidden City. I could take my time absorbing the architecture and history. It also gave me the opportunity to take nice photos without other tourists getting in the way.

Of the four places I visited, I think I enjoyed the Summer Palace the most. I wittingly described the Summer Palace as 'a monument to embezzlement'! My friend and I had a good laugh at this, since it's true. The entire place was built from money embezzled by one of the empress dowagers. Despite this, it is truly a monumental achievement. There is a grand lake in the middle of the Summer Palace. This lake is several hundred acres large, and it was completely hand dug. You can hire a boat or catch a ferry to cross the lake. There is a Buddhist temple to one side of the late that sits on a hill. Climbing to the top of the temple is a struggle with marginal rest and inadequate sustenance; but the view from the top is spectacular. You can see most of the lake and also the surrounding city area of Beijing.

My visit to the Forbidden City was nice but somewhat underwhelming. I think this was due to my 'accidental' visit to the Ancestral Palace. There wasn't a whole lot 'new' about Forbidden City when compared to the Ancestral Palace. A lot of the architecture was the same (this was to be expected), but there were some interesting items on display. There was a room dedicated to different teapots of different construction and material. I had a guide take me around and explain a few things to me. This was definitely a good thing; since my Mandarin sucks so much, I could only observe and take pictures. The one thing that did stick out in my mind was after I finished touring the Forbidden City. I was dropped off at the back entrance of the Forbidden City and made my way to the front. However, there is another tourist attraction just behind the rear of the Forbidden City that my friend suggested I should visit. To get back to where I started, I needed to walk the length of the Forbidden City. This took 45 minutes of brisk walking! I don't think it takes that long to walk from one end of Melbourne CBD to the other.

Now, what trip to Beijing would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall of China. Thankfully I planned my trip to coincide with a weekend. My friend and I used this weekend to visit the Great Wall of China. Unfortunately, it rained on this day but luckily it was mostly a drizzle and not a downpour. The Great Wall itself is truly a monument to the endeavours of man. You have to go there to get an understanding of the scale and the sort of undertaking required by our Chinese ancestors from several hundred years ago. Scaling the wall is exercise in itself. There are fairly steep sections of the wall that will test your stamina. We visited a very touristy section of the Great Wall, and unfortunately there were masses of tourists visiting and climbing the wall. I did, however, manage to get a couple of photos of the place.

Food in Beijing is different and interesting. I am used to eating food from Southern areas of Asia - predominantly Cantonese-influenced food. Wheat and pork are a staple diet of the northern Chinese. Noodles (wheat-based) are far more abundant than rice dishes. My friend told me that anytime you ask for 'meat', you will get pork. Otherwise, you will have to ask specifically for a certain type of meat. Food in Beijing is very oily. Apparently it's for presentation. The oil makes the dish glisten and appears more attractive visually. I ate quite a variety of local food, but my favourites have to be Peking Duck and lamb skewers from hawker stalls. There is this one specific hawker stall that my friend likes that serves lamb skewers, chicken skewers and other entrails of various animals. Out of all the things I ate in Beijing, the weirdest has to be deep-fried scorpion. My friend dared me to eat the last of 4 deep fried scorpions if he ate the other 3. I unwillingly accepted. I have to say, it's not something I want to eat again. It tastes like an insect (if you've ever accidentally eaten an insect before) even though some say it tastes like prawns. Overcoming the mental image of a deep-fried scorpion and the crunchiness as you bite down on it is definitely a case of mind over matter.

I didn't end up buying all that much stuff from Beijing. I bought a couple of trinkets and I also bought a couple of t-shirts that were Astro Boy-themed. Don't ask me why; I just thought they were cool. I did, however, spend 600RMB on good quality Chinese tea. That's around about $100 worth in Australian money. I'm not sure how much I actually bought weight-wise, but I bought 2 large tins and a couple of packets of Chrysanthemum Tea. I didn't want to be carry too much, so I just made sure I filled my luggage bag to the brim. More than anything else, it was just nice to be out of the country and hanging-out with a friend in a foreign place.

Given that I've not had a decent holiday in 4 years, I'm really glad I made the effort to go somewhere with the 2 weeks I had between jobs. I don't know it was quite enough; I don't think it was. At least, I think, I made the most of the time that I had off.

Here's a link to my photo album of my trip:

trip to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing - the Beijing leg

happy new year 2008

Happy new year everyone! Yea it's been a while since I've posted anything. Been really busy with work; then Christmas and the New Year rolled around. I've been meaning to post something, but my computer broke. I think the motherboard's had it. Fortunately, I also have a spare mini-PC. Unfortunately, that broke too. Bloody Western Digital HDD. That's the 4th one to go in 3 years. Never again will I buy one. Seagate all-the-way.

I've been wanting to ride, and I did manage to get out on the bike. Once. Until it broke too. On Christmas day. So I spent my Christmas afternoon stranded on the side of the road while waiting for Aidz to pick me up. Well, at least it will be a memorable Christmas - if nothing else. Big thanks to Aidz and Rob for coming with a bike trailer to take me home. The gearbox has packed-up and I think it's the selector fork for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The bike won't start either. Not sure how much it will be to fix; I might just Ebay it and upgrade to a bigger bike. Not long to go now before I can jump on a bigger bike anyways.

I managed to get some Christmas / Boxing Day shopping done during my time off work. Oh yea, that's right - I didn't manage to get leave till the week before Christmas. So I didn't have anything planned (aside from shopping). When it comes to shopping, I hate it when you have something on your mind but you can't ever find what you want. Or that it takes ages to find the bargain in the size that you require. I lapped Chadstone at least 20 times before finding what I want, spending 6 hours there, and only having 2 garments to show for it.

I think the highlight of my time-off was the New Years Eve party at Guaran's. It was a potluck dinner followed by games (involving dares), texas hold'em poker, mahjong and karaoke. I had a great time, mostly cos I was smashed. My canto seemed to be improving during the evening thanks to the alco. I managed to win poker too, which was great. I played some mahjong as well, and finished the night losing my voice to Bon Jovi - Bed Of Roses.