the Ferret
Road warrior
Thread starter
Sometimes my local Yamaha shop asks me to test ride customer bikes to either diagnose or assure that repairs were done satisfactorily. The other day the owner asked if I would be able to stop up and ride a customers Yamaha 1300 something or other that the customer complained would stop running after an extended period of time.The mechanics felt they had it cured but weren't willing to go on an extended test ride or give it back to the customer without making sure it wouldn't quit. I said sure. I'm retired. Riding other peoples bikes is a fun gig.
So today I go up, and they roll this out.
My worst nightmare lol. Buckhorn bars 4' wide, floor boards with heel toe shifter, life saving pipes with no baffles. Gads. Climbed on fired it up, had a hard time finding things such as neutral light, turn signal indicators, speedo, tach ..(they were all in a pod on top of the tank) but eventually found everything pertinent. The thing is stupid loud. I have the shop owners personal phone number in case I need to get trailered back to the shop, and I was aware there was that possibility. One of the perils of being a test rider. Then again I get a good discount on parts and service when I need them, and they always make room in the service schedule for me at my convenience. A worthwhile trade off IMO. Plus I do get to ride some interesting and cool bikes on occasion. Anyhow, I clunk it in gear, and take off. Handles ponderously thru the curvy road that leads down to the 4 lane. The heel toe shifter is difficult to use, and 20 minutes into the ride I pull over, remove my helmet, reach in my pocket and stuff my some gel ear plugs into my ears. They don't help much. I rode for a little over 2 hours, enough to burn through more than 1/2 a tank of gas and figured it wasn't going to quit. At partial throttle...say 1/8-1/4 throttle it sounded like it was missing on one of the cylinders, at 1/2 throttle and above it ran fine, back off the gas and you were greeted with loud backfiring and decel popping. I was told this is all normal. Who in their right mind would ride something like this?
Anyhow I drop it off give them my report, have a bottle of water, then climb on my CB for a ride on my own bike. Funny thing is, now it felt like there was something wrong with my CB. My hands seemed like they were too close together, as did my knees. And I was sitting so high lol. The whole bike seemed tiny. I texted the owner and told him after riding that behemoth for 2 hours riding my CB felt like I was riding a Grom.
I love my CB!
So today I go up, and they roll this out.
My worst nightmare lol. Buckhorn bars 4' wide, floor boards with heel toe shifter, life saving pipes with no baffles. Gads. Climbed on fired it up, had a hard time finding things such as neutral light, turn signal indicators, speedo, tach ..(they were all in a pod on top of the tank) but eventually found everything pertinent. The thing is stupid loud. I have the shop owners personal phone number in case I need to get trailered back to the shop, and I was aware there was that possibility. One of the perils of being a test rider. Then again I get a good discount on parts and service when I need them, and they always make room in the service schedule for me at my convenience. A worthwhile trade off IMO. Plus I do get to ride some interesting and cool bikes on occasion. Anyhow, I clunk it in gear, and take off. Handles ponderously thru the curvy road that leads down to the 4 lane. The heel toe shifter is difficult to use, and 20 minutes into the ride I pull over, remove my helmet, reach in my pocket and stuff my some gel ear plugs into my ears. They don't help much. I rode for a little over 2 hours, enough to burn through more than 1/2 a tank of gas and figured it wasn't going to quit. At partial throttle...say 1/8-1/4 throttle it sounded like it was missing on one of the cylinders, at 1/2 throttle and above it ran fine, back off the gas and you were greeted with loud backfiring and decel popping. I was told this is all normal. Who in their right mind would ride something like this?
Anyhow I drop it off give them my report, have a bottle of water, then climb on my CB for a ride on my own bike. Funny thing is, now it felt like there was something wrong with my CB. My hands seemed like they were too close together, as did my knees. And I was sitting so high lol. The whole bike seemed tiny. I texted the owner and told him after riding that behemoth for 2 hours riding my CB felt like I was riding a Grom.
I love my CB!
