It was now April and the camchain rattled in an expensive way. So a bigger bike was on the cards. I wanted a mixture of commuter usefulness and some thing that would be fun to ride when the sun came out, plus the convenience of shaft drive. The cost of insurance limited me to less than 600cc. The CX handles like a tea-trolley and it's as ugly as a BMF beauty queen. The Yam XJ600 and Guzzi V50 were tempting, but the Kawa GT550 won on looks, good suspension and the reputation of the engine for refusing to blow up even when abused and neglected.
My next problem was legal; I was in the shit as far as all things paperwork went. That's when I made a costly and near fatal mistake. I bought a Sidewinder (pause for hoots of derision) - £300 for the box type complete with fittings that didn't and a front sidelight that kept falling out of its lens in the paper thin fibreglass bodywork. I considered having it colour matched (I had intended to use it after my test in place of panniers and tank bag) but was glad I didn't bother in the end.
When the sun shone I decided to go out for my first long ride, Rotherham to Plymouth, to visit a friend. Because I couldn't use the motorways I was forced to use A roads. The back roads down to Exeter were brilliant, narrow, twisty and tree lined, even the yo-yo (ever seen one on a less than billiard table smooth road) didn't falter. I Chased a KR100RT and never lost sight - no doubt Mr & Mrs BMW were uttering oaths about a heathen on the GT with that box swaying around every which way. The GT didn't mind, it pulled like a train and made the journey without any problems.
I passed my test two months later on the 125. To celebrate this, the GT and outfit hit a pothole at the top of a hill, the yo-yo collapsed - the welds holding the miniscule brackets to the tubular chassis had given up the ghost. I nearly cried with disbelief, if it had gone one mile earlier I would probably have been finished off too. No doubt, it would have made the front Page - Hells Angel Gang In Bouncing Sidecar Horror. I wasn't amused by the design of the Sidewinder.
Another trip to Plymouth, this time with tank bag (kills the steering lock and leaves the option of blasting through on the horn button or backing off on the throttle), soon revealed a riding position that was too upright to sustain a 300 mile journey, unless you actually dig strained neck muscles. Which is a pity because the GT motor has the grunt to do 300 miles in one go, no problem.
I used the A38 and M5 that time and the bike averaged about 60mpg. I had to stop twice for petrol and once for myself - the journey took 5 1/2 hours. By the time I arrived the original tyre was in need of urgent replacement. A new Arrowmax was supposed to be a good match for the original front tyre and had better last longer than the 3500 miles of the OE rear. Tyre changing was not very easy and the back wheel was very heavy, which didn't help at all. Kawasaki don't bother to supply an air pump to set up the suspension, so I have to use a bicycle pump. Standard settings are fine for solo, I pump in more air if I carry a passenger, but terrain doesn't have much effect on the settings.
Exploring the handling down a mixture of twisty country lanes and on main roads, I can't really complain, keeping things in the context that this is supposed to be an unsporty, bland looking, tourer rather than an out and out GP replica. I doubt if any other bike equipped with touring tackle and a passenger will out perform the GT in the swervery.
After 12500 miles both tyres were replaced with H rated Phantoms, which have proved fantastic in the wet or dry - the Arrowmax was never entirely happy in the wet, letting the back end twitch a little. I was a little perturbed by the sales girl who insisted that because the tyres were new they wouldn't need balancing.
I was worried about having to curtail my weekly 90 mile jaunts to my girlfriend when the bad weather came. I figured that without a fairing and no protection other than leathers, oversuit and gauntlets life would be unpleasant at the very least. I was eventually caught out by the climate when the Siberian winter suddenly decided on a change of location and decided to deposit its contents over North Yorkshire, on Sunday when I was stranded at my girlfriends.
It was only the thought of a lost pay check that made me venture forth. I set off late, the roads were clear-ish and the sun was out but low on the horizon, glaring off the snow to such an extent that even my tinted visor was no help. I began to wonder how I was going to get back alive, let alone in one piece. After exiting the main road things began to get worse. The snow was packed and starting to freeze. In fifty miles I fell off three times, luckily into the deep snow drifts. The light was beginning to fade and I was becoming more anxious every minute. Skating around a corner, a white shape glided past the headlamp beam - a barn owl on the hunt, it was quite an eerie occurrence in the quiet of the surrounding snow.
I eventually reached the M62 and wished that I hadn't. A 50mph limit was blatantly disregarded by kamikaze prats in their heated tin cans. Then the same shitheads wonder why so many accidents happen in winter and why their insurance rates hit the roof. After 3 hours I eventually made it to my home, frozen stiff, but the bike never missed a beat. I will be eternally grateful for its lazy grunt in top gear and its sheer reliability - just think what would happen if the bike had broken down and I'd been stranded in some godforsaken bit of English countryside in the middle of a snowstorm.
The rest of the winter was uneventful, relatively speaking, except on one occasion when I had suddenly found myself going too fast, changed down to lose speed, but mismatched engine and road speed and found one of the handicaps of direct shaft drive, the back wheel locked up - the rear wheel went sideways, much to the astonishment of both myself and on-lookers, even more so as I was able to stay on the thing throughout the somewhat unorthodox manoeuvre. Throughout the whole winter I only missed one day because of the weather and two because of illness.
After a year and 17000 miles, I had to adjust the clutch and the next thing I knew the bike was only running on two pots. I tried swapping plugs, HT leads and coils to no avail. Haynes suggested testing the ignition unit, but caused momentary confusion by showing it hidden under the side panel when it was actually hidden under the oil cooler in front of the engine. What should have been a simple removal of a connector and application of circuit tester leads to pins, turned nasty when one of the pins came out of the ignition unit body with the connector.
I rushed to the phone to start phoning the local breakers, no luck. I tried one further away. He said phone back in ten minutes. but when I did he had gone home, so someone else had to go to look... "Er, ‘bout 4 inches square with ten terminals," he asked. The serial number was slightly different so I didn't bother. He wanted £35 for it and reckoned that Kawasaki wanted ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY POUNDS for a new one. I think my mouth was still open minutes later.
I managed to buy one for £25 and traced the actual fault to very corroded terminals in the same connector. After cleaning and squirting with WD40, the four was once again running sweetly. It's obviously a rather silly place to locate such an important electrical component and I'll keep squirting WD40 at it in the future.
Apart from the electrical fault, and despite constant use and sporadic servicing, the Kawa has served me well for over 17000 miles - the relationship is once again on an even keel. Apart from the engine and the wheels it cleans up easily enough. I've found that Halfords wheel cleaner applied to the engine and rinsed off makes the alloy look like new. The wheels are rather a sick joke, corrosion abounds, but Loy-Blocks plus Solvol eventually return them to normal. You can buy Loy-Blocks from B&Q which are bigger but cost no more than those available from motorcycle shops. I found mine near the decorating shelves.
The petrol tank has started to leak at the welded seam that holds the frame bracket and causes the paint to bubble up, and may blow up the whole bike one day. The speedo drive at the wheel seized and chewed up the cheapo metal drive ring. Both this and all the nuts and bolts open to the elements were covered in Coppaslip.
None of these faults have been claimed on warranty, because after the 3000 mile dealer service I worked on the bike myself. Valve clearance hasn't needed to be altered they were checked recently and after 17000 miles were found to be spot on. The carbs are slightly out of balance, but it doesn't make all that much difference.
I thought the bike was falling apart when the heat shield for the exhaust worked loose sounded quite awful and isn't very obvious (at least not to me) - so check its bolts regularly. I hope to fit a colour matched FLF fairing before the next winter which will hopefully stop me complaining about the cold and high speed discomfort, and may even improve mpg.
I think the only bike I'd swap the GT for is a BMW K100RS (too much bread). It's a bit tatty at the edges but like a good book very enjoyable.
S Bentley