I wasn't overly excited by the prospect of riding a 125 again but my Fazer had just gone round the clock and was sounding decidedly rattly, indicating the need to sell up before it blew up. Interest levels increased dramatically, however, when I arrived to inspect the nail and found myself looking at the 400cc version of the venerable Suzuki Burgman, an early pre-FI model (AN400Y). It had just 25000 miles on the clock - not much for one of these - and appeared quite tidy. No way would it start though, not even with a fresh battery and fuel. My mate just wanted it gone, so into the back of the van it went and back to my garage for further investigation.
It didn't take long to discover why it wouldn't run; in removing the under-seat helmet locker to gain access to the motor I found that a rodent had been living under there and had helped itself to most of the insulation off the loom, rendering it beyond any reasonable repair. Consequently I slung the machine to the back of the garage and forgot about it for a few months. Then I found another one advertised on Scumtree for £200. This had 80000 on the clock and looked like it had been repeatedly run over by a bus. Against my better judgement I went to see it; the owner was a DR, and this was the latest of several of these machines that he had thrashed to death in the course of his work. He was getting out of the game, and just wanted all the scrap out of his garage - when he saw I had turned up in a van wielding cash, he offered me the heap, plus another crashed one and a load of parts for £100.
Once home, I set about making one (hopefully) good one out of the two-and-a-half machines I now owned. The crashed one had just 13000 miles on it, so the motor from that was combined with the bodywork and frame from the original bike, plus the loom from the other. This operation took the best part of a week of evenings to achieve - what else is there to do in winter! - and the MOT was duly achieved, leaving me free to test the Phoenix scooter out on the road.
Initial impressions were good - the scooter struggled to pull the ton flat out, but who gives a shit about that? The best way I can describe it cruising at 80mph was akin to a flying armchair. I had put on a big Givi screen from my stash of parts, and even riding in the pissing rain didn't present a problem after this. The under seat storage was huge, and fuel economy not bad at around 60mpg, which wasn't all that different from what I'd been getting from the Fazer. The latter was offloaded on Scumtree for £300, and not a minute too soon as it turns out - the buyer rang me a week later to say that the engine had blown up, wanting a refund. I told him to do one; he had test ridden it and dismissed the rattling (I pointed it out to him) as 'nothing'. Caveat Emptor dude.
Touring on the Burgman was as much fun as I'd hoped... a visit to a mate in the South of France was an excellent, relaxed excursion thanks to the comfy seat and upright riding position. In traffic it was as good as a 125 for manoeuvrability with a good deal more poke. Despite the protestations of myriad dickhead Power Rangers, handling on the small wheels was perfectly adequate for the intended use of the plot. Start chucking it about like a sports bike, though, and you'll most likely die. But if you ride it like that then you've bought the wrong bike anyway. Incidentally, it's only when you take to the road on a scooter that you see just what bellends many so-called bikers really are. If you do this, then my advice to you is revel in it: these people are sheep, and many of them only ride their carefully cosseted crotch rockets for three months of the year at most. Reliability was exemplary - the big single never required anything beyond routine servicing, and over the past five years I have put 45000 miles on the beast.
There were a few issues... it always ran a bit cold, with the temp gauge never really getting off the stop in winter. I had no spare thermostats and after pricing a new one (£120) I covered half the radiator grille with Gaffa tape - sorted. If you don't grease the rear wheel splines the wheel will seize onto the output shaft... I discovered this the hard way when I came to change the tyre, necessitating the use of a sledgehammer. The parking brake mechanism seizes up through lack of use, and causes one of the pistons in the rear caliper to drag. Pattern pistons are available, albeit without the rod that allows the parking brake to work. That's not a problem, though, if you do as I did and bin it. Oh, and keep an eye on the oil level - if you're prone to a bit of high-speed cruising the stuff gets thrown out of the engine breather into the airbox with predictable consequences. But that's it really.
It's getting a bit leggy now, and the engine is starting to burn oil, which means it's time to move it on. I should make a small profit after five years' use, which isn't so bad! I've found it so good that I have an early 650 in the garage that's been stolen and recovered, scored from a salvage yard for £300. Hopefully that will provide at least the same amount of motorcycling kicks as the current one - let's hope so... after all the less I spend, the less I need to earn!
Slacker