No Bike? What Happens Now?

Its now been over a month since I sold the SV. The saying is correct “You’ll miss it, when its gone”. Its true, not having a motorbike in my life made me feel like something was missing. After putting it off for as long as I could, I started looking for a new bike.

I made it clear to myself that the next bike was going to be under 600cc. I’m not the fastest rider and I’ve always had a soft spot for small capacity engines. I enjoyed my MZ ETZ 125 Saxon Sportstar and a Honda CBF125 when I was younger. I’ve also admired the cafe racer style since those 125cc days as well. Getting a Suzuki GS500E with clip-on style handlebars and bar end mirrors was a massive achievement for me back in 2011. It was the closest to a cafe racer I could get. So with small capacity and cafe racer on my mind off to the internet I went.

After trawling the internet and watching as many bike reviews as possible I shortlisted a Kawasaki Z400, Yamaha MT-03 and Honda CB300R. The reviews for these bikes were the usual “Great for A2 licenses or experienced riders looking for something a bit more practical”. OK, so suitable for everyone then? Don’t get me wrong there are good review websites out there but this was the message I was getting from most of them and they didn’t tell me much more. So grab a hat, put them all in, and pick one? This nearly happened but then I randomly came across a bike I’d never heard of but the criteria for what I wanted was right there, small capacity and cafe racer styling. This bike was the SWM Gran Milano 440.

SWM Gran Milano 440 😀

Sexy right. No matter which angle you look at the bike, it looks good. And I have never seen a bike pull off copper gold like this bike. The Italians know how to design respectable looking motorbikes. After looking at the bike for far to long I showed the bike to the future wife and her reaction was;
“Oh, that’s nice. I prefer that to the Honda. I like the colour as well”. And that was my decision made for which motorbike to test ride. I found an SWM dealership 35 minutes away, on one of my favourite roads, the B5013. I took that as a sign and booked a test ride straight away.

The Test Ride

I loved every minute of it! Pulling out of the dealership and getting up to 50-60mph (80-96kph) was surreal as the bike didn’t want to rip my arms off, like the SV1000 did on numerous occasions, and hitting the first bend came up faster than expected but I pointed the bike in the direction I wanted it to go and it went round without any hesitation. It made me realise how much wrestling I had to do on the SV. The Gran Milano felt effortless, it handled like a 125cc with nearly 4 times the power on tap. I felt I was over correcting a lot but I put that down to getting use to the bike.

It took a few corners to get a feel of what gear the bike liked being in going through the bends. I think I was over cautious to be honest and was always selecting what felt like the wrong gear. After a couple more bends, an up hill straight and a frantic wave to a passing motorcyclist, I pulled in at one of the car parks next to Blithfield reservoir to the delight of the bird watchers. After a fight with finding neutral, and some nasty stares, I turned the bike around and left the Bill Oddy crowd behind. This was a quick test ride but my mind was already made up about this bike.

The ride back was much better, I was more comfortable with the gears and even got to overtake a car. Admittedly the overtake was downhill but the Gran Milano leaped up and flew passed with a lovely bark coming from the pipes. What I have failed to mention is the massive grin on my face I had through all bends and straights on this test ride. When you’re shouting “I’m ******* loving this!” into your helmet mid-corner you know the bike as sold itself to you.

Within minutes of getting off the bike I signed on the dotted line for the bike to be mine. Some paperwork needs to be sorted with the DVLA, and with the COVID-19 issue currently going on that is not happening very quickly, so the waiting game starts. Once I have the keys i'll be sure to post a blog about the first ride as an owner. Stay tuned.

Keep an eye out on Twitter as I am hoping to up my game on that platform with more content. Once I get the bike 😆

Ride Safe & Eat Cake! 🍰

Lardy 🧈

Time to move on

There comes a time when you have to accept that you're are not happy. This came to me during the start of 2020. Three members of my extended family passed away, my gran was diagnosed with cancer behind the knee (its an odd place but only my gran could get something there) that has resulted with an amputation of the leg, a far from perfect environment at my workplace and bloody CO-VID 19, which has lead to the postponement of my wedding. During all this a big question was hanging over my head, “Have I really enjoyed riding the SV1000 for the seven years I’ve had it?”.

The answer was simple, “No, not really” I had to be honest with myself, my motorcycle road craft still feels like it was when I bought the bike in 2013. For the record, I did buy some ebooks on motorcycle road-craft to help combat the issue. I started to feel some improvement and really enjoyed the rides I went out on but I still felt something of an issue deep down. I say issue but it was more like “issues”. In the few years since becoming a home owner, the bike was living at my parents house, which is 15mins from my home, this made going out for a ride feel like a chore due to sitting in traffic every time, and manoeuvring the bike was a painful because of the twice dislocated left shoulder I have. All these problems built up and came out whilst enjoying a beer and music in the garden one afternoon with the misses.
“I want a smaller bike. I’ve had enough of the SV”

“Thought so, you’ve never enjoyed that since you’ve had it” she said.

And that was it, decision made, the SV was going.

The big surprise came when I told my dad I wanted to sell the SV1000. Not the fact I was selling the SV, it was him making me an offer! It was reasonable, plus he’s fixed the SV1000 so many times when it came to number plate holders (won’t miss that problem!), so I accepted it. That was easier than I thought it was going to be, both of us got what we wanted, he got that second bike he’s been wanting and I sold a bike that I’ve never really been comfortable with. Dads a bit taller and bigger than me, also rides a Bandit 1200 which is heavier, so I see him having the SV as the last dance on a supersport bike before my mother tells him its time for a cruiser, which I think he’s looking forward to really.

The SV was defiantly a head turner of a motorbike, with two blue flame exhausts, not everyone was looking at it with delight. It was a talking point to many motorcyclist as to how rare the naked versions of the bike are and how good it looked with the tail-tidy. One of the fondest memories was bringing the bike back 170+ miles from Hampshire and a guy and his misses on a streetfightered Bandit 1200 came across two lanes of traffic and left the group they were riding with just to point at the bike and give the thumbs up.

So this is the end of the SV chapter. I see this as me getting older, maturing as a rider and wanting a new adventure. So what happens now I have no motorbike? "A change is better than a rest" is the saying, lets do it!  

Safe riding and cake eating. Not at the same time though!

Lardy