I got into Motorcycling almost by accident. Like most guys I had always wanted a bike but had just never gotten around to getting my license. About 9 years ago, on a whim, I bought a 200cc scooter off a mate who needed the cash. I rode that little beast through the traffic of Auckland city for 2 years. It was on that scooter I had my first road accident when I was knocked off because a taxi decided he wanted to run a red light and took me at right angles as I was turning into work. The impact threw the bike about 20 meters up a hill and I rolled off his bonnet into the road.
I had just gotten it fixed and back on the road when it was stolen out of my garage one night. I had a bike cover worth about 400$, they left that behind and took the 2000$ scooter, go figure. I reported the theft to the cops but I knew I was never going to get it back, I figured it was already down a bank in the bush somewhere, or in pieces and being shipped to Hamilton.
I didn't ride again for a year or so until I decided I wanted to go back to school. The class I wanted to do was night school and was in the city. It also managed to fall outside of the public transport hours to where I lived. The perfect storm of you cant get there and back. So after much thought, I decided I wanted to buy a little commuter to get me to and from class. After looking around and a little research I found a Hyosung GV250. Hyosung is a Korean manufacturer and are very new to the scene of motorcycle making. They have been the primary parts suppliers to Suzuki, Kawasaki et al for many years, they have just never made bikes under their own brand till about 2004.
Lots of people give Hyosung shit, as the first year or two, the quality of manufacture was less than stellar. However they have consistently improved year on year and they now make a motorcycle to match any of the big 4. The GV250 is affectionately known by its riders as a "Hyobag" or a "Hoglet", the little bastards have tons of torque and like the advert says they just keep on going. I loved my Hyosung and rode everywhere on it for about 18 months. Too and from school and work, weekends up into the hills around Titirangi, off to parties etc.
When I bought the Hyosung a mate of mine decided he was going to buy a bike as well. He had previously ridden Suzuki Marauders and was determined to get another one. At the time I wasn't a big Suzuki fan and was considering my next bike to be a Hyosung GV650. So we took off one lunch time to go up to the local Suzie dealer and he took out a 10 year old Marauder and I wandered around the shop having a look.
First thing I saw was a C50. The 50 is a sexy little bike and fell exactly into the Cruiser style of bike I love. It looks a lot bigger than its engine rating, I sat on it a bit and chatted with a sales guy. Then I saw it, at the back of the shop was this giant yellow monster of a bike. The nose cowl looked down right evil, the paint shone, the gigantic rear wheel taunted me, the engine just looked like it wanted to howl. I walked over to it absolutely entranced and quickly attracted the attention of a sales guy who told me that was the new Suzuki Boulevard M109R. I was utterly in love. Unfortunately at that time in my life in NZ there was next to no chance I was ever going to be able to buy the 9 so I put it in the back of my head and decided my next bike was going to be a C50.
A little while later everything changed. My wife was offered a new job and to cut a long story short (told in more detail elsewhere) we ended up in Australia, in Sydney. I had sold the Hyobag in NZ when we left, but it only got me enough to basically pay off the existing debt. But by mnow I had the biking bug, I wanted another bike to get around Sydney. I did lots of reading on the web about NSW licenses, road rules etc and prepared myself as much as possible for riding in another country. I was still on a 'P' license thanks to a dick head in the first RTA office I went to to get my NZ license swapped over, so I couldn't jump to a big bike. However I couldn't bring myself to ride a bike on the LAM's list which I knew I was only going to have for a bit more than a year till the full license came through.
The other bonus to working in Australia was that I could now afford a bigger bike, so I walked into a Hornsby Suzuki dealer and bought myself a C50. The C50 was a nice bike and a lot of fun. I quickly realized it was going to be a nice commuter, but when I took it out on the freeway and wanted to give it some go, it topped out really fast at about 130KPH. I took it out for a few rides up to Newcastle and once or twice along the Old Road up to the Pie in the Sky.
Whille I had the 50 I had been debating and researching the 109. I had been reading and dreaming about it from the first time I had seen it in that shop in Auckland. I read all about its weight (315kg dry) its size (1800cc Vtwin), I debated with myself whether its power was too much, was it too big a bike for me?, could I control it, was it just too powerful?. I went back and forth like this for months. I looked at a M90 when they were released but it just didn't have the same soul as the M109 for me.
A year went by and my full Australian bike license came through. I continued to ride the C50 for another 6 months or so until I saw an advert for an M109 at 16,995+ORC. I wont go into all the details but essentially, I walked in with cash at exactly the right moment in that salesman's life. I walked out with a brand new black M109R for 16,000 flat.
I think I was terrified the day I picked up my 9. I had never been on anything remotely as powerful as this beast, I hit 100kph in second coming down the Pacific Highway back to home, I cornered like an old lady because I had no idea how to lean the damn thing. But I rode it every day, to and from work, up to the shops, out to PITS and up to Newcastle. Every time I got on it, I was a little bit better and every time I headed up a new road it was a little bit more fun. Even now 9 months after purchase, every time I look at it, I can't help grinning, I want to get on it and go for a ride every day.
While I was looking around and learning about the 9 I had come across a website in the USA which seemed to have been built around a community of 9 riders from around the world. They even had a sub forum for Aussies!. The day I bought the bike I posted there proudly proclaiming I had joined the owners club. About a day later I got an email telling me about a website for 9 owners specifically built for Aussies. I was invited to sign up and come along and have a look. That was the first time I met Big Bad Baz and found the Oz M109 riders site.
Through the site I have met up with a whole lot of fellow enthusiasts through the OzM109 riders forum. I have found some awesome people with fantastic knowledge of the 9 and a real passion for the bike. I have developed an itch to mod, an addiction you might call it. I have started going out on a number of weekend as well as longer runs. I have been off to Uralla and Urunga and I am planning to head down to the Snowies for a big charity run on the weekend of the 7th of November.
The biggest ride I have been on was the Big 109 ride to Victor Harbor South Australia. That has its own blog entry and is going to take me a while to write as its huge and was an awesome experience. I also have some piccies lying around of the Urunga and Uralla rides. I will put them up as a single post at some point.
Will I play MMO's again? I still do now and again but I just haven't found one that has gripped me in the same way that EQ did. I might go back to EVE for a bit. Who knows.
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