So, I decided, with the help of the IPM Staff, to make my own Slow Motion Video starring my sexy Yamaha R6. Special thanks to Mr. White for the music. Enjoy!

Justin was jealous that we didn’t want him to do one of these videos, and he vowed to make his own that rivals or outshines mine. Be on the look out for that! I’ll be the first one to watch!

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As you can see the 2007 R6 comes in a beautiful candy red color. Much has changed in two years since the 2005 model came out. Other than a hot new look, the new model now has fuel injection with YCC-T and the rear suspension has high and low speed dampers. When we take a look at the body we see that they’ve opted for a short exhaust can, a new design for the fairings, and what I call “chinckier” eyes and a Rudolph nose. Isn’t it appropriate considering the bike is red? Ha. The bike purrs as I ride and the throttle has a quick response, but as a girl with my stature I’m having a hard time with the seat height. Not only did they make the bike taller, but they made the seat wider so that I can barely put one foot down. The overall body modifications are bit longer, wider, and taller.

For this 2007 R6 model there isn’t much change needed because, as someone pointed out, it’s got steering, incredible front-end feedback that inspires the confidence to carry massive corner speeds, superb suspension and an all-around incredible chassis. The only change that needs to be done on this beauty is cosmetic to uniquely personalize it to your style.

I sure will be sad when it’s time to return the bike next week… ;(

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As some of my “fans” out there may know, my baby is mostly stock — at least, as far as performance goes. I like to trust that Honda knew what they were doing, when they put her together. However, if you are talking bolt-on outer shell pieces? I’m there. At least for now, I go faster than I need to as the bike is.

So, total mods include: Hotbodies Racing front and rear turn signals, Eurobikes rear tire hugger, Puig windscreen, rear spools, and a fender eliminator.

Like I said folks, stock. LOL

Pros and Cons for the Front and Rear Signals.

Pros

- Looks nice, highly visible Amber LED’s, which look nice against the yellow! Sleek front blinkers sit no further than 1/2 inch off your fairing! Those big clunky stock blinkers scrub when you’re trying to park in tight spots or sliding through inner city dead-lock.

Cons

- Okay, the stock blinkers contain three wires.. running light, which is always good right? The other two were a negative and an interrupt for the blinker, all of which were clearly labeled by Honda. So Hotbodies sends me the aftermarket set which only have two wires: red and black.
The dilemma: “Ditch the running lights for the style?” Of course!

I had some initial trouble with the installation, but then a little soldering fixed everything. If you
try to install the lights without relays, they will blink incredibly fast; to the point where it just looks like it’s stuck in the on position. This will also blow your fuses. It sucks, trust me…

Next would be the tire hugger

- This sells from Eurobikes, unpainted for around 233 $ U.S. I found a color matched one on Ebay for 35 $ U.S., which in my book is a bleeping steal!

Pros

- Let me first say that I loved the look, but that’s about it.

Cons

- The hugger does only one other thing right, it keeps the blacktop off of the undertail exhaust. Hoorayyy… But it catches so much wind that it vibrates its own screws loose. It then begins to scrub off the edge of your tire. The problem is the thickness of the piece (which is fiberglass) is much less than where the stock piece attaches. Even if you take off and swap the screw brackets, it still has problems.

So it’s back to the stockie, which I like anyway. I’ll keep my eyes open.

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When we came back to where the bike was parked, we saw that not only was our bike blocked by another motorcycle parked diagonally in two bike lanes (including ours), but there’s a freaking car parked in the motorcycle only area. The car had haphazardly parked in three and a half of the bike lanes causing the next motorcyclist to have nowhere to park except directly behind us. I’m angry at this point because it clearly says MOTORCYCLES with tiny marked lanes that could only fit bikes! Also if you park in designated car areas for less than 30 minutes it’s still free, so I didn’t understand why that stupid cager was parked in our spots! I proceeded to call security and they didn’t really care. So, I begin to call the tow company to remove the damn car, when the idiot comes back.

Now I’m usually a nice, humble person, but when it comes to real dumb people, they just aggravate me. I, along with my passenger, began yelling at the guy for ignoring the signs and causing us to be stuck there. Of course more mean and harsh words were said, but I’ll just leave those parts out. After he left, I felt like our predicament was unjustified and wished that I got to see his car towed. Since the car had left, we now had room to get out, but this required moving the bike back and forth many times. The whole process was so tedious and irritating. If the guy hadn’t parked there in the first place, we would have backed out easily, no problem. Finally after breaking out of that tight spot, we head off to San Leandro to run more errands.

Here is our second encounter with more idiots. After completing our errand, we are waiting at a left turn stoplight. As you know, there are some left turns where you can enter any lane after turning. Well, the Civic in front of us enters the left most lane while we take the right. Just to give you an idea, our front tire is about neck in neck with his front door or midway between his car after the turn.

All of a sudden he decides that he wants to be in the right lane because the car in front of him is going too slow. The guy nearly runs us over, but we veer off and speed up just in time. After being irritated once already earlier, both my passenger and I flip the guy off. Now the cager gets pissed and tries to chase us down. We make a right at the next light easily and the Civic tried to take a shortcut through a corner gas station to cut us off. Obviously, when you’re up against a motorcycle for speed and maneuvering, a car is going to lose, especially if your car is a Civic. Haha. So taking the short cut through the gas station didn’t give him any advantage, but he thinks he can still catch us on a straight and speeds up. We see this, of course, and speed up, wind through some cars, and poof. We smoked his ass and leave him probably feeling more moronic than ever.

Boy, what a day. So let this be a lesson learned, especially for new riders. Even though there are people who are nice to riders, there are dumb drivers who ride in metal boxes too. So, beware!

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Sorry boys and girls, but I don’t need a 1000cc mega sportbike that’s financed to the hilt to feel like a man. I am a simple, practical kind of guy. I enjoy riding a motorcycle around town during the weekday and maybe occasionally ripping through the twisties on a nice weekend. But most importantly, I like to save the environment by not emitting as much pollutants as high capacity engines, and saving on gas is always a plus!

Many beginners tend to favor the 250 for its affordability, size, and comfort. The riding position is upright, so it gives beginners the confidence needed to properly learn. If one inevitably drops it, it’s affordable enough to not dent the wallet. And for most, it is the only motorcycle they can plant both feet on the ground while sitting on it.

For a city commuter like me, I love that it is light. It allows me to better take corners and avoid unruly bicycle messengers in the street. Also due to its size, you can lane split like no other! For example, I was taking the overpass near the Embarcadero the other day, and this idiot van switched lanes right into me. Fortunately, the little Ninja was nimble enough to avoid it and slip between two cars. The 250 is also fairly quiet with the stock exhaust, so going home and parking at night won’t disturb your neighbors.

And I’ll tell you guys the best thing, cops don’t pull over 250s. It just doesn’t happen! You will never get mistaken for a boy racer – you’ll look like a regular commuter. I got pulled over once by a cop just for him to tell me how safe I was riding!

The one complaint I have is that since I do mostly city riding, I tend to stay in the upright position most of the time. And as such, the middle of my tires wear fast. While most riders can evenly distribute tire wear across the width of their rubber, I can’t. So, I have to change tires more frequently than most.

So, if you can live with that, you can live with a Ninja 250 as well.

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Not only is their pride hurt from falling, but the new bike is trashed, which equals a big bill to pay. That particular fear has kept me from making that kind of choice. It’s a good thing too because as I said before, I used to drop my bike a lot.

In any case, to get back on track, I have heard that a lot of female riders tend to migrate towards the R6. I think that the key feature is the seat height. Now let me explain. It is not that the height is any lower than other 600s, in fact it’s the opposite. But it is the narrowness of the bike that allows many women, being vertically challenged and all, to get more feet on the asphalt.

However, the R6 isn’t a bike that you can really stereotype to any type of person. (Yes, you can! -Editor) Everyone likes it for one reason or another. (I don’t! -Editor) It just seems to be an all around bike that can be molded towards any type of personality. The only cautionary question I would ask is “Are you ready for it?”

In my eyes, the progression for a person who has never ever ridden a bike before should go from a 250cc bike, to a low end 600cc, then to a higher end 600cc. Once you get the hang of those, you’d be able to handle anything in that class with slight adjustments to the type of bike. Then people usually step up to an 1000cc bike. Those who’ve got the hang of that seem to be able to go anywhere after that. So when learning, take it easy.

Who rides a R6? Anyone!

With a liquid-cooled, four stroke, in-line 3-cylinder, DOHC powerplant pumping out 123 hp @ 12500 rpm+, and 72Nm 53ft.lbf @ 11750 rpm right out of the box, what more do you need from a streetbike? The brakes, the suspension, and controls are all up to date and rival that of most Japanese counterparts out today.

Now, I understand the passion behind modifications, be it performance or asthetic. It’s about getting the numbers and individualism, respectively. While I support those aspects, I can’t bear to see the 675 altered in any way. In my opinion, it’s perfect the way it is, straight from the factory. As a street bike, it just doesn’t need anything else!

Now, I know what you are thinking. “But Jaxster, what about that Jardine RT-1 Exhaust you put on a few monthes ago?” While that piece was quality and the craftsmanship awesome, as you all saw in the video, it changed my Daytona’s sound. The exhaust produced a loud roar that most other manufacturers only dream of. But, it toally drowned out the burble of the triple engine.


So, you guys will be glad to know that I have switched back to the stock exhaust. Thanks for the quality piece Jardine, but no thanks. I know what you are thinking. “The stock piece is dead weight!” Yes, but did the 675 need to lose any more weight? That’s like telling Jessica Alba to look like one of the the Olson Twins: Not Sexy!

To heck with individualism! But you know what? Maybe my Daytona will be the most unique one out there since most riders tend to switch out the exhaust first. Anyways, while you are all inside modding, I’ll be out, learning to ride better, safer, and faster!

So the inside scoop about me and my riding experience…. in 2006 I took the MSF course to get my motorcycle license. I took the beginner’s class knowing absolutely nothing about how to ride a motorcycle. I hadn’t even ridden a bicycle in 10 years! But I went for it anyways. (When you do take classes that you know nothing about, it’s always good to have a buddy doing it with you for moral support.) During the class I dropped my bike twice during practice and voila! I still passed.

About a couple months later I purchased myself a used 1995 Honda F3. The bike was pretty ugly to me. The colors were the stock neon green and purple. The previous owner also tried to eliminate his back fender without a kit and failed miserably. I therefore had no turning signals and a tail section that was held together by zip-ties. I also had only one working brake light bulb because the other one was out and fused to the socket rendering it irreplaceable. The overall reason that I bought this particular bike was to learn on it, and boy did I. During my practices I dropped her many a times because I wasn’t used to balancing a 407.9 pound bike, hence we come to the name Drops. I haven’t dropped my bike since my practice days but the name still sticks.

Now that I’m riding my new longtermer, the 2005 R6, it’s a blast. I can feel more power even when I give it just a little more throttle. A couple of other things that the R6 has that my F3 didn’t are a fuel injection system, a dry weight of 357 pounds, inverted forks, and a gas light. This was an important feature to me because without the gas light on my F3 to tell me when my fuel was running low, I was always paranoid, checking the tank every time I came back from riding and filling up every other day I rode just to be sure. I can be pretty anal sometimes.

Well now you guys know how I got my nickname, so don’t abuse the knowledge you have. Ha! Definitely come back to check up on what we do next. See you guys on the asphalt!

So now that the Monster has been retired, I’m back on my 675. What to do, what to do? I do value my license, as it’s what puts food on the table. So, I scoured the Triumph Boards and found this doohicky from British Customs. It’s their fender eliminator or license plate relocator made out of aluminum.

With this baby mounted, the license plate numbers are a bit more difficult to make out. Now, is this illegal? Not any more than those gloss sprays that people put on their license plates. Or how about those clear screens that go over the plates?

I’ve been riding around with this for a few weeks now, and have not had any trouble. Have I run from the cops yet? Well, on that I plead the fifth. Are you kidding? I’m not incriminating myself! Lol!

Anyways, expect more updates on the 675 now that it’s my only mode of transportation. See you on the road guys! Riding season is officially upon us. Gear up!

I’m just going to give you a guys a quick overview of what was done in 2007, and a quick 2008 preview of what I want to work on next this season.

Sorry for the stuttering guys. It’s my first official video posted. Plus I think there was one of those “I just rode for 6 hours” underpants adjustments. They just happen on their own apparently… hahaha!

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On Monday, I woke up and did my usual rounds online and came across this ad for a 2007 Honda Cbr600rr frame, motor, and swingarm, all for $1000 bucks. I thought, this is an early bird special and it won’t last. I quickly shot the guy and email and he called me back. I asked the guy all the general questions about the package: condition, mileage and if all the paperwork was in order. He tells me he doesn’t have the paperwork yet and that he’s waiting for it.

That was an immediate red flag, but all was not lost. Having been in many a situation where there was no paperwork, a hand written bill of sale can make due with the DMV. My summation? Probably NOT hot. Great, ALL SYSTEMS GO, and he gives me his address.

From experience, you never look a gift horse/good deal in the mouth or at face value. So I called my buddy, Officer Dean Marcic, from the SFPD Auto Theft Unit to ask him if I could run a quick check on the VIN and Engine Number. He said sure, and to call him when I have the info.

I make it to the guy’s house in 20 minutes. Everything seems legit as I’m checking the frame out – no damage, all numbers intact. We’re looking good. I pick up my cell phone and call Dean back. Carefully called out all the numbers.. he repeats them slowly back to me.

Then Dean asks the bone chilling question, “is the guy standing there?”

I say, “yeah, this seems like a great deal.. should I call you back?”

Dean says, “yes” and I quickly get the feeling that I could have almost lost a $1000 bucks.

As I look the guy over one last time, I tell him I want it and that I’ve got to pull money from the bank ATM. The guy says no problem. As I’m leaving, I get the feeling that I’ve completely wasted my time but I’ve probably helped someone relocate what’s left of their bike.

I step in my truck and immediately call Dean back. Dean picks up and I ask, “it’s hot, isn’t it?” and he says “yes.” Imagine my anger and frustration at the fact that I wasn’t going to purchase what I thought was a great deal. For the sake of the editors, I can’t write down what I said next. As I left the area, I give my buddy Dean the address and wash my hands of it.

The seller guy deserves everything he has coming to him. For attempting to sell stolen bikes on a public forum, he gets the 2008 IPM IDIOT OF THE MONTH AWARD!!!!

Guys and gals, please be careful when you buy used bikes and bike parts. The thieves are out there and so are the idiots.

Ride safe and happy buying!