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The 2010 Ulysses Club AGM ran from 8th to 14th March and was held in Albany, Western Australia – each year it is held in a different Australian town or city. As I’ve only been a member for a little over a year, and this AGM was being held in our ‘own backyard’ as such, it was a perfect opportunity to checkout what a Ulysses AGM was all about. It was my first AGM, as well as my brother’s, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ulysses AGM Site - Centennial Oval Albany

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Dropped the Bike into RR Motorcycles on Wednesday last week, and picked it up Thursday with all the new bits fitted – thankyou RAC Insurance.

Apart from the new fairing, headlight, cowling brace, tank, indicator & mirror fitted under insurance; I’ve also fitted anodised (blue) clutch & brake levers, matching rear pegs (front ones are on back order), and headlight protector. Yesterday my Iridium tinted double-bubble windscreen arrived and doesn’t it look good

title says it all; both fairing halves, cowling brace, headlight, indicator & tank have arrived. The bike will go into the shop for a couple of days next week, and come out nice n shiny with new bits fitted

I’ve been a bit busy with things the past few weeks, so thought it was time for some updates.

So just before Christmas, the insurance finally decided to approve the repairs to my bike based on the 3rd quote; originally they wanted to ‘write the bike off’ – I had no intention of that happening, by the time it was finally approved I’d already put in another 2000 + kms. Final result is I’ll be getting new left and right fairing halves, new cowling brace, new headlight, new tank and a new left indicator -  this won’t happen till early in the New Year, but at least it’s sorted.

I’d already replaced the front brake lever and rear brake pedal to get the bike going, plus a mountain of gaffer tape to hold headlight and fairing together, so it’ll be good to have the rest fixed properly. And to help protect against any future ‘offs’, I ‘ve fitted a R& G frame slider (only took a week from the UK). On top of that I’ve also got new anodised levers and pegs (front & rear) on their way – now all I have to do is clean the bike a bit more regularly (… maybe).

Once all is fixed, I’ll be raising my insurance cover so we won’t get into the debate of writing the bike off unless it’s genuinely totalled and un-ridable.

Insurance companies and bike shops are both a hassle when getting quotes to fix the bike.

First the bike shop quotes on items not absolutely necessary to repairs -  i.e. the mirror doesn’t need replacing because of a few small scratches on the back, nor does the lower centre fairing section need replacing (I couldn’t see any damage to it), and surely the fuel tank can have a small dent repaired instead of replacing the whole tank @ a cost of $950.00 – but quoting for these items took the repair quote above write-off value despite me advising them of the insured value and that I didn’t want the bike writing off – weren’t they listening? (continue reading…)

I ’spose it was bound to happen sooner or later, momentary lapse in concentration/error in judgement and down I went.

Wednesday was a nice mild looking day, sunny skies with a little cloud cover and temps in mid 20’s, so decided to go for a mid week ride Dwellingup way, but I didn’t even get out of metro area. I was at a giveway sign cnr Lake and Armadale waiting to turn left; there was absolutely no approaching traffic to the right, and the car in front moved off to the left, so I moved forward at 3-4 km/h checking traffic to right (still none), but car in front decided to stop again … quick grab of brakes, but too little too late … bang ! (continue reading…)

Below are Motorcycle  Forums  that I subscribe to or participate in as Charonred

• Aussie Street Bikes
• Perth Riders
• Perth Street Bikes
• TL Planet
• TL Zone
• Ulysses Club (National)
• Ulysses Club (WA)

Suzuki TL1000S

My 1998 Suzuki TL1000S, which I purchased late November 2008 with a little over 102,000kms on it.

Bike had 2 previous owners who had maintained it well; both oil & filter were changed every 5,000kms, and other items were regularly serviced according to their own service records book. There’s a few minor marks in the paint, and on fairing, but considering it’s 10+ years old, it’s in great condition

Engine is a 996cc 90 degree DOHC fuel injected V-Twin; it has an Ohlins rear damper conversion, and is fitted with Roo pipes – it sounds awesome, goes like hell, and is pure fun