When I took the learner's course last year, my instructor had a Honda NC700 series bike - with the trunk. Her first bike was the Suzuki Across. I filed that info away. The trunk was pretty cool, but having never had a bike, I didn't get the significance. 6 months later, I got the significance. I was always carting stuff somewhere! My poor little Honda CB125E had a Fastpack attached basically immediately that I used almost every ride. Then I upgraded to a Mustang bag for those longer trips too. A trunk was suddenly the best idea ever! ...and then I discovered that the Across came in purple. My precious!! So I found a specimen in pristine condition, and registered to boot! Can't beat that: Hahaha. Not so much. Given the photo of the speedo in the listing had 4,000km less than what she was currently at, I suspect the photos used in her listing were actually from the original owner that this dude bought her from. Rude. This is what I found...and 3 weeks out of rego: Note the lack of front indicator, broken windshield, atrocious seat, scuffed fairings ('dropped on one side by prior owner' was the claim...actually dropped on both sides...do not talk to me about white paint on black fairings *sigh*), missing mirror, dents in the exhaust...oh and the tail light lens is cracked too. Excellent. Well, excellent bargaining tool anyhow. Got her on Saturday from 600km away. By 10am Thursday, she was looking a little different: And by midday that day, she was officially a road-going girl again. This coming Wednesday she gets new shoes (11 year old tyres...seriously...); a very amazing deep purple windscreen is being produced for her this very moment; full service next week and a bunch of farkle is on its way! I couldn't be happier. Of course, her first trip involved Bunnings. *sigh* Apparently I can never just leave things as they are: houses, bikes, whatever. Proved her usefulness though! So that's us. Hi.
Welcome to the forum. I don't mind the Across, i was tossing up between that and the FZR250 when i was looking for my first road bike but chose the FZR
Thanks for the warm welcome! Now that she's registered, it's time to get to the scary stuff! Mia got her new shoes today and there's a bunch of stuff headed my way to sort out her brakes and forks. ...well, okay...and a bunch of pretty stuff too. In my defence, I ordered a lot of that before I'd even registered her. Hmm...on reflection that's possibly not a great defence. She's allegedly got new spark plugs, but I'm not hopeful about that being the truth, so I'll be stripping her down to see what's going on internally on the weekend. I'm really, really starting to regret making this spreadsheet detailing all the money I'm pouring into her about now.
Sport demons are nice tyres. Been thinking I could get an across for commuting and luggage duties... post office runs, bottle shop runs... it'd be nice to not need a backpack or ventura rack
I've been looking at Across's for about a year. I've seen a lot of ads. I'll never forget the one that said 'boot will hold 23 cans if you take 'em out of the carton - just drink one before you get on, no worries'. Okay then, sold! Nearly fell off my chair laughing! I have discovered that it will take 5, potentially 6 bottles of bubbly, so I'm all set. ETA: Also on the storage front, I got a Fast Pack for my CB125E (which is now on Mia). They're great. Essentially folds down to a seat when not in use, but holds 10 litres expanded. I have managed to get 2 bottles of bubbly in there plus a 4 pack of cans. I also managed to get 6 four packs of those ridiculously addictive Fanta jelly drinks in there - 4 four packs as is, 2 packs taken out and creatively rearranged. 10 litres is a surprisingly useful amount of space.
