Blade - Satu Tahun Suda...

- Yes..we both went to UiTM. Nostalgic -

She is officially one year since the first time that non-that-sticky Shinko rolled off from Kedai Motor Tenaga on 5th February 2013.  Yes guys, a year older today and surely I owe you the good and bad, sad and joy of owning her. I am thinking on how to present a much better and simpler “long termer” report.

Okay, let us put that away for a while. Now, let focus on my own evaluation on what have Blade done to me.  Did I meet my target of having this bike as a cheap learner’s bike despite the high and low of ownership? Honestly, I was one throttle away to sell her at a shop near Meru and swapt her with newly facelifted Symphony EVO 250i 2014 version. 

But I didn't.

Still loves her even she gave me more drama this week.  She gave? No, it was resulted from me actually.  I was doing 140kmh and followed the unusual path of the road where I used to (max 100kmh).  The road got bump and my Blade flew. Yup, it did.  I lifted off my butt from the saddle as it flies and when the tyre touches the road again, the FI (fuel injection) warning light went on. The engine died.

Solution? Simple. Park my bike and open the front saddle and tighten the ECU sockets. Problem solved.  So, sometime guys, the problem resulted from the owner itself and not the bike per say. I don’t know why these days I frequently doing speed beyond 9K rpm and I becoming what British called it “hooligan”.  The bike seems “slow” now. Funny eh?

Changing Perception

Blade somehow injected some new shed into my views towards getting bigger capacity, better handling and surely faster bike.  My aims are RSV4R or R1 or new Z1000 or Street Triple or badass Duke 690 or.. (and the list keep growing haha).  If I were to buy a 300kmh capable bike, do I stop there after let say using it for a year? Nope. I might probably need 350kmh bike or not only faster in speed but a quicker one too. I asked myself lately, do I need that? I don’t need it but I want it. Now the issue of need versus wants.  The issue of reality where the question of ownership capability. Yup, the simplest word is “maintaining”. You can buy, but can you maintain?  Blade taught me well on this. Thanks Blade.

Your instability in corners taught me the word of “know your limits” and “what skills you have”.  I believe when we starts off with a “so so” bike and managed to control and take it to the limit, then can you imagine if you rides a much much better handling bike such as RSV, Rabbit and others too? It will be easier to master. Like what Texas Tornado said after he tested that Castrol Honda VTR SP2 “Damn this bike so easy, I could win this Championship (WSB)”. He did bro. So a start with “low and cheap profile” bike seems a good idea too, right?

Therefore, I will end up either a 650 Blade/Honda CBR650 2014 or a 250cc maxi scooter by end of this year. Errr.. a 390 Duke seems having very good power-to-weight ratio too.

Riding Skills

I would not say that I have mastered it as the learning curve seems never reaches the peak. Surely, no one could tell how well I am taking corners and whether in a correct way either as I did not join them to Genting or Klawang. I have not have time too to join track day as invited by Naza/Bladers. It is good to have someone evaluating you on how you are riding.  But I do evaluating myself by increasing corner speed, entry/exit and by reading tips from magazine.  Perhaps my lean angle gradually increases too. Do i believe that I have found my limit with Blade on cornering, braking point, gear change and an approach to feasible speed with varied traffic/road condition?

I did.

I thanked Elegan too because taught me the extra 1%, if pushed after meeting the 100% limit, could bring disaster.

Conclusion

It is worth to have this bike as a cheap learner bike and for long distance ride. No regret.