One and a half year ago I aquired a second hand motorcycle. My bike is a Kawasaki GPZ 500 S from 1994. Specs; 35000km when I bought it, 498cc, 6 gear chain transmission two disk brakes front, one at the back (the model from 1994 onwards were changes in this respect). Power 60pk/9800 rpm, torg 46 Nm/8500 rpm. Dry weight 179, wet 185 Seating height 770mm. Fuel tank capacity 18 liter of which 2.2 reserve. My consumption varies from 1:18 on bad days (traffic jams, lot of playing around with speed) to over 1:20 when touring.

I don't know the real top speed; manufacturer states 197km/h at engine red line but I'm really to chicken to test this out. Fastest I've drive for a short while was 180, but the speedometer lies quite a bit. I'm not really into these fast speeds, also because the wind really gets a hold of you above speeds of 130km/h because it is a relatively small bike.

Down points are the small mirrors which are placed too closely to the engine, which results in the problem that when you want to look what is behind you, I have to look in between my body and my arm. It's also quite light and small therefor with my normal height I catch a bit of wind.

I've already had my crashes, with some non-fundamental damage and only a brewsed rib. I never assumed I would be accident free. I drive normally, but I'm not a natural.

I started motorcycling late 2003. Initially, I just wanted go get my licence A for motorcycling as a fun thing. But also because I planned to change jobs and I knew I wouldn't like the public transport to my new job and by car wouldn't be an option because of the traffic and because there is no parking space available. Long live the motorcycle, one passes in the middle and parking is about everywhere.

So I'm an all-whether driver. Well, I do stop when it's snowing or way to cold, but I manage a respectable 25kkm per year.

It started out by wanting to be able to drive, but already during training, I saw that motorcycling is so much fun that it becomes an hobby too. In 2005 I even went to italy during holiday on my bike.

send your comments to berry@halderen.net