Excitement Plus!

Yes, today I got to road test a weapon!  A weapon in the shape of a Suzuki FXR150.  Yes, that's right 150cc's of pure awesomeness...It has a snazzy fairing and a digital speedo with a digital rev counter that goes all the way to 14,000rpm.  This thing could be a giant killer...or not...

Perhaps climbing off 1,352cc and 150Hp of Mr Kawasaki's finest and onto the little FXR is not quite fair on it but anyway...The Connie was in for some new shoes (more on that later) and I was introduced to the FXR as my way to get to work - a little bit of a come down after asking for a 'busa.

After it was professionally warmed up for me I flung a leg over it and found that I was sitting with both feet flat on the ground with not much bike beneath me or around me.  I stabbed it into first gear, wound on a few revs, slipped the clutch and found myself doing nearly walking pace.

Pulling out onto the street I'd like to say that I tore off up the road but really I just gave it plenty of revs and when I thought she'd had enough grabbed another gear.  For the record 5-6,000rpm in 5th gives you about 55km/h so at least I was keeping up with the traffic.

I did have one moment when I thought I'd made a mistake.  I snuck up the inside of a line a cars to get to the front of the queue but then had a scary thought - will I be able to get away ahead of the pack before they run me down?  Well here goes, I thought as the lights went green.  A huge handful of revs, a bit more vibration and a bit more whirring from under me and I smoked everyone and was gone - woohoo!

At lunchtime I must have been keen for another ride (or perhaps keen to get my baby back) so it was more of the same as I made my way back into town.  On handing the keys back I was asked if I managed to hit 400km/h and the mechanic was serious!  Apparently the speedo plays up every now and then and displays some pretty impressive numbers - damn I missed out on setting a land speed record!

150cc of raw something...

While in the bike shop I managed to prevent myself from adding a FXR to the stable but I do have to leave you with one very impressive statistic - this little FXR has 90,000km on the clock!  Truly amazing, this little bike will have worked hard for every single one of those km and probably burnt less fuel than my V-Strom has in it's 22,000km.  She's a tough little beastie!

Still not buying one though...