Hi All,
I live in Maldon in Essex and have been travelling into and around London for the last 12 years on various bikes and I am unfortunately throwing in the towel.
The end of my current role as well as having two small kids has made me think that the risk is not worth it any more.
Over the years I have owned many different bikes and pretty much worn them all out. The list I have used over the years is here.
Honda Fireblade RRW 2008 - Fantastic bike even for commuting but heavy on chains.
Yamaha R1 2008. Again a surprisingly good London commuter but no way of getting luggage on it so only had this one a short time.
Kawasaki GT550 - Winter hack that lasted nearly 100,000 miles. Fantastic bike.
Honda Deaville - Absolute rubbish. Bought new and after 30,000 miles had been back with Honda more than I had ridden it.
BMW K1100, what a disaster this was. Everything fell off it in the 40,000 miles i did on it.
Suzuki RF900. Great bike, massively underrated and lasted about 70,000 miles.
Now the best bike I have owned for commuting and general hacking about is the bike I currently own, A 2003 Fazer 1000.
This has been the best bike I have owned and is still going strong at 52,000 miles.
I will be putting the Fazer up for sale in the correct section soon so if any one is interested in a good cheap bike have a look there.
Thanks and great site by the way, very informative.
Dave