New Yamaha Dealer Open Day

[Millietant]

In the village at the end of my favourite 15 mile stretch of road locally, a new Yamaha dealer has just opened and this weekend they had the first "Open Days", with appearances by the top (Championship leading) Yamaha BSB rider and his bike, as well as Ian Hutchinson - multi Isle of Man TT winner and the only man to make a clean sweep and win all 5 big races in a single TT week. There were test rides on all the newest bikes (including the R1 (M)), discounts on bikes and gear, a free BBQ running all day as well as drinks and cakes/biscuits and they were offering free safety checks and £10 bike maintenance checks where they would fix anything they found wrong with the bike.

The bad news was that it was absolutely chucking it down with rain when I opened the garage this morning to head out to meet my riding buddy for the day (Tom on his 883). BUT.... the "good" news was that that Tom's brake lights weren't working when he got to our rendezvous point early, so he came to my house where we sheltered in the garage fixing his lights (dodgy bulb seat) until the rain stopped - while doing this I noticed that there was a main wiring loom connector that was dangling underneath the engine, sitting right in the path of all the rain and crud that was being thrown up from the front wheel. Tom assured me it had been like that since he got the bike and he was happy to just leave it like that until something went wrong.

Anyway, once the rain had stopped we headed out and luckily we'd missed the worst of the weather altogether. The ride up to the dealership was uneventful, but fun and once we got there we took advantage of the free coffee, burgers/hot dogs, cookies, brownies and flapjacks - it would have been rude not to partake .

As the dealership also run the Harley shop next door (which was closed), we asked if they had any Harley experts around - and the BBQ chef was their main Harley tech - so he took a look at the connector under the engine, agreed it was a disaster waiting to happen and rode the 883 into their workshop, popped it up on a ramp and sorted out the connector (re-positioned and protected in a rubber boot)....it seems as though at some point in its earlier life a previous owner had messed about with the loom and forgot to fit that connector properly, so it just fell down and sat under the engine, waiting to corrode............they refused any payment for the repair, saying it was all part of the open day service. If I ever buy a new Yamaha, it will be from them  

The weather just got better once we'd headed out from the shop and had completely dried up by the time we got to Leicester airport, where we'd planned to have another coffee break (at the Aero Club where I'm a member), but we didn't actually make to the Aero Club cafe....there was a Go-Kart Racing event on at the 1.2km track within the airfield complex, so we had a break and a cuppa watching the racing, another pleasant surprise..... it was great seeing all the smiling kids after they'd finished their races and also all of the miserable adults after they'd finished theirs. The kids obviously just enjoy racing, but the adults only seem to enjoy winning. I must admit that the overtakes and barging make Moto 3 races look tame by comparison.

All in a day that started badly ended up brilliantly. A nice 150 mile ride, where I also found out just how good my new FZ1 mirrors are and experienced some great dealer service.

All I have to do now is clean all the crud off the bike from the mud left on the roads by the farmers, that turned to muddy slime with the rain  

[Pat Conlon]

Excellent day, thanks Dean!   I know from time to time we fuss about dodgy dealers, but it's important to show support for the new guys. It's a tough job to open up a new motorcycle dealership.

[fj1289]

That RD350LC is awesome!  Wish we had gotten them in the US (the pre-RZ's!)

[Millietant]

Yeah, it was a beauty...should have been in the showroom, next to the OW01 and the FZ 750 that had full Thunderace running gear front and rear....was very nice 

I remember when the RD 250 LC came out, I was riding a Kawasaki KH250 and they just seemed like they were decades more advanced, so smooth, mechanically quiet and fast by comparison.

The "Mars Bar" colour scheme was the favourite at the time, but I always liked the white/blue or white/red colours schemes better.