Bike of the Month - April 2010 - Drac's RF900 RS2
Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 6:02 pm
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/Aust.jpg)
I saw this bike on Crescent Suzuki, Verwood website and just fell in love with it. At that time, I had a Bandit GSF600F and a GSX 750F. The Bandit I found was too upright and too small for my bulk, leaving me sitting bolt upright and as Peter, Paul and Mary said “Blowin in the wind”
It was time to get rid of the Bandit and find something different and so I made arrangements with Wayne Northover, of Crescent Suzuki, to have a test ride whilst they looked over my Bandit with the possibility of a PX. The price of the RF was £2,200 and I had paid around that for the Bandit a year before.
Emerald was riding pillion in those days and we both went down to Verwood and I was given the RF for the whole morning. We left them to look over the Bandit and off we went. The first thing I found unusual was this noise coming from the engine? I stopped a couple of times, got off and listened but it was as sound as a bell, then when I got back on and rode off, that noise was back!!
I soon realised what it was – I was in a country road that had been given a temporary surface and the stones were shooting up, hitting the bottom fairing – Phew! I thought I had broke it?
The beam on my face got broader and broader and I knew this was the bike I had to have so back to the showroom we went. We sat down with Wayne and he went through the figures. I had expected to have to pay something as well as handing over the Bandit but when that something was mentioned, suddenly I saw my RF slipping away from me. I haggled, boy did I haggle but we were a few hundred apart. So, I said goodbye and home we came.
I was gutted, all the way home my concentration was on “how can I raise the extra few hundred quid” – got back home and sat down trying to work it out, but soon realised it was never going to happen and so resigned myself reluctantly to losing it.
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/WhittingtonCastle-1.jpg)
An hour or so later, I opened my email and there was an email from Wayne. “Derek….I know how much you want that bike so lets compromise. If I can drop the price a and you drop yours just a little, then maybe we can get closer to a deal. In about 15 minutes, we had found a cash figure that suited me and we had a deal. The RF was given a service and I rode back over, alone, four days later. I came back and found that beam that only RF Owners know.
I have done very little to the bike. It is dynojetted, stage 1 and came with the Yoshimura Carbon Can. I had HEL hoses put on it, put red led bulbs in dash display (above) and bought the purple windscreen. Have had a few chain and sprocket sets, tried Pirelli Diablo tyres but now fitted Avon Storms. Rear light mod done by R&D Russ, added a fender extender and but that’s about it
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/fromthetank.jpg)
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/Yoshimuracarbon.jpg)
![Image](http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp14/rfownersclub/drac/clocks.jpg)
The mark and crack on the left front of the nose can has a story behind it. We were going to Beaulieu, camping with the SOC for the duration, and stopped at Transport café en route. We met some Honda riders and got chatting, decided to ride in with them. As we pulled away, I got cramp in my thigh so pulled over. Emerald was a pillion again and loaded up with rucksack and a tent. As I pulled away again, the others were way out in front, so I went hell for
leather to catch them up. Not far along and I had them in sight, they were behind this long articulated flat bed truck and I wondered why they were behind it as he seemed to be slowing to let them overtake.
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/smallcrackonfrontfairing.jpg)
Clever clogs me, dropped a gear and sped past them all, 60mph+ and suddenly, to my horror, the truck was doing a 180 degree turn into the lay by on the opposite side of the road. All I could do was brake as hard as I could but the truck was getting closer and closer. With the back brake hard pressed now, I was managing to slide the bikes rear but an direct hit was imminent.
The bike was now facing the same way as the truck but the speed still taking me along the road. The front fairing and my shoulder slammed into the double tyres at the middle of the flatbed, Emerald was actually holding on the back of the truck, the bike had now stopped going forwards and I “bounced” off the massive rubber tyre (see the mark still there on the fairing). The bike came to a standstill and at that point I saw the look of anguish and fear in the drivers face in his long wing mirror.
The bike was still upright, I was still astride it and Emerald was still sat on the back hanging onto the truck!! She got off, I rode the bike a few yards into the lay by and parked up. Adrenaline had kicked in what seemed ages ago and I punched the sky – more in relief than anything. The driver was stills at in his cab, dumbstruck, so I walked up to him and apologised. Apparently he had indicated and was just starting to turn as I came into view. No harm done, the bike was fine apart from the scuff and a crack, I had a heat burn from the tyre I hit, somehow it hadn’t marked my leather jacket at all but my shoulder and arm was burned – Emerald was fine.
The Honda guys couldn’t believe we had survived – they rode off and left us to gather our wits……but I caught them up and waved to them as we sped past later !!!
![Image](http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt18/dracsgames/Weymouth-1.jpg)
Drac