Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

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Drac
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Location: South Gloucestershire (5m to Bristol & 13m to Bath)

Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by Drac »

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Well after many years of happy cycling under my own power because of time limitations I needed a more powerful bike. I bought myself a Daelim 125cc Evolution cruiser and then took my CBT. I then discovered a real joy of motor biking BUT if I had something with more power, then my mate and I could get away for weekends up in the Yorkshire Dales.

I spent a lot of time searching for the ideal cruiser for me and then one day I browsed the website of a local shop and thought, “Wow, what is that!” A Harley? An Eliminator? An Intruder? …. No, it was a 1994 RF600 in blue. The whole aspect of the bike struck me with a thrill and I spent days looking at it on the web and then in the shop.

After a lot of visits and sit upon’s I wasn’t convinced. It didn’t quite feel right, but each time I visiting I was in my work boots so one day I did a diversion on my way to work and tried it out in my motorbike boots. That was it, it felt perfect! A deal was struck and the bike was mine in January 2009!

Sadly, that bike was destined to be scrapped. It was a great runner, it had just over 17000 miles on the clocks but things were doomed from the start. The day I picked it up my mother-in-law fell seriously ill and later passed away, we got hit by extremely wintry weather so I couldn’t get out and ride her properly and I had some mechanical issues that were thankfully overcome within the warranty period.

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Eventually good weather came along and after a few days of it I told my wife that after work I was going out for a play. That’s when I got my ankle smashed by a cage pulling out of a side road without seeing me! During my, almost, 6 months healing and recuperation you would think that I would have gone off motorbikes, but no, one thing that kept me going was thinking what bike do I want to get next? Well after a lot of looking around and reading of sales brochures I browsed the usual sales channels and only one thing kept getting typed into the search engines: RF600!

I missed out on a few bikes going for good prices because I was still not able to walk, let alone ride but eventually I felt OK and spotted one for sale not that far away in Stockport. I went and looked at it and yet again fell in love, this had to be my bike! The next few days passed interminable slowly.

I lost track of the amount of times I checked on Ebay to see if anyone had bid for my love and thankfully by the end of bidding I was the only one to bid so I got it for £800. I think that was because the guy selling it advertised it in the “Collectables > Transportation > Motorcycle/ Scooter” section alongside pin badges! But I wasn’t about to correct him!!

A week later and, although rather nervous at first, the ride home was superb. It felt absolutely great to be on a bike again. I arrived home and I don’t think there was room on my face for a larger grin! Then whilst bringing it down into the garden I left the disk lock on and dropped it! I was horrified but it turned out that all I had done was break the clutch lever and an indicator.

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Oh well, this was my opportunity to bling it up a bit so over the next couple of weeks I fitted new carbon look brake and clutch levers and carbon look LED indicators. I was fitting hand warmer grips, an Electropod set and a Scottoiler and I had some of the panels off so this was a good opportunity to sort out the badly scratched screen. There were no major scratches so I thought that maybe it could get cleaned up and possibly tinted. I looked into it and with some advice from Floydfan I ended up giving it a good clean, a sand with 600 grit, then spraying it with Rust-Oleum All surface paint in Matt Black with a few coats of clear acrylic on top and then stuck on a swarm of bats as a finishing touch.

I was going to replace the bar ends with some flashy aluminium ones but was advised not to as the RF needs bar weights so I simply cleaned and painted the old ones with the same paint I used on the screen. I fitted some reflective wheel rim tape, some reflective crystal lens to the rear sides and some smart reflective gecko’s to the front.

I got a free tank pad from MCN which looked great at first but has already started to turn green with age so that will be going soon. Then I cut myself a new customised yoke protector from a carbon-look sheet. Finally it has received a damn good clean up, a polish with scratch remover and finally a good Turtle Waxing and a spray with motorcycle Muc-Off protector to help keep her clean. Oh, and not to forget adding the RFOC stickers of course!

Whilst I blinged her up a bit things just got better and better. The old immobiliser turned out to be a Suzuki approved one (but that will be replaced soon with a proper alarm), the rear brakes are fitted with Goodrich hoses, its taxed tested until June 2010 and it runs like a dream!

My future plans for her basically include looking after her and giving her lots of love and attention, though don’t tell the wife! The mirror casings need tidying up and the forks need a re-paint but that’s all.
Will I ever get rid of her, NO CHANCE! To me she really is a beauty; she does what I want her to do and more. She may be no cruiser but I’ll take her over a Harley any day now!

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Karl A.K.A. Batmancaver
cling on

Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by cling on »

That is a lovely bike. i love the reflective gecko!
Tony V
Posts: 4732
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:44 pm
Location: Barry, Angus

Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by Tony V »

Hi BC,

Very nice bike m8. The more I see these bikes of the month the more Bling I want to do to my Fred. I love the little touches like the Bats and Geko. Just the fork touch ups and she looks like new.

Well done m8 Image
Never rub another mans rhubarb!
task

Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by task »

:D well done m8

nice looking bike.
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yorkshirepuddin
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Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by yorkshirepuddin »

Enjoyable read there mate, nice bike.
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hughie
The Geordie Destroyer
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Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by hughie »

NICE BIKE MATE :) :)
HUGH EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

U.S.S WARWICK HUNT
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ADMAN
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Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by ADMAN »

Very nice. I was thinking about putting an RFOC sticker in that same spot too. :-bd
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Ollie
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Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by Ollie »

Tony V wrote:The more I see these bikes of the month the more Bling I want to do to my Fred.
Fred?


Very good looking bike BC. Love the screen.
Image

Manuals here (large files):
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Old wobbler
The Bandit Killer
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Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by Old wobbler »

:good:
Old Wobbler

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..... One day, when there was only a few left, I was lucky......
Gubble

Re: Bike of the Month - October 2009 - Batmancaver's RF600

Post by Gubble »

Cracking bike.

That's two of us now who've had Daelim's and moved onto RF600's.
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