Little Bandit gets respect!

[gixxerjasen]

I went on a pie run with the Two Wheeled Texans yesterday.  Wound up riding with a Burgman group as I wanted to keep the speeds down because I know what kind of mileage I'd get out of a tank of gas riding with the full sportbikes.  Had a blast.  Rolling through some small towns kids would be out watching the scooters go by and see my motorcycle and go crazy and start pointing and stuff.  Crazy.

But then I get to the meet and there's about 50-60 bikes of all kinds from Harleys to FJR's to CBR's.  Oddly, while I was off checking bikes out, there were always people clustered around the little Bandit looking, pointing, taking pictures.  I chatted with quite a few folks about it.  I can't believe my weak, old, $500 bike got that much attention.  My sweet FZ1 with awesome custom paint job never got a second look.  I felt like a freaking rock star with this bike yesterday.

A good day out riding though.  Sun was shining, grass and trees were green and the wildflowers were in full bloom.  And never underestimate a grandmother on a Burgman.  That lady could haul butt.  Third day on the Bandit with some 10 year old squared off touring tires and I was moving pretty quick through the corners.  This bike will be a ton of fun once I can get the carb gremlins sorted, fresh tires mounted, and the suspension freshened up and set up for me.

However, I don't know how many 330 mile days I can take on the Bandit seat.  It feels comfortable and all when you first sit on it, but dang....it was a torture device by the end of the day.

Anyway, thought you guys would appreciate the attention our little bike garnered today.

[Sven]

Thanks for sharing your day!

I have to admit that my Bandit rarely gets a second glance from anyone other than people who already like Bandits.  HD people just lump it as a sport bike, and the vast majority of bikes in this area are HDs, HD-wanna-bes (Star bikes) and Gixxers and Ninjas.  Whenever I ride with my buddy who has a ZRX-1100, it alwasy draws a lot of attention, people want to know what it is, etc.  I guess the draw is that it looks a lot older than it is.

So, what's a pie run...ride somewhere and eat pie?   

[Chris H]

Sounds like a great day out, hope you ate lots of pie! People come up to me and ask if the bike's a Harris or Spondon due to the tube frame of the B4 rapping around the cylinder head.

[gixxerjasen]

ChrisH, I didn't even have to look at your location to know where you are based on your comments.  Nobody over here knows what a Harris or a Spondon....or an Uno are at all.  I did get one person ask if it was a Duc.   

Pie run...well, we have these scheduled at the beginning of the year and they are monthly gatherings.  Basically lots of the members of the TWTex site come together at the scheduled location for food, conversation, motorcycle oggling, and of course...pie.  The restaurants have to be out of the big cities, able to handle 50-100 motorcyclists that show up, and have a very good selection of very good pie.  We form up into groups from our individual areas and ride in and all meet at the one location.  We've even had people who moved out of state still ride back in for pie.  Had a guy ride in from Kansas a few years ago.

Oddly enough though, there's a TON of folks who are members there that don't even live in Texas, or the USA for that matter.  Seems a bunch of the group decided to buy Bandits one year and it spread, and the knowledge on the board grew and now it's such a huge bandit forum (mainly the big bandits) that they have their own space there.  Maybe the large number of bandit owners there helped make my bike the attraction that it was.

Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Short guy on a little bike!


The line of bikes...


The scooter trash, and a B4.


And a dirty bandit (It had just stopped raining when I left to head to the meetup location.

[Chris H]

Ha,ha,ha
Is that NASA's next two wheel moonwalker following you in the first picture? You can be sure to find your B4 in the sea of CBR,R1,GSXR's.

[gixxerjasen]

Actually, its one of the Bergmans I was riding with.

But it's funny you ask that.  One of the bergman owners is apparently a huge Star Wars fan.  He's on the white storm trooper one with all the SW graphics.

http://m38a1.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/20100424-Pie-Run-Fairfield/20100424TWTPieFairfield-043/847128126_SwVjf-XL.jpg

http://m38a1.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/20100424-Pie-Run-Fairfield/20100424TWTPieFairfield-045/847128334_zPSCK-XL.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q320/bmcdonau/Picture089.jpg

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q320/bmcdonau/Picture090.jpg

[Garyola]

LOL!

I love people . . . really do. Just for their eccentricities. It makes us all fun to be around . . . . . sometime.


Great pic of your bike Jason.

G

[ltan667]

That looks like an awesome meet! Where in TX was this at? If it was somewhat close, I wish I could've gone.

[gixxerjasen]

The pie run is held a different place each month.  This month it was in Fairfield Tx.  Somewhere just south of Corsicana.  Being close isn't the point, it's making a good ride out of it.  It's all about the pie and the ride.  Or is the ride the pie?  I don't know, but it's fun for sure.  Check out www.twtex.com for more info, and lots of Bandit talk....mostly big ones.