Hello from Letchworth, England

Hello all,

I'm Roger, a 52 yo newbie SWing owner from Letchworth in the UK. This is my first ever big scooter and I have to say that after only a few days of ownership, I'm rapidly falling in love!

A little about myself:

I've been riding bikes since the age of 13, starting as a schoolboy Trials rider on a Yamaha TY80. At 16 I hit the road on a FS1-E, then a Honda CB200 and a Suzuki GT250. After failing my driving test the first time out I moved over to four wheels for ten years or so before retaking and passing my bike test in my late 20s.

I immediately started working as a motorcycle courier in London and after five years of hacking the streets on a variety of bikes, I launched a free courier magazine called The Rider's Digest which rapidly became quite successful. Over the eight and a half years of editorship, I was fortunate to be able to ride a vast cross section of bikes and scooters from cheap chinese mopeds to exotica such as Ducatis and high-end race bikes.

After 100 issues I sold the business on and alongside my wife, retrained as Fitness and Kickboxing Instructors (we both hold WAKO 2nd Dan Black Belts) and run a small Personal Training business and kickboxing club. I also sing and play guitar in a pop/rock covers and work with Paracord as a hobby, making bracelets and whips (nothing kinky before you ask, but proper Bullwhips and Snakewhips such as a cattleman might use).

I've pretty much always had a bike or two knocking around and have owned almost every style at one time or another, but never a scooter. I wasn't particularly biased one way or another, they just never seemed to suit me or my riding requirements. Don't get me wrong, during the magazine days, and not long before the advent of the TMax/SWing/BMan, I'd test ridden a few of the bigger engined scoots such as the Piaggio X9 500 and Aprilia Atlantic (both using the same 460cc single) and really enjoyed them and was often tempted but never acted on it.

So why a big scoot now? Last year, I was invited on a 9 day ride to Northern Spain but my ageing VFR750 wasn't going to make it so I bough a cheap-ish ZZR600 for the trip. Great on the M-ways, crap in the corners, spent two hours trying to kill me on one memorable afternoon so when we got back it went under a cover and forgotten about for nine months!

I want to ride, but I realised that today I want a different experience out on the road. I started looking at Burgmans (650 too expensive and 400 not quite enough for me) and SWings (more choice but still a little beyond my budget) and selling the ZZR. The day before my ZZR sold on eBay, a SWing came up for sale at the right price so without much thought, I went for it.

I'm now the very happy owner of a 2003 FJS600 in Silver (not my first colour choice but...) and cannot believe why I didn't do this before! I've ridden it more miles in the last week that I did the ZZR in nine months. I'm looking for excuses to go out and ride again!

She needs a little work doing here and there - new fork seals and maybe head bearings - but I'm also looking forward to doing that work as I know I will be making a great bike even better.

Hope to be able to contribute someting to the forum and getting to know you all.

Rog

Welcome

Welcome aboard from o-HI-o to a good S'Wing site.

Welcome, DodgetheRog. Right here you have the best SWing site on the net. All enthusiasts of the best scooter.
Jay.

Hello Rog. Welcome to the forum. Thank you for your thoughtful introduction.

Tim

HOWDY rog and welcome to the "everything you need to know about the swing" forum, small world... i was born in Hitchen and Grew up in Cottered went to school in Buntingford, my dad worked at borg warner i think that was the name, moved to the USA in 1969 so recon many things have changed.

as far as your 2003 swing,  anything you need to know is a forum search away from knowledge, got my swing 2 years ago a 2008 with 16k miles, it now has 44k miles, very few issues and LOTS of mods added. Swing is a nice reliable super scoot.

welcome, I remember reading the Riders Digest, quite often hiding inside a big engineering instruction manual I was meant to be reading at work, thanks for that.
I am also new to the Silver Wing, and the only one to have one at my local Honda Owners Club, yesterday saw me having to wait for them as I enjoyed some lovely twisty roads.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Glad TRD helped out behind the manuals, Dave.

As to the bike, I'll be giving it a full going over, during the next few weeks, getting to know as much as I can about her.

RazorbackUofA wrote:

HOWDY rog and welcome to the "everything you need to know about the swing" forum, small world... i was born in Hitchen and Grew up in Cottered went to school in Buntingford, my dad worked at borg warner i think that was the name, moved to the USA in 1969 so recon many things have changed.

I'm sure it has, Razorback. However, the Baldock-Buntingford road is still as popular with bikers as it ever was.

Welcome Roger, Happy motoring, Lloyd 193.

cottered not changed much. i snuck into the jap gardens a LOT

Damn you Razor, I may have to go out for a quick ride this afternoon now! THat road is just a mile or two away and I don't have a lot on today!

right though cottered i remember the bull and bell taverns tossed a few darts there, i lived on the east end of town. and a well on the green in midtown been there forever. used to walk down to buttermilkend a mile or two east of cottered and up a lane to S of cottered where my uncles had a farm.

Welcome to the site from Arizona. Life is good, enjoy the ride.