I finally got to ride Silvie, my gorgeous SV650S, after two and a half years of ownership and all I can say is what a machine she is.
However, when we pulled up in the car park outside Carols Nan's house, the front wheel slid on gravel and I ended up on my back with the machine on its side. It was a really stupid mistake and thankfully I was not hurt and there was no visible damage to the bike. Carol nearly freaked and in no uncertain terms told me that I had to be more careful when on a loose surface. She then picked up the bike for me and checked it over, before making sure I was fine.
We parked the bikes up and although I was a bit shocked, I was OK and we spent a couple of hours with Nanny Noreen, who was lovely and kind in not teasing me about falling over on my first ride.
The ride back homeward was scary, the SV is so powerful and the engine braking is another thing I am going to have to get used to, after the CG's tiny amount. I had a couple of wobbles while I got accustomed to her and was starting to find my feet as we pulled up outside my dear friend Nikki's house. Nikki's girlfriend Angie came out to see me and was almost as excited to see me on my bike as I was. Nikki was full of her gentle humour and only laughed a little bit when I told her that I had fallen off already.
Sadly, some one took a dislike to the CG, which Carol chose to ride today, while it was parked outside Nikki's and drove their car into it, knocking it over, bending the side stand forwards and damaging the bike. They then drove off and left the bike sat on its exhaust pipe. We now need a new side stand and centre stand, but for now the bike is in the garage leaning against my recumbent pushbike. Carol was quite upset because she felt responsible for the bike being hit by a car driving idiot, but it was parked correctly and was not in anyones way. Some people are just nasty and driving off like that was rude, I hope that they feel guilty for what they did.
The final ride home was lovely, I was getting used to all of that power (33BHP!) and was starting to find the throttle was not as on/off as it originally felt, the clutch was so light, even compared to the CG and the gear box was satin smooth. It is such an awesome machine. It is going to take me a while to get used to the bike, it was after all only my first day out on the bike. It would be nice if I could grow as confident on the SV as I am on the CG, but that will only come with time and riding. Big bikes are amazing.
I can feel my enthusiasm gland just got big again!
