Theory, practiced

Well, that didn't take long.

I've frequently looked at Gumtree ads offering a swap and thought "Who on earth would prefer to swap bikes rather than getting cash in hand?", so of course today I went out on the Firebird and came home on this.



It's a 2002 GPZ 500 S with just 4500 miles on the clock, plus a fair bit of sad neglect injuries to be healed. But mechanically, it's sound as a pound and goes like A SENSIBLE COMMUTER BIKE (or if my wife isn't reading, it pulls like a flipping train).

That was a straight swap, no cash either way, and it didn't even cost me a penny to swap bikes on my insurance. Plus the world has two more happy people in it, which has some inherent merit of its own.

Farewell, faithful Firebird, now go and put that daft grin on the face of your new owner.

The end of an era for me, the beginning for someone else

Well, I passed my test 2 years ago on this very bike, and have still being riding it on and off since then, without any hint of fuss or bother. It's since been joined by a 250 cruiser, a GPz 305 and a theoretical Bigger Boy Bike, and sadly there's no more room in the garage, and just not enough hours in the day to ride them all.

So, it's back to stock for the plucky Firebird, where it's happiest, and off to Gumtree and eBay. The bike - of course - just sailed through its first MOT, no advisories, and is freshly taxed and sluiced down. The bronze paintwork on the side panels is looking a little tired (perhaps reacting with the plastic underneath), but otherwise it's doing just peachy. I've even riveted closed the "speed holes" that I'd drilled in the exhausts, making a rather fetching 8-rivet circle of silver dots.



There we go, one of those 3 year old Chinese pieces of tat that rust away by the time they're a year... uh... old. Some mugger is going to steal it from me and ride away with a daft grin on their face, and I will be genuinely sorry to see it leave.

I think that I can now confidently declare that properly looked after, these can be decent, unpretentious little bikes. They're not the fastest, they're not the biggest, or the most plastic, but they get the job done and are just an absolute joy to ride - it still puts that same daft grin on my face every time I get on it.

The era of dismissing all Chinese branded bikes out of hand is over. Long live the Firebird!