New member saying hi

Hi

I'm Martin from Bournemouth and I just joined in
I'm looking for my first big bike and I really fancy the :yzf:
I'm 31 and spent my last 3 years on my YBR 125 which I've sold today
Now trying to track down a nice Tcat but everything that was close to me already is gone.
I would like to find out more about Tcats on this forum, because I've already seen everything what I could find on the net.
Hope to meet some friendly people and experienced Tcat owners for some hints and inside knowledge

Welcome to the site, best of luck with the hunt, but Cats are selling well at the moment.

Welcome and good luck with the search

past-it wrote:Welcome to the site, best of luck with the hunt, but Cats are selling well at the moment.

Tell me about it
Today two Tcuts that I wanted to view and buy where snatched from right under my nose
Tommorow I want to have a look at another one, but my GF is already complaining that I want to spend too much

Everything close to Dorset is usually overpriced and something that seems to be nice and good value is either in Scotland or already sold

Welcome to the forum. Had my Thundercat a year now and think its a great bike and very good first big bike. Good look with the search.

another one i hope your bike is not yellow (joke)
nice to see someone new up here

Hi Martin - I definitely recommend a cat as a first big bike - I had to go to Preston to get mine :/ Well worth the trip & the money. Good luck!

Hi Martin and welcome, good luck with your cat hunt - will be well worth the effort.

Cheers
Billy

G'day Martin & Welcome to the forum.

Lots of luck with yer Cat hunt, as all the others have said the search and eventual purrrr-chace will be worth the effort.

Hi Martin, welcome and all the best in finding the right 'Cat.

English - Hello Martin i hope you will like this forum, any question don't be afraid to ask, we are here to help
Polish - Witaj Marcin mam nadzieje ze polubisz te forum, jak masz pytania nie boj sie ich zadawac, jestesmy tu by ci pmoc

Hi & welcome, as said good luck finding a cat.

paul.

Hi M.

Good luck in your hunt. There's a fair few on eBay at the moment. But you'll just have to travel. It will be worth it, honest.

Rich.

Hello and welcome!

I am quite local to you, usually venture down to Poole for the Tuesday bike night in the summer. Hope you find a cat, great bike (which is probably why they are so hard to get)

Cheers

Paul

Hi Martin

Welcome to the forum and good luck in the search.

Cheers
Rosco

TomCom wrote:another one i hope your bike is not yellow (joke)
nice to see someone new up here

Tom - he's from Bournemouth! (joke)

Hi Martin,

Sorry for hijacking the thread, but Tom likes to understand the subtleties of the English language.

Welcome to the site. Good luck with the search for the 'cat. If you have any questions about the bike someone here will have an answer for you - usually several. Keep us posted with details of you searching.

Cheers,
Chris

Greencat you have to know Martin is Polish

Welcome to the forum

Thundercat is an excellent choice.

They are basically very tough, I have had no trouble with mine in 20000 miles

There's quite a few for sale on the MCN website, various colours, locations & prices

Welcome to the forum and as has been said good luck with the search. If you have no joy finding one locally then you should consider getting one delivered, plenty companies offer this service these days for around £99 anywhere in the UK. Yes, it carries some risk buying a bike you haven't seen but you'll find someone on here local to any bike that would be more than happy to eyeball one for you and do all the usual checks, take more photos etc. Good luck mate.

As i know Aper just gat Suzuki Bandit

Hi

It's been a while but I got quite a hectic week.
Very busy at work and also 2 cars need to go for and MOT soon, so after finding what needs changing nearly got an heart attack when I got a total for the parts needed!
And still I will have to either fit them myself or pay somebody else to do it.
So be even more busy, tired and angry, or fork out even more money – where is the "win win" situation when you desperately need it?

As for bikes yes TomCom is right I've bought a 2001 Bandit 600S
Made my decision after ridding one Thundercat and I have to admit that I'm not quite ready for one yet.
A bit too sporty for me and too powerful + at low speed it was a bit difficult for me to manoeuvre.

After testing the Cat I sat on the Bandit and it made much more sense for me.
Easy to ride and handle, easy to manoeuvre everywhere and not too fast, but still pretty fast.
I think that I will need much more riding experience and Bandit will be a safer bet for now and should allow me to learn quickly.
And after a year or two I'll be able to move on to a next steep -

As for my Bandit I'm very happy with the purchase
It's in quite good condition and the only thing needs doing is to sort out the choke cable, because it got problems starting from cold. And it was also very cheap, a real steal from Ebay!
I haven't really ride it too much - only 70 miles to take it home after purchase, because the weather is crap, but more importantly I will need to finish my DAS first. Booked my exam for 30th April and hope this time I'm not going to forget to switch and indicator...

Ok few pics (if anybody is interested)

Fresh after purchase and before my "epic" and very, very cold 70 mile journey back home


Safely tucked in in the garage:


Few pics the next day:









Hope you not going to eat me alive for that

P.S. BIG THANK YOU for 0ldcat, TomCom and Wooster for all your help!

Nice looking wee purchase you got there mate

Good for you knowing your own limitations and going for the right bike for you.

Naughty boy for riding it home . . . Unless of course you were on an extended lesson being followed and observed by your DAS instructor

Once you've passed your test you'll be more than welcome to join as many of our rides & meets you feel you want to. You'll soon get all the experience you need to move on up to the next step in your biking career

looks a really nice bike , and welcoe to the site. check out rides in your area and come up to ours sometime , good luck with the test

Pete

0ldcat wrote:Nice looking wee purchase you got there mate

Good for you knowing your own limitations and going for the right bike for you.

Naughty boy for riding it home . . . Unless of course you were on an extended lesson being followed and observed by your DAS instructor

Once you've passed your test you'll be more than welcome to join as many of our rides & meets you feel you want to. You'll soon get all the experience you need to move on up to the next step in your biking career

Thanks Oldcat and yes no point for me pretending to be a "hero" and buying something that I couldn't handle straight away.
I think that after a couple of weeks I would get used to the riding position and would feel more confident on the TCat, but I'm not regretting my decision and still consider Thundercat as my next bike in the future.
Of course my instructor was following me all the way back, but in a car because it was quite cold
Shame he didn't had an examiner with him, because I think for all my efforts I should be awarded a Pass!
Especially after last second 70mph swerve manoeuvre, when a car in a fast lane hit the remains of a lorry tyre after blow-out and send them spinning straight at me! Close shave but ended up ok with just a set of new underwear required

mechy69 wrote:
looks a really nice bike , and welcoe to the site. check out rides in your area and come up to ours sometime , good luck with the test

Pete

Thanks and as soon as I pass my test and put few more miles under my belt I'll be happy to go for one of the rides.
P.S. Anybody know where's that lovely spring weather we had recently went to?