GP800 - Headlight Bulb

Lately I've had my first (very minor) problems with the GP.

The first one was the failure of the headlight bulb. I thought it was a bit dim pulling out of my car park at work and pulling up behind a white van in traffic revealed the cause. Fortunately, the high beam was not set too high (possible as the supension is set towards "hard") and I could get away with riding on high.

Replacing the bulb was pretty straigtforward, TX20 for the small screws, large cross head for the bracket screws. I was foxed for a second by the fact that there are no locating lugs on the headlamp shell then I remembered that the H7 is low beam only so is not directional in any way. The only slight issue was the rubber "gasket" that fits on the back of the centre panel which kept slipping down while trying to refit the panel.

Halfords sell about a million different types of headlamp bulb offering a selection of increased light output for your 55W. I recal some objective test we carried out at the AA years ago on "clever" headlight bulbs which objectively concluded that it was all bollocks - apart from the bigger profit, the only real difference was a perception of brighter light.I believe that subsequent research (by proper professionals !) has concluded that there is some benefit - but I took the old fashioned approach and fitted a 80W bulb (rather than the 100w jobs of yore). I will of course only be using the GP800 off road in future :-)

I'll keep an eye on the plastic cover for signs of melting but I suspect that

• It's unlikely to be a problem in these temperatures (2 degrees this morning)
• There's a fair distance between the bulb and the plastic cover.

.

GP800 - Chain Adjustment

I guess that a lot of GP800 owners (and potential owners) will be upgrading from another scooter. Others like me will be BMW riders looking for an alternative. Few are likely to be defecting from ownership of an R1, 'Blade or GSX-R or even a Fazer, Bandit or Hornet.

The upshot of this is that there will be many GP800 owners faced with something they have not had to consider for a long time - if at all, the adjustment of the final drive chain.

The rear axle has a 28mm nut on one side and the other side has a hex soxcket to take an allen key to lock it to prevent it rotating when undoing the nut. Unfortunately, this socket is 22mm so you are unlikely to have a big enough allen key to do the job. Fortunatley, HPS come to the rescue with a simple socket adaptor. Until I bought the adaptor, I could only hold the axle with a box spanner - although it did the job it did not provide a particularly good fit in the socket. http://www.bikehps.com/acatalog/BikeHPS_OnlineStore_Workshop_Tools_97.html came to the rescue with an adaptor. I also took the opportunity to buy a new 28mm scoket and a 22mm socket for use with the adaptor. http://www.tooled-up.com/ supplied these very swiftly and efficiently at a good price.

According to the book, you check and adjust the chain with the bike on the centrestand. You first remove the chainguard and you are looking for a chain deflection of 38mm (+/- 2mm) to a specified point on the swinging arm.

This does seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom but I guess the guys at Piaggio must know what they're doing as it seems about right - I have to say that I think they're slightly on the slack side but their calculations seem to allow for the take up of the suspension quite well.

Incidentally, if anyone's wondering about chain life, it slackened phenomenally in the first 2,000 miles and has barely needed more than a tweak since. That was always the hope (that the transmission would not make it a chain killer) but it's nice to be confirmed. I'm now at 4,500 miles and have no chain issues.

GP800 - Fuel Consumption

I have now covered just over 2,000 miles on the GP and fuel consumption has averaged exactly 49.0 mpg. The individual spread across tankfulls has been a worst of 44.6 mpg and a best of 53.06 mpg. This exludes the first few "running in" tankfulls.

This gives a theoretical "range to tank" of pretty much 200 miles.

It started me thinking. I have a speadsheet that records distance and fuel consumption and I wondered how the GP800 would have fared if I owned it in 1977 - the time I owned my first ever bike, (also a Gilera) the RS50E "Touring".

In 1977, petrol was 78.2p per gallon (I can't remember the price of the "spash" of two stroke - there was no "autolube" on Italian 2-strokes in those days). This doesn't sound so bad until you remember that this price equals just 17.2p per litre. I have taken today's price as £1.19 per litre.

Applying these figures to my use of the GP800, I find that:

• If I had been filling the GP800 up at 1977 prices, I would have paid only £31 to cover the 2,106 miles I have on the clock.

Or to put it another way:

• If I had spent the same amount of money at 1977 prices, I could have travelled 13,275 miles for the £212 I have actually spent on fuel for the GP800

Makes you think, doesn't it ?

Nokia E90 and Nokia Maps - Satnav for people who don't want a Satnav

Up to now, I have never been a fan of Satnav. Watching motorists looking at a small screen on the dash instead of looking out for me on the bike scared me from the moment they became commonplace.

However, there's none so pious as the converted and an "incident" in Germany where my passenger's newly acquired Garmin was hastily unboxed and fired up started me on the path to richeousness. I was already looking for a new mobile phone and built in GPS moved from the "nice to have" category into a requirment.

I've been looking at the commercial software options but at the moment, most seem to have one disadvantage or another - they don't use the E90's internal screen, they can't use the internal GPS or worst of all, they are "locked" to the memory card they are supplied on. However, Nokia Maps has the answer for me. Although it can download maps on the fly (if you have a suitable data tariff) it is also possible to install the maps to the device using Nokia's "Maploader" software, a far better solution.

"Turn by turn" voice guidance is not a standard feature (nor is route planning in V2 of the software) but you can add it when required for a small fee - currently £6 for a month (UK only). This suits me fine as most of the time I know where I'm going. I'll certainly buy a month's licence for Europe when I go on holiday in August.

In the Mazda 2 which is "fully fitted" for the phone it's excellent. I keep the Navman B10 external GPS receiver in this car which means faster satelite "lock on" and there is now 12v power in the top glovebox so I can use the E90 open or closed when navigating. Despite the increased screen area of the internal screen, I find myself more likely to leave the phone in the cradle. This is because the small fonts are difficult to read and it's also harder to operate the controls on the keyboard when it is sitting flat on the dash.

I tried to be clever yesterday in Coventry and Nokia maps certainly saved me. I had previously saved a long term car park into favorites and was heading for my destination when I saw a sign for car parking at the venue I was attending. I ignored the SatNav, followed the sign then found that the car park was full and then simply re-searched on my original destination to get me back on track. Without the Satnav I would have been lost in Coventry's city centre.

It integrates well with the Visorlite and although I have nothing really to compare it to, "it does what it says on the tin". When I have used it on routes that I know and chosen to ignore, it recalculates quickly without telling me to U-turn. It gives instructions in good time and tells you to "keep left" as appropriate on merging motorways. Even in the upright cradle on the external screen, the details at the bottom are too small (time/distance to destination and current speed) but the mapping and directions are clear enough. It's best to turn off the various points of intetrest like petrol stations and garages as the small screen can get crowded.

It's a pity the call/hang up buttons don't work while navigating, you have to "long press" on the menu key to get back to the standby screen but otherwise it's fine.

Last week I was driving our other car, a Mazda 5. This has no provision for phone at all. All I did was put the Visorlight on the sunvisor and kept the phone in my pocket using the internal GPS only. As an example of the effortless use of modern technology it was peerless. Although I didn't have a screen to look at, navigation commands came clearly through the Visorlight.

I don't know how I ever managed without GPS. The licensing model may not suit everybody but until a "perfect" E90 solution appears, Nokia Maps will do for me.

GP800 - Custom Screen Modification

Here it is, the DIY screen modification for the GP800. It stems from a suggestion from JT at Thompsons that the standard screen blade for a 125/250 Gilera Nexus might be usable as a second screen on bikes where the standard screen does not protect enough. However the Nexus screen blade is too flat for the GP800. It could work if it was carefully curved (with the aid of a hairdryer) but there did seem to be another solution. The standard screen from an MP3 looked good for the GP800 - but it also needed a degree of modification.

In order to line up properly and provide sensible mounting, the lower section complete with bolt holes needs to be removed as well as the top of the side mounting holes. Here it is with a neat(ish) curve applied where the top hole has been cut out.

JTs suggestion that rear exhaust mounts from an original Mini might make good mounts/spacers seemed like a good place to start however these are a bit big and unsightly but I guessed that Vauxhall Cavalier fuel pump mounts might do the trick (like the Mini metalastic "bobbins" but smaller).

Before I tried the Cavalier fuel pump mounts, I bought packets of every washer and grommet under the sun together with some GT Moto "Aluminium Screen Screws" (at £10 ouch). These were the really clever idea - unfortunately, they just pulled through the hole I cut in the screen under light hand pressure - they would never have survived the wind blast at motorway speeds.
After drilling my GP800’s screen and using a combination of coachbolts and grommets to create a kind of rose joint arrangement I bolted it all up and went for a spin.

Not an entirely successful operation to be honest.

Firstly, at slow speeds it squeaked and creaked - I presume I had put some stresses in one screen or the other when bolting them together. As I got up to 50, wind pressure stopped the squealing and I headed for the M1.

Now things started looking up - with the screen fully upright, the increase in frontal area stops all windlast and buffeting was definitely reduced - but......... IT'S VERY VERY VERY NOISY - IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE IN A WIND TUNNEL - YOU DON'T FEEL IT BUT YOU CAN CERTAINLY HEAR IT.

I came back down the M1 with the screen at it's lowest setting - still plenty of protection from the wind but just as noisy.

Next step was to increase the separation between the two screens. I also took the opportunity to do a better job of sanding and finishing the cut edges.

The separation was achieved by using nuts as spacers and this allowed the coachbolt to be tightened on to the MP3 screen first. This allowed the screen to rest on the GP800 screen so that I could tighten it down in rotation to avoid putting any stresses in that might cause creaking.

Grommets were fitted where the bolts pass through the screens with penny washers each side to spread the load. A quick "round the block" roadtest revealed no creaking and the only problem was that despite increased spacing, the two screens just touch at he top where the GP800 screen has it's maximum curve causing a "tapping" noise and also scratching both screens. I cured that temporarily with a bit of old hose.

After about 50 miles each way on a motorway at sustained high speeds - the new solution was definitely quieter than before - although still noisier than the standard screen. It was quite gusty on the M4 and no problem at all - in fact I was probably going a bit quicker than usual so it must have been keeping the wind blast down.

However (you knew there was going to be a "however" didn't you) by the time I left the motorway and was pootling towards Northwick Park, I noticed that the squeak/creak had returned. I'm guessing that the force of the sustained high speeds had put stress into the rigid mounts. There was also slight cracking. Surprisingly, the cracks are in the MP3 screen which is mounted using original holes rather than the GP800 screen which has been drilled.

I now know why Reseach & Development is such an expensive buisness. I stopped at good old Moshi's Auto spares and bought the Vauxhall Cavalier Fuel Pump mounts (four of them at £2 each ) to give me a "flexi mount - I should have done that in the first place.

The problem of the MP3 screen touching the GP800s screen at the centre top was cured by a piece of visor rubber (like a short sticky backed car wiper blade).

I fitted the second biggest penny washers I have together with the rubber washers from a garden hose connection. The biggest washers I had were an affront to aesthetics (and lets face it the nyloc nuts I have now are hardly pretty) but we'll have to see how that effects the cracking. I've marked the extent of the cracks with a black felt pen to see if I've arrested their spread.

Finally, I cut and reshaped the sides - this may further reduce the turbulence and is certainly neater. All I need to do now is spend some time with brasso where the multiple cutting, sanding and simply removing and refitting has left me with a few scratches.

And here 'tis

GP800 - Alternative Screen Options

The aftermarket is now starting to wake up to the GP800 and there are a number of screen options appearing. Information is still scarce and some of the manufacturers are all as bad as each other when it comes to responding to customer enquiries. There's an honourable exception for Ermax who responded very quickly.

In summary, options seem to be as follows.

1. The official Gilera "Touring" screen -no news there yet (unless anyone knows differently and would like to let me know about price and availability)


2. The Ermax "Aeromax" screen http://www.ermax.fr/nouveaute-GP_800_2008-153.html This is quite a nice looking bit of kit and the UK price is £73.36. This one is available in a variety of tints and is 60cm tall.


3. The Givi "D352ST" http://www.givi.co.uk/caschi_borse_bauli_accessori.asp?CO_ID=28234 Clear only and I can't find a price anywhere. 12cm higher than the standard screen (60cm the same as the Ermax) but no wider.


4. The Secdem - this one's a bit of a mystery. I found a reference to a GP800 screen on a Japanese site and heard that it was made by Sedcem. I've e-mailed Baglux (UK importers) but heard absolutely nothing. As their screens for BMWs are fairly well rated as an economy option, I'm expecting this one to be cheaper than the others - but again no news yet. I can't even find Secdem's website so I think they've "gone to ground" somewhere.


5. Make your own. This came from a suggestion by JT at Thompsons and the next post will detail exactly how I did it. In essence, it's the standard screen for an MP3 fitted over the GP800's screen on rubber spacers. There was an awful lot of cutting, shaping and trial and error involved but it does work. And it will suffice until I've been able to make a proper comparison with the 4 "proper" screens listed above.

GP800 - Leo Vince Exhaust

It looks like the Givi Screen for the GP800 is imminent and I suspect this will also herald the OE Touring screen as I guess it will be made by Givi like the topbox (it may even arrive before I get any reply from Sedcem who seem unwilling to actually sell their GP800 screen). However, while looking for pictures of the Givi screen on the 'net, I found this, the Leo Vince exhaust. It looks very nice - far better than the twin silencers of the OE pipe.

There is one small problem with it. It's £550 (€687). Now as I don't ride R1/Gixer/Blades, I don't know if that's normal but it seems like an awful lot of money to me.

I presume that it saves weight and every little will help the GP800 and I bet it sounds gorgeous but I don't reckon that it'll be going on my shopping list any time soon. At £550 it costs more than my whole K75 is worth.

GP800 vs K75 - A Comparison

I have kept my K75 alongside the GP800 as a spare bike. The intention is, (over a period of time) to "fettle" it into an immaculate modern classic for high days and holidays. To start with at least, I need to keep it roadworthy while I ride the GP800 on a daily basis. Since taking delivery of the GP800 two months ago, the K75 hadn't turned a wheel. Its MOT and tax expire this month so I thought I'd fire it up and use it for work just to see if it's still OK before submitting it for test.

So, how does a 20 year old K75 compare with a new GP800. Firstly, these are very different animals - they may have the same performance "envelope" but riding them illustrates just how far apart they are. In fact, the K75 aquits itself quite well at commuting.

Firing up the K75 was no problem at all. Despite it's period of idleness the Hawker Odyssey battery spun it immediately into life and it settled down quickly to a regular tickover aided by the "choke" control to give a fast idle.

Pulling away brings an immediate awareness of how light it seems after the GP800. Of course it is much lighter (by 36 kilos) so it almost feels like a 400 by comparison. The thin tyres also give it away as it feels much less "planted" than the GP800. Two other things grab your attention. You can see behind you - the Beemer's mirrors are excellent, large and completely vibration free. Secondly, you know how fast you are going - indeed the whole dash is a model of simple clarity although it does lack the fuel and temperature gauges of the GP800. The Beemer also has BMWs excellent left for left, right for right indicator switches - this is a much more logical system than the one used by just about every other motorcycle manufacturer. So far so good. The first problem comes with the brakes - even allowing for the fact that the K75 is probably long overdue a brake fluid change, the brakes are terifyingly bad. The front lever travel is enormous and the rear drum is hardly an efficient anchor even when working perfectly.

The first part of the journey is fairly fast and uncongested and in performance terms there is no difference between the two bikes. You are changing up and down the gears to go with the flow and overtake where appropriate on the K75 whereas the GP800 just goes wherever you point and squirt it but the end result is the same.

As the traffic starts to build up, the narrowness of the K75 becomes noticeable as does the ease with which you can "paddle" it through very narrow gaps wiggling the bars to clear the mirrors where required. However this is countered by the fact that it is less easy to ride at 0 mph than the GP800. In this respect, the GP800 is king. You can come to a halt and wait a couple of seconds before you need to put your feet down (who needs a Fuoco?). In slow moving stop/start traffic, this ability makes for very smooth progression with little effort.

By now, the riding position of the BMW is starting to tell on wrists and palms. The K75 is no sportsbike but you are tilted forwards and the (heavy) clutch makes riding much harder work. The Gp800's ride quality is in another league as well despite the handmade E=MC rear shock I have on the K75. But that sportier riding position coupled with the shorter wheelbase and lighter weight make the K75 a better hooligan bike in traffic by quite a margin. It's no KTM Duke but it makes the GP800's progression seem almost stately by comparison. On arrival at work, the K75 plays its last trump card - you just put your right foot on the centrestand tang and think the bike onto the stand - completely effortless. There is no other bike in the world that drops onto its centrestand like a K series.

All in all, riding the K75 is a much more involving experience compared with the effortless nature of the GP800. For some, that's the point of motorcycling. For me, I'm glad I've still got it for high days and holidays. It certainly doesn't feel like the "old nail" I thought it would after a couple of months on the GP800. However, getting to and from work doesn't have to be involving - it has to be efficient and comfortable and the GP800 wins out here every time. More luggage, more comfort, effortless riding and about 25% less fuel consumption make the big scoot the "daddy" in the commuter stakes.

GP800 - The First Thousand Miles

I've now covered just over 1,000 miles on the GP800 and I'm starting to feel more "at home" with it. This of course tranlates into more spirited riding and I have managed to both lock up and wheelspin the rear wheel on slightly damp road surfaces. Although the power delivery of a big auto makes it easy to ride in the wet, it doesn't mean you can ignore surface conditions entirely and the two incidents acted as a timely reminder to treat a 260 odd Kilo bike with a bit more respect.

Fuel consumption has averaged a shade under 50mpg in varying conditions and combined with the 200 odd mile range to tank makes this one of the strong points of the bike.

Now we've got a few miles under the wheels I've been opening it up a bit more and performance is impressive both off the line and roll-on acceleration at speed. I think the speedo is wildly optomistic (especially if the GPS tracking by Nokia Sportstracker is accurate) but the bike is quick by any standards - and perfectly stable at speed.

Low points, I still hate the speedo, the mirrors could be better and I'm beginning to wish the saddle was a touch narrower and lower -but that's a problem with my body shape rather than any actual failing of the bike. The only other slight downer is the centrestand tang is sometimes difficult to reach and it's definitely a bit slippy when wet. Having said that, I am finally getting to grips with the sidestand/handbrake combo.

I may have found an aftemarket screen made by Sedcem but I'm awaiting confirmation of availability from Baglux who are the UK importers for Sedcem. If the price is sensible, I'll probably go for it even though the standard screen is better than I first thought.

"Practical and exciting" is a phrase that may have been applied to the Skoda Octavia VRs - but Gilera should have claimed it for themselves. The GP800 remains a winner.

Nokia Sportstracker - The GP800 and the E90 get it together

I was aware of the existence of Nokia Sportstracker but I noticed it again recently when I added Nokia Communication Center to my PC Suite from the Nokia Beta labs. As I'm trying to cycle to work at least once a week I thought I'd give it a go.


Of course it works however you're moving so I've been testing while riding the GP800 and it provides a datalog that you can very easily upload to the Nokia Sportstracker website at http://sportstracker.nokia.com/ directly from the phone. It's a pity the E90 takes a while to lock on to satelites so I may take to carrying my Navman B10 external bluetooth receiver in my pocket to speed things up. Once locked on it stays running in the background even on the one and a half hour trip from Ashford, Kent back home to Stanmore, Middx.

It can save "routes" so you get a comparison of your performance over time and it includes "altitude" which will be usefull when cycling to see where the hills are. It plots both against distanc eand time on the graph and map as well as identifying the fastest, slowest highest and lowest points on the journey.


This is a useful piece of software from Nokia and best of all, it's free.

Nokia E90 - T9 Predictive Text

Like many people who crave smartphones with QWERTY keyboards, I have always been "sniffy" about predictive text. Even with early predicitve text equipped phones I simply switched if off - or disabled it in settings as soon as possible. However, time has marched on and predictive text in it's latest T9 guise is actually quite clever. I tend to get most of my Symbian related news and info from the very fine All About Symbian website and recently, this thread was posted in the forum http://www.blogger.com/T9%20Thread%20on%20All%20About%20Symbian. So in the spirit of investigation, I turned it on on the E90 and was singularly unimpressed. But I persevered, and it suddenly became clear. Here's my "T9 in easy steps"

1. Press the numeric button which contains the letter you want once for each letter, ignore what's displayed on the screen until you get to the end of your word. If it's correct, press 0 to accept it, put in a space and move to the next word.
2. If when you get to the end of the word it's wrong, press * to cycle through the possiblities. When you get to the right one press 0 to accept it. When the dictionary runs out of alternatives, it will offer you the opportunity to "spell" (in multitap) the word and add it to the dictionary.
3. For words with apostrophes (Don't, her's etc) press the 1 after the "Don" and the screen will display a full stop. Simply enter the t (or s) and the full stop will automatically change to an apostrophe.
4. For numbers press and hold the appropriate button.
5. For other punctuation, press and hole the 1 button
6. That's it. There is a way to do "smileys" but I guess if you're like me, the point is to write gramatically correct English not "txt spk" so smileys aren't really in the picture.

I'll still use the QWERTY for e-mails and longer messages but for short SMS text messages, I'm now converted to T9. I'm sure an eight year old can multitap faster but for me, T9 has made life simpler and given me a new option for entering text.

I'm converted - T9 rocks.

GP800 - The First Week

I've now been riding the GP800 for a week (and covered 350 miles) so here are a few more observations.

It's heavy ! Like most big heavy modern bikes (the Honda ST1100 Pan European springs to mind) it disguises it's bulk very well when moving at any speed but paddling it or pushing it is not for the faint of heart or short of stature.

It's fast ! Not just "a bit quick" or "for a scooter", it's fast period. Not only is it fast, it's deceptively fast. In fact, it's so deceptively fast that if it wasn't for the fact that I'm slowing down to exactly the same speed as everyone else to pass "safety cameras" I'd say the speedo was over-reading by about 20%. I reckon this is down to 2 things. Firstly, the screen is more effective than it looks, even at low speeds and it's hiding a lot of the wind that tells you instinctively how fast you are going. Secondly, the big V-twin is not working too hard even at speed and that "lazy" delivery, helped by the auto transmission means that it never sounds like you're going very quickly.

I think I will go for the "Touring Screen" when it becomes available but it's not going to be an urgent upgrade. When I test rode the demonstrator I felt that there was too much buffeting with the screen up and too much wind blast with it down. In fact there is a "sweet spot" between the two that's just right for motorway work and riding in town.

I'm still trying to get used to a few more things. After 25 years of always putting bikes on centrestands (my Harley Sportster was a singular exception - and even then only because it didn't have a centrestand), I can't get used to the sidestand/handbrake combo. I'm sure I will as it's entirely sold and stable. Having said that I will also have to remember the sidestand safety switch. I did spend a little while stabbing the starter button yesterday wondering why it wouldn't start (a "sidestand warning light" would assist the terminally stupid in this respect). Having a handbrake is indeed a novelty but it might have been better placed on the left side so you could release it at the same time as you twist the throttle to move away.

The other thing that will take time is getting used to using a switch on the left hand controls to indicate to turn right. Most reviewers seem to criticise the biutton on each switchgear system favoured by Harley-Davidson and BMW but I've always found it intuitive and obvious (I even liked the "up for right - down for" left switchgear of the old "airhead" Boxers but I admit that was odd).

So far, still no regrets - a top commuting and distance tool.

GP800 - Motorways and longer distances

Some of the time I work in Ashford, Kent and this involves a round trip of 185 miles using the M25, Dartford Crossing, A2/M2 and M20. The trip yestrerday provided an excellent test of the GP800 as well as starting to rack up running in miles.

At 05:20, the temperature was barely above freezing and the bike fired up first time and settled into a slightly lumpy tickover without a problem. The first few bars of the temperature guage came up quite quickly and the engine settled down to its sweet burble within a mile or so.

I am aiming to keep the revs between 5,000 and 6,000 for the first 500 miles or so and it soon became apparent that this equates to "normal motorway speeds" of 80ish mph.

The GP800 is unmoved by blustery winds, lane markings or the blast when passing trucks and is supremely comfortable. The mirrors are not a problem if you tuck your elbows in when glancing and the only issues (and I make no apologies for banging on about this) is the b****y speedometer. It is appalling that someone at VOSA passed this bike through Type Approval in the UK. The MPH readings are completely unusable and this is simply not acceptable on a six and a half grand bike. It's not as if Piaggio are some kind of niche manufaturer, they are the number three seller of bikes in the UK. Other Piaggio products (which all have KMH biased speedos) manage at least a degree of legibility in the MPH markings. I have tippex "blobs" at the salient speeds (thanks JT) but this is not really a proper solution to the problem. In this speed camera encrusted land of ours, this bike needs a properly legible speedo.

OK, rant over. The real bonus of the GP800 is it's "range to tank" - at least 200 miles. I filled up the moment the light came on at 190 odd miles - I calculate that I could go a further 28 miles until completely empty. This is a major plus point for the bike (easily enough to outweigh the speedo issue). My first tank went through at about 54MPG which is brilliant for a bike of this size and performance. Filling the tank requires care through the narrow filler - the first half of the tank fills quickly then your dribbling for the next 7 or 8 litres which does take time - but that's a small price to pay for that kind of range.

The weather on the way back was variable winds and very short sharp showers but (like most scooters) weather protection was significantly better than most bikes.

It's big, comfy, economical and fast - all in all, another big "tick in the box" for the GP800

GP800 - Commuting In London

Today was the first day commuting on the GP. One thing is immediately clear, the GP800 will make a fine commuting tool. Even allowing for the fact that I'm obviously nervous of scratching my new toy and for keeping the revs down while running in, I still got home in about the same time as I would have done on the K75 - but more relaxed.

Observations:

• At 1/2 mph its very easy to ride, completely stable and controllable. It's almost "MP3/Fugliesque" in it's ability to come to a halt and stay upright for a second or so before you put your feet down.
• If you do need to "paddle" it at any point though it's a lot less "wieldy". The wide seat makes it harder to have both feet comfortably purchased on the ground. I may move the "bumstop" forwards to put me on the narrower part of the seat which might help.
• I last posted that the mirrors weren't well positioned - I might revise that view to to say that the problem is that the handlebars are a touch too wide. They could afford to be an inch shorter on each side and this would bring my elbows in further. The alternative will be to develop a "GP twitch" whereby I tuck my elbows in at the same time as inclining my head for the mirror. This seems to work and may become instinctive over time.
• It almost goes without saying, handling, ride, acceleration (even on limited revs) are all exemplary.

There's two more things that I'll have to get used to. I've always been a centre-stand man. I hate sidestands. However the GP800 has a handbrake and that changes things entirely. It's much more stable on the sidestand than any normal bike - and although it's fairly easy to put the bike on it's centrestand (especially given the weight), I can see that the only times I'll use it are at home when anchored down as I can chain through the centrestand to increase the level of protection and when filling up with petrol to keep the bike level.

The other thing that's a novelty to me (but not to anyone with a large topbox) is the ability to pop into Morrisons on the way home and not have to carry your "lid" round with you. These quick stops are aided by the Oxford BossAlarm disclock (get yours from John at Thompsons Scooters). It's very easy to hook on when you need "quick security" and it also doubles as an alarmed padlock when chaining the bike up fully.

Gilera GP800 - First Impressions

Here it is at last, my GP800. It's everything I want in a bike. There was a time that I thought that the BMW R1100RS was "it" - and I even thought the Harley-Davidson XL1200S Sportster Sport was "it" once. But know I know for sure, the Gilera GP800 is "it" - the best all round bike (Jeremy Clarkson voice) - "in the world".

Now I've only had this half a day so I'll post more after I've commuted in London on it - and on Monday I'm taking the trip to my office in Kent to see how it does on a longer run.

Downsides so far - apart from the limited underseat storage caused by the fact that being powered by an 839cc V-twin means that over 400cc of that is pointing straight up between your legs.

Only two:

The mirrors aren't particularly well positioned - although small, the size isn't the problem - it's just that my elbows take up a fair bit of the rearward view.

The other one is my favourite gripe about Piaggio - a speedo that does not properly display MPH. For now I've got small strips of tape marking the important speeds but long term (and one way or another), I'm going to get a proper MPH speedo for the GP.

GP800 Delivery Date

Well, it's here at last - I collect my black GP800 tomorrow afternoon.

I'll post more with photos as soon as I've ridden it home. There was one minor shock when I phoned Carole Nash. At the end of January, I had been quoted £268 to add it to the K75 on my multibike policy unitl the renewal date in September. When I called them today to update the policy (three month nearer to the renewal date), the price had gone up to £288. They also seem unable to recognise the fact that it has a factory fit transponder immobiliser much like every modern car. Given that this system is on most Piaggios, Vespa and Gileras that's something of a startling ommission - all they can do is call it "generic immobiliser".

I suspect that come September I'll be shopping around again - a pity since I have been a loyal Carole Nash customer for a few years now.

Nokia E90 In the car - Handsfree Issues

I have always preferred a wired "boom" headset for use in the car. Even after Bluetooth became common, I stuck with the Jabra Earwave with my Sony Ericsson P900 and Nokia E70 just as I had with earlier phones.

When combined with an active cradle, it always seemed to me to be the optimim solution - no power issues, no pairing issues, just reliable connectivity. What's more, the boom ensured good quality reception of my voice even in a small car at speed on a motorway (where wind noise is often as intrusive as the sound of a straining engine - small cars do not have the same "serenity" as a large car)

Once I had the E90, I knew that an alternative was required. The port for the supplied stereo headset is not compatible with any 3rd party wired boom headset that I could find and I didn't fancy trying to fabricate something myself given the thinness of the wires involved.

While I was searching for (and getting blank looks in Carphone Warehouse et al) a wired headset, a number of people had pointed me in the direction of a Bluetooth "visor" handsfree so I started researching.

There are a shedload of different types out there but I settled on the Supertooth Light - so far I'm delighted. http://www.supertooth.net/htmls/supertooth_light.html It seems well made, pairs with the E90 first time every time and charges via a mini USB plug which means it can share a charger with my Navman B10 Blutooth GPS receiver.

I always send/end using the phone itself so any fragility in its magnetic attraction to the sunvisor is not a problem. Sound levels are fine and callers seem to be able to hear me perfectly well although the microphone is fairly directional so you need to lower the sunvisor slightly when a call comes it and speak "up" as well as up :-). So far it has only dropped 2 calls on me, which makes it better than the Bluetooth headset that I own - but I'd still prefer a wired connection that NEVER drops a call.

There's only one disadvantage I've found so far. If you're navigating with the Supertooth switched on, the voice directions seem a bit "crackly" which doesn't seem to happen with incoming calls. At the moment, I'm switching the Supertooth off when navigating - which is fine as it's "instant on" if I do get a phone call.

It's not the cheapest visor unit on the market but I wasn't going to start right at the bottom. Best price from MyMemory with their usual prompt delivery. http://www.mymemory.co.uk/Bluetooth-Car-Kits/Generic/Supertooth-Light-Bluetooth-Handsfree-Visor-Kit . It gets my personal seal of approval.

Nokia E90 In the car - Cradle Issues

Because the Nokia E90 has built in GPS and navigation is much more user friendly in "open" mode, I was ideally looking for a cradle that allowed the phone to be used open or closed.

Sadly, such cradles don't seem to exist - but even once you settle for closed mode there isn't an equivalent of the excellent Nokia MBC-13L I used to use with my E70.

I'm a big fan of Brodit products and the "Proclip" is a "first fit" as soon as I have a new car. However, their cradles for the E90 didn't look quite "right" to me (open or closed) so I sourced the Herbert Richter cradle from Expansys.

This does allow you to open the E90 - but only to 90 degrees which means it won't suit navigation in open mode. However, it's a good cradle and when combined with a Brodit "tilt/swivel" mount and the aforementioned Proclip it provides an ideal mount in my Mazda 2 which is the car I use for business. I was pleased to note that it uses the now quite common clip system to fit the cradle to the mount rather than screws. It's a pity that it's a completely passive mount but since I've also given up the search for a wired boom mike for handsfree use and settled on a bluetooth visor handsfree unit at least it's only the 12v power lead I need to plug in each time.

My inital experiences with navigation on the E90 prove that it is perfectly possible to navigate on the small external screen so I'll settle for that at the moment. I know that I do want to use the E90 in open mode for navigation eventually - but I'll do that by sitting the phone on an anti-slip mat in the top glovebox of the Mazda 2 (where the lid acts as a sunshade) - but before I start to do that, I need to find a neat way of getting the 12v power into that top glovebox. That's a Navman B10 external bluetooth receiver sitting just behind the E90. I'll report on that later - but it was certainly a wise buy despite the internal GPS of the E90.

Vodafone, Firmware and the E90

When I bought my E90, one of the questions I asked was "is this a "fresh" phone". The guy in the Vodafone shop (a major branch) assured me that it was.

Now, it might have been new stock for them but it certainly wasn't "firmware current". In fact it was running v07.24.03 dated 12th June LAST YEAR. I had taken the guys word for this and hadn't bothered to check until I'd been using the device for a week or so.

It's bad enough that if you have a Nokia E series device on Vodafone, you'll always be at least one version behind the firmware that Nokia has released - but it's adding insult to injury to supply the phone even further backdated. I had strongly considered going "sim free" to avoid this problem (as well as the issue of "network crippling) which was well covered in a feature by Krisse on "All About Symbian" http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/Its_time_to_buy_SIM-free_phones.php but the upgrade price of the E90 was too tempting.

Having upgraded the firmware, I come to the next issue. Why is updating the firmware on a Nokia such a "hit and miss" affair. It's fair enough that you have to back-up and restore all your personal data (and a big memory card helps here, especially if you always install applications to the card). It's also reasonable that the phone will wake up "factory fresh" - but why do some settings stay and others dissapear, why do some applications re-appear in the correct user defined directory and others go back to the default location, why can't bluetooth pairings be saved as part of a backup... the list goes on.

Worst of all, why do some things simply not work after a firmware upgrade. I am now completely unable to use push e-mail. I am using Emoze and it now will not allow sufficient characters in the OWA server address to connect to the server. I'm sure I will get this worked out eventually - but it shouldn't be this hard.

The Gilera GP800

Here's the demonstrator from Thompsons Scooters http://www.piaggio-center.co.uk/. If you're considering a Gilera, Piaggio or Vespa, John Thompson should be your first port of call.

My K75 is a bit long in the tooth and although I'll be keeping it (and "fettling" it for high days and holidays), it's getting too tired for the daily commute. I loved my X9 500 and when I decided to get a second bike, I didn't look too hard at anything other than scooters (although the Kawasaki Versys and the Suzuki V-Strom did get a quick glance). I rode the Gilera Fugly (Fuoco 500) and although I was convinced by it's stability and general road manners (and general all round cool), I felt it lacked a bit of oomph. Of course it is pretty powerful by scooter standards but compared with a 750 BMW it felt slightly lacking.

When I had the opportunity to test ride the GP800 I was sold immediately. All the advantages of a scooter with the performance of a big bike. If I had to describe it in a single word, it would be effortless.

I've placed an order (in February) but I want a black one and these are going to be in short supply (to be honest, so are the red ones, these are never going to be common sights on our roads) . I'm hoping for delivery in March so with luck it will arrive in the next week or so.

Introduction

I've had my own website for a few years now. It's mostly about my motorcycles - especially, the BMW R1100RS, the BMW K75 and the Gilera X9 500. You can find it here:

http://gibsonfamily.interactivehosting.co.uk/mysite/bmw.html

Like many people, I struggle to find the time to update the site and I've felt for a while now that a blog is the way to go - so here it is.

The "launch" of this blog co-incides with my aquisition of a Nokia E90 Communicatior, probably the best (and certainly the most converged) mobile phone/pda/satnav device available today. I have also placed an order for a shiny new Gilera GP800, definitely the the best scooter available today.

I'm a terminably incurable researcher. I spend days on the net hunting for reviews and information before making any major purchase. Here's my chance to let others see the results of my research, read my opinions & reviews and share my experiences.