I have just completed my first ‘flying blind’ internet purchase. I have purchased quite a few intangible items over the last 8 or 9 years, also I have purchased some items that I have previously seen/tried and am therefore fully aware of what I will be receiving, but this was well different. I wanted some pipes for my bike and no one in the ‘real world’ made them so I got on the net and hunted them down. And for all my research, I could only find one guy in the world that makes them. I scoured Hyosung/alternative cruiser chatrooms to find mention of them and I couldn’t find much on them at all, but at least what I found was all positive. Eventually I took a leap of faith and shelled out US$555 for a pair of Larry Cook’s Double Shot “Turnouts” (http://www.lccycle.com/exhaust.html). The pipes are magnificent. Lovely throaty idle volume, a fat, grunty acceleration sound and they look … They make me want to venture into hitherto unexplored realms of man/exhaust rhapsody. But all that aside (the pics and a vid or two will come when the rain pisses off) the story of how they got here is what I’m writing about today. The email I sent Larry after receiving them explains what happened straight up:
Dear Mr. Cook,
My pipes and jetting have been delivered and fitted. As much as I wanted to be there to help with the fitting, I wasn't able to be due to work commitments … blah blah … wrong pipes … blah blah … ordered ‘Turnouts’ … blah … sent ‘Super Slashers’.
Having never personally heard the turnouts (excluding youtube.com) I cannot be sure that they are not equally as loud as the super slashers, and if that is the case I have ordered the wrong pipes. But as it stands, I have been sent the wrong pipes and they are too much for me (and my wife). I am not sure what to do about this. The pipes look fantastic and the tone emanating from them is quite okay, it is just about 30 decibels more than I bargained for. If there were some way to baffle them …
It is not necessary to respond in writing to this email, Mr. Cook. I will ring in the late afternoon (your time, Tuesday), I just want to give you the heads up as to what I'll be ringing about.
I appreciate any suggestions you have for me.
Ben Anderson
It turns out that they sounds coming out the back of the ‘Super Slashers’ and the ‘Turnouts’ are identical. They are the same pipe with a different outward appearance. This is how I saw the transaction: I’m a Flaming Elvis Fan and I’ve ordered a $555 harlequin jumpsuit, I have been sent a $555 Chartreuse jumpsuit instead, it really isn’t a big deal. What is a huge deal is that, not having researched the brand properly, I have ordered completely the wrong size for me. That’s my mistake that I now have to find a way to get it taken in/out. So I contact the maker (on the other side of the world) to see if he has a suggestion.
Here’s how Larry saw the transaction:
Hello Ben,
My sincere apology! I guess I had Slashers on the brain! Both the Slashers and the Turnouts have the same baffle in them!I will send a set of Turnouts as soon as we talk! I can modify the baffling to make them "MORE QUIET" as I do for UK sometime! The modification will take about 3 days, but I can still ship them this week. I did this mod for a guy in France and also Israel, because their girlfriend would not ride after DOUBLESHOTS installation! I will ship them so that they arrive in the same timeframe as the Slashers.
Waiting for your call to confirm! I can also tell you a quick fix for now!
Again, my apology!
Larry
Larry has told me that he doesn’t have any ‘off the shelf’ $555 harlequin jumpsuits in my size, but he is happy to tailor one for me as he has done for some other fat barstards sometimes. Not only that, he will make it at no extra charge at all, not even shipping which, he paid from his own pocket. Moreover, I can keep the first one or give it to a skinnier friend or sell it or do whatever the hell I want with it.
What I’m still coming to grips with is that had he originally sent me harlequin instead of chartreuse, I would be stuck with trying to find a jump-suit-specialist tailor at my own expense AND a huge case of buyer’s remorse.
I challenge anyone to have ever received better customer service than that anywhere in the world, at any time, ever. If you have I want to hear about it.
On a very serious note, if you are a Hyosung rider and you want to jazz up your sound a bit (or a lot) get on to Larry “www.lccycle.com”. He is a good man with a fantastic product.
TAEBAEK RIDE
It has taken me a few weeks to get around to doing a write up for the Taebaek ride. It was a ride of mixed fortunes. Wombat Corea had been underway without incident for 2 years and on the Taebaek ride we had 2 incidents within 2 days. I guess I should get them out of the way first. They were kinda strange, our newbie rider, out on his first trip with us and pretty much his first ever large ride, got caught in the marbles at about 50 km/h and spread himself all over the outside of the corner and into the guard rail. It’s an old trick for young players and it could have been, should have been, an unmitigated disaster. But even though old matey was both shaken and stirred when he stood up, pulled out about a pound of dreck from in and around his Kawasaki and continued underway, there was nothing more serious than a busted blinker and some gravel rash involved. Conversely, one of our most experienced riders got his front wheel caught in a rut at about twice walking speed and simply dropped his bike. It was one of those simple things that could happen to you a dozen times and it wouldn’t delay you a combined total of 3 minutes. But his bloody bike landed awkwardly on his foot and bashed it up big style. You wouldn’t dream about it, seriously. How did ‘A’ walk away from his bingle and ‘B’ not walk away from his. ‘Fucked by the Fickle Finger of Fate’ a wise man once declared. ‘Fucked and Far From Home’ said another. (apologies for the crudity)
And far from home we were. For everyone that didn’t have a busted foot it was a sweet 350 km ride home. That road from Taebaek to Andong and the 35 south from there is nothing short of amazing. It’s an easy, winding, stunning ride and excluding the few kms of traffic we hit coming into Yeongcheon, was stress free. The last day of the ride was pure pleasure for all and largely uneventful. Check out the video, see it for yourself.
Anniversary 2008
Parky and I had a beautiful anniversary ride around Geoje. Weather was great, Geoje was great, everything was fantastic. Not much more needs to be said. We have, in a joint decision – felicitous to us both, spent all four anniversaries on the bike. I feel happy with many of the choices I have made in my life, and I have lucked out a lot, too.
NAMHAE RIDE
After a shaky start to the Namhae ride, Wombat Corea has continued its grand form from last year. We decided to confront old demons head on and repeat the destination of last year’s first ride. Those of you who were there will remember last years inaugural Namhae ride as a complete schamozzle. With late starters, cue jumpers, missing riders and every kind of balls-up imaginable, it very nearly brought the club to its knees with disappointment, disillusionment and general ill feeling.
This year started slowly, with 5 new riders on board and eased into a couple of bouts of flat batteries (yes, I left my lights on during a prolonged stop and needed a push and wasted quite some time effing about). But by lunch on Saturday we had hit our stride. By the time we hit the Namhae Bridge, Stella Had Gotten Her Groove Back. Bill and Lisa took us over some magnificent road, scenic, coastal, amazing road. In short, all the stuff we missed last year. Everyone had a blast and Saturday night ended up in the same restaurant in a jovial, convivial atmosphere.
Sunday started out exactly as planned with some of us getting off for breaky, some not, and we all met in the designated place at the designated time and were underway by 10:10am. Not bad, we started almost exactly on time both days. Sunday was glorious. That costal ride coming out of Mijo is something to behold. We all stayed together as a group, I think for the first time ever on a Sunday, and took the Goseong route by the dinosaur museum and the 77 coastal up to (almost) Masan. It was an immaculately planned, very well executed ride. We arrived back in Gimhae within 45 minutes of our e.t.a. with sore arses and huge smiles. Can’t ask for more than that. 3 cheers to Bill and Lisa, huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!
CHERRY BLOSSOMS
What a weekend of riding! When I said “I think I’d swap my bike to be on that boat today” (as Pat, Bill, Lisa, Se-yeon, Parky and I were riding over Sangnamjin bridge) it came truer than I would have hoped. Fair play, Lisa had warned us that that she needed juice when we left and Bill has a new bike that is 700cc bigger than his last (with a fuel bill to match) and Se-yeon is a newbie to ‘big bike world’. But these are the reasons that we go for pre-season rides. Not just because we like them and not just because the weather is nice, but to iron out the kinks that fold themselves over the long winter break. I don’t want to go into the schamozzle that was yesterday’s ride apart from to say that after all of the time we spent standing still, it was pretty nice and we did learn a couple of lessons that I’m glad we didn’t have to learn next weekend on the Namhae ride.
Today, Parky and I had a beautiful ride amongst the cherry blossom down in Jinhae. I love getting out just me, the wife and the dog. It has such a totally different feel to it. Not better, not worse, just different and I like it. I want to remind anyone who might be riding alone or in a group and hasn’t taken a spin in the country alone with the better half in a while, get out there and give it a blast. Funnily enough I think we tend to ride harder when it is just the two of us. No one else to think about, worry about, keep together with, just hit the loud handle, smiling.
The first ride of the year is, of course, next weekend. Bill and Lisa are leading the Namhae ride. It looks like we might have a few new riders with us. Not newbies, just guys that have sworn to take more time out of the humdrum to get back to what is really important in life. We welcome anyone who is competent and interested. It is a 9:00am leave on Saturday, let us know if you are coming.
And if there was a four sentence lesson about Korea for people who are unfamiliar with it, it would be the following: We took a fifty minute walk today. We left a $220 helmet, a $280 helmet and a $180 jacket slouched on the seat of our AUD$7000 bike. This is a photo of it when we left. There is no need to show you a photo of when we got back because nothing had changed.
UNCLE DAVE'S BIKE
29 hours ago, Parky and I set out on a trip in search of a good bike for Uncle Dave’s arrival in September. At 5am yesterday we rose and headed for Seoul. It was the site of a canary yellow Manga that was priced too good to be true. We were assured that it was in tip top nick, but alas as with so many things that are too good to be true, they simply confirm that old sayings are usually founded in truth. It had been crashed, badly, and some attempt had been made to coat the damage that had been done. I told the owner of my suspicions and he informed me that slight upward tilt on the left hand footpeg was a stylistic endeavor on the part of the previous owner. After a test drive I asked if the bending the forks and frame were also done by the previous owner or did he pay a bona-fide artiste to drive it headlong into a wall? We left.
We saw a black Magna in the arsehole of Gyeongi-do. It was alright, engine was solid, it was in good condition apart from a bit of clutch slippage. I was thinking a bit of adjustment might cure that but we decided to press on to an appointment we had made the previous evening in a town a mere 70 kilometres away. As we drove away in the car we could hear the owner of the magna bashing through traffic on his Magna. It sounded a bit like this, rrrr click, rrr click, rrr click, RRRR rrrr RRRR rrrr RRRR rrrrr. Yes, we were confused as well. It seemed as though he went almost immediately into 4th gear and then when the revs got too low he just rode his clutch until his speed picked up enough to let it out. Until the bike was out of earshot I don’t believe he took it out of 4th gear. If I ever meet him again I will recommend he purchase a scooter if he hates changing gears that much. (note to young players: if you are trying to sell a bike, don’t drive like a wanker in front of the prospective purchaser).
On the way to Shi-heung we rang, 20 minutes out of town, to let him know that we would be arriving soon, (remember we had made the appointment just 18 hours ago) and he asked why we would bother as he had already sold it. He just stated it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Hadn’t we been watching CNN or the BBC, surely it must be all over the news by now. I’m just bloody glad we hadn’t driven the last 600kms for that bike alone. We couldn’t believe it. Not just his attitude or lack of a call or text to tell us but this bike had been advertised for sale since the 11th of December last year. Our luck and timing was proving impeccable as usual. It was getting late and we had been 10 hours underway we decided to check out just 2 more on the journey home.
We rang a guy in Mungyeong and told him we were coming from Seoul to look at his Kawasaki Vulcan 750. In an unusual tactical move for a salesman he said, “Nah, Nah, don’t come all the way from Seoul, that’s too far!” We explained that we were on our way home down south and would be coming past anyway. “Oh well, if you’re coming this way anyway I guess you may as well have a look”. Needless to say we drove straight past Mungyeong without even a passing glance at the exit ramp.
We arrived in Gumi (well underway home by now) at 7:30pm to look at one last one before heading home. We checked out the 750 virago that Uncle Dave now owns and we just knew it was the one. Parky did ask me if I should trust my judgment after 17 and a half hours behind the wheel, but I just had, as mum would say, “a feeling in me water.” I didn’t, however, trust myself to drive it home after such a long trip, especially as it had just started to spit with rain. We took a motel for the night and as you can see in the vid, it was a particularly bitter-cold and wet March morning. Lucky we only had 3 and a half hours back to Jangyu and a dri-rider.
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