Welcome and on guys, welcome back to the garage. Well, as you've seen in the title, I have purchased myself a new motorcycle for this year. I don't know if it was a case of winter blues, you know, I've just been searching eBay for a little while. A bit bored over Christmas, actually managed to catch COVID over Christmas. So, you know, I wasn't very aware, I couldn't go out, spent too much time on eBay and I bought myself a new bike. I was very aware that I didn't have a track bike for this year, you know, of course, the BMW 1000RR was using the last year, went back to BMW. The H2 is just too noisy for the track and at £2,500 a panel, you know, a fairing panel if you come off it way too expensive. The SMCR is going to be good for smaller tracks and stuff and the decatty with the hopin' motard when that's done will be good for medium tracks but I had nothing for sort of larger tracks, so I thought should I buy a track bike, you know, if I was, no, I'd just get in a dedicated track bike, that's just a waste of a slot in the garage. So the bike I buy has to be used on the road as well, sort of a replacement for the BMW to be honest, a road bike, track bike, a bit of a touring bike. So I started scanning eBay, I was looking a bit of a fireblade fan, as you know, so I was looking at sort of RR6, RR7 fire blades, you know, that's a 2002, 2006, 2007 fireblade, you know, with the under seat exhaust, I'm always quite like those, that's the same engine more this, which is in BST. So I was looking for those, I was also looking for anything else, good condition, you know, and this bike popped up on eBay and I thought, God, that looks immaculate. It was a little bit more money than I wanted to spend but I thought, well, I'm not, I'm like, if I buy a bike and it's tattie in places, I'm only going to end up replacing those panels and spending money on it to get it to the condition I want it to be. So I thought, well, I've just spent a little bit more now, get a bike which looks pristine and then, you know, it's, what I've bought is really almost too good for the track, it's incredible, it's a 2008 bike, it's got 14,000 miles and it is beautiful. It's a bike I've never owned, well, I'll tell you what, let's go outside, I'll give you a quick walk around a bit, but it is beautiful, let's get outside. There she is, there's a new bike, 2008 GSXR 1000, this is the K8 version, 14,000 miles, as you can see pristine. I wasn't really looking for GSXR as I say, this one just came up and it was just so clean, I just really have to have it, you know, it's, I mean, look at the calipers, I mean, it's incredible, this bike is 14 years old, I can't even really find any marks on the front of it, so one owner bike, so the guy has had it from new, but it's absolutely, absolutely immaculate. All the rear sets, you know, the fasteners, engine bolts and even the shock, it's all really, really nice condition, it's got the optional arrows, so it's got an arrow either side, it's all got their cat in here, but because it's 2008, you know, the Euro regulations are just a relatively small cat, so it's got the twin arrows, which apparently were an option from Suzuki, you know, when the bikes were new, you could, you could spec them for extra 500 pounds with the arrows, so it's got those, even inside the fairing, I mean, looking there, it is a immaculate, and the great thing about the K-A, these headers are actually titanium, so you've got titanium headers as standard. The bike is completely original, even got tail-tied, you know, absolutely original, all the standard stickers on the tank, you know, completely original despite not messed with at all, absolutely standard, now, you know me, I like to tinker with my bike, so this is so original though, I'm not going to do too much to this, he says now, but I'll probably put a tail-tied on it, I will take probably the battles out of the exhaust, it's got battles held in with circlips, I'll probably take the battles out, I'll start it in a minute, you can hear it, you know, a cold start, I've not ridden this yet, you know, the roads have went through, I'm not taking this out, it's a bit drier, but just riding into the garage, the riding position is so comfortable, the bars are, you know, really high compared to any modern sports bike, even the S1000RR, I've just literally ridden out my driving into the garage, but they feel really high, so I think it's going to be really comfortable as well, but I'm really excited about this bike, of course, it has some engine maps, so you can adjust the maps, it's got three engine maps, but that's it, no other electronics, no ABS, no traction control, you know, a completely analog bike, obviously it's fuel injected, but you've got adjustable engine maps, that's it, apart from that, you know, there's nothing else, quite nice on the GSXR, you get a gear indicator, which you don't get on the fireblade, you know, the RR7 fireblade, you don't get a gear indicator, time, temperature, you know, but pretty basic, obviously no quickshifter blipters, nothing like that, I could add a quick shifter to it, I may do, I'm going to see how I get on with it, but you can see like the top yolk, no marks on the top yolk whatsoever, the suspension adjusters, not butchered, at all, you know, like new, all of the switch gear, handlebars, tank, you know, it is 14 years old, it's got 14,000 miles, you know, single owner, the guy must have absolutely cherished this bike, the only marks I can see on it is there's a slight scuff on the mirror, there, tiny little scuff on the mirror, and there is the most tiny marks here, tiny little marks, but you know, nothing else, the light is pristine, all the plastics, the grills are all pristine, also what's quite nice, the clutch is hydraulics, it's got hydraulic clutch, you know, normally now these are all cables, get a bit of a nicer feel with a hydraulic clutch, you always think, you've got the slave cylinder down here, but even all the, these fasteners, these standard brake lines and hydraulic lines, normally really corrode, and there's none of that, you know, the rear sets were immaculate, it's obviously never been ridden in the rain, you know, the chain looks like new, and I've got loads of receipts with the bike, and this chain, I think he bought this chain, I saw it in the receipts, I think it was bought in 2016, I think that chain was bought, you can see, you know, it's been loved, no marks on the swinging arm, you know, exhausts, there's absolutely no marks on the exhausts, I've got the standard cans as well, the standard cans have never been fitted, they're still in the box, unfitted, also what I love about the GSXR from this era, all the indicators are integrated at the back and at the front, so you've got indicators integrated in the front mirrors as well, because of course, indicators, the bikes are this age, always massive, so they're always nice that they're integrated on the GSXR, so I'm now a Gixaboy, under the seat on older bikes, you normally get a little bit of storage, you have not even looked under here yet, factory toolkits still in there, and you've got room, cut the big backs in there, no problem at all, you've actually got a bit of storage in here, and a little bit of storage down the fairings if you've so registered some cloths or something, storage on a sports bike, I'm going to say, a sports bike, storage on a sports bike, it's done, I heard of these days, I'm dead chuff with this, I don't think you could find another one, I like it, if you've got a GSXR, K8, or similar, similar age, is there any more in this condition anymore, you know, I bought a bike that I wanted to do a few track days on, it's almost too nice to contemplate taking on track, but, you know, I did take a brand new S1000 double-arworth 20 grand on track, so, you know, this is obviously not to 20 grand bike, it's almost criminal to take it on track, but I'm going to be really careful, you know, it's only really the odd days on track, but it's going to be, you know, I think, a beautiful road bike, so next time, or as soon as it drops, it's going to get a dry day when it's not wet and salt on the roads, I'll take it out for a spin, we'll do the first test ride on it, and actually what I'm planning to do for this season, this is wetting my appetite for older bikes, so I'm going to do a whole series of videos on the best bikes of the decade, and the first decade I'm going to do is the best bikes of the northeast, so I'm going to ride as many northeast bikes I can, are the ones which change things, the ones which moves the technology on, because this is where bikes really changed, you know, this, this is the age of bikes, which the modern bikes are based off, this bike only weighs 172 kilos, wet dry, sorry, 172 kilos dry, that's a kilo lighter than the S1000RR M Sport, it's a kilo lighter than M Sport, it's 185 horsepower, so that's 20 horsepower down on the modern bike, but 185 horsepower and narrow electronics is more than enough for anyone, I would argue, so yeah, I'm going to do a whole series of bikes in the decade, once we've done the northeast, we're going to do the 90s, you know, we're going to ride the best bikes of the year, so if you've got an iconic bike from there, from 2000, 2000, 2009, or from, you know, 1990 to 1999, let me know, I'd love to ride some two-stokes, and we will do a proper series of older bikes, as people always ask for older bikes, and yeah, this is what I really wanted an older bike, and this thing is beautiful, so I'm a very, very happy chopsy, and join me next time for the test ride, because I can't wait to ride this. What a beauty!