Those of you who are now becoming familiar with this site will have read all about my VTR and also that I am now the recent purchaser of a GSXR750WX, (99 model). So what ? I hear you say. Well, I'll tell ya wot, it's a Parallel and I've never bought one before, that's wot !! So, I thought I'd share this with you as it might be a case of "All you ever wanted to know about Parallel Imports, but were too scared to ask ?". Or just couldn't be bothered to ask.

I'll digress. The thought of owning another Suzuki (as once I had a brief experience with a 1200 Bandit), was not a pleasant one at first as I'd never liked the finish or the quality, but this thought was short lived after I rode one. But before that, I had a go on a few other in-line 4's (Keith's OW and Fast's Fireblade) and realised what I had been missing out on for the past 2½ years, so the V twin had to go - it was now deemed as boring. After riding Keith's GSXR the first thoughts that entered my head were, "Mmmm, this doesn't need much tinkering to make it do what it should, if any at all", so the seed had been sown.

I popped off down to P & H Motorcycles of Crawley, (awfully nice chaps) to strike a deal. Not happening there, too expensive and no reasonable P/Ex or deals to be had, unless I was prepared to wait. Sorry, that word is not in my vocabulary !! The following couple of weeks I scoured MCN and called loads of Suzy dealers. The best I could get was £3900 for my VTR against a Suzook at list £7200, again, too much money for me to change over bikes.

I reconsidered. Then set myself a budget. After doing so I happened upon the Southampton Motorcycle Show a couple of weeks ago on a very wet Sunday. At the show were some local dealers, one being SMC (Southern Motorcycle Centre) of Southampton. On display were various bits if tackle all at very nice prices and one just happened to be what I was looking for, a Blue and White GSXR750WX. SUPERB !! and better than that, it was priced at £5399 OTR !! "Bloody Hell, how much ????"

Obviously at that price the bike was a Parallel Import. I then spoke to a chap called Pete, (owner of SMC) and he proceeded to explain about the warranty. The bikes he sources (as do all the other Parallel Importers in UK, or at least the reputable ones) come from Holland or a list of dealers across Europe. All bikes have a full Suzuki warranty, but that is a Suzuki warranty from the original country of import, not Suzuki GB. In other words if your bike blew up and was under warranty, you can have a new engine etc. but it just takes a week or two longer to get the replacement part(s) than it does if you have an official GB import. The dealer you purchase the machine from will assist in this for you.

I deliberated and then common sense took over. Well, let's face it. At the end of the day how many new bikes do you know that blow up or have massive warranty claims under normal use? The biggest claim I have ever had, was for front discs on a YZF and a radiator on a Fireblade, so it's not normally major and, even if it is, you're covered. It just won't be done tomorrow.

As I write this I am awaiting delivery of my new bike (I though you said the word wait wasn't in your vocabulary). It will be delivered tomorrow or Friday and they will take my VTR back with them.

Now the way I look at it is thus; I've just brought a brand new bike for £5399 OTR, I was given £3500 in P/ex, so I've spent 1900 quid to replace my existing bike with exactly the model and machine I wanted and I've saved myself 1800 quid on the price between the Parallel and the Official import. Where's the catch? I'm not so sure there is one. All I've done is buy the bike at the price it really should be, without excessive profits slammed on top. The bike may have a kph clock and only one headlight on dip beam, but so what ? SMC fitted a chip so the speedo reads MPH now. If I really want to change the face, I just send the speedo to Clokworx in Scotland and they'll do the fascia for it in a few days for the paltry sum of about 50 quid.

So there you have it. Is it really worth spending so much more on official bikes ? I don't think so and as we have already seen buying parallels helps the price of the official bikes come down, in order to compete, so we're all winners in the end.