For those of you who scour the annals of this web site, you'll know that a couple of years ago I wrote a piece on the advantages of owning a parallel imported bike. Well, since then things have taken a turn and where as Wayne would say "There is no substitute for cubes", I say, "There is no substitute for officially imported motorcycles".

As good a buy as the Gixer was for the money, when the parting of the ways came about for the Suzuki and I, one of the reasons came down to …… peace of mind. Anyone owning a Ducati may as well stop here and surf else where.

Both Mark and I owned parallel imported Gixers at the same time, Mark part exchanged his first (for an officially imported 750Y) and when he did, his bike was making a rather unusual top end type mechanical sound. At the time we put this down to the cam chain not having its Suzuki re-call and the necessary mod taking place. When Mark's Gixer was sold on, as an official UK Import from a "so called" reputable dealer, it didn't take long before the cam chain snapped. Mark found this out because the dealer who sold it called him rather sheepishly to find out the bike's origins, at which time they had to spill the beans before Mark parted with the info. Soon after, when mine was p/xd for the Blade, the sounds were similar. The bike's fate? Who knows? But one thing I do know, Keith's official Gixer never made those sounds and did well over twice the mileage. Nuff said!

When buying a new Blade, part of the ownership experience and package is a two-year Honda UK warranty. Excellent, but the Hondas I've owned in the past have had little use of a warranty, apart from when I may have buggered something up and done a bit of a blag, or the machine has required a re-call due to an R & D oversight in Japan, or some such thing.

Anyway, I've now owned my Blade for over a year and in that time, (as with other brand new models from other manufacturers) it's had two re-calls, one for a high-pressure fuel hose and another for some clutch mod. Both of which have been completed at the Honda dealership I bought the bike from (Dobles, Coulsdon). The Blade has also now been in need of two, yes two, warranty replacement parts. However, the first of these has been completed at my local Honda dealer (P&H Motorcycles, Crawley) and the second one will too. Off at a tangent here…………the reason for this change of allegiance is due entirely to the lack of professional workmanship and after sales care shown by the dealer where I bought the bike. Basically, when the clutch mod was done, the clutch casing was not sealed properly and there was an oil leak. This was human error. So the bike will not be going back there for any work to be carried out on it ever again. P & H on the other hand………tra la……la la la la la…..la.

Whilst I was at the Ring during the last weekend of September, I had a few suspension mods to carry out due to the number of times the foot pegs were decking out. Before, when I'd felt and heard metal touch tarmac it would be due to getting a corner wrong and having to deck the bike out to get round. This time however, the reason was down to angles of lean on the correct line, or at least a line that felt correct. The first mod was half a turn on the compression damping on the forks and a couple of clicks on the preload on the rear, just to stop the suspension sinking that little bit farther and thus allowing a tad more ground clearance. That's as far as the adjustments got - I'd have liked a tweak of the rear rebound but the adjustment screw had seized solid. Liberal libations of oil didn't make any difference and, as the Honda tool kit screwdriver isn't of the highest quality, I thought I'd leave further persuasion until I got it home. The oiling of the screw turned out (no pun intended) to be pointless as my suspicions were correct. Upon trying to free the screw with a manly screwdriver the thing snapped in half. Apparently, the screw is in two halves anyway, but they are sposed to be connected somehow. So after my persuasion tactics, the end with the screw head on would turn freely in my fingers but the needle end, which controls the flow of oil thus creating a damping effect, stayed where it was. I called Honda UK. "Oh, we've 'ad a few of those sir" was their reply. When I asked about where to get it repaired they informed me that I could have it done anywhere in Europe that I liked, and if anyone got shitty about it, to get them to call Honda UK immediately. I liked the sound of this, so off I went to P&H.

Today my Blade has been fitted with a new rear shock!! Happy? Oh yes. But it will be going back again for a regulator or a rectifier, can't remember which though. But this next bit will confirm which for the electrically minded of you…… Yesterday, I attempted to start the bike. The battery was flat after not being used for two weeks. Bloody alarms!! And I've only had the immobiliser active to reduce the draw on the battery! So I charged it with a normal, run of the mill 12V 1.5 amp battery charger for 18 hours. This morning it still didn't have enough oomph to start her, so jump-starting it was the answer.

I asked P&H to check the state of the battery whilst the bike was there, as I could feel another warranty claim coming on. After inspection, the technician spouted some technical blurb as only a technician could about amperes, volts and shite. It turned out the charging was irratic, (erratic is a word I understand, but can't spell), so an order for a new Reguflierector is underway. God knows what's gonna turn up, but it's gonna be brand new and shiny whatever it is!!

Two problems with a new Honda? Gasp, horror, whatever next, will Tet sell it? No he bloody well won't, it's still a cracking bike and by far and away the best I've ever owned and to top it all, my mind is at one with itself. Also, just in case anyone was wondering, my battery is doing fine and I've bought it a little companion called an Optimate 3 to keep it company and nice and cosy during the cold winter months ahead.

So, if you go parallel make bloody sure to keep up to date with manufacturers' recalls and make sure you get the work done by your supplying dealer. And you're gonna have to make sure that the dealer is prepared (and able) to honour any warranty claims. Thanks to parallel importers the official bikes are a fair bit cheaper nowadays, so I'm not gonna slag 'em off here, but you gotta think carefully about the bike's reliability and the level of service when things go wrong.