GPZ500s - real world review

Advantages: fast, light, cheap to insure and run
Disadvantages: lumpy at low revs, needs good tyres and regular servicing

...managed to pick up a brand new GPZ500S E10 (2003 model) in early 2005. It must have been one of the few remaining new GPZ's available. My E9 (2002 model) -which this review is based on- has covered just over 36,000 miles and my E10 has done just over 6,000. The only changes between the two models were the colour schemes. No problems with the E10 model as it's so new. The E9 has needed new wheel bearings, headrace bearings and a battery. Everything else has been problem free. As far as the E9's bodywork goes, the paint around the radiator has started to peel and some light rust has begun to appear on the welds around the rear foot peg brackets. There is also some light rusting on the swingarm. You cannot fit a rear hugger to these bikes which means the rear suspension and swingarm are vulnerable to general road crud and stone chips. Obviously...

tomsmith500 21.01.2004 (06.12.2009) · Read review
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Review of Kawasaki GPZ500s

Kawasaki GPZ500S 2001 model

Advantages: Low running costs, excellent handling, fast.
Disadvantages: Suspension a bit soft if two up.

...Having returned to biking after a 35 year break ( yep im 54) i jumped at the offer of a 2001 GPZ500S that had just 3000miles on the clock. The bike had been dropped so there was a bit of remodeling to do but all has been kept origional. I live in france and do a 100 mile round trip every day come hail or sun to work. I get 190 miles per tank but can get much more if i keep the speed down. I can say that the handling is excellent. I was a bit nervous for the first few days as I got back into the swing of biking in the wet again. I had a few very gentle slides but this just helped my cornering confidence. The bike is very forgiving. so eventually I replaced the old rear and fitted a bridgstone battleaxe 45 rear tyre. wow! that changed the handling and the slides have gone. Now I can corner faster in the wet with more lean than I used to in...

minilandrover 04.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Kawasaki GPZ500s

GPZ500S 99

Advantages: Cheep to run handles superb and very fast
Disadvantages: Brakes are a tad soft

...I have now had my GPZ500 on the road for a week now and bought it two months ago. I previously has a Honda CB250 Two fifty and was restricted to a 33bhp licence but since last week my two years are up! My first day on the bike consisted of the ultimate test. I was riding with a pillion and around 6000 other bikers! I was riding in the Glasgow Yorkhill childerns hospital easter egg run. This bike performed faultlessly easy to control at slow speed and didnt overheat. My first two months owning the bike was spent modding it. I have changed the screen for a semi tint, put on a tank pad Scotland flag, K&N air filter (ohh the induction noise!) and most importaintly a Laser deaptone exhaust as its kick ass. This transformed the bike into a fire breathing deamon. Loud when you rev it and pops and backfires when you rev it hard and shut off...

acemclynch 26.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of Kawasaki GPZ500s

Samsung E-magine

Advantages: Slim, light, easy to use, good sound system
Disadvantages: Poor quality camera, outdated

...After my Nokia 7373 broke, I should say after I broke it, but that's not something to go into now, I realised I was still paying for a £35 a month contract and getting no benefit so I went in search in a new phone. The problem is now when you buy a pay as you go phone that so many of them are network locked, so I knew I was far better off buying a phone on the right network. Better safe than sorry. I didn't think I was in any great rush to buy a phone but one lunchtime after a particularly bad morning at college, I decided to pop along to the local Tesco and have a look for a new phone. The choice was relatively limited but amongst the usual tat I noticed something that I quite liked. It was a Samsung E250. I had previously had the D500, about eighteen months ago, so I knew they were reliable, the menus were easy to use...

Expired-Account 18.02.2008 (06.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of Samsung SGH E250

E, how did I ever live without this?!

Advantages: attractive, loads of features, good contract
Disadvantages: /

.... They were not offering BlackBerries on the plan I wanted, but I did find a really nice phone in the form of the Nokia E71 and as soon as I read about it, I knew it was the one for me. Once again I processed the order, and much to my surprise an email came through a few days later, telling me that the order had been successful and that my phone would be with me in a few days. I have never felt so relieved in all my life! After what seemed like forever, I picked up my new phone from the post office and rushed home. Sitting myself down, I carefully prised open the box to discover the contents. Sitting on top was the shell of my phone, incomplete without its battery or sim card. Removing this and the top layer, I discovered the rest of the wonders that came with the package. Along with the dozen leaflets and little booklets you get telling you...

Amy69 13.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Nokia E71

Samsung E900

Advantages: Style
Disadvantages: Not an iPhone (Isn't packed with features), Processing noise

...I bought my Samsung E900 a few years ago now for around £80. I wasn't looking for anything fancy and this phone was exactly that - quite good looking with pretty basic features. ~~~ Looks / Style ~~~ I was looking through a catalogue at all the various phones and this appeared to be one of the best looking without being too expensive. When I finally got it I was just as pleased with it looking at it for real as I was when looking at it in the catalogue. It has a shiny black finish, which can show fingerprints quite clearly and the overall look and feel of the phone is smooth. When you don't touch it for a few seconds it basically just looks like a black box with a silver button in the middle. ~~~ Ease of Use ~~~ My main use for the phone is for texting. It's very easy to that on this phone, because you can...

Wils0408n 04.12.2009 · Read review
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Review of Samsung SGH-E900

Binatone e800 - the budget handset

Advantages: Cheap
Disadvantages: Lack of enhanced functions

...Introduction At work, we still live in the dark ages where wired telephones are very much the norm. In our office however, we have dedicated support PC's which we constantly need to move to from our own PC's. As it was getting silly with trailing wires all over the office floor, the boss decided to buy us a new hands free phone kit. The kit he went for was the Binatone E800 twin set. I think this was probably the cheapest he could find but nonetheless we were still grateful as it was an unexpected gesture from him. In the box The box itself was very small, containing just the 2 handsets, 2 small bases, a power lead and the instruction manual. Being IT guys, we completely ignored the manual and attempted to set the phones up the way we thought. Setup Before we could use the handsets, they needed to be...

craggybuk 13.10.2009 (20.10.2009) · Read review
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Review of Binatone E800

The E71 is a fantastic smartphone, packed with features.

Advantages: Packed with features, big and bright screen, astonishing battery life
Disadvantages: Poor camera

...The Nokia E71 is a Symbian-based Smartphone, with a full QWERTY keyboard. I've had this for three months now, which I feel is a sensible amount of time to be able to give a full informed opinion on how easy the phone is to live with. I got this on contract with Orange through an online retailer (http://www.mobiles.co.uk), on a 24-month contract with £250 automatic cashback, for £40 per month, which gave me 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB data per month on Orange. Well, that's the package, but what about the phone itself? First of all, personally I think it's a fantastic looking phone. The buttons are all neatly laid out (which is a must, with so many of them!), and despite the keypad buttons being small, it's easy to use, and even with sausage fingers like I have, I don't often hit a wrong key. The finish oozes...

kevhamster 15.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Nokia E71

Nokia E71

Advantages: Looks Great, battery life is excellent, email and wi fi functions
Disadvantages: no push email, menu graphics could look better

...I recently bought an iphone which as a phone I was really disappointed with. I wanted to find a phone, which could email and undertake business applications whilst still look cool when I pulled it out in a bar at the weekend. What can I say? The Nokia E71 is all of these things. It's a solid mobile phone that looks great and does all the things it says on the tin. If I had to be negative on some points, then it would be that the menu and graphics could be more modern in their appearance and email needs to be synchronized. However on the whole the phone is excellent If you're looking for a sharp looking phone that you can use for business that won't let you down, then buy the Nokia E75....

t18mmy 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Nokia E71

Mercedes E 220 CDI

Advantages: comfortable, economical
Disadvantages: questionable electronics, technical design

...Stumbled across a single review of this vehicle which struck me as too eulogistic to be of much use. I live in Europe where attitudes to Mercedes products are less reverential and have had a manual transmission E220 CDi since Oct.2003 (which I'd like to sell). This model with 150 bhp/340nm. has effectively been superceded since July 2006 by a revised model with 170bhp and approx 400nm. and which among some 2000 changes has done away with the brake by wire system and probably other curiosities as well. Any German-speaking reader should look at ownership surveys, such as in Auto Motor und Sport 10 November 2004 edition. It is certainly a roomy, comfortable car to drive with good ride quality, low noise levels and fuel consumption and enough middle-range performance to perform very well on motorways. The weight, clunky...

patricklux 09.12.2006 · Read review
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Review of Mercedes E 220 CDI