I bought the Honda CBR900RR in November 2005, it's just celebrated its eleventh birthday. I always wanted a Honda CBR900RR. And now I have one I'm never going to trade it.

I not ride that much during the raining season so that is when I do repairs and work the to do list. Last year I fine tuned the carburetors, replaced fork seals, sorted out fueling and knackered shocks.

This years raining season's to do list is much bigger, I plan to change the front and rear brake discs and pads, and new fluid; front forks; indicators; and neutral light. The CBR900RR is still in top condition, with an advisory note about the brake discs, so I'll have to fit new discs and pads front and back.

Whatever happened to motorcycles with factory mounted turbo's? When turbos first became 'en-vogue', in the early 1980s on sporty hot-hatches, it wasn't long before motorcycles became targets for these power accessories.

Turbo-charging works by forcing more air into the engine via a turbine, which is driven by escaping exhaust gases. The first bikes to feature turbos were the Honda CX500 Turbo of 1981 and the Yamaha XJ650T a year later. The old Maggot could gallop along at around 210km/h thanks to the turbo, and this was replaced by a 650 version in 1983.

Suzuki's first foray was the forgettable 650cc XN85, in 1984, the same year that Kawasaki launched perhaps the definitive turbo bike, the Gpz750E1 Turbo. Here, finally, was a bike that delivered what a turbo bike should: much greater performance that its much bigger brother the Gpz1100 had.

It's the depths of the monsoon and we've come a long way since we found a crashed 2003 Yamaha R1, which was gathering dust at a condominium parking downtown, but now it's time to take stock of what of what we have and where we want to go next. This isn't some kind of money-no-object ego project to try to get the most horsepower from the engine of bolt on all the best aftermarket products we can lay our hands on. Rather, we're more interested in seeing which relatively modest mods can make the biggest difference to our, riding pleasure.

We're also not going to try to build a better bike than Yamaha engineers, who spend their careers welding and working on CAD-CAM machines, I can only dream off. We know our limits, at least when it comes to welding.

If turbocharging doesn't set your heart racing, there's an alternative path to forced induction - supercharging. We saw a Kawasaki Z1000, one of the new ones, with a supercharger at a European bike meet and we thought, that is really cool. So a few months a I did bolt and started calling some people in England. We did already personalized the Yamaha FZ6 a lot, but the supercharger makes it unique.

Fundamentally, the principle behind how a supercharger increases power is the same as a turbo, a compressor forces air into the engine. However, with a supercharger the turbine is driven not by exhaust gas but via a belt from the crank. It also uses planetary gearbox to increase the turbine's speed. In theory at least, superchargers should produce more instantaneous power, because they don't have to wait for exhaust gases to build up. But, as it's a driven system, some of the total output is reduced through mechanical losses.

It's hard to fault the Triumph Tiger. In over 4200 kilometers it has absorbed everything from multi-lane highways to the narrow, bumpy, rural roads of Northeast Thailand around my dwelling with a delicious balance of handling, ride quality, comfort, pace and economy. And childish fun. There's just about nowt to moan about.

But as with any bike there are always a couple of areas that can be massaged. I'm not talking major suspension revamps or drastic tuning, if you need to do such things you've probably bought the wrong bike, but rather tweaking the details, adjusting the smaller things to suit personal tastes.

First up will be the free stuff, like adjusting the suspension. The stock settings are a fantastic balance of plush ride quality and cornering composure but, as my bond with the Triumph Tiger becomes stronger and I ride faster,

Spending a small amount of cash reviving your suspension makes a monumental difference. Saves buying a new bike... Since my Suzuki SV650S stepped out of retirement earlier this year, one thing in particular has been crying out for correction. After nearly 16,000 kilometers the forks, a soft setup even on brand-new bikes, offered almost no resistance. The springs felt tired, the damping was non-existent, and even gentle braking had them bottoming out.

A cheap fix was needed to suit a budget bike. A local motorcycle shop on Suksawat Road offered a solution. His simple suggestion: stiffer fork springs and thicker oil. Here's how they transformed the bike for under 6000 Baht.

If you ride all year round, or do a lot of work on your bike, then no doubt you get as frustrated as us by the crap quality of some standard fasteners. We know that manufacturers have no manage costs, but sometimes, they really take the piss.

The minute the clocks go back, every steel fastener on your bike turns orange. By the first rain season, half the brackets are so rusty that a stuff breeze threatens to reduce them to dust. And you only have to pass within few kilometers of the seashore to get some salty sea breeze for all the alloy bits to fur up.

It's even worse should you dare wave a spanner at something. The second you flick open your toolbox, every nut and Allen bolt instantly rounds off.

It's the raining season, while some riders see no point to stop riding, others (temporally) exchange the motorcycle for other means of transport. This is the perfect opportunity to work on the bike, as every fashionable motorcyclist knows a new season demands a new look, so here's some ideas for a few bolt on goodies that will give your ride a fresh image.

First if you not already have them, install Crash Bungs. What's the point in fitting a ton of new accessories and getting a paint job when a low speed tip off could instantly make your bike look very second hand? Crash Bungs work, fact.

Crash Bungs will save your bike from major damage and in some cases keep it completely scuff free. Fitting them takes a few minutes and they usually only cost 2000 to 5000 Baht. It's better to be safe than sorry and nowadays bungs are as much a fashion accessory as they are a functional item. Just be aware some require cutting a hole in the faring, ask before you buy.

Most motorcycles these days will be using sealed 'maintenance free' batteries, but that doesn't mean there's nothing you can do to look after them. At the very least make sure the terminals are tight and corrosion free, and ideally coated with a smear of Vaseline or proprietary battery battery grease to keep them sweet through the raining season.

Hooking your bike up to a battery maintenance charger when not in use is pretty much a must these days. And particularly if your motorcycle has some kind of alarm fitted, if it's used infrequently during the dry months and never when the raining season sets in. And if the electrical system is burdened with the task of powering extras such as heated grips, an overnight trickle-charger is even more essential.

We get customers bringing badly maintained bikes in sometimes but one came in last week that took the biscuit. He'd worn his brake pads right through the friction material. But he'd kept riding. And he'd started wearing the metal away.

And one pad had actually worn completely away and the piston in the caliper was gripping on the brake disc, acting like a brake pad. Word soon spread round the shop and all the staff went for a look. It was probably the worst, most dangerous neglect we've ever seen.

The bike was an old Kawasaki, made from all different bits. I'd have thought someone with the mechanical sense to bolt at least a semi-roadworthy bike together would have known how to check brake pads or at least asked someone what the problem was when the screech of metal-to-metal started. But it turned out he'd bought the bike from someone else who'd built it.