The Suzuki GSX1400 Owners Club

Help - Basics
 

What's a FAQ?
FAQ is a TLA for "Frequently Asked Questions". It attempts to prevent time wasting by answering those questions that are asked most frequently.

What is a TLA
A TLA is a Three Lettered Acronym, in other words a set of initials.

What is a GSX1400? I was looking for porn but Google sent me here by mistake.
A GSX1400 is a Suzuki motorcycle which has been available in Europe since June 2001.

Why a club for a stupid old motorcycle?
When I bought my GSX1400 I was so over the moon with it I thought it would be nice to start a club so owners could get together and gloat over their pride and joy. The club is mainly an Internet based club and almost all communication takes place via the net.

But why an Internet club?
Because the amount of admin is relatively small and the cost relatively cheap compared to a paper club. However that doesn't mean there isn't ANY admin! On average running this ship takes about 25 hours a week which is quite a lot so the less email I get that can be answered in this FAQ the better.

Where does it live?
Several places - The "Club" lives with me (David Pym aka Psycloud), the website lives on professional web servers somewhere on the Internet and the mailing list lives on a mail server that I own and maintain.

What's all this crap about "bandwidth"?
The web servers I pay to use come with a limited amount of bandwidth. In other words I have to pay for the web pages that are viewed by members (and non members). I have opted to pay for 25Gb of data transfer a month which is equivalent to the entire contents of 15000 full floppy disks or 35 full CD-ROM's. This translates to 200,000 pages a month! If I exceed this quota the site is shut down until the end of the month. N.B. The Mailing List does not eat the quota.

So who owns it all?
I suppose I do, but in reality the contributing members are what makes it tick. I have said many times before that if running the club becomes a total pain in the arse I will walk away from it, life is too short to spend on sorting out petty arguments.

Why don't you charge?
I do it for fun, not for money. Money could never persuade me it carry on with it if I was pissed off.

Why isn't there a committee?
I don't play well with others. No, seriously, there isn't a committee because that would make the whole thing way too complicated, trust me I know these things from experience. The Suzuki Owners Club is a "proper" club that has a committee and I strongly urge you to join them if you have a Suzuki bike as they are the ONLY club that Suzuki will officially support. The Suzuki GSX1400 Owners Club (us) have strong links with the SOC, one of their committee is a member of our club and they have also helped promote us on their stands at shows for which we are eternally grateful.

What's an Attritionist?
The Attristionists are the people in the club who work damn hard to bring you all this, organise events, fund raisers, goodies etc. Current Attritionists are myself, Gnome and Synk.

What do I get for my (non) money?
Sod all really - but then it didn't actually cost anything to join. This club is free as far as money goes!

OK, how does it work?
Ah, well it's a trade off. We provide the means of communication, collate the info, rally the troops, pay the ferryman (sorry, Internet host) and get as many discounts as possible - you, on the other hand, provide some of the info, help out other members, pester suppliers to give us discounts, show up at meets and don't moan.

I don't like the way things work
Sorry about that but there are plenty who do and there just isn't enough time in life to pander to every whim. There must be something here you like, if it's really that bad then probably best you don't join.

I don't like that attitude!
I don't much like people who join then do nothing but moan about how things should be when they don't actually contribute anything constructive or useful.

There are other GSX1400 websites, why don't you join forces?
Mainly because I don't want to. In the past there have been "personality issues" between sites and that kind of political shit doesn't float my boat. The Internet is a big place and there's plenty of room for more than one site, so for the foreseeable future gsx1400.org (The Suzuki GSX1400 Owners Club) will remain autonomous.

I think you should change the logo!
Again, I'm sorry if it's not your cup of tea, and yes it is similar to other designs you may have seen on clothingbut if I changed it every time someone asked then it would never become established.

I won't buy a T-Shirt unless you change the logo.
Don't then, it's not compulsory and I make nothing (sometimes a small loss) on them so there's no incentive to change things in respect of more sales. The current selling rate is about 1 T-Shirt per 2 members and in excess of 100 units.

OK, I'm sold - how do I join?
You need to follow all the instructions and read the page content very carefully on the Membership page.

I don't have Internet access though - I'm reading this in a cybercafe.
Oh dear.