Any Motörbike riders here?

IanSavage

That sounds excellent, I've kind of learned as I've gone along so a lot of what I 'know' may be wrong - be nice to get some professional input!

cruxiform

IanSavage said:

That sounds excellent, I've kind of learned as I've gone along so a lot of what I 'know' may be wrong - be nice to get some professional input!

I've learned maintenance from being tight with money and also from a distrust of dealers. I've made a few mistakes along the way but largely bike maintenance is pretty straightforward.

Tone71

Bikes are a piece of piss to work on plus there is always your bikes own forum when you are stuck!!

cruxiform

The fireblade passed its MOT today with no advisories. After all the work I've done, the bike feels great. Cracking ride afterwards back to home.

octatonic

Whoohoo!

Bet you are pleased.

octatonic

This lad needs a slap.

cruxiform

Thanks James, yes I am! This coming Wednesday it'll be heading for its second TT. I'm mildly excited

Tone71

Thats a great video of a nobber, love the way he nearly looses it pulling away after being a knob!!

Your right though, a slap is the only answer.

boogieman

Couple of nice bikes I spotted in Rhodes.

 

octatonic

boogieman said:

1940's army issue Harley by the looks of it.

Very nice- a guy at my uni has one for his daily commute.

boogieman

The Harley looked pretty authentic and original, the Beezer had been mocked up to look like something it wasn't I think. Still nice though.

midiglitch

Re that video, what a bell end. Thankfully not too many of them round here. If it had been me on the yamaha I think I would have kicked off!

Having said that the guy on the yamaha was riding very poorly throughout the video. Road positioning was poor coming into, through and out of the roundabout.  He never changed his indicator (and note the right turn possibility immediately after his exit) and no shoulder check before leaving the roundabout or, crucially, before turning left down the side street.  I'm not sure he could have avoided the accident purely because of the way the scumbag on the scooter accelerated into him but...lots he could take away from that video.

octatonic

Agree midiglitch.

Well, I had an amazing day yesterday.

Went out for a London Bikers ride-out- there were 5 of us on 4 bikes- Ace Cafe to H Cafe for lunch and then back through the twisties.

For the first time I was keeping pace with the other people on the ride- there were a couple of places that I couldn't quite hang (being on a naked bike over 70 isn't fun) but otherwise I think I did pretty well.

It is all coming together and I'm definitely progressing.

One of the chaps on the ride-out was surprised when he learned I only started back in December.

Of course I now want a supersports bike (or maybe a sports tourer).

cruxiform

It's a great feeling when it's like that, I remember those times when it all comes together. Great for your confidence. I went out yesterday for a solo ride, needed to scrub my new tyres in. Pace was 'brisk'



Rykas was reasonably quiet considering it was such a nice day.

midiglitch

Well. .. I'm currently sat under a tree in the pouring rain in a car park in lyndhurst waiting for my mrs to arrive here in my car with a set of jump leads. ..

Set out on bike for band practice at jims house (plectrum in pocket, will use his guitar) in light rain, forgetting of course that there would be hordes of bank holiday makers leaving the new forest today.

Filtering past them on the long road down to Lyndhurst, I congratulated myself on taking the bike. When I finally get to the que for the lights in Lyndhurst it's got too narrow to filter and I sit there for ages watching the lights flicker Green before resuming red time and time again. Realising I'd be here a while and seeing the engine getting pretty hot I decided to switch it off.

Of course when the lights changed back the bike wouldn't start. I killed the battery trying to get it going. Then I tried bump starting it a few times to no avail (tried in first, second and even third but couldn't get more than a loud bang out of it. ) so I gave up and called my mrs. Who now has to sit in all the same traffic to get to me.

She deserves to be taken out for lunch in lyndhurst when she finally gets here... But do I sack off band practise to do that? ?!

I guess the engine was flooded. I also think that the clutch was grabbing, having got very hot in the traffic. I didn't bother to put it in neutral to start it and I think the combo drained the battery pretty quickly. Lesson learned!

boogieman

Bugger! Hope you get it sorted ok

Guitar_Slinger

I've spent the last two months commuting into London on a moped (a de-restricted Piaggio Liberty that will do 55mph when I need it to). I used to do it on my main bike, an 800cc chopper, but there's more stationary traffic than when I started riding to work (1988*).

So much easier to twist n' go - no clutch to constantly pump, can squeeze through the tiniest of gaps and each month on the bike is over £100 cheaper than train fare.

*since 1990 I've ridden the same route to work on a Honda MT-50, Yamaha DT125 then a TDR250, Honda C90, CB250N Super Dream and a few years on a Suzuki Intruder 800 with the missus on the back during the summer months!

sinbaadi

Hot engines can be a bugger to bump, always worth asking someone for a push though, just to force it turn it over a few times rather than the one-clunk-turn-over-brake-to-a-halt thing that happens whenever I do it, at least.

midiglitch

@sinbaadi - thats exactly how it sounded!

well, anyway that turned out to be a proper win-win situation.

called the guys in the band and agreed that if i didn't make it over i'd be productive this afternoon and get some recording done for them instead, and they used the time to practise some covers which they are doing as an acoustic duo for their mates wedding.

Then my mrs arrived and we got the bike fired up straight away, no problem.  I offered to take her out for lunch, but she was still wearing her pyjamas so that was a no, which left me to enjoy the back roads of the new forest for an hour or so in the pouring rain, which was quite exciting.  Practised some emergency stops (I usually do) and found that on newer grippier looking tarmac i could still get the front to chirp and squeal even when very wet.  On slippier looking tarmac there was less indication before the front locked up, as expected.

right, then, must record that bloody solo...

underdog

Took my little 125 and shiney new CBT for a run, only comparatively small (about 15miles) one but I really enjoyed. Made a few small errors (mainly letting clutch out too fast) but really enjoyed and feel much more confident and got to know the bike a bit better.