RantMachine

What about hard luggage? I know it's not exactly the first choice for a cruiser, but with the more modern styling of a Vulcan S you could probably rock it. http://www.givi.co.uk/my-motorcycle#KAWASAKI,Vulcan_S_650_%2815_%3E_16%29 The Givi racks cost about £150, then the panniers are extra - various suppliers do bundles where you buy the lot together and save money. Don't be put off by the price of the aluminium cases (~£700 for the set), the plastic ones seem to be nearer the £300 to £400 range for the full setup!

Big update in the rules thread! Go give it a read, you know you want to http://themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59602

BIG UPDATE TIME Having spent a fair bit of time last weekend discussing the idiot challenge with some other forum members and then bouncing some ideas off Stu, I've come to a revised version of things... Hoping this will make it a little more accessible for all the people who want to take part but have limitations that prevent them from doing it on their own. Biggest change first... The teams Lots of people have said they'd love to take part but time/space/budget/etc are an obstacle. So here's the new spin on things: you can go it alone if you really want, but we're encouraging people to work in pairs to split the workload. All the time in the world by no space to work on the bike? Find a team mate with a garage. Got the money but the mechanical skills are lacking? Find a team mate who knows their way around a spanner and split the cost. Sounds like fun but don't want to ride a 125cc deathtrap? Find a team mate who is happy to do the riding if you do the build. You get the idea. What I'm hoping is that anyone who doesn't already have an obvious team mate in mind can find someone in the discussion thread, assuming these new rules attract the attention that we didn't get the first time around. Obviously if you're splitting costs it's up to you to work out who keeps the bike - smart money would probably be to sell it an split the profits, I guess. Final bit, hopefully when we do the actual ride part of the challenge we'll have our riders on our idiot bikes and the team mates following in their cars or on their not-so-idiot bikes with tools and spares Before people start spending money, we need to know that people are actually taking part! Be a shame if one person blew half a grand on a bike and nobody else bothered. With that in mind, I reckon we want to know who is in by November 30th at the latest. The budget & the build The maximum budget has been upped to £700, and I don't care how you spend it In other words, if you really want to you can sink nearly all £700 on a bike that runs pretty sweet... but it will have a big influence on your points from the get go. I'll have a proper scoring structure posted soon, but essentially there will be a sizeable points bonus for every £100 that you manage to stay under-budget. Saving money AND getting a head start? Not a bad deal Anyone that hits the £700 mark without successfully making their bike roadworthy can go over-budget and seek help outside of their team, BUT there's a hefty points penalty and you can't go nuts over budget - just the bare minimum to get it through an MOT. Furthermore, anyone that buys a tidy £600 runner will still have their work cut out for them... we'll be awarding extra points according to the level of work that was put into the bike to make it roadworthy (ie. it needs to pass an MOT to take part in the road bit of the challenge!), so anyone that buys a working bike will have to make up for those lost points by going to town on customising. The crazier the better! We want to see some god awful rattle-can paint jobs and DIY fairings Last bit - we're going to allow people to use bikes they already own, so long as they have some kind of proof of how much they spent on it. (No, I'm not planning on using the CG... I need that for my Winter commute ) But I know a few people asked, so there you go. Obviously a lot of the challenge will be relying on trusting people to be honest about their costs, and this is no different. If you paid £400 for the bike 6 years ago, you've got £300 left. No, the consumable items from the last 6 years don't come out of your budget. But if it's currently knackered and needs some love, THAT comes out of the budget. And if you've replaced any non-consumable items in that time, again, that comes out of the budget. Bought a new engine for £200 on Fleabay for that same bike a few years ago? That's £600 of your budget gone now. Still, hopefully this will open things up to a few more people. Oh, and no dodgy stuff with selling your 125 to your team mate for 50p and a curly wurly So a breakdown of budget & build: - £700 to spend, but extra points for staying under budget - Bonus points according to just how much work you do to fix it up - Bonus points for customisation, the wilder it gets the more points you receive - Bike needs to pass an MOT, no points will be deducted for advisories. You heard me right, if the indicators don't work properly then you can save money by removing them altogether - You can use a bike you already have, so long as you haven't spent more than £700 on the bike (price when you first bought it + cost of any work other than servicing since then) - And for the love of god, please BUY THE BIKE BEFORE FEBRUARY 1st! For one thing prices start to climb back up around then, but more importantly we don't want people leaving it too late then being caught out by a nasty surprise when fixing it up and missing the ride as a result The ride The ride section of the challenge will be some time in summer next year. We'll spread it over a long weekend - maybe try and do it on the last weekend of May so that we get the bank holiday, to save anyone burning annual leave days. Simple formula: we all ride to somewhere fairly central for everyone taking part, pitch our tents, then bugger off and do a couple of challenges. In the evening we do any repairs needed, then have a drink Next morning, pack up and move to another campsite, repeat. Do that for three days, I'm thinking. Of course we can try to work this around everyone who takes part. Every day will have a big challenge that's more likely to wreck the bikes (eg. green laning or drag race) and a small challenge that's a bit safer (motogymkhana, stuff like that). Open to suggestions for challenges. Anyone who breaks down along the way can earn some extra points for successful repairs, and of course your team mate (if you have one) can assist. If someone from outside the team has to help, no bonus. And then you've got the whole evening each day to spruce it up and fix any wear and tear from the day while everyone with a working bike relaxes at a pub somewhere Spares and consumables come out of the budget, mind. The more creative the repairs, the more extra points will be dished out THE TL;DR - You can work in pairs if you want - Team mate carries tools and spares, the idiot bike carries their own camping gear though! - Budget is now £700 per team, spend it however you choose - Bonus points for staying under budget, penalty points for going over - Go nuts with the fettling, tons of bonus points to be had for creative repairs and crazy customisation - You can use a bike you already have, so long as it didn't originally cost more than £700 - Ride spread across a few days (three?) with camping in between, two challenges per day - Decide if you're doing it by 30th November 30th, buy a bike by 1st February, ride will be at the end of May Discussion thread is here: http://themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59586 Let me know what you think! The more interest the better, and if any small tweaks to the setup would make it possible for more people to join in, I can give it a look

Totes. I got the idea from a popcorn box.

Remember the FS1E and YB100, 4 straight down boxes on those, sounds like they have just shoehorned another ratio into this Japanese sourced gearbox! There was a 4-down variant of the CG, limited edition ones made with the electrics of the newer 12v version but in the bodywork of the 6v version. Sold in Japan only, for a very limited run. A few made their way to these shores courtesy of importers, one ended up on my driveway. Probably based on one of those!

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/joaquin-phoenix-shock-signs.gif

Don't think you'll get far with that argument seeing as Benn hasn't posted on the forum since 2013 Also back then, at the tender age of 17, he'd still only be doddling round on a 125. http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/graphics/misc/16869.gif

Excuses, excuses...

Not on the 1st of October you ain't!

Haaaang on a minute Joe, think you've got things a bit mixed up, that was clearly Megatron http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Burial_b60be4_2067851.jpg

I've been trying Muc-Off anti fog seeing as my helmet doesn't accommodate a pinlock, and it works astoundingly well - worth a shot for anyone else in a similar position. Obviously a pinlock is still a smarter move if you have the choice, lower maintenance and cheaper in the long run.

I'm going to be back to commuting by bike soon, just in time for the winter... Living next to the train station was lovely while it lasted. At least I have the CG these days so that the KLX doesn't have to get too many unnecessary miles piled onto it.

My Oxford "waterproof" gear is pretty shite too - I think my summer gloves keep the rain out better!

Oh dear

Yeah, that's what I'm getting

London?!? Check your insurance is up to date and kiss your bike goodbye...

Well, I won't complain that I'm missing it

I'm just getting pictures of kids TV stuff. Dunno what sort of things you usually search for if Google has decided you'd be better off seeing summat dirty instead!

Should've done him for using the phone while driving while they were at it, too!

http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/final_destination_slice_02.jpg I think you know what my reply to that is. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0_H1ZjDqVy4/Tzp3-65ACNI/AAAAAAAAAyM/Or9eWbqqrIM/s1600/colin-mochrie-fingers.gif

http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/final_destination_slice_02.jpg

Got there in the end

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Will this do? 01010011011011110111001001110010011110010010110000100000011101110110100001100001011101000010000001110111011000010111001100100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000001000010011001010110010101100110011110010011111100100000010010010010000001100011011011110111010101101100011001000110111000100111011101000010000001101000011001010110000101110010001000000111100101101111011101010010000001101111011101100110010101110010001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110011011011110111010101101110011001000010000001101111011001100010000001111001011011110111010101110010001000000110010101111000011010000110000101110101011100110111010000101110