Phooey

I too was thinking maybe I should ask a MOD to move it for me! After all, wouldn't want to upset anyone.

I was talking to my son-in-law the other day and he tells me that he has had his CBF125 serviced and it cost him £80. Shocked look on my face and informs him that I service the bike myself and refuse to pay silly money for mechanics to do what I can do. I then asked what it would cost him to buy the bits and do it himself. More of an exercise to get him thinking rather than wanting to know the exact money. 'Well,' he said, 'oil, oil filter, air filter and four plugs would probably be ... ' 'FOUR plugs? What d'you want FOUR plugs for?' 'My bike needs four spark plugs!' 'NO!,' I inform him, 'your bike only have ONE.' Oh, he said. I though it had four.

Yes you are evil XmisterIS, but it made me smile!

Nothing like a bit zippy on a cold winters evening!

It crossed my mind, mate.

... I was out shopping today and while I was trying to cross the busy A38 to get to my car a woman pulled up in the gap beside me in her posh new, or nearly new, insignia. After about a minute, the road was quite busy, the woman got out of the car, crossed at the same time as me and then erected a colapsable white stick - the kind the visually impared use - and walked into the social security building. The mind boggles. Something is terribly wrong with this country, or the people in it!

Rainbow ... forgotten how much I used to like them when I was a kid.

Happy Birthday Rennie

Physics deals with universal laws, Joe, not just those we can logically work with. F = ma applies for mass changing as well as acceleration. In fact, even if only acceleration increases the mass also increases but at such a small amount that it is in all intense and purposes ignored until, as you correctly say, we approach close to the speed of light when laws as we are currently discussing go out of the window. When you get onto the motorway and accelerate to 100mph (theoretically speaking of course ) your mass has increased an infinitesimal amount. So yes, in everyday dealings mass hasn't (apparently) changed but the equations still holds true for mass and / or acceleration changes then so does force. We can't tell physics students that in everyday situations mass is constant, which I believe that is what you are suggesting, because that would be wrong. The original post was talking about classical Newtonian physics and its aimed at kids, so complicating it with special relativity, would not benfit anyone! I'm not complicating anything. You raised the relativity thing. F= ma and if either m or a or both increase so does F That's all I've been saying from the start. I think we better agree to disagree on this one.

Physics deals with universal laws, Joe, not just those we can logically work with. F = ma applies for mass changing as well as acceleration. In fact, even if only acceleration increases the mass also increases but at such a small amount that it is in all intense and purposes ignored until, as you correctly say, we approach close to the speed of light when laws as we are currently discussing go out of the window. When you get onto the motorway and accelerate to 100mph (theoretically speaking of course ) your mass has increased an infinitesimal amount. So yes, in everyday dealings mass hasn't (apparently) changed but the equations still holds true for mass and / or acceleration changes then so does force. We can't tell physics students that in everyday situations mass is constant, which I believe that is what you are suggesting, because that would be wrong.

I'm a maths teacher in my local college and I have to say time goes so quickly I don't even need to think about how I might waste it away. I like Joeman's idea of a pub class though. Let me think, how many litres of beer can we get into teacher before class ends! lol

No! Well, nearly! If F increases then either m, a or both must have increased. If mass increased and acceleration decrease proportionately, then F would remain the same. If mass decreases and acceleration stays the same then force will decrease. It is a linear relationship so if the LHS increases so must the RHS If the LHS stays the same then the 'product' (mass times acceleration) of the RHS must stay the same.

I didn't see it before but it looks good. Nice clean and user friendly. As has been said, a couple of typos and an occasional ambiguity with the physics but otherwise excellent. Better than I could have done. I am trying to write my page for maths and it is a headache! Well done Bex.

possibly a typo or i am not explaining it clear enough. I will have a look. Its always good for people to come back to me like this as i struggle with writing. thank you Bex, I think that should be an increase in the mass or increase in acceleration will increase the force (not mass).

lol ... trust me, I wanted to stop by the time I got there. My arse was sore. I need some foam padding inside my leathers!

Well, I got to Manchester without any problems. Bit colder up here than I expected and was starting to fill a little cold by the time I got here. The motorway wasn't too bad and I settle in quite quickly. At one point I noticed the speedo reading a whisker over 100 so I eased off the throttle back to 80 and soon started to feel a bit bored so stopped for a coffee. Picked up the A34 at Cannock and followed it up to Manchester. Nice ride and thoroughly enjoyed it. Next time I might put my thermal liner in my back-pack just incase. Managed 168 miles on about £15 of petrol (11.5L) rough calculation about 65mpg ... Well pleased with that and better than MCN says. Will fill up before I leave and again when I get back to Bristol and see what it cost me and do a more accurate calculation.

Fortunately, Tiggie, I ride a 600 so at least it won't be as bad as your trip!

Nice to know even seasoned bikers feel the jitters once in a while! Thanks mate.

Thanks guys. I plan to only do M5 as far as M6 interchange then pick up the A34 all the way. Otherwise I live so close to the motorway this end and my mother, whom I am visiting, lives so close to the motorway her end that I would be doing 171 miles and 163 on motorway. Not my idea of biking fun!

... and I am nervous! Is this normal or am I just being a wimp? I am preparing to leave Bristol at about 5pm this evening and travel to Manchester. Furthest I have ever ridden and certainly not done more than about 20 miles on my own. Feeling a bit ... alone. Did others feel anything like this on their first long solo ride?

1977, my first bike, Honda 125S. I am trying to start the damned thing but it wont kick over ... no electric start here ... and my leg was starting to ache a bit now. I would kick a few times and then let it sit, nothing. I lived on a bit of a hill so tried letting it roll and then bump it ... nothing. A police car pulled alongside me and asked what I was doing. I was 17 with long hair and looked like a typical lout of the day. I told them my story and while one of them took my details the other started my bike within a few seconds. They both got back in the car and sent me on my way laughing as the clever one who started the bike said 'Next time you might want to turn the petrol tap on!' I didn't know if I was more embarrassed or more grateful.

Impressive indeed ... far too time consuming for me though!

Oooh does all keys need to be programmed to ECU then? I was thinking of getting a spare key for my ZZR

Thanks guys ... update. I had a good look at it today and checked the valve again ... thanks for the tip Rene ... all seems ok. I got some soapy water and ran it around the rim while pumping like crazy with the mates footpump ... nothing! Called another mate who came out and within twenty seconds diagnosed the problem. Would you believe, BOTH pumps were knackered. He got his out and after 15 minutes and a fair bit of sweat, we got to 32psi ... enough to ride it gently to the local garage for a top-up. Who would have thunk it? TWO pumps knackered. Another embarrassing problem solved.

also let it run round bead of tyre so as your pumping you will see if the bead not sealed but it sound like valve to me as well Tried the soapy water thing and I can't see any bubbling. Tomorrow I will have a good look around the rim.