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August/September 1997 (25 years ago!) I went through recruit training at Halton. I can still remember how being back-flighted/re-flighted was considered a fate worse than death.... Accepting that it actually will have helped her ditch a huge amount of self-inflicted pressure, good on her! The 2nd time you go through a gas chamber and unmask is actually enjoyable if nobody else has been through it. It's still awful, but at least you have the advantage of knowing how awful it will be.

Congratulations to your daughter for joining up - please pass on to her that she will never forget recruit training, but as time passes it will be the fun/daft/happy bits which stay as the strongest memories (and not so much the seemingly endless bollockings.....) Assuming that the rules remain the same (not allowed to leave base) then it seems the best/only option is to provisionally book at MOT for the day after her graduation (I would suggest not early in the morning...) You can always re-schedule if she decides she loves Halton so much that she wants to stay on for a few extra weeks

If you ride any long journeys (especially dual carriageway/constant speed) then a clip on throttle rest is fantastic Scottoiler Crampbuster - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=scott ... 66&bih=643 Or something similar. There's lots of different types and you should be able to pick them up for £5. Best £5 I've spent on bike kit I reckon.

Schuberth C3 in Fluoro yellow. About as bright as you can get, great quality, comfort, practical. None of those things I listed sounded sexy though.

Ordered one! Actually, I've ordered 2 lol - one M and one L - I hate buying stuff online, deciding I want to try the size smaller/larger, sending it back, then finding I actually preferred the other size after all..... This way I try both back to back and decide. (Then find I want an XL anyway)

Lol - sorry didn't mean to pry! Couldn't see any sizing info on the website (other than just M, L etc) so thought I'd ask to get an idea. I'm 5'11, 32" waist and 40" chest, I seem to range between an S and an XL depending on where I get stuff :s

Sounds very promising - can I ask what size you bought and what your height/chest/waist size is please?

Budget is a big thing... Great features, Great Quality, Great Price. Pick any two. I use a C3 (with a Sena Bluetooth kit) and it's a great combination. Before I put the noisy exhaust on my bike I could have phone conversations at 80mph and people just thought I was in the car. But it's not a cheap option. Mind you, I don't have a cheap head.

Also seems to work really well at keeping the dust down (as it gets trapped in the carpet, then you just hoover it up) As well as being good thermal and sound insulation etc. Also better on your bike tyres if the bikes stay parked up for long periods. Yeah - and free. Free is good.

ACF50.

After we'd put the most recent lot of carpet down (whenever a mate is getting a new carpet, we remove their old one for them ) we had some offcuts so she carpeted some sections of the walls too. That way it doesn't matter how close we get the bikes when we park them, we're not gonna scrape/scratch the exhaust, mirrors, etc etc I've told her that when we get the new TV for the front room, the 50" will go in the bedroom and the bedroom TV (42") will be going in the garage. That way I can watch the Moto GP or the F1 while I tinker with the bikes, rather than having to split my time between the two

I took a different approach and just carpeted my garage floor. Helps insulate the garage, makes it nice and warm/comfy when I sit or lie on the floor to work on the bike.

I won't pretend to be anything other than insanely jealous.

And?

Absolutely. After the first lid I owned with a sun visor I'll never own one without. Dark visors are fine, except you need to carry a clear one as a spare if you might stay out longer/weather change etc etc and they're rubbish in tunnels. I commute east to work and west coming home - so for a lot of the year it goes from dark when I leave home, then really low bright sun, and the same in reverse on the way back. If I had sunglasses or dark visor I'd need to stop halfway on my commute each day

Do you mean on the transit across or around the 'ring? On the ring the vehicle counts for almost nothing - I was passing sportsbikes in my 37 year old car on my first (and only) trip to the NS. As for the trip over it pretty much depends how fast you expect to be cruising and how much traffic you hit. Remember he'll be filling up half as often as you. Out of interest - which hotel are you going to be staying in?

I wanted a decent flip front lid and a bluetooth kit for listening to music, sat nav and phone. I found that limiting the search to lids with bluetooth kits didn't give me the choice of lids I needed to find something as good as I wanted. I ended up going with, *in my opinion* the best flip front lid on the market for my use - a Schuberth C3. I then searched through the bluetooth kits available and did the same, bought the best one for what I needed - a Sena SMH-10. The sena kit can be moved between lids (you leave a fitting kit on each lid, then just swap the module) and I can have crystal clear phone calls at 70+ mph, it's clearer with less background noise than my car hands free kit. It wasn't a cheap option, but then I needed quality kit. In the summer I commute to work (2 1/2 hours a day, 120 miles) and with my summer holiday I covered 12k miles in 7 months from March to October this year.

If you want to get the leathers as clean as possible, without risking doing any damage to the leather or the stitching (remember, weakening them is a very bad thing) Then send them to Scrubbers Leathers. Damien at Scrubbers has been cleaning leathers for years, he's developed his own unique kit to do it, using natural products to make the cleaning gear (no petroleum based products, nothing that damages the stitching) He's a favourite with many racers, who know a thing or two about leathers needing to stay strong and protective! For the time he spends on it, and the care he takes it's an absolute bargain. http://www.scrubbersleathers.co.uk/

*Generally* - Schuberth. They seem to spend the most effort of all the manufacturers in making their lids as quiet as possible.

If your bike has been properly treated with ACF50 then you shouldn't need to use Muc-Off to clean it. Cheap car shampoo and warm water will do the job just nicely. Remember to always thoroughly hose the bike off with cold water first in the winter to remove any salt/grit before you put warm water near it.

If you like mapsource (I don't, I think it's rubbish) then you'll love TYRE (Track Your Route Everywhere) - it's completely free and uses google maps, letting you click and drag waypoints etc.

But seriously - you might well not have bought one if you'd had to pay full price for one with no extras, even if it was blue.

Good review - lots of info I saw George Whites have a really good discount deal on them at the moment - went in and had a look just out of interest. Looked like it was suddenly a lot of bike for the money (compared to the previous £13k with no options) Mind you - yours came fully loaded so I still think you're quids in (The one they had in GWs was silver though, and I really think the Teneres look miles better in red/white or blue)

I've got a Zumo 660, which I bought in preference to the Tom-Tom after grilling everyone I could find who had one or t'other. Halfway along the Pyrenees last month I bumped into a guy with the top Tom-tom - who said he was about ready to skip it as the screen was unreadable in the sunlight. We put the two next to each other and he decided he'll order a Garmin when he got back! There's cheaper options that work pretty well (car sat nav in waterproof case), which I've used in the past - but I have to say I think the 660 was worth the money for the ease of use and the way everything integrates.