Fozzie

Good evening, Anyone on here able to recommend a decent engine paint? I usually use a high temp enamel, but it's never clear if you need to use a lacquer with it. Some boast that you don't need to, but I've seen them change colour with just a bit of aging. So could do with some tips?

I read about this bike a couple of years ago, it's crazy that someone made a 50cc 4-stroke to me. As it only produces just shy of 3 bhp. My old RS50 had about 8BHP for reference, and would do about 50-55mph with the standard derestriction. In short, it's not restricted from what I can tell. There's a 70cc kit online, that comes with a new carb and appears to be really cheap. But no one here can condone that route, as it would be illegal if you're only 16. If you're older, then that's the route to go, but it will likely only see you get to 40mph. And it will be a lot of effort unless you're quite mechanically competent. Would suggest just getting a bigger bike when able.

Good morning! Back from the Isle of Wight, where I've been for a week. Ended up doing a bit of work, but it gave me a break from babysitting my girlfriends niece and nephew. Back to the grind now though! Least I don't have any e-mails to catch up on.

16 Years old from what I've read. And based on the playbook kids work to these days, it will have likely been to show off on Tiktok. And probably how he was caught as I doubt CCTV is particularly effective in that area. Hope the empty internet validation was worth it, as even if he gets a light sentence, I suspect him and his family will have dirty looks from the locals for the rest of their lives.

Currently got one of these, and have owned a couple of others. Is the choke working? They will not start for love nor money without it, Rennie is right about the really slow to transition. They need to warm up for a few minutes before you can take them off it. Stupid question, but is the HT lead on the spark plug properly? I remember one where it wasn't quite secure, and the owner had been trying to push start it for ages. I spotted it sitting at the wrong angle after a minute or two of looking about, and it fired right up. Sticking with the easy stuff first, it was running and stopped. Don't want you to spend money.

Good afternoon Things are going well today, DVLA has written to say the V5 for my CBR125 project is being issued. I can look at swapping all the good bits into the HPI clean frame at last. Also means I can start to do some proper shopping for bits for it.

A very obviously stolen Honda CBF500 in black, with two teenagers on board, racing down streets wearing all black and balaclavas. Raced the wrong way through a set of lights, barely seconds after kids had been crossing, and it was on the other side of a small hill crest, so they didn't see them. It was just luck. I feel like wearing a balaclava in the street got you pinched by the police not even 10 years ago? I don't even know if I want the police to do anything about them, as whenever one of these louts gets killed running from police, the "community" calls the police murderers, and the boys "little darlings that were just having a bit of fun". I now ride around a bit to make sure I'm not followed when I come home, not that it will do much good, as it will be bike jackings next.

Good morning! Ended up under my girlfriends car yesterday, it was making a nasty grinding and banging noise. She said she thought it was the brakes getting noisy as she doesn’t use the car often, and drowns it out with music. I was driving and when I heard it I quickly killed the engine thinking it was chewing itself to bits. Restarted and listened and realised it was coming from the back. Exhaust heat shield was snapped off in two places. Big hole in it so guessing she hit something to smack it off its mounts, and a piece of it had clearly been striking the floor and sending sparks flying. Made up some shims to fit the blown open mounts, and got it back on. Don’t know what she hit, but hoping it wasn’t alive. If it was dragged along crying for help she’d have only whacked the music volume up to drown it out I think

Grease can cause some fights on other groups. Copper is corrosive to aluminium so using copper slip can cause “debate” among some people. I’ve built up supplies over the years. But I mostly use a marine anti-seize I pinched from an old garage. Suitable for ally into steel and the other way round which does me nicely!

Playing Starfield Hike with my girlfriend and two of her friends. Sneak into the garage and spend a few hours building a parts list of all the little gubbins I need on my 125 project as lots of stuff has arrived suddenly. Write some chartership stuff down and build some evidence.

Happy(?) Friday First week back since nearly a week off, although it was partly for work. Just found out we are losing one of our other lead engineers, I really liked working with her, and it furthers a lot of my frustrations with my company. Vented my frustrations to my team principle. Also found out I work well with a few contractors a lot of people in my company call "difficult". What makes it odd is it's for reasons that in the past have caused me to really bang heads with people. The "my way is the best way" people, who turn a shade of purple when you pull out the regs on them. Wonder if I've finally become someone worth sucking up to

Just to add to it: https://www.frentech-uk.co.uk/useful-information/ They do a handy demonstration of what happens when you use the wrong grease. Another reason it's likely not in Haynes manuals, some people tend to think any grease will do.

Worth noting, the red rubber grease is more for the assembly process, than ongoing lubrication which the DOT4 provides to the main seal (and why it's a good alternative). The advantage of the grease is that it offers ongoing corrosion protection to the areas DOT4 doesn't reach, and pistons being reused can often have defects that grease is better at protecting the seal from during assembly, especially as the forces applied to the piston are often not perfectly square. If the seal is healthy and goes in cleanly, any dust sticking to the grease after this will be caught on the outer side of the seal, preventing direct contact, and can be easily cleaned off. Once debris can breach the seals, it's very quickly game over with or without grease. Although grease is very good at catching debris, and preventing deeper penetration when outer seals fail. The problem with using it is it invites problems when you use too much. And that's why DOT4 is the suggested, as it's hard to get it wrong. So while I would likely suggest DOT4, the red grease is not without its advantages. It's used all the time in industrial settings for large hydraulic brake builds/rebuilds.

Happy birthday fella!

Me and my girlfriend agree he's "guilty", but the exact details of what are outstanding. I think it's very likely he groomed people, and abused his position, as well as generally behaved like a piece of sh*t. But rape is a major accusation, and only in one of the stories did he actively go through with the act, and it had details that raised a lot of questions, especially the fact there was a witness in the other room. So for now, while he really is not my cup of tea, I'm waiting for a bit of cross-examining. People online are being polarised as usual. But I don't see how both sides can't be both at least partially right. It is at least a little suspicious that he bashes the mainstream media, and one of the big players launches an investigation into him. While they might be right about him, I worry about what that type of power in an organisation could be used for in the wrong hands.

Good morning! Me and my girlfriend watched the dispatches episode about Russell Brand last night... Anyone else watch it, and any thoughts? Always hated him growing up, and can easily believe at the height of his womanising he said all sorts to get girls into bed and used his fame, but found myself on the fence after that documentary. I'm now waiting for the defence, and any further allegations to come out.

Good afternoon! Went to Asda for a food shop in my lunch hour. Overheard a massive fight which followed me around the store, between young couple with a baby. Started with what looked like him trying to buy some sausage rolls, and she was ranting about the cost of the shop he was adding to. I was on his side for the "The first I'm hearing of it, you're yelling at me, objectively I haven't done anything wrong" although I don't know why he looked surprised he got more yelling at in response. But the one that made me cringe was when it had settled, and she picked up a small luxury item for herself and when he asked what it was, he said sarcastically "oh so one rule for thee, but not for me eh?". The shop echoed with "IT'S JUST THE ONE THING YOU PR**K". Even I wouldn't have pushed that button. The joys of shopping in Trafford I guess

Get a V62 and fill out the details, you only need a frame number. For some reason they aren't fussed by the engine number at this stage, and at the moment I'm unsure why. I suspect when I get the V5 it will have the old engine number for that frame on there, and if it does, I just send it off and explain "engine was toast, so I bought a second hand one with the following number". But there's also the chance they just didn't have it originally, so aren't too fussed. If you don't already know, applying is £25 by cheque or postal order. Make sure you send it recorded delivery, and be prepared to wait. As if the bike was originally sold to a scrappy without any paperwork, the DVLA will reach out to the old owner and give them a few weeks to reply. And then they send you the V5. Once I get mine, I'll be able to comment on the engine number. Problem I have is I've also changed the colour of the bike, so I'm expecting some questioning from them

I've just seen this, so apologies for it being a late reply. Book says brake fluid is all you need. But I use red rubber grease on them, as my old metal working lessons always taught me to. Only a very light smear to "shine" up the seal and the piston, and only on the working surfaces, the dust seal needs only a very light smear on its inner diameter, otherwise it gets road debris all over it and you end up having to jet it off with brake cleaner. I see people lather it on all the time, and usually it all comes off when they then push the piston in and the seal scrapes most of it off and they have to wipe most of it off. Which admittedly is a good way of catching/removing any dust in the bores, but you really only need a light smear to do the same. But there's some who literally line the inside of the bore and the entire piston with the stuff, and that's just wrong. I've never seen any residue inside on follow up rebuilds, always clean. But I would still say just do what the book says. I've been involved with one too many bikes where someone misinterpreted advice they were given. Worst being a 125 with a toast engine as they'd put the wrong oil in. The oil they'd been told to use would have been fine, but they went with a slightly different one they thought was the same as: "the container was red like the other one". So I just say, do what the book says, and if you're not confident with what you have, get someone technical to check that it matches what the book says

Are you bringing the forks to a chrome finish? Would probably suit a bike of that age, but I can see it being irritating to upkeep if you decide to keep and use the bike all the year! I'm gearing up to really break ground on my CBR125. Just waiting on the V5 to arrive for a new frame I bought for it (deals with the write off issue using a clean frame). But the forks will have to go black as a new old stock swingarm I bought is black so will need to match. But on my ER5, I'm between chroming and painting the forks, so I will watch how you get on and make a judgement call. The ER is going to be a scrambler, I just haven't decided if I style it towards being a tough mudder, or like a Ducati scrambler, a show piece for the road that's styled that way. Even though the engine on this bike will be light, I'll be tensing up on your behalf when you put that back in the frame! Nothing worse than that one little wobble, and seeing a small chunk of paint fall to the floor.

Good afternoon! I'm back from 5 days in the USA, over near New York. Hoped today would be an easy day back, it was not. Bad side of things was I had to work. Good side of things, I did some sight seeing and the highlight was I went to the shop that Paul Jr from American chopper owns, and I met one of his extended family members who offered me a ride on one of his bikes if I stuck around in town for the weekend. I was flying out Wednesday night so had to decline, but it was a pretty cool thing. I drank a fair few margaritas and ate burgers the size of my head. Not looking forward to the return to the gym tomorrow, the first session back is always the worst. Even if only a week off.

Happy birthday mate!

I can believe that, I was witness to a crash last winter. Car flew out of a junction and hit two cars, two teenage lads got out and ran for it. And I hear a lot on the Facebook groups. I also think it’s a bit of parents giving things to “their little darlings”. I see kids flying around on electric bikes that cost north of £5k a surprising amount. And the two cars like mine I’ve seen with L plates the last couple of months is making me think that parents buy what they are told is the “coolest model” and don’t know the technical side. My first car was a Vauxhall Corsa and made about 84bhp, which was enough for some friends to put on their roofs

Good afternoon! It's insurance payment day... For both car and motorbike. And prices are flying up. I got the SV down to £120 for the year, so not bad. But my car has flown up from £300 to just shy of £500 and it was quite an argument to get it down to £420. I know prices have gone up in general, but I was warned by the salesman who sold me my car 4 years ago that I should expect this. I think the words were "When the younger drivers start to afford this car, you'll see your insurance jump as they start being flipped down the road". Sure enough, I saw one the other day with L-plates a month or two again. And I just think, who the f**k gives a learner a 200 horse power Ford Fiesta as a first car!? Anyway, I'm probably going to sell it. As its servicing costs are getting spicy, somewhere in the region of £2k a year at the moment. Eyeing up a few Hyundai models that I can run into the ground over 15 years.

Should have chipped in earlier, ATF is light stuff. I'd suggest if you are heavier than the 17 year olds that used to ride these, 10w fork oil would be a good bet as an alternative. Previous bikes I've had that dive under braking and needed a lot of pre-load have been treated to a weight up from stock. Lets me back off on the pre-load a little and keep the ride smooth, as too much and you feel every bump. The little Honda's are generally quite softly sprung, if this is anything like the CG125 or CBF125, which both needed thicker oil in my view as they were very "bouncy", I'd go with the 10W fork oil.