Fozzie

It's the big question at the moment, Chinese made motorcycles... Are they any good? Historically, they've been bad across the board, especially the larger displacement bikes. There's a reason they stuck to 50/125cc the way they have. But this being said, they've come leaps and bounds in the last 10 years. Lexmoto for example seem to have sorted out a lot of their offerings, although the price has also shot up. What is stopping you buy a CB500, and getting a cafe racer company to make you up a cool seat/headlight unit to swap onto it. You'd then have 50BHP, Japanese reliability, and the look you are after. Probably for the same money.

Got the boot from a urban exploration forum (used to climb cranes, old buildings, chimneys etc for fun). One of the mods was bonking one of the members. And this girl was very flirty with the boys in general, and had caused a fallout with 2 of my friends previously. I didn't like her for this, so just kept my distance, but never said anything. She was the sensitive type, so she figured it out quickly and I'd heard she'd bitched about me to others. I stayed civil, but on a group meet, I was stood behind her when she stooped under a seized roller door. Her bum crack showed, along with a big smear of poo going up her back. A few jaws dropped around me, and the mod in question was called "Mark", so I jokingly called them "Skid Mark". This joke was then repeated by a few and got out, which lead to a witch hunt, quickly finding me as the person who had coined it. I wasn't banned, but I got an infraction that put me on the edge of a permanent ban. This clearly upset the girl, who'd wanted me chucked out for making this nickname. I toed the line, figuring she'd move onto the next drama, but in the following weeks I notice she's controlling the meet threads, always being on top of them and trying to set up all of them. When I ask to join, I'm told by the mod she doesn't want me around, but strangely, those who repeated the joke and spread it could. I could tell what was going on. So I had it out with her in the end. Didn't swear, or insult, but she really went in guns blazing. I couldn't believe the narrative she'd derived from that one joke, it really spoke of an incredibly insecure person. She also made up encounters and chats she claimed we'd had, and when I posted proof she was lying the roof came off. The mod removed my post, so I put it back up. I was told to stop or I was banned, so I posted it again along with that warning screenshot with the caption "This situation stinks more than an unwiped arse crack". Banned. I was invited back 7 months later when she got booted, but I politely declined.

I've wondered if all this posturing with Russia is partly down to them supplying us with a lot of our natural gas. Use an exaggerated crisis to try and pay less for gas, which we are desperately short of?

Good morning! Was off most of last week as in the small hours of Wednesday, my appendix went pop. Woke up with high temp, body shakes, and a splitting feeling in my stomach. Girlfriend thought I was having a fit! Got down to A&E and was scheduled for an emergency appendectomy to whip it out, which all happened Friday morning after a CT scan to confirm. Hopefully find out what caused it in a couple of weeks, but the surgeon said having been in there that there was no sign of a disease that had spread, which is comforting. He also took out some of the tissues around it just to make sure. Hopefully this week sees me get better, but at the moment I'm definitely going through the peak of the bruising and swelling.

You're not setting off with the choke on are you? Edit - If the later YBR has one. Some of the injected 125's have a little choke lever. I remember a 125 hopping and cutting out and the owner was baffled why it would start, do 10 feet, cut out. It was just the choke left on.

I wonder if the person who wrote the rules even saw them diagrammatically shown. As you're right, they completely contradict each other. What really bugs me is these rules appear to have been made by someone who lives in London and hasn't considered the rest of the country. Many roads around Britain pre-date cars, and as a result, are very narrow. Rule 2 and 3 will either make it impossible to pass legally. Rule 4 and 5 are just dangerous, I can see an exception made for cyclists whose progress is being slowed. But to completely exempt them from having to use them is just daft. And rule 5 will just encourage the "I'm allowed to be here" type of cyclist who routinely demonstrates that they'd rather die and be right, than live and get out of the way. But what really gets me is this contradicts an existing rule in the highway code, Rule 169, which reads: "Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass" Casual cyclists I've seen pull over, but the lycra clad type sometimes give me the impression that they treat every car that gets past them as a personal failure...

Taking my parents out for a meal at a Thai place tonight with the girlfriend. I don't know if their excitement is that I'm paying, or maybe they wonder if my girlfriend is pregnant. I've got a small bet my mum probes with the "are you drinking?" question to the gf. Then this weekend, I'm being taken for a "walk around a castle" as the gf randomly fancied it. So will probably be Sunday before I can get to the bike shenanigans. I need to start working out what the new project needs, and the old Blackbird as that's a couple of months away from being sold.

It's not nice to see, as when I lived in London I had to be knocked off and get two bikes stolen for this sort of weird split. I had to choose my bike based on which was cheapest to insure, and ended up with a Yamaha FZ6. I quite liked it, but never really had that strong a bond with it that I have with other bikes. Things like ER6F's, SV650's, even the old Fazer 600 were all like £2500-£3000 to insure. All with MCE. The FZ6 was *only* £800, and I am still convinced to this day there was some kind of error that produced that number. Now it seems this method is becoming the only way to insure a bike in London, even if you have no claims!

It's got quite a high pitched chirp to the exhaust note, which is pretty loud at about 1500rpm and 4000. The noise goes away if I slip a metal rod into the exhaust and prod around, so something is resonating. I'll be replacing with a full stainless system in due course. If I remember right, they have a bit of a "chirp" noise normally, but this is a lot louder. And the dodgy paint job on the exhaust and lower frame suggests it's a bit rotten inside. It also sounds like the starter motor drags a bit after starting, even with the button let go. But as the engine picks up, it doesn't hang on for more than a couple of seconds. So a repair kit or replacement is probably on the cards if they are available.

I've always got an eye out for things that are nearby and cheap. This is the latest to come into the garage. Not a lot will happen at first, mostly I will be going over what it needs, and what sort of project it should be. I've also got a Blackbird to tidy up and sell, and my girlfriends dad owns a 1995 CBR600F that I promised to tidy up. So it maybe waiting a month or two! The bike is a 52,000 mile, single owner machine. It's pretty good condition, seeing as its been used in all weathers for 20 years. But it does feel very tired, and this is making me think "this bike isn't going to be a survivor bike". Which is tempting me down the path to turn it into something like a scrambler. And I need to be original as this is the third ER5 project on here after @fastbob's efforts. Here is the bike currently. Pretty good for £650 I think, even with "covid tax" bumping up the price of every used vehicle on the market.

When I was 9, a friends dad who was well known in the area for being the postman and a Mini cooper fanatic was also mad about bikes. He got his sons mini-motos and things like that, and I remember seeing them and thinking they were the coolest things ever. I had a go on one and I was completely terrified but hooked on it. But it was 12 when I first rode a (mostly) full size bike, it was only 50cc, but I'd borrow whatever pit bike, dirt bike or moped friends got their hands on until I was 15, when I bought an Aprilia RS50 that was on the edge of needing a rebuild. It blew up 3 months after I turned 16. 32 this year

MCE were who I was with in London, and I'm not surprised they've gone under as me and a number of others found them to basically screech in terror if they actually had to pay out for an accident/theft. I never used them again and switched to Bikesure when after the theft of one of my bikes, they claimed I didn't tell them of another claim. Had to get the phone recording in the end where you hear me say "no extra claims, just the ones you have on file already". They'd dropped off one, and I hadn't spotted it (been with them for a few years, and I was complacent). They paid out, but took off a chunk to cover what my premium apparently would have been with all claims on it. Quick question, if you're within a month of the policy finishing, don't you have the no claims bonus secured? Your policy isn't being cancelled in the traditional "you messed up" sense. So I'd speak to your new insurer about it, as they might say they'll count it. Ask them to e-mail you a written confirmation if they do agree. I've had to get a letter written up for my Blackbird. Most places try to put it on a "classic" policy, which doesn't accrue no claims, and after 1 year any no claims you've accrued resets, so I would have lost 8 years if I went ahead with it. It's getting harder to insure without costs flying up...

I've never seen one of these home made before. Well done!

To give some comparison, when I was 19 I was hit near head on (came in diagonally from my right) by a old man who turned right at a cross-roads at speed into me. He'd misinterpreted what the traffic lights mean. He was doing 30-40, so was I, so it had a fair old closing speed. I was in full gear and cracked a few ribs, my shoulder was subluxated (partial dislocation but they think it popped out and back in). Small fracture to my knee and ankle that put me on crutches for 8 weeks. Took months to walk right again. But my foot was in a good set of RST boots. And was crushed between the bike and car on impact. But it took such a little amount of damage given the impact. It still looked grim, a friend with me nearly fainted when he saw it, as my big toe was de-gloved. On my right foot, the big toe bone was visible out the right side of the toe. The main metatarsal was broken pretty badly, and obviously the ankle was fractured. But the medics who looked after me said if I'd not worn those boots, I would have lost that foot almost certainly. Taught me two things. Always wear your gear, and I'd never like to see a bit of my own skeleton again

Cheers! I have always seen Scotland as the place to go and get lost in, but I've visited it far less than I'd like. I may also come knocking for other information, because as of yesterday, I became the owner of an ER5 I managed to get cheaply on eBay!

Indeed, although I'm not in it for profit. I just find it fun fixing broken things. I'm happy if I make more than 50-60% of my expenditure back. I did have a profitable run in London once, when I was supplementing my income while doing my apprenticeship, but it was mostly MOT failure bikes. Now it's more fixated on things I'm interested in. A lot of which being bikes I grew up around.

I think tinkering has actually taken the priority over riding. I've got projects planned that will take weeks/months, with a long endurance ride at the end to shake it down, put it through its paces. Like a jaunt to see the Northern lights this October at the top of Scotland Currently bidding on an ER5 that is high mileage and needs some work, as I'm tempted to do a scrambler build. But this year I want an original gen SV. Possibly an old Hornet, if not a CBR600F as well. And the blackbird is likely to be swapped for a TDM850, as I've always fancied one and love the sound they make. I could actually afford a decent bike if I wasn't always buying cheap broken things Probably applies to affording holidays when I come to think of it

Only did a few thousand miles. I bought an ER6F in green near the beginning of the year, as a potential tool to whizz around Europe on. After 6 months it was clear it probably wouldn't happen so I let it go for about £200 less than I paid for it. The black CBR600F I had came up to its first big service and it annoyed me so much that afterwards, I sold that too. It revealed itself to be an awkward Hornet in fairings, with access to various things being a nightmare. You have to drain the coolant and remove the fill point to get to the spark plugs for example. In my view it had no excuse being that difficult, it's cousin the RR is far more compact, but simpler. Then I picked up another Honda Blackbird for £1000. It needed a bit to get through MOT, but was very clean. I'm now doing a slog of other bits on it ahead of selling that too. So for bikes, it was a mixed year, I'm going to focus on older bikes that I get to tinker with more this year.

Just looked at my join date and discovered that I'm only a couple of years away from having been a member here longer than years I'd been alive when I first joined. That's a scary fact. Happy birthday to TMBF!

Tough call for the best. Girlfriend got me a digital torque wrench, the 1/2" one from Machinemart. Dad got me a borescope, so I can now stick a camera down a spark plug hole and see how mullered whatever eBay special I've bought is Not sure what the worst would be... Probably the sheer quantity of chocolate I got. It usually takes me a year to finish 2 small boxes of ferrero rocher, and this year I got tons of stuff, and quite a variety. It's too rich for me, two pieces and I'm usually done.

Depending on the age and machine, if you turn the ignition on then use the button that cycles through Trip A/B etc, when you get to the total mileage, you hold the button and the HISS light should flash. If it doesn't, try again and hold down the other button once you cycle to the total mileage as it does vary. It will then flash every 2 seconds when the ignition is off. I think there's a few settings, but on my old RR's, I switched the blinking LED off.

Is it one of these? I borrowed one a bunch of times (like 11-12 years ago), and took it on the motorway. It was really hard pressed to get 65-70mph. It's a very sat up bike with no fairing, and you sit high on it, so you act like a massive wind barrier. Combined with the fact it only has 11BHP, you're in for a tough time! How heavy are you? As at the time I was like 10-11 stone, I'm now about 14 so I'd never see the speed I did now. I did find the valve clearances were out a fair bit, and it wasn't a high miler. So maybe you could check and adjust those? They are very easy on this bike. A fresh service, tyres pumped to the right pressure, and a good tail wind. You should manage at least 60.

Good morning all! I'm just off for my last top up shop before Christmas. Had some pretty rough reaction to my moderna booster, which I'll explain later when the last of it is (touch wood) gone. Work has ground to a near halt now as so many are off ill or for Christmas. Last week was manic and I overworked, so it's balancing out. I'm working over the Christmas period too other than the bank holidays, mostly just answering queries and writing up easy specs. Taking the first week of January off as that's when everyone comes back and there's a mix of screaming for answers to questions left in the previous years, and people going on about how fat they got in 2 weeks

I think he's taking the piss a bit at £2000. Probably just trying his luck. Second hand bikes have definitely developed a "covid tax" as I looked at an ER5 recently for a project, and the guy was trying to tell me how a cat N bike with rusty shocks, no chain or sprockets, and didn't run was worth £1000. Cat N means it's non-structural, so I imagine it took a slide down the road and the cost of new fairings were too expensive or discontinued making the price of repair silly. But if it has a steady history of MOT's and service stamps/receipts, I'd still say it was a £1500 bike at best just because that cat N turns away 90% of people instantly. And you can find decent models between £1500-2000 that aren't written off.

I like to say negative people are positive people with experience, but I'm probably just making excuses It never used to bother me, then I did a few years riding through winter, and the memories of the sideways rain, sleet, and gear that never seems to dry before you have to wear it again have stuck with me even though I'm fair weather now. I like riding in the dark, especially those rideouts when it transitions from a warm bright evening to night, but it's the weather those shorter days bring that kills it for me.