Fozzie

Going to admit, I'm vibing the red seat Good luck to the new owner!

This was a good read, I regularly scour ebay for CB500's and ER5's as I fancy it as a project. You can get quite involved without the costs sky rocketing, which you find on some jobs. Well done on finishing the build! Is the ER a bike that has a sweet spot for you? I ask as I've had around 5 CBR600F's as projects alone, seem to be drawn to them.

I've had a couple of these bikes of this year, if you're leaving the choke on that could be an issue. Even on the coldest day it only needed about a minute on choke before you backed it off. I'm surprised it cut out though, but maybe the idle is set low anyway and combined with the lumpy running is too much? Alternatively, the bike has a fuel pump. If that fails it runs for a few minutes and then runs out of fuel, it lets fuel through but not enough to keep it running even at idle.

Filled up at Costco about an hour ago, and it was busy, but I was more or less straight in. Expected it to be quiet this morning, but the Asda next door, and the one just down the road from me had some lengthy queues already. Only filled up as I'd been over to Wales and back this weekend. All this because BP had a few shortages at a few filling stations...

Belated happy birthday! Hope it was a good day

I think it looks nice, but I don't think it's as groundbreaking as some outlets have suggested. But I'm struggling to put my finger on why... It's already been said, it's a speed triple with a headlight fairing, so maybe that's it? It reminds me of the old Honda hornet (carbed version), there was a naked and a half faired version... But I always preferred the naked as it seemed a cop out from a design point of view.

If your bike is carbed, there is a potential for 2 things. 1. Your carbs fuel mixture isn't compatible with E10, it may cause lean running. I've been telling those with carbed bikes that are meant to be compatible, that they should check their plugs now, run 3 tanks of E10, check again and see if there's an appreciable difference. 2. The fuel lines on older bikes can't take the extra ethanol, the first symptom is they harden, but then they break apart and clog the fuel system. So for you, this would mean you need to use the super unleaded. Or swap out your fuel lines for E10 compatible versions, and then see what happens to the plugs and make a determination if adjustment is required to the mixture.

I think the best balanced 125 is the CBR125. The Yamaha YZF-R125 is I think still the most powerful. But they are expensive, and I've known 2 blow their top ends, and heard of more doing so. I had one, it's quite slow revving for a 125 as it has a long stroke. Don't know why, maybe an inherent fault, or a tiny 1.15 litre oil capacity that gives no room for the engine to burn it, who knows? Things like the KTM look cool as hell, but again reliability is often suspect. And the likes of Lexmoto and other Chinese brands seem to have improved, but they aren't in the same league as Japanese bikes yet. The Honda CBR125 is 13.5BHP, about 2 or 3 hp up on the air cooled models, only 1 down on the likes of the Yamaha. But it has very confidence inspiring handling, an excellent reliability record, and the resale is generally very good. If you service it to the schedule, they are known to last. That's the best to me, but would see what others say to round your view.

Good afternoon!

I was once told by someone much more knowledgeable than me on this topic that when it comes to Canon vs Nikon, areas of photography where the Nikon outshines the Canon, the Canon is still second best out of the other options of camera. But when it comes to areas where the Canon is best, the Nikon is often far from second place. Sort of saying that the Canon is the overall best model. I had the 450D (American version called the Rebel T2i) and it was a fantastic camera. Before that I had the Canon 300D, which really felt stone age in comparison. I've also had a few cameras from Nikon, Olympus, and Panasonic, but the Canon's always felt best. I'm currently using a Canon 700D, had the old 450D not been pinched I'd have probably still had that now.

You still get the usual nobbers on the road, regardless of what you are riding/driving. It's just that generally, the L-plates seem to give a free pass to those who otherwise wouldn't bother you to suddenly be a bit of a bully. And this difference is really noticeable switching machines. I would guess being stuck behind slow learner drivers has caused an association with the L-plate that then carries when they see a bike with one. On topic, I think the license is a shambles, A2 can progress to A at cost, but A1 does nothing? Surely A1 should auto progress to A2 after 2 years, which then you pay to get the full A license. Seems more common sense as an approach as the old 33BHP restriction I was on did this. They are just trying to deter new bikers, but with the average age of bikers killed being in their 30s... They restricted the wrong type of rider if that was their aim.

I had nearly the same thing every time I borrowed my old house mates CBR125. It genuinely seemed to irritate some drivers. You'd ride above the speed limit and you'd have a bumper kissing your back wheel. Swap back to the CBR600 and ride at the speed limit... No problem... Take the CBR125 with L-plates and ride a bit quicker... Now people are driving alongside me in my own lane There really was a big noticeable difference each time I made the switch.

If he wants to get into biking long term, I would suggest holding out until he's 19 and doing the A2 license, as you can progress to the unrestricted A license at 21 then. If he did the A1, he would still have to do the A2 at 19 to then progress to the full A. So see how he does for a few months and what he wants... Maybe see how he deals with winter riding, as that usually pushes a lot into a car instead. But I do agree not having L-plates makes a huge difference in the way people treat you on the road. There is a small part of riding style that plays a part, but the plates are like a siren call to the belligerent motorist to drive inconsiderately.

In theory it should be able to, places like America have been using E10 for over a decade. And it's a similar story in many parts of the world. Manufacturers knew it was coming for years, and designed their bikes for 5-10% ethanol blended fuel. As a result most bikes back into the mid-90's should be ok. For the ones that aren't compatible, it's not necessarily the end of the story. Many will run on it fine, the issue lies with the fuel lines being made of a lower grade rubber. The effect this extra 5% has on them is huge, in a matter of weeks the flexible lines will be hard as rock, and it will soon clog the fuel system when they break apart. To be safe, I've been telling those with carbed bikes to check their fuel lines first, and spark plugs. Then run a few tanks of E10 over the next couple of months and then check the condition of the lines/spark plug. If you see a sudden hardening of the line, or signs of excessive lean running, you need to replace the lines and rejet the carb. I really shake my head with E10. I won't go into it, but the amount of carbon it offsets has been made to look huge. 750,000 tonnes a year of CO2 sounds impressive but it's a tiny drop. Far bigger savings could easily have been made elsewhere with less disruption. But as usual, it's easier to leave the little guy out of pocket.

@Mississippi Bullfrog Didn't know you were so close. I grew up over in Lymm village, so Warrington was the town I frequented the most. I still have a bunch of old school friends that live there who I head over and visit when I can. I've seen signs for Bikers church before but not popped along as I was concerned it was the biker equivalent of Jehovah's witnesses And good morning all!

From what I see on for sale ads online in the comments if it's a 600-1000cc bike, 40k seems to be the number that makes people start asking more questions around the condition. So that's probably the start point for higher mileage. This is especially true for the sports bikes, which generally get more of a thrashing. But it is dependent on the bike, so if you have a bike in mind, check the dedicated forums for them. As it's more about state of tune and how they're often used, for example a CBR600F will be expected to last longer than an R6, but the R6 has more power and spins to a much higher RPM for it. So a 40k R6 will raise more eyebrows than a 40k CBR600F. But even so, 40k will still raise questions a 30k bike wouldn't in either case.

Wonder if a 3D printing service might help you, they could scan the one you have, mirror it, and print a new one (hopefully out of metal). Or a machine shop with a scanner. Might cost a penny or two, I'm just assuming with a rare bike like that your aim is to do it up!

You could plastic weld it from the inside with a kit off amazon. It basically melts staples into the plastic to reinforce the material, to be tidy you then melt the ridge of plastic this creates to seal in the staple. If you get it tight, the crack might become invisible in all but super close inspection. You might get an MOT tester make a comment to you, but I doubt he'll fail it on that. I put a CBR600F through an MOT last year with a cracked mudguard and he just asked if I was aware of it, new one was already in the post.

Thanks all! Had a BBQ with the family on the weekend, made a pitcher of margarita with too much tequila. The lime disguised how strong it was and heads were spinning pretty quickly. Got some friends heading up from London to stay tomorrow, so got Thursday off to go into town. Should be a good one as I've not seen them since the pandemic began.

If it's anywhere near Manchester, feel free to ping me an update! My grandparents lived in Wilmslow, you'd hear planes in the background for a lot of the day, not to nuisance levels of noise. You knew if a Concorde took off, but when the Vulcan came to visit it sounded like the sky was cracking!

Very jammy! It's a very distinctive sound, the 4 rolls royce engines were known to smash windows when they were undergoing testing. And the induction howl caused by the geometry of the air intakes made it unmistakable on approach. It's because of planes that I have a preference for my current bike, a Honda Blackbird. Not quite as quick as the SR-71 mind...

Love a Lancaster bomber! I was lucky once to go onboard one over in Florida, the grandson of an oil baron was collecting them and restoring them. The Vulcan bomber is probably my favourite ever, but this is up there!

Cheers, I'll pass this along the chain. One of them has kind of stabilised, but the other, Lee is really going through it. And what's not helped is he does rise to his ex's provocations from time to time, which then fuels another 3 months of no contact. Which he's probably right in saying, would stop if the money stopped. I seem to be hitting that age where it's just starting for some, and from what I've seen so far its affect on a breakup is like throwing jet fuel on a housefire. Social media also doesn't help things, especially for my generation that grew up with it. It sensationalises things more than the Sun newspaper. I once got threatening messages from people told I'd refused to move out. The bit they hadn't been told was a few days prior I'd been given the choice with a friend mediating "try one more time, or 1 month to get out". I chose the latter, which upset them and they tried to go back on it a couple of days later. This effect has caused havoc with dads.

Good evening! Weather is pants, I've only had my Blackbird back a week and the forecast has just been overcast with drizzle for days now. Where was this late summer heatwave the news promised?

Family BBQ as it's my burpday next week, first year of my 30s done. Got some friends coming up from London as well, almost feels dirty to admit to having friends over after the year we've had in the pandemic.