Fozzie

I've been waiting for you to be back, I'm watching this build with envy!

Its been a minute, life has been a bit busy. My other project took priority in the second half of last year, and this year so far I've been able to do very little due to work pressures, and also saving up frantically for a house and last holidays before I lose the fight with my partners body clock :lol: So I've broken down the bike into its basic pieces, disposed of the old frame as I have a new, non-write off one. My garage is small, and a bit messy, but coordinated chaos as I like to call it. Good thing with small engines... Easy to take apart, it took maybe 90 minutes to get here. Fortunately I had the right special tools for various bits. I gave it all a very good clean first. All the grime on the outer casings was removed before disassembly as it reduces the chance of any getting into places I don't want it going forward. The lower section of the engine is in good order, the crank I need to get looked at, the conrod looks a little worn on the faces that meet the gudgeon pin. I suspect slight oil starvation still. I need to recheck the crank tolerances, as I'm hoping the casings were simply pressed together too tight and gave a false reading. But I'm expecting to need to send it off for a new rod, bearing, and being trued up. I've got a new cylinder and piston, as well as camshaft and all associated gubbins. Also have a full set of bearings for the cases, so I should be ready soon to build the engine back up, good as new. And with a fresh lick of paint.

Good morning, off to the gym for an earlyish session. Partner is still at home sound asleep, and probably still will be when I’m back. If I get an hour I might actually find time for the garage, everything has been on hold lately as I might be changing jobs soon, but I need to break down the little 125 project I have and actually do something with the scrap bits I don’t need as it takes up so much space. Had a new car with a massive boot for 2 months and only just twigged it could fit the old scrap frame in there!

Confronting isn’t my style when there’s deniability, as you end up putting them on the hard defensive. And once they know you haven’t got hard proof, they can often be emboldened. My notice states “there is reason to believe it was another resident” which I’m hoping will leave them on their toes. And that I will be implementing CCTV and watching from now on, and damage to me or other residents will be unsympathetically passed on to insurance/police/residents with no middle ground for dealing with outside of insurance. Might be a bit extreme, but repeat offenders that don’t learn from their mistakes in my view haven’t hit hard enough consequences yet to actually change. And it’s a lot more reasonable than I felt like being at the time I found the damage

Someone has scuffed up my car down the passenger side. And I know whose done it, a resident who has been consistently a problem with dumping her car in the road out front blocking delivery vans and sending them on a mission to drag her out and move it "I was just on a quick lunch break" was one excuse I overhead one time. The parking area is unmarked, so some residents try to leave their car in the same spot to better manage the space, using the access doors to the apartment buildings as a reference. The hit and run resident will routinely sling her car diagonally across two spaces that two residents normally occupy, and she's in a little Mazda for reference, filling a spot usually occupied by two saloon sized cars. I can see blue paint on her bumper from my car, there's white all down the side of mine, it's at the right height. I can also see where she's furiously tried to wipe it off, as the rest of the car is filthy. Both cars I've known her to own here have been badly beaten up over the course of her ownership, she's not someone you want to find yourself parked next to out and about. Since the damage, she has tried to park her car on the other end of the car park, which the sudden change in character further indicates guilt. Absolutely f**king fuming. Both passenger side doors, the scrape is over a metre long. Luckily, I've got a local bodyshop that will fix it for £400. I'm investing in some CCTV for my spare bedroom window, to watch the carpark. I've put up a firmly worded notice asking them to come forward and contribute to the cost of the damage and apologise, and without giving detail that I have my suspicions (with pictures taken to prove them). I'm guessing she's kept quiet as she's got an insurance record a mile long. I'd say nob, but I think she's a bit of a ****.

The SVrider forum is the same. Really sensitive bunch. I once said "the fasteners are made of cheese, but that's Suzuki" and it triggered a fight. And, not being in the mood, I replied to the chap who outright said I shouldn't own a bike if I wasn't prepared to look after it properly, which in his book involved greasing the fairing bolts once every 6 months. Told him I never had to do that with any of my Honda's, and he was confusing proper maintenance with poor design. He went nuclear. And all the anti-UK stuff comes out of the woodwork with the Americans, they've got a real complex with us (or at least some of them do).

I was told different, when I queried why different insurers can quote wildly different figures for the same address in the same area. The police data would seem to give a better place to start from, but I was essentially told insurers have their own data for most areas, which they prioritise as it bluntly shows how much they are making/losing in a given area. But this could have been unique to that particular insurer? I'd still say it's unfair to treat someone as if they've had a claim though. A new quote should reflect the updated data for the area, rather than penalising someone for a claim they didn't make.

Bingo Insurers charge based on risk, determined by the types and amount of claims they pay out for by area. So their risk is an entirely monetary based entity, so how can they charge you heightened premiums when you haven't had a claim paid out? It's like they are pre-emptively trying to charge you for a consequence that hasn't happened yet, or a future higher level of risk. Which feels like it borders the line of being a scam to me.

I've had this more than once in London. How was the bike parked security wise? Did it have a chain or anything like that on? It sounds like it attracted some chancers who tried their hand at electrics and got it wrong, thinking it was an easy theft. The problem with these sorts, they are usually f**king stupid, and persistent. So I'd expect them to return, and I'd get it locked to something or stored away at a friend/family members house for the short term. As for insurance, if your company knows, you need all the options. If they pay you out but offer for you to buy back the bike for pennies, it might offset some of the pain you'll have for the next 4-5 years. If it hasn't been logged, I'd probably look at repairing the bike myself and keeping it quiet. They say that you should notify your insurer due to any incident, for "notification purposes", which I've often taken as code for "your premiums are going right up son". If there's no law compelling you to tell them, I wouldn't.

Ahh, I did wonder, but couldn't tell if it was an unhinged pop at your moderation

You should have replied to "I love Bender, I love Bender, Bender is great" with:

America has a real issue with their trucks, I was there twice last year and you see the old cars, which are still big drive up alongside the newer variants and the size difference is huge. They'd have no chance on UK roads. The UK is under the grips of the "SUV Crossover" phase, which as far as I've seen so far, just involves taking a hatchback, putting it on stilts, and whacking a lot of chunky bodywork on it. They usually stretch the car's boot space to make it seem bigger, but nothing else is meaningfully sized up. Think of cars like the Nissan Juke or Ford Puma, supermini underpinnings with a bigger body (and price tag) plopped on top.

If I was a single pringle, perhaps that would have been my Saturday evening sorted I know someone with the initials KY, and it took him about 2 months of me calling him "jelly" for it to twig.

Good morning, been an immensely busy couple of weeks. Now winding down as I go into the weekend, which I'm spending away in London with a friend. Due to a double booking by my friends partner, who has agreed to let a friend of hers stay on the Saturday night, me and my friend will have to share a bed. We are 6ft 2 and 6ft 3, both between 90-100kg in a small double pull out bed. 10 years ago this would have just been a funny anecdote that produced a number of gay jokes, pushing 34, it's a "we are too old for this sh*t" moment

I think I know what the deal is with smart meters, as I had a lot to do with industrial grade meters around the time they rolled out. The short of it as I've been told, there are limited suppliers of the types of smart meters, and they have a communications protocol that differs quite a bit as they had no idea on how to standardise. Everyone had their own idea on what the standard should be, and the protocol the meters use can differ by different versions of the same bit of kit. This meant that now they put these devices in and the equipment the energy companies uses to read their data is often mismatched. And they've not a clue how to figure out what you've got, or what they need to connect to it, the call centre staff effectively try to refresh a connection that will never work. Or at least, these are the details passed onto me. It's a problem that can be fixed, but as many people have smart meters that work, they aren't motivated to currently. Mine didn't work for 3 years, then seemed to spit into life one day.

I didn't know they did cruises to Alaska. I'd love to go to Canada or the Alaska area to have a chance at kayaking, and looking for Orca pods. Also try my hand at hiking and visiting one or two of the more famous glaciers. I'm currently losing the race with my partners body clock, so don't know if it will happen before kids come along, but a cruise might be a happy medium. A lot of the hotels in that area cost the earth for a good one, which is the limiting factor.

Happy birthday! Sounds very civilised... Unless you're leaving out one of the friends being a stripper or something?

Have a good one!

Never been a fan of these personally, I always thought they needed a bit more unique styling as it always looked like it was from the Honda VFR family, which had pointier looks. The engine could have done with about 20bhp more as well. Weirdly though, I loved the Tiger 1050, which has the same engine. That bike could do with a good stripping back that's for sure though. Hopefully it gets someone who treats it as a labour of love!

I did my grading last night. I felt a bit run down still from last weeks flu, my fitness had a big dent in it. My heart was pounding, and I was sweating like mad. But I did it, and I got my red belt The sensei who helped out and was the uki for the grading did say after I was run through my paces a lot more than the other two. And while I immediately took that to mean "they had doubts then?", he assured it is more likely they were pushing to test what I could do and how adaptive I was. The head of the club is a 7th Dan so I tried not to squander the chance to raise my profile with him. As I'd like to take this all the way through to black belt at the least!

I came to a similar conclusion, although with New Zealand. I'd live there quite happily. The climate is much more comfortable as well, and the terrain more varied... Oh and less in the way of bugs/reptiles that can kill you! The job market is a lot better than you have over here, the cost of living is high but the wages are more in line with it than they are in the UK. Around 2017, I asked a few questions and even had a job interview to discuss the logistics and sponsoring me for a work visa, but I had a lot going on at the time that made me park it. I've asked my Mrs if she'd like to go, but was a flat no, apparently her mum would have my head Oh well, no mountain roads and Polynesian spas for me...

I've been a couple of times, and did some touring (non motorbike unfortunately). The city areas are great for riding, and some of the local mountainous areas present amazing roads, but so much of Oz is just barren flat and arid land, I wouldn't do anything cross country. Australia is actually a country I once swore to never go back to again, owing to the fact I do not mesh well with long haul flights, and I blew up a sinus on the descent. I'd gotten ill during the flight and it sealed up, creating a pressure pocket that tore as the pressure changed on the way down. Now my sister lives there, I'm going to have to change that outlook

Good afternoon, Still recovering a bit from last weeks flu. Was up at 4am yesterday to take my sister to the airport, was a long drive to Heathrow, very teary goodbyes. She landed safely in Australia this morning, and has hit the ground there with a job and a place to live... Pretty good going, although I selfishly hope she doesn't love it enough to stay. Got my grading tomorrow at Jui-Jitsu, should be fun. I have the advantage that my girlfriends dad is a third dan, so I went over to his and did a bit of training with the promise of buying him a beer. Doing 2 gradings in one night, and I'm feeling good about it.

Saying goodbye to my sister, who is moving to Australia to start a new life with her fella. I am both extremely proud, and devastated at once. I'm one of three, and we are very close.

My family has an old king Charles spaniel, who has been deaf for the past 3 years or 4 years. Weirdly, he needs to be kept on a lead at all times now as he lunges for other dogs and tries to bite them. As a younger dog, he was terrified of everything and stayed away, so he was off lead, and while he couldn't bite through a stick of butter, he could set off a bad situation with the wrong dog, so he stays on lead at all times. Not sure what caused the personality shift, age? I love animals, but pets aren't compatible with me. Part of it is long hours working, and often away, but the main thing is I am very allergic to most dogs. Cats I can manage, I've had a fair few. And a lot of small animals, as well as fish. I'd really like to keep birds, but my girlfriend has firmly said no so consequently there's no plans to have pets anytime soon . My girlfriends mum always adopts her dogs from abroad, which obviously live in horrible conditions, her most recent came from Cyprus. Little fella, no idea what breed, but very clearly had a rough life. I understand her thinking, as a few years back I visited Turkey and there were thousands of strays, and often treated like vermin, seeming to rely a lot on tourists to feed them.