Epic Earl

Been very busy as of late, so hadn't had chance to tinker with the bike until recently, had a multi meter on the bike and it was ready about 17 with the engine running, so believe the reg/rec has been over charging the battery as it were, and killed it. Going to order a new reg/rec and hopefully that'll sort all my problems and i can make the most of the bike this year.

I suffer with a Generalised Anxiety disorder, even with the medication Im on, I still get anxious in situations like this. The best advise I can give is just to trust your instincts. Go easy on yourself. Try to keep calm and if you feel yourself getting stressed just tell yourself you can do this and you know what your doing. Really you should have practised enough, it almost becomes second nature and finally your instructor wouldn't have suggested the test if he didn't think you wouldn't actually pass.

Ive replaced the battery and its all working as normal, so far so good. But as I'd been riding for 3 hours that day, im wondering if the battery was just knackered completely, or if its not charging whilst riding.

I did a class project on global warming in the early 90's. My research on global temperatures showed that the earth heats up and cools down all the time. I even heard/read somewhere that Margaret Thatcher wanted to find a good reason to claim that Coal was the cause of global warming, So she could use that as an excuse as to why all coal mines had to be shut and to stop relying on coal. Now personally I think this Global Warming due to pollutants is all tosh, but I do agree in cutting down on the rubbish we pump into the air, purely because its nice to be able to breath clean air. But alas, there are far more polluting countries out there than our own

Ive bought a new battery as it was showing signs of issues, the day before I set off. So I might as well replace that, whilst Im at it. Ive checked the cables as best I could but will no doubt have a deeper look. The issue lies with it being an old bike and it having signs of being tinkered with around the cabling. Lots of black tape around numerous cables which makes it difficult to trace/follow. It may well be that I have to undo the tape work out whats what then tape the cables back up once I have a better under standing. Its a possibility that water might have got in and rusted some connectors maybe. it was dry and bright the couple of days before and during the road trip.

Cheers guys, I only gave the bike a quick once over, waiting for the weather to improve to give it a proper looking over.

At the weekend, My friends and I had been out on a road trip about 20 miles out from home I noticed my rev counter had stopped working. Then I noticed when I used my indicators, they werent flashing as they usually do. It was at this point I decided to head back home. Half way home I noticed my speedo had stopped, it would come on intermittantly and the readings were way off. About a mile from home the bike lost all power and stopped. When I turned the ingnition i noticed some slight flashing lights, but that was it. The bike wouldn't even attempt to start. Im hoping its a lose connector somewhere but Im not entirely sure where to start. My bike is a Suzuki SV650 2003

Mine came from my stag do, we all had T shirts, our nick names had to either start with the first letter of your first name or the first letter of your surname. So mine was Epic Earl, I wanted to go for Enormous Earl (coz it was funny, well to me lol) but Epic was decided, its become a nickname ever since, with close friends calling me Epic now

cheers, Ive got three straps on the top, I assume, the middle one goes under my pillion seat, the other two go over the top. Ive pulled them together as best I could then velcroed them with some overlap. Ive done this to try and keep them high as possible from my exhaust. It came with two bungee cords but haven't found a use for them as yet. Im assuming all ive done so far is correct. The front and back of the panniers have loops. My plan next is to get some short clips of sort, to attach it to the pillion foot rests. as I'm going to assume when Im riding the wind will blow them about quite a bit. So I'm trying to anchor them down.

Ive recently purchase some Held Omera Panniers, Was kind of hoping on instructions with them, but alas not. I think ive maybe figured out how best to attach them to the bike, but was wondering if you guys had any pointers/hints and tips. I have taken some photo's if required

ah ok thanks for that, I hadn't thought of that. It only had its MOT two weeks ago, fingers crossed nothing new is on there that would fail it.

Thanks for the feed back guys, The insurance have decided its a write off from my photographs, no ones been in touch to collect it yet. Ive had a mechanic friend check it all over and he says its just superficial damage. So looks like i'll try and see if i can arrange to buy it off of them first. When ive finished with it I'll just scrap it. I guess I'll have to decline their first offer first, and THEN ask to buy it back

I know this is off topic, but i thought i'd ask some advice. This morning, i was in a car accident. A car drove into the back of my car, other driver has admitted liability and and the insurance is dealing with it all. Now my query is, to me its all superficial damage on my car, the tow bar in my opinion saved my car, the same cant be said for his car. The insurers are arranging for my car to be collected and the damage assessed. Now my car is a 2006 car and I'll get peanuts for it from the insurance, if it is written off. Now if they decide its not cost affective to repair the car and its deemed road worthy, can I just ask to have the car back as is? yeah it looks slightly unsightly from behind, but i can live with that for a year or so. I called my insurance up and either I wasn't clear enough, or he just didnt understand my question. He just suggested stopping the firm from collecting the car, or i can just cancel the claim...

Look forward to seeing how this progresses

I had an accident quite some time ago now, where a car pulled out of a side lane and hit the side of the car, passenger side, by the wheel arch and engine. He agreed infront of the police man that it was his fault, and I got the insurance company to collect the car and to deal with it, next day I try to get a hire car whilst they sort mine out, and was told he's denying liability and becuase I was third party, I couldn't get a hire car myself. It took 2 and a half years for my insurnace company to finally be ready and threaten taking him to court, before he admitted liablility. Imagine being 21 first car and being in a disputed accident, and trying to get a decent insurance quote

I ride a Suzuki SV 650 now, its been a good few years since I had the tiger, the only real tip I can give, is regarding the back tyre and how it likes to slide about when its wet. Im guessing thats down to the very large grips thats on the tyre.

Ive got a box helmet with an internal visor, doesn't come down far enough for me and there is a gap meant for your nose I guess, but the corner of each eye can see the gap, so it throws my vision out, been tempted to get a tinted visor for the sunny days Im out riding.

My first bike was a Zontes Tiger 125

I had an accident many moons ago, I had a nob pull out of a side road when I was doing 40mph, hit the front passenger side of the car. I had really bad whiplash from it as well as I tensed up when I saw him pull out. He admitted liability at the scene, thought not much of it, I was third part car insurance. next day I get a phone call that he's saying I came off the road and hit him. My car was a right off, and it took the insurance company just over 2 years to threaten to take him to court, where he finally backed down.

Whilst at work, I had a phone call from my father to say my mum was seriously ill and being taken to hopsital. I jumped in the car and started to head to the nearest hospital to them, I was an hour away. Driving home half way I decided i couldn;t be sure which hospital they would indeed take her, so i called my dad back (hands free of course) It was then that my dad had told me, she'd died. He also said to drive carefully. Yes I put my foot down and thankfully I wasn't caught. I just needed to get home

The average speed camera's near where I live have all been replaced to rear facing ones.

I live out in the country side, 18 miles east of Doncaster, lovely roads. But unfortunately they seem hell bent on reducing all the speed limits. Im lucky if I hit a 60mph road. Most of the roads seem to be 40 or 50's now. and when there is a decent road where you can make progress. They've slapped average speed camera's along them. and if that wasn't bad enough, you get people slowing down 10-20 mph below the speed limit for fear of getting caught.

I got a minor on my test, for holding back at a roundabout, until I knew fully which way the car was going to go, as he was driving round. Apparently I was too hesitant! The fact he was indicating should have been a sign as to which exit he was going to come off at lol

A friend of mine used to go shooting rats on a farm, clever little buggers, they soon learned that food under a light was a death trap, then he tried shooting them in the dark, didn't take long for them to avoid the risky places

I was in my mid 30's when I decided to pass my CBT, being slightly underconfident, i bought a 125, rode around on that for 2 years, my friend passed is DAS after a year but we did have some good road trips on our little bikes. I guess its all down to yourself, and what your comfortable with. I feel I learned a fair bit tootling around on my 125 and always had bikers at the biker cafe, willing to have a chin wag with me