Arwen

^^ That's what I've used.

Yea mine has the service light too. Every time you turn it on it says "XXX miles to service!" where the odometer normally is. Apparently if you get someone with the code reader/wiper tool thing you can reset it for 10 years/ 100000 miles and it wont come on again before that

Sure, you can find them here - https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60733&p=990249&hilit=kobra#p990249 Spray paint here

I used Kobra spray paint on my msx panels and I'm pretty happy with it. Seems durable enough, looks pretty good (not professional, but not completely rubbish either) And I didn't need to do all that primer related nonsense. Just scruffed up the panels with a random bit of sand paper if I could be bothered then stick a couple of coats on. Can cost £5 or something from Amazon.

OOOo red

Gloves I find really hard to find ones I like. However I love my RST stunt gloves (I have the first version, but I think they are on 3rd generation of them now). They are vented summer gloves. Every pair of "winter" gloves I have tried the fingers are way to long, or wide. Non vented gloves end all to clammy for my linking. So I wear my RST gloves all year, and have done for the past two years. Granted I don't ride when it is torrential rain outside, or snowing/ice on the road. But for extra warmth I have a Held outlast glove liner that I stick in them, and for extra waterproofness, medical latex gloves I have acquired from my mum Works a treat They cost me £40 nearly 3 years ago (I used them as a pillion before I got my own bike) I think you can pick them up for between £35-55 now depending on which generation you get.

The A90 (east coast) is completely and utterly boring and full of horribly bad driving. The A9 (up the middle) is half dual carriageway, half single lane. And it alternates this. As such, it can also be a very boring road, and full of dangerous drivers. So I'd aim to stay off them as much as possible. This route is one I done on Monday it it was fantastic. You can also use this route to end up taking the Tomintoul road which is also fantastic on a bike. This will bring you out just north of Aviemore. Your west coast and north coast routes look pretty good though!

What issues are you finding with the bigger bike? Is it stuttering or stalling when you are riding/pulling away? Is it the weight of it that is nothing you at a stop? Issues with clutch control? Someone might be able to give you pointers that might help

Everyone should come to Scotland at least once in their lives

Ahh fair enough. They are lovely roads. I am glad to have them near by!

Oh yea I forgot about them. Ducati, Triumph and Harley Davidson are now all in a big group "cuddle" across the motorway from Brehead - here I was not impressed when I visited. Spent about an hour walking around the three showrooms, was mistaken for staff twice and no actual staff said a word to me (aside from a harley guy when I was leaving). This was regardless of the fact the place was littered with staff and bikes for sale. At this point I had not actually bought my new bike yet either... so their loss!

Here are some for you! Two Wheels in Edinburgh have a large selection of clothing - http://www.twowheels.co.uk/ As do Saltire in Edinburgh https://www.saltiremotorcycles.com/ J and S have a massive shop/warehouse in Hamilton https://www.jsaccessories.co.uk/stores/hamilton Cupar Motorcycles / Kirkcaldy Kawasaki http://www.cupar.co.uk/ / http://www.kdykawasaki.com/ There is Ecosse Motorcycles in Aberdeen and Dundee - http://www.ecossemotorcycles.co.uk/ And Shirlaws in Aberdeen as well do a reasonable amount of gear. http://www.shirlaws.com/

Being in Dundee I'm never too far from a great road. Whats stopping you bringing the bike up? Rob's brother brought his up from Devon earlier on this year so he could do some of the roads around us! There is over course the alternative - hire a bike from Eccose Motorcycles in Aberdeen/Dundee. I think Shirlaws in Aberdeen do hires too. Motorrad Central in Dalkeith, where I bought mine from, also run a renting business. They have a massive fleet of bikes for rent! The Tomintoul road is one I will do eventually too. Probably when we arrange a little camping trip up to Inverness.

Finally I have mostly recovered from a cold, and I booked Monday off as the weather looked promising and I wanted to put some miles on my new BMW F700GS. In a turn of luck, my other half also managed to get the day off and the weather was fantastic! So we set off north, heading up to Bremar via Blairgowrie using the A93, which is apparently among the best biking roads in the UK. I've never been up this way on a bike, and only once in a car (a long time ago!) so new roads, new bike and should add around 150 miles onto my new bike. Our route: The roads between Dundee and Blairgowrie I know pretty well. These are the roads I go to to "play" on my MSX when I've got a few hours spare. The extra power and weight of the F700 was welcome in the more exposed and windy sections but I was pleasantly surprised at how similar it felt to the little MSX in the twisty corners. I then had a bit of a panic as I noticed my fuel light had came on! Quickly managed to signal to Rob that we needed to stop at Blairgowrie Tesco for fuel. Which turned out to be an ideal stop to have a drink, as it was boiling hot! This being my first fuel up on this bike, I listened to others about the F series bikes and did not "over fill" it. So it didn't dribble down the side once I stood the bike up. Ace! Ended up chatting to one of the security folk at Tesco for 15-20min. He said he had noticed a number of large groups heading up to Bremar, so the road might be busy. We set off again, after Bridge of Cally the scenery gets more and more dramatic. Reminds me of why I love living in Scotland, to have places like this pretty much on my back door. The A93 is indeed a fantastic road. Large sections have been freshly resurfaced so beautiful black ribbons squiggling through the valley. This is the first time I have truly wished I had a helmet cam. By this point I was really getting a feel for my bike, although I still find myself leaning over much further on the right side than the left. Stopped at a couple of lay bys for pictures. Token arty shot: We saw many bikers, both UK and foreign marked bikes, making the most of the fantastic weather. Some of the guys on their supersports absolutely terrified me when I saw how quick and sharply they were taking the corners. So on we went, past Bremar and the weird crowd of folk lounging outside Balmoral Castle, through Abonye and on to Banchory. Where we decided to stop for lunch due to free bike parking in the council site. Well Done Aberdeenshire council! The road between Bremar and Banchory could have been reasonable fun, if it wasn't for the number of slow and scary drivers. It's pretty exposed in places too, however it helped me with getting over my dislike of wind on the bike. Meal deal eaten and charity shops rifled through we got back on the bikes to take one of my favourite roads from when I used to work in Aberdeenshire. The Old Military Road over the Cairn O'Mount (B974). This road is full of twisty bends, odd cambers, big sweeping bends, monster incline/declines, and snakes through an ancient feeling forest before opening up into the barren and wind swept hill tops. I love this road, even in the car, and have looked forward to doing it on a bike. My little MSX is not fit for it however (my Clio struggled on some of the hills...) so I was delighted to get such good weather for it on my F700GS. However... the dreaded "dump gravel on it" surface dressing folk had been very recently and we were reduced to taking about 10 miles of it at 20mph So I'll be heading back here at some point to enjoy it properly! The lure of Game of Thrones and dinner along with a numb bum meant once we reached Laurencekirk we simply jump on the dual carriageway (A90) and headed home rather than follow the coast down to Dundee(nicer road). We both hate the A90 at the best of times... It is a mighty boring road, full of idiot drivers and nasty cross carriageway turns. This time was no different, however I now know how awful wind fatigue is... All in all, I had a lovely day out. The bike is feeling fantastic, more and more I am feeling I actually picked the right bike rather than just spoiled myself rotten with it Looking at it beside Robs R1150GSA I am surprised by how tall it actually looks. It is not obvious that it is a lowered bike, which I am pleased about. On inspection this morning, the engine is not even marked from all the horrible gravel I went over. Which suprised me since my MSX is speckled from it! It seems BMW use much more paint than Honda

How long are your lessons? Personally, since you are riding around on 125 just now, I don't understand why they are restricting you to the yard still. If it's no better next week, I'd suggest looking at going to one of the other schools in the area. Both ScotRiders and GMTS get good reviews from me. If you genuinely don't feel comfortable out on the road on a bigger bike, and want to practise in the yard, ScotRiders yard is giant (very nearly the same size as the test centres pad).

Never crashed due to poor road surfacing, but possibly only because I go out of my way to avoid the worst roads for gravel everywhere, and have spent hours researching on how to ride on gravel, then testing it out (both intentionally and otherwise).

Oo very nice! You weren't up in Dundee a few weekends ago on it were you? Sure I saw it when I was out... or one very like it!

Well done [mention]mas101[/mention] ! As everyone has said already, with time and experience you'll feel more "at one" with the bike

My new child

I think CGI is probably more appropriate term, its real life video with a CGI/animated overlay if you like. Apparently I was one of the first to take the test with the new clips ! An example here -https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hazard-perception-clips-get-a-modern-makeover But no sheep just a man painting a fence.

Well done on the pass! I remember missing a hazard completely because I was too busy laughing at how badly the sheep were animated

I was riding a 125 before/during doing my full licence so I might be a "different case" rather than normal DAS. I had a conversation lesson (half 125 half 650) plus a lesson on the test pad before doing mod 1. Total about 3hrs on the 650. For mod 2 I took 2 "official" lessons, so 4hrs. But in reality the instructor let me come out while them while they were teaching other mod 2's, so I probably had about 10hrs on the bike, which was different to the MOD1 bike btw. I'm not sure what is "normal" for he rest of the country.

I done my mod 2 on a red divvi I actually really liked it as a bike. Yes I could reach the side stand when on it, but it felt much lighter than the sv650's I done mod 1 on. It seemed very light at the front so was really easy to corner tightly I found.

Well done, you got a nice day for it! what bikes are DMT using now? I done my training with Scot Riders and GMTS, both of which have just got new school bikes this year which are much lighter than their old ones.

In my opinion, from recently doing mod 1 and being a women... I suspect a lot of it is to do with confidence. Before mod1 you have probably only been on the bigger bike for 1 lesson (maybe 2/4hrs?), it's physically much bigger than a 125, plus unlike CBT, MOD1 is very like sitting an exam. In a fenced off area where you probably have never been before, man with a hi-vis jacket and clip boards watching your every move. By the time you go do Mod 2, you've have another few lessons to get used to the bike, been around most of the roads you are likely to get on your test, can easily ignore the examiner as you wont really see them. Generally women are less confident doing things for the first time than men. So the extra time spent on the bike between mod 1 and 2, and the fact mod2 is pretty much like being out on your own/with the instructor helps. I'm a confident person, and had no bother with either exams.