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someone

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  1. Indeed. My CB500F does around 79 to 80 mpg on average on all sorts of roads including plenty of overtaking on dual carriageways and motorways. Around 250 miles on a tank for about £19 at current prices. And up to 82 mpg on average with Tesco Momentum petrol, which have tested is slightly better value in cost per mile. Today I was halfway into the reserve when I spent £19.89 for a full tank of Momentum and got home 240 miles later with one bar still showing on the gauge. One thing to add to geofferz's advice to Moh, even though you have a car licence you still need to do a separate bike theory test. Despite most of it being the same as the car one. And most schools include the CBT in their training packages for beginners, so if you are planning on doing the DAS straight away that should be included in the cost. As will bike and clothing hire and insurance. So the only thing you need to pay for in addition to the training cost is the theory test.
  2. Unfortunately your instructor is correct, the mod 1 and theory tests are tied together. If you read the back of the mod 1 certificate it is explained on there.
  3. A shame about the internal battery not lasting longer or it could have gone on a switched connection. As I only ride for leisure the bike can sit a week without use in summer, and longer in winter when the weather is bad. Had the battery go flat a couple of times early this year, I guess because of the immobelizer, which is why I asked. I like the sound of their SIM though as it says it will use any available network (and lists all the U.K. ones) so there should be no black spots rather than being tied to a single one with a mobile network's SIM. Thanks.
  4. I am very tempted, I hope you are on commission as I have a few question When the bike is not powered, does it run from its own battery or the bike's one? If you use their SIM, is the cost fixed or can you end up needing to top it up? Maybe as a result of listening to the microphone to use up the data. Never had a tracker before, but presumably you have to use the app or a send a message to turn it on and off every time you ride to stop it alerting you about what you are doing? And if I go out for a ride and want to download a GPX file of my route, I can just simply go on the website and click on a few links? At the moment I take an old Garmin bicycle GPS with me as a GPS logger, so partly want a tracker for that purpose as well as for security. At £5 per month with their multi-network SIM, it seems good value.
  5. So sorry, forgot to say thank you, Stu. It seems my problem was the 15 seconds wait you mentioned, if I do that it works fine. A shame it is nor mentioned in the manual. When wanting to switch from bluetooth to FM I had not given it that long so it was still sending the presses to my phone instead.
  6. Banana number 4. Though I had my meds reduced at the start of the year because of high potassium, so now I rarely eat them as I do not want my lovely drugs taken away.
  7. A ripe green orange is just as sweet as an orange orange. Just as a bright orange seville orange will still be very bitter. It all depends on the variety, the conditions they are grown in, and how ripe they are. But yes, it applies to other citrus fruits and not just oranges. Lemons can be green, and limes can be yellow, and still taste as you would expect.
  8. I realize I am now arguing the colour of oranges, but green ones are ripe too. In fact citrus fruits also stay ripe for as long as they remain on the tree, but cannot ripen after being picked. They only naturally turn orange when the weather turns colder. Then the chlorophyll, which gives the skin its green colour, dies off. As the weather warms up they can turn green again as they are replenished with chlorophyll. So the colour of an orange is really just a reflection on the climate it was grown in. Although because of the expectation of many people that oranges should have orange skins, exporters from tropical regions may treat them some way (exposed to gas, freezing, etc.) to kill off the chlorophyll and change the colour. The European words for the colour are named after the fruit.
  9. Which is the whole reason for training . Nervous riders who cannot brake safely should not be completing CBT courses, let alone getting full licences. I used different schools for the CBT, a CBT renewal, and DAS, and at all of them was taught or told to use both brakes and never advised against using the back one. Maybe I just misunderstood how many bad schools there are out there. Which is quite worrying, as we all have to share the road with people who never learned how to brake properly.
  10. It was only one paragraph in a long post that anyone had a problem with, no reason to delete anything else other than a hissy fit. You were offering advice to people that could see them fail their test. Which is not my personal opinion, I directly quoted the DVSA's information to examiners on the issue. But if you think offering bad advice was "hitting a nerve," then I guess I just have to accept I do not feel comfortable allowing people to needlessly fail their test, or end up in an accident from using a bad braking technique, when the very least I can do is warn them. But I cannot apologize because you are right, I am a soppy sod and would do the same again.
  11. I would ask for a refund then, because you were taught badly. If you are taught a good technique then you should not have to worry about locking the wheel up. And a school which only teaches you to pass the test and not to survive on the road is not worth your money. Using both brakes is universally regarded as good technique and could potentially save your life. Especially in wet conditions where the ratio between brakes is much closer. You got away with one, that does not mean anyone else will. I have ridden faster than the speed limit without repercussions, but I would advise anyone to just ignore them because of that. I stand with saying it is very bad advice, which could lead to people failing their test. As well as being a poor braking technique that one day they may need.
  12. I have not read the original post, as it is long and not aimed at me, but kingmunky picked up on something important. The following is very bad advice. You are in a test centre on a school bike, not a sports bike on a track with the rear wheel off the ground as you brake. Putting aside that common sense should say that both brakes will be better than just the front one, even if the front one is far more important, and putting aside that science says that both brakes together are better than just the front one, and even putting aside that use of the rear brake is all the more important in the wet, it also simply risks you failing the test. The official DVSA guidance to examiners says: Failure to use the rear brake can be a fault at best. If the examiner thinks you have not stopped as quickly as you should — and, again, you will take longer to stop if you do not use the rear brake — then it will be a fail and the test will immediately end. And as you cannot have two faults on the same exercise, if you were not fast enough through the speed trap then even if you effectively stop without the rear brake you risk failing the test rather than a second attempt. You pay an instructor hundreds of pound for their knowledge and experience, if you are taking your tests do not ignore them because of something you read on the internet. And from the CBT onwards any qualified trainer will teach you to use both brakes. Because that is what the test requires, and because that is what will stop you more quickly. If you need to, you can find videos on YouTube demonstrating the stopping distances of just using one brake or both together to see that the rear brake does make a difference.
  13. And your L-plates. Which is why you have them, so that other traffic knows you will do stupid things and be more careful around you. Same as the reason why cars have drivers. Besides, you should wait until someone turns regardless of their indicators. If you are involved in a collision because someone was wrongly indicating and you pulled out expecting them to turn, you will be regarded by a court (if it comes to it) as sharing responsibility for the accident. Also, if your are still learning and have problems then go out early in the morning and stick to quiet roads until you are able to ride safely. Anyway, congratulations.
  14. I am still using my cheap Chinese (genuine) SJ4000. Mounted on the bars, plugged into a USB, and as I do not YouTube the 720p quality is fine for me. The only thing I can say against it is you get some vibration, but that is the way I have it mounted (with a RAM mount) and not the camera.
  15. The whole purpose of Waze is that it crowd sources traffic data, both from users reporting problems and by analysing traffic speeds. It is a source of traffic information on Google Maps.
  16. Your E.U. licence is recognized the same as a British one, so you can ride an A2 bike the same as a British licence holder. No need for a CBT, L-plates, nor even to exchange it for a British licence. Though if you are staying in the U.K. for a long period then it makes things easier to exchange it.
  17. When you are changing lanes, do not take your thumb off the switch. This also works for many left turns. Otherwise, it is just what I said in the other thread. You need to make it a habit, part of the process of going around a corner, just like pushing the bars, so it is entirely subconscious. You should not have to remember they are on to know to cancel them, you just do it anyway regardless of whether they are. Straighten up, turn them off. If it is still that much of a problem, maybe you are not ready to take the test yet? When you start out changing gear is a really complicated manoeuvre, in your head you have to go through half a dozen steps (throttle off, clutch in, gear lever, blip throttle, clutch out, slowly, throttle on) but eventually it just also merges into a single action with your hands and foot working together. Cancelling the indicators is no different, it just gets easier and more automatic with experience. And as with the gears, there is no shame in getting that experience before taking the tests, it is the reason the CBT exists. The indicators may seem a trivial thing compared to actually riding, but it is about your safety and that of other road users. So it is just as important as being able to change gears. But you would not rush into taking your tests before you can do that, so why should working the indicators be different? To be clear, I am not saying you personally think of them that way. You already said you understand the importance of them, not just as a necessity for the test. So that is mainly aimed at anyone else reading who may have the same problem. But if you are not ready and need more time to make cancelling them automatic, then the best advice is simply to get more experience and do the test when you are. Just as you would with working the gears.
  18. don't bank on much of a discount, if any. Agreed, it made no difference to me. But if you declare it then you must always use it. Forget that one time, and they can use that as a reason to not pay out. That said, you should still definitely get a good one for the security benefits.
  19. Always cancel your indicators. I mean that literally; always. Does not matter whether they are on or not. Cancel them anyway. Whenever you cross a give way line or change lane, cancel them. Make it a habit, it does no harm if they were not on. No need to remember. No need to check the light on the instruments. None of that matters, just cancel them. And if you are riding along and think you forgot to cancel them, cancel them just in case. You will not fail your test for cancelling your indicators when they are not on. You will not confuse other traffic by cancelling your indicators when they are not on.
  20. Surely your school should cover all that? My training took place in the areas we might go on the test, then on the morning of it they had various photos of the places which were potential pitfalls to go through before setting off to the test centre. Sounds like you need a map of Bristol as an Atlas would not have a large enough scale. Otherwise, enjoy.
  21. The AA's 4-inch-to-a-mile road atlas is only £1.99 at full price. Asda certainly always sell that one.
  22. What is the difference between absorbing and bending?
  23. Okay, so fiddled with it some more, and I think (as in it works sometimes) there is a delay before it goes into standby, so you need to leave a long pause between the long press to end music and the double press for the radio. But there are no tones to indicate when this happens. And after a while it seems to not go into standby at all, and only controls the music so then you need to turn the device off and on. I never thought of using the app, as it is not an option when riding (at least not without mounting it on the bars and touch sensitive gloves) but that seems to prove the above. If you play music the radio button is greyed out, and stays that way for a while after you stop it before it can be selected. Thanks.
  24. I am not sure how it could be app related as if it is in standby then the Scala should not be trying to communicate with the phone at all.
  25. In what way? I used my phone, in cheap waterproof cases, for years without problems. The only caveat is I would always connect a lanyard (mine homemade) to the case to also wrap around the bars to protect from it coming loose somehow. Only with one case did that ever happen whist riding. I now have a TomTom (Rider 420) and whilst there are a number of features I miss, and has many annoyances, overall having a dedicated unit is better. Notably over a phone that it does not have a problem with glare in bright weather (probably due to not needing a case), is usable with gloves, and will hopefully not overheat like the phone did being inside a case. But I am more worried about the TomTom being unprotected in the open on my bars than I ever was about the phone in a protective case. Though it probably depends where you can mount it, as mine is just inside the mirror as I cannot fit in the middle of my bars/yoke.
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