bonio

Don't be a nob geofferz otherwise you'll deserve a slap on the arse. Of course the OP is talking about private roads. With the landowners permission.

IMO heated grips win over better (but unheated) gloves. Mine go on even in summer, so I can keep riding with summer gloves even on cold, rainy days. They go on in autumn, so I can still keep riding in summer gloves, as I like them. And the stay on winter, but now I'm winter goretex gloves.

I had this problem bad yesterday: wet, salty roads, combined with the lightest drizzle meant that it was like looking through out-of-focus glasses for 70 miles. It was made worse I couldn't locate my bottle of the Nikwax stuff before I left. Worse still came when I set off again at night. By then, road spray on the headlamp had evaporated with the heat from the bulb, leaving a thick skim of salt over the lens, making the lamp about as effective as a small family of glow worms.

Thanks everyone. Lunch at the pub followed by a walk across the marshes and along the coast - a great day.

Got one of these too. It's awesome. Before I put in, the lounge was always freezing cold, cos the thermostat was in the hall, right next to the kitchen - which was always warm. Now the lounge is warm every evening, which is when we use it, but cool during the day. The study is the opposite: warm during the day when I'm working from home, but cooler in the evenings and weekends. The bathroom is set to 22C for a couple of hours in the morning when we shower, but the rest of the day it's 18C which is plenty warm enough for a pee. I'd like a bathroom light that can be dimmed, but not if means I have to put a device in my house that's listening to my every word. I'd probably be arrested inside a month.

77 please Hoggs, m' lad.

UK: Scotland (anywhere except the midlands belt from Glasgow to Edginburgh), or as a second choice, Wales Europe: The Eifel in Germany There, you made me go all wistful and nostalgic.

Oh noooooooo That is so miserable Sorry, clean out of helpful advice. But you clearly need a hug So here's a selection. All you have to do is pick the hug you're most comfortable with. And you don't have to tell us which - it's your secret.

We're in the same situation here in darkest Suffolk. I'm on Three, and I have their free app that allows to me make and receive calls and send and receive texts via the wifi. Works really well.

Ebay classified costs you £15 up front, which is hopefully a lot less than 10%. It works like a normal classified - people come and hand you the cash, so you don't give your money to paypal either. Loads of people trawl ebay for bikes and have searches set up, so it's a good way of shifting it. If you reckon £15 is too steep, though, then gumtree is your friend (even though it's owned by ebay ). I've not tried gumtree for selling a bike, but I've had good results from selling cars and bikes on ebay. I reckon, though, you'd do better to hold off until Easter if you can; the only people shopping for bikes now are looking for bargains. As said, don't give up on pxing the bike. I handed in my 12 year-old CB500 in px for an new R1200GS.

suspenders = shocks? I'm finding it a bit bewlildering. On my old CB500, you could chose one of five different clicks on the rear shocks and you were finished. On the GS you just pressed "single rider no luggage" and then chose "hard", "normal" or "soft" depending on your mood, and you you rode away. But here I've got preload and rebound and slow compression and fast compression rebound on the forks and the shock and each of these have anywhere between 11 and 27 clicks to choose from. That gives me ummm 11 times something times a bit more... which is, like, a shed load of combinations. I don't reckon my chances of getting anywhere near a reasonable set up just by going at it more or less randomly. But I'll take your suggestion and up the slow compression and rebound on the rear shock and see if that improves stuff. There wasn't when I bought it. I'm not too sure how well it's doing under all the winter grime. I'll let you know when I wash it off next spring

I’ve had the DRZ for three months, and as Snod has requested it, here’s a quick review. Tl;dr: it’s lairy. It starts with a thump on a single press of the button. The engine coughs a bit while it warms up, before settling down a smooth rasp. The sound track is pretty good. Once on the bike, the position is astonishingly upright – a real boon for anyone into Alexander method. This, with a tall seat, gives first class visibility (except for you, Jack, you’d need to wipe your visor too). But it’s when you let the clutch out that the bike shows its character: it is torquey. I mean really torquey. Let me say that again in case you didn’t get it: it is arse-grippingly torquey. Given the least encouragement, it leaps forward in 1st, 2nd and even in 3rd gear, and gives a tad more rasp from the exhaust in gratitude. Indeed, it’s a happy bike. And it’s at its happiest on our local roads. These are mainly single track, either sandy or gravelly in the middle, full of potholes, and sometimes covered in mud and cow shit. Given one of these, the bike skips along at an alarming speed, chews up the sand, crosses the mud as if it were tarmac, and ignores the potholes completely. It is awesome. It’s just as happy in the city or town: it’s great to be back on a bike that’s not 8 feet wide, and getting from one side of Cambridge to the other now takes me half the time. It’s nearly as good on the bendy B roads near home. The engine braking is astonishing so you can accelerate out of a bend, push on through a few curves, and set yourself up for the next bend without using the brake at all. This is just as well, as the front brake is primarily decorative: you apply it, and the road continues to fly by as the forks compress. Then they compress some more. And once they’re finally done, you can start to slow the machine down. Oddly, the rear brake is fierce – I guess it’s good for rear skids? Braking is just one area where the soft suspension shows up, and it is this that makes the bike completely different from anything I’ve ever ridden. It’s at its most troublesome when I’m commuting and I’ve got a bag on the rack at the back. Like this, when faced with a bend, you need to be very controlled and accelerate gently throughout; anything else will decompress the rear shock and the seat will try to ping you off into the oncoming traffic: that was an exciting moment. It’s the same with the front: unless you set yourself up to take a bend with the right amount of throttle on, the forks will decompress a tad and you drift wide (at least I think that’s what’s happening). Another exciting moment. Since then I’ve stiffened the suspension up some, but I think the heart of the matter is that it’s a different kind of bike and requires a different style of riding, and I’m going to have to learn it from scratch (and possibly youtube ). Once I hit the A roads, the bike is still a fun and able bike. But if had a few more horses, I’d be able to get in a whole load more overtakes. It’s on a dual carriageway where it starts to feel a bit out of its comfort zone. It will do 80 if you push it, but it seems cruel to flog it and make do that speed for any length of time, so I generally pootle along a bit below 70 . To keep the cold off at speed, I’ve fitted a small screen, which has made it warmer and generally more comfortable. There’s still zero protection from the weather, so you end up wearing every piece of muck thrown up from passing trucks, but apart from that it seems to ride as well in the wet and the wind as in the dry. The headlamp is good – a nice surprise. And although a lot of people say the seat – which is very narrow – is like Purgatory (but how they can know this?) I’ve found it’s fine, even after two hours straight riding. The tank is small and the range is terrible: I fill up before 80 miles are up or else I’m fumbling for the reserve switch. Others report getting 120 miles or more, but I don’t know how. I’m thinking of getting some soft panniers (and a frame to keep them off the exhaust). I guess it might improve the handling if I can get the weight lower down, but the main reason is to reduce the amount of faff needed to get off to work in the morning. I might take it to get the suspension set up, but I wonder if I should spend time first learning to ride it better before parting with my cash. Other than I’m pretty happy with how it is.

F800ST is a cracking commuter bike. It won't set the world alight, but it's not a bad ride.

That put a smile on my face [mention]Igloo[/mention]. Nice one

Nice one It's a great feeling isn't it? Funny. On an advanced riding test they complain if you use the brakes where you could have used the engine (well, they do if there's no-one else behind you to see the lights)

Or perhaps you're all just bots and I'm on the real person in here. Heeeeeelllppppp

Woah that's weird as weird. Not only a crazy thread resurrection but a spooky whisper from ghost of internet past... https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?s=df8c5e6b0283c0b0ae39e185acc01c09&p=3397583&postcount=3 Guess we've been visited by another bot?

[mention]mikestrivens[/mention] It seems that they come with a 2 year guarantee, after which you're on your own. There are a few people who say there's have never leaked in 6 or 7 years, but a lot more who say they lasted 2 or 3 years before the leaks started. People say the repair service is very good, in that they come back like new, but given that a new pair of Road Stars are £240 delivered, and you don't lose your boots for four weeks, that's got to be a better option.

Plastic bags not good enough for you, eh?? Waitrose bags would be ok.

[mention]mikestrivens[/mention] Tranam said it would cost £193.20 to repair. I guess it's more as it includes shipping to Germany. [mention]kingmunky[/mention] It's the top of my feet that get wet. I don't think it's coming in through the openings, as the wet area is dead centre, noy off to one side. I've tried applying the Daytona-branded water repellent, but they leak just the same as before. [mention]Gerontious[/mention] I'll do a google to see what has happened to others - good idea. Failing that I'll contact Gore. And if that doesn't work, I guess I'll get some waterproof socks.

I've some Daytona Goretex boots which I've had for just under three years from new. They've kept my feet dry through many a downpour, but they've now started to leak. And the manufacturer are telling me they're willing to repair them for "from €166, perhaps more" which is a crazy money. But I thought Goretex was guaranteed for life...

I agree with [mention]gogs01[/mention] - if the bike goes down without any warning, it's very likely the front that went. There's not much to be done about diesel except stay out of it if you can, or if not stay upright and stay smooth. But diesel on a wet road is as slippery as a wet fish

You're right about one-piece; ideal for the track but really impractical for day-to-day riding. Even having a pee is a major performance. I think I had a 2-piece textile suit once that zipped together, but it turned out to be a bit too much hassle too and in the end I settled for a pair of braces on the trousers. When I wear jeans, I don't even bother with the braces. But they go back into the cupboard for winter - it's too cold go at any speed in them.

Hah. A true Swiss experience

That exactly what I wuz thinking.