bonio

Going to try this when I next wash the window sills.

Ear plugs are 100% essential kit. Deafness and tinnitus aren't a lot of fun.

Looks like it's available on YouTube mate

I remember when all we had to burn was elm. Grumpy, fussy logs there are, they sit for hours and grumble and smoke "like churchyard mould". But if you got them into exactly the right position, they would eventually properly catch light and when they did, they would throw out the heat. But you either froze or roasted; there was no in between.

Yes, of course we could burn what we liked - it's not like the sweep was policing us or anything. But dry wood leads to more heat out of each log (and cleaner chimneys, and cleaner emissions). We used to use our log burner every night, rather than the central heating. We stored the logs until they were 10% water content (as measured by the sweep). You could tell they were good to burn as they were light as a feather. 4 10" logs would keet us warm for the whole evening.

Yeah ours used to check the wood too. Given up on fires now though, too much hard work stacking logs each year.

A supermoto perhaps?

There are a lot of bikes out there than would be a great match for you and would outshine the Tiger: the 1250GSA, 1250GS, 1200GS (2015 bikes and later are excellent), the Africa Twin, Versys 1000, the new Versys 1100, VStrom 1000 just to name a few. I'd suggest taking your time over making a decision. Go and test ride them all and find out which of them make you smile. You're not in a rush - you've taken the big hit on depreciation when you rode the Tiger away from the dealer, and another 6 months or a year won't make a lot of difference.

Welcome in

Don't know about yellow headlights. As for modifications, if you don't declare them you run the risk of the insurers saying they won't pay out on your claim because you've modified the bike and not told them. Given that some insurers will use any wriggle room you give them to avoid paying out, it seems to me far better to declare the change and know the insurance is going to be there for you when you need it.

That's extraordinary. Where we used to live, one kid got hit crossing the road near the school, and the council put in a traffic island and bollards almost instantly. There had never been any problem there before, it was a wide, open piece of road, and the kid wasn't seriously injured, but the council didn't want even the appearance of negligence. I know you weren't hurt, but perhaps consider reporting it to the police, so at least it features in their ksi stats?

Ooooh I seee. I think you're right. I can be very stupid sometimes. Like now. Thanks to you both @Stu and @Yorky

@Stu... so how do you go touring? Am I reading it wrong?

Yeah you may be right. They don't say who the underwriter is (until after you've paid, that is). And they don't give you a choice of underwriters; you can only take the one they offer you.

Tried Hastings. They say this But isn't this the very part of the bike that's most likely to be vandalised? And if I had to fit a new lock and keys on an MV, they have to replace the dash too, and the total bill is somewhere north of 3 grand. Will keep looking...

@Stu I don't know how Bennetts and the underwriters come to an agreement on what to include and what not to. But I am sure that it's a two-way conversation.

Just got my renewal letter from Bennetts. Not too bad tbh, up to £155 from £135. Until I read the small print. The bike is garaged and the policy used to say it wouldn't be insured if it was stolen within 400m of home but wasn't in the garage. Ok, I can put it in the garage when I'm home, that's not unreasonable. But the new wording says it's not insured between 10pm and 6am unless it's locked away in a garage somewhere. Anywhere. No "within 400m of home". Ok, they now want me to plan every trip I do based on the availability of locked garages, which I don't want to sign up to, but the thing that's unreasonable is they've buried the change in the small print. Why treat people like this? EDIT: It turns out I got the wrong end of the stick - carry on reading down the thread for the full story.

Not complete shite. My guess it that its fine at coming with anodyne marketing blurb or slogans.

If your situation were to change and you decided to sell, having the stamps would likely make it easier. But perhaps it doesn't make any difference where you are now... I know that out here it's too remote for most people to be bothered to come this far. The secondhand market is very local.

If you can't moan a bit here mate, where on earth can you?

@MawsleyThat's grim. The missus is like this. Every year some new injury or illness. One year it was shingles. Then a bad achilles and she couldn't walk. Last year she had pneumonia. Twice. This year bad shoulder, bad neck and bad back all rolled into one. You could see the pain on her face. It gets her down.

You've a lot to learn, starting from absolute zero. You'll get there.

Cracking pics... Wish I could ride like that! Welcome in.

This is true. Sometimes. It all depends on the kind of riding you end up doing. Smaller cc bikes are great on smaller roads. They're light and easy to manage and they'll skip happily around any kind of corner you throw them into. But 125s quickly run out of steam if you take them on a dual carriageway, where you find you're stuck in the inside lane with not quite enough puff to get you past the truck in front, and even my 400 is short of umph when im trying to do an overtake on a local A road. For either of these I'd prefer to be on your average 600 and accept that it's probably not as nimble round tight corners. In fact, a 600/650 makes a great all-rounder as it give a competent ride on nearly any road, other than an unrestricted autobahn. But I wouldn't choose one if I wanted a bike that was mainly for touring with luggage, especially where I might have to do reasonable amounts of time on motorways or the like. It's just not that much fun spending hours on a bike that's working hard to keep up. Even my 800 with its cruise control makes it harder work than it would be on a 1200, and I miss my GS most then. But at least I don't have to push that lump around gravelly car parks any more...

If you don't mind second hand there is (or used to be... I havent looked in the last few years) good kit available cheaply on Ebay. Should be OK for textiles. Not so good for gloves and boots where a good fit is more important. Nor for helmets... go to a shop and get the guy to help you find one that fits well.