tigger004

Like Mr Fro says, the Motocross type armour is good and you can wear it under most street jackets that are loose fit, don't wait until you learn the hard way, make sure you wear gloves and boots too, my son would tell you about ankles and road rash, just lay on any road and get someone to drag you as fast as they can, then think 30 or 60mph. Enough said

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Lidl and Aldi stuff is great value,. Try asking on sites like freecycle and streetbank, if there is anyone out there getting rid of stuff you just have to collect it, good luck and stay safe in winter roads

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You will be surprised what you can get off good local people who really just like helping others

Most the stuff people have will be just hanging up forgoten about until they see a "wanted" post

Ive given AND Received Lots of good stuff on Freecycle.

Ive never given or received anything Anyone would call crap.

A lot of it has been almost new too, last thing I got was a nearly new Gas Space heater for the garage (with 1/4 bottle gas too) that is good enough for any house

Last thing I gave away was a 1 year old working 4 channel CCTV DvR

Makes you feel good too

Costs nothing to ask

Not heard of Streetbank but will look into that now

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Lidl and Aldi stuff is great value,. Try asking on sites like freecycle and streetbank, if there is anyone out there getting rid of stuff you just have to collect it, good luck and stay safe in winter roads

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As for lowering, when my wife passed her test she used my vfr800 which i lowered for her and she was fine but disliked the weight on her wrists. She bought a lovely honda cbf600 and was in the same situation as you with top toes, as time went by she started saying I'll ride pillion, it wasn't long before she had practically stopped riding.

I caught on to this and found it was making her not want to ride, suggested she change her bike, she's tried super low sportster and even a dyna ( not the bikes she had envisaged) but she's happy to tour fully loaded now and would probably be comfortable on a taller bike now her skills have improved,

Good luck with however you proceed, just think on this story

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There is a YouTube channel for David, known as Muddysump. He has some excellent videos. He also does mobile servicing all over the country. Depending on your bike type he may come out and do an (excellent) service which I'm sure you could watch. What ever you choose to do watch his videos,

I am Northampton way and if you ever wanted a ride out some time, I will spare you some time to go over some servicing basics. Or you can email me [email protected] Cheers Jeff

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yes tigger both happen the hartford marina has had a change of management who are now bike friendly and restarted the wed night meets

Thanks, I will along to both sometime soon.

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Do both the white Swan and Hartford marina still happen?

I know one is a Tuesday and the other a Wednesday and that would be a good thing if the weather is changeable, just trying to find out if one has ended or both occur, also what's your opinion of the best venue / attendance.

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I found that just getting out and practicing on twisty roads brought on tangible improvements. On a recent ride with a few other novices, some of whom hadn't been out much at all, I found that I was far from the slowest rider overall, despite being on the bike with the smallest engine.

I also have had a few corners where I've got halfway round and suddenly needed to fight the urge to grab the brakes after nearly bottling it. Interestingly, I read an article in Bike this month about the Bikesafe course, which I've already signed up for, where they say that if there's enough grip to stop an upright bike, there's also enough grip for a bike to get around the corner. After doing the course in July, I fully intend to sign up for some advanced training.

The vanishing point moving away or towards you is a good indication of corner speed,

 

This video provides a decent explanation of this, which I found useful.

https://youtu.be/WkAtWiRq8Q0

Thanks Lateral us a great supporting video of what I was saying.

Another thing is smoothness and where you are looking, a good source of info is a guy called Jerry Paladino (motorman), he is a bit cheesy but his stuff is from many years of being an american police biker.

He talks about "head and eyes" i have been riding since 1976 and it helped me improve a little. I also like his slow riding stuff with a feathered back brake.

Lastly, a lot of bikers brake or stand a bike up mid corner in panic, both actions have a bad outcome. Usually if you are not being nutty the bike would have got around the bend and the smoother the better. Throttling off / braking affect suspension at any time, doing it mid corner is not a good idea.

One of the other posts says about riding a road you know and increase confidence which is a great idea, something I did was use an empty car park.

Find one that is in good condition, pick a nice day, start off with a low speed and practice circles, figure eights and braking.

The advantage to this is that you can stand a bike up and ride out of an intended course of action without running out of road or worry of other vehicles (a bit like the CBT I guess)

Sorry I'm waffling now, but you enjoyment and safety comes with proper handling and control, get out and practice [emoji41]

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The vanishing point moving away or towards you is a good indication of corner speed, get hold of the police motorcycle handbook (available on amazon). It covers all aspects of motorcycling not just cornering. One thing that's big, is continuous improvement. Could be a life saving investment,

Also I've been seeing i2i training banded about as a great confidence booster, Google it!

Hope this helps and good luck.

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I shall take as look on amazon, I've just had a look at i2i and there is one not far from me but it's not cheap. I might pop down to training centre and see about a couple of lessons just to build some confidence. The plan is to do my DAS this summer so I want to get this corner confidence thing under control

Time will help but expert help will radically change things, even for seasoned bikers. Biking would become a great pleasure if you overcome your concerns, hope all goes well.

Keep us updated.

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The vanishing point moving away or towards you is a good indication of corner speed, get hold of the police motorcycle handbook (available on amazon). It covers all aspects of motorcycling not just cornering. One thing that's big, is continuous improvement. Could be a life saving investment,

Also I've been seeing i2i training banded about as a great confidence booster, Google it!

Hope this helps and good luck.

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Lots read posts without posting [emoji38]

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Nice one, makes it comply with insurance terms (hopefully!), thanks for sharing. I might have a use for that for a garden hammock too. Thx

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Disappointing update from me, just stopped to change my destination and found you cannot input a new address without Internet access ( I had none ), it will let you select a previously entered address or favourite without Internet access.

This could be a pain in bad coverage areas! I managed to access a BT wifi connection and was then OK, just thought I should share this as I had previously entered destinations from home, obviously with no issues....

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Don't think it does post codes, input the address, does seem it's still developing though, IE car routes, iphone etc, nay be post codes soon

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Also when there are bright lights your eyes are drawn to them like the proverbial rabbit, this just makes it worse, especially the instant after the lights have passed and you are in darkness again, look forward and into your gutter and let your peripheral vision do the proximity stuff. It's something my old dad told me years ago and it works for me [emoji108]

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I was not aware of that. Thanks, will remove the insert before my next evening ride.

 

Remember without it you're probably going to steam up!

maybe im old but i just ride with the visor cracked

+1

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My first thought was squaring off of the tyres, then check everything for play and tightness, also many years ago I had a 250 honda superdream that felt like the frame was made of plastercine, turned out to be play in swingarm bearings,

As someone else said maybe your confidence has changed and you are pushing harder, don't over do it or it will become very loose especially this time of year, good luck jeff

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Hi all,

Thought this may be useful for someone, found a sat nav app for android (phones,tablets) coming soon for ios apple stuff.

There is a Web site for info and trial map (full UK map is £8.99 on a free app, not a bad price).

Any how, it uses curvy algorithms for routing, also has a loop ride facility where you input the distance and direction you what to travel and it creates an editable loop for you (really good)

I emailed Calimoto to see if it there are plans for direct route planning and there is (be good in a car then)

For nine quid I like it, but you'll need a mount for your phone etc.

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Instead of a sticker you could get a piece of wrapping vinyl in what ever colour you wish, even carbon effect if that's your thing, good luck which ever way you go, jeff

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Support it on the jack under the engine as suggested earlier. Then with the wheel out chock under the fork legs or if you can, lower it on to a sheet of wood on the floor?

My ethos is - if something is already as low as it can go it can't fall any further

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my zumo 590 cost me near enough £500

That's one hella pile of maps.

Oddly, I used to live for tech but now can't stand it (says the hypocrite typing on his iPad). I've gone back to scribbling rough maps on bits of paper and praying to the Gods of Male Intuition Direction.

 

And taping the scraps to the tank? Because that's the best way to go. If I'm feeling really fancy I use the laminator at work so that my directions don't turn to mush if it rains.

I used to use paper, once into a city centre the detail required was too much, then I couldn't follow it, no problem I thought, stick one edge in my mouth so I could have a quick peek at junctions, when the speed rose so did the map and it flipped up blocking my vision, now I use powered SatNav [emoji5]

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