Via

Technically I've only been told I can't put foot down or knock over a cone, no one has said I can't crash into fence

That is why I am so annoyed with myself, know that and did that every time in practice just went into twat mode while there Live and learn though. Certainly been a positive experience throughout. Instructor is absolutely brilliant and weirdly has never felt like he has been teaching us, we've just spent a lot of time riding with him giving us hints on how to do it better.

Cheers despite the fail getting a pen made it so worth while seeing look on instructors face when I gave it to him.

Day 3 Thanks everyone... Well today was the day of reckoning. Last night was not good and was absolutely dreading it. Met with instructor and headed straight off to the car park to get in some practice before my MOD1, pushed myself as hard as I could on the practice swerve and emergency stop and managed to get up to speed in the area we had, it took every bit of faith in the bike and instructor but I got it. Then onto the slow stuff and I nailed slalom, figure of 8 was adequate but not perfect, U turn was spot on every time. So we then headed off to the test centre, I was in first and was feeling better but nerves still there. Instructor offered a discount if I could steal the examiners pen, went into room while he done the paperwork and sitting on the side was a box of pens... so thought sod it and asked examiner if I could have one as I'd been told I could get a discount for a pen and he gladly obliged, this broke the ice a bit so one pen in my pocket off we went. Honestly can't remember the order off what we did when as it was a bit of a blur, will try and do it in order but may be wrong also plenty of blow by blow descriptions of MOD1 about so will skip the first bits, they all went OK with all my observations there. Then the dreaded slalom and figure 8... slalom absolutely fine, first figure of 8 I got the turn in a bit late and no way I could make it inside the yellow cone so took a minor and went on the outside, 2nd one was fine. Then the slow ride and pull up in U turn area, again absolutely fine. Then the U turn, pull away far too slow and instantly put my foot up before I've got my balance, sure enough I then wobble and foot goes down I've not even started the turn yet and I'm now stopped half way down area, was told beforehand that foot down is a fail but at same time to just carry on and try your best as there is the odd time you may get away with it, so restart for U turn (with half the run up now) and make it round albeit now a bit messy because of less space, I forget about it and just try my hardest for the rest... Next is the controlled stop, so set off and do as instructor said and try to hit emergency stop / swerve speed for this, controlled stop was fine but when I asked speed which I though was OK I had only hit 40kph, I am then asked to turn bike around (I am now stopped by U turn area again) examiner says I can either go left or right, if I choose to go right I can disregard the white lines. So I thought if I have any chance of being one of the odd few than can get away with putting a foot down I need to prove I can do a good U turn so I go right and don't ignore the lines and treated it as a U turn... went perfect. Then onto the emergency stop, first attempt only 45kph so second attempt and hit 52kph (phew!) then the swerve, first attempt 42kph second attempt 55kph (double phew!) after that out into carpark and park up. Go into the room for exactly what I expected, sorry you failed on your U turn, no other minors than what was expected (figure of 8 and speed trap). To be honest when I woke up today I did not expect to pass, but to fail on 1 little thing and what for me was the easiest one of the lot I was absolutely gutted! Other guy went in after me, he had nailed everything in practice so expected he would pass fine, he came back with a failure on U turn for going over white line Gave the instructor his trophy pen which went down well so he has put that in his tank bag, said he is going to see how many he can collect now (well I've got a chance to get a second for him!) so with us both feeling a bit down we went and got a coffee, with that and neither of us having to rush off for our MOD2 after that he said sod it lets go for a ride. We then went for about 90 min ride with me taking the lead initially and swapping half way as a mock MOD2. I was now in a total do or die mood so just rode the arse off the ER6 (which now I am used to the riding position I take it back and would happily own one now, hope the ER5 feels like that) we went a lot round town and did the country lane bit again this time me leading and loved every second this time! Out of whole time I only had one hiccup coming up-to a right turn with the junction sweeping right as well, looked right and see a car coming up and thought I could make it, checked left and it was clear, checked right again and car had sped up and now think no I cant make it so come to a bit of a hurried stop and with weight now on the right and me going to put left leg down end up with both feet on the floor. Instructor did say afterwards if that was real test it would have been 50/50 down to that one incident, I did stop before the give way line but looked very poor control, otherwise riding was best he had seen out of me and he was already happy with what he'd seen before. I am glad it was just a mock one and made that mistake with him. Got retest for MOD1 booked at start of April, will then book MOD2 once that is out of the way.

No hedges just a rather uninviting 10ft metal fence all around the MOD1 area But yes definitely agree with that, in the 'cheat book' talk we had yesterday the instructor was saying the controlled stop is the first exercise and although you can do it at whatever speed we want he said to do that as if it is was the emergency stop or swerve and use it as a dummy run because although not tested if we ask the Examiner at the end of it what speed we were doing they will tell us.

Glad it helped Luckily I need them so rarely that I can keep a pair of trousers in work and wear them once a month to the odd meeting and not constantly talking them to and from work. I will also say when I've had to take them home for a wash or whatever it is much easier to change at work into Kevlar jeans before heading off and throwing them in a rucksack than trying to fit the Kevlar jeans in (and then obviously the grief of changing trousers at the side of the road which some people moan about )

I normally do the same and just ride to my train station (get very cheap train travel and work in central London) I normally wear kevlar jeans without the padding in and leave my jacket on, top box then stores my helmet and boots. Plus always keep waterproof over trousers in there and a roll up waterproof jacket during summer - got caught in a downpour in mesh jacket and jeans before and couldn't have been more wet by time I got home if I had jumped in the bath. Jacket can be a problem especially in summer even with my mesh summer jacket (keep the armour in on these as well) but what is nice and comfortable on bike can become extremely hot in the slighest bit of sun. I can get away with keeping kevlar jeans on for work (only part lined so not much more of a hassle than normal jeans but you do notice them a bit more on the hotter days) but I do keep some normal jeans and smart trousers as work that I can change into if needed. Also have the issue of leaving home at 4.30am so normally weather then is a lot colder than it will be by time I get home, unfortunately only solution I could come up with for this is a caribiner on ruck sack so if it is too hot I can clip jacket on that instead of having to carry it. During the other 11.5 months of the year this isn't so much an issue.

Day 2 Just got in the door after day 2... thought I would type this up now as I ache far too much to do anything else... why didn't I do this when I was younger! Started today with a few laps around some roads to warm ourselves up before we headed off to do some MOD1 practice. Was reasonably happy that I hadn't forgotten everything overnight but still weren't perfect. I could do all the slow speed stuff fine (slalom, figure 8 & U turn) except I kept having total WTF moments, this is now biggest fear for tomorrow. We then got to practice the swerve and emergency stop. The emergency stop was fine minus I was easing off brake at the end like you would normally for a gentle stop so got to get the keeping it on and make bike dive. The swerve was much harder (and what was my initial worry), the actual swerve is fine but trying to break away from natural instinct to slow down before it, kept putting a touch of rear brake on before the actual swerve. The car park used (which is also privately rented so closed off to everyone but us in the morning) is quite large but not proper MOD1 size but I couldn't get upto speed enough which was annoying as bloke who started Monday was fine. I know with size I "should" be ok in real MOD1 area but would have liked to have done it there. After that it was on the road this time with us taking turns leading and instructor just giving directions as if it was MOD2, this went really well. only a couple of pointers which was basically head turn for mirrors (was using them but used to looking at them out of corner of my eye rather than doing the test standard turn head to look) and was doing a slight move to left before turning right. With that instructor did say was only ever so slight and would be fine on test but need to be aware of it as if it gets worse then it would become an issue. All in all confidence in riding on the road is through the roof at least. Effectively that was then the majority of the day riding round, break in mcdonalds, ride more, quick break on side of road, ride more... etc... Did then finally end on riding the small bit of national limit country road on test route, this time instructor led and it is quite twisty and tight in places so achieving national speed limit is not possible I have to say that is scariest bit of road I've been down. I've done faster on dual carriageways on my 125 but just felt it required so much concentration etc... hoping that I don't end having to go down there as tbh don't know if it will be easier or harder leading down that. All in all though another good day. Got my MOD1 at 0900 tomorrow so get a bit of practice in before but if I can pass that I do believe I've got this.

Cheers was awesome, was absolutely buzzing for hours after. Hoping that I can get slalom etc... Nailed tomorrow, did forget to say that instructor put cones out and told us that's the spacing used in the MOD1, was really surprised how tight they are, he then admitted afterwards they are a foot closer together that way if we can nail it on there it should be easier on the day with extra nerves. He also gave us a couple off demos on doing it slow, then fast and finally side saddle I'm just hoping Friday is a good day

Well giving it a service and new plug certainly won't harm.

Had similar issue in past (albeit a different bike) where it cut out when warmed up and would not start again until it was cold and turned out to be the HT lead boot. Basically as it aged the rubber was becoming more conductive when hot so as soon as it warmed up it was shorting to engine block, as bike warmed up before cutting out could see it starting to spark from edge of the boot. Temporary fix was wrapping it with insulating tape around the rubber ending of the boot until I got a better quality replacement. Otherwise is it carb or injection? If carb it could be a vapour lock (carb getting too hot causing fuel to vapourise in the carb).

Just remember to turn it off when you get home, don't want an ambulance turning up every time you drop your phone

Thought I would do a write up of my 3 day course, just home from day 1 so obviously day 2 & 3 will follow. Well was feeling a bit nervous when I set off, not done any practice I wanted to on 125 before the course thanks to the weather. Was me and 1 chap who is on a 5 day course (started Monday) and not ridden a bike before 2 days ago, wouldn't have guessed it and wish I was riding like that 2 days after I started!! Expected today to be all MOD1 stuff and not see a road, well started off by getting a radio and an ER6 with a very brief overview of controls (effectively everything where you expect it, one more gear up and no light switch) instructor then asked me to pull the bike forward 2 foot and stop (twice) and then it was come on lets go for a ride. Spent the next couple of hours having a ride around, instructor led for the whole time (minus 20 mins where he put me in front to assess my riding at the start) and we just followed while he gave a running commentary on road position, what checks to be doing, what action to take on approaching hazards (unbelievable the amount of bin lorries out today!) and giving directions. After a couple of hours we then took a ride up to the carpark they use for CBT and we did a bit of the slalom and figure of 8s. Really struggled with both but after about an hour I was feeling better with them, not up to MOD1 standard but getting there. He then explained that reason we won't be spending all day doing MOD1 stuff is that because of amount of concentration involved and how difficult it is we will just be doing it in batches so we don't end up winding ourselves up to the point it's doing more damage than good which I think is spot on, know from CBT how much it ended up being a cascade affect when things started going wrong and making minor mistakes. We then went back out, took a ride to garage and topped the bikes up then onto McDonalds for a coffee and a bit to eat. Following that we went for a ride to the test centre where he showed us the MOD1 area and gave us a 'cheat book' talk on how to do things like the speed trap, that if we have it in 3rd for the turn, do turn at 15mph (which is about the slowest bike will do in 3rd so don't need to check speedo just keep it on the point where you feel like you want to change down) then full acceleration at last cone and come off throttle at cones just before speed trap will have us through the trap at 52kmh. We then went for another ride, giving us tips on road positioning out of test centre, left turn out is quite tight so showing us with the road markings where we basically want tyres on that turn so if any test day nerves bike is nicely lined up for the left lane and don't blow it on first corner. Then the rest of the day was just more riding about, fair few roundabouts for getting lifesavers in, overall just a good day out riding. Will also say a bit about the bike, first time ever on a big bike and what a difference! Was a bit wary at first in regards to acceleration but soon found it to be spot on, bike would pull away with ease and much more forgiving if I gave it a bit less throttle than I should have. Did get split up a couple of times due to lights / gap only big enough for 1 etc... as expected, but found it so nice having the power there to catch up afterwards, pulled like a train but not scary with it. As for handling another massive difference, bike was so much more planted than my 125, it just went where I wanted it to go, potholes that I'd avoid like the plague on a 125 I soon found had no effect on the ER6 and it just kept ploughing on wherever I pointed it. I've always liked the ER6 but after all that I will say I don't think I'd ever own one now, whilst it felt spot on I didn't like the riding position, felt the pegs where a bit further back than I would have liked and found myself wanting to sit further back on the seat (on the bit that rises between rider and pillion).

You should be thanking them, looking at that pic if you hadn't stopped for them your head would have gone straight into that bus...

Worry about it when the bill comes in by then too late to send back

Looks good and nice low profile, will have a further look cheers. Didn't win the stealth, got highest bid in with 2secs to spare, got outbid just as it ended .

Did find corrosion on connectors a nightmare on ER5, I ended up having to use mini wire brush on dremal to clean a lot down. If not corroded then the bypassing the switch for now (disconnect and use bit of wire or paper clip to join the terminals on plug) if it then works then it's switch itself.

I got some muc off equivalent once (cheap and why not) that smelt really nice! Much better than WD40 (and it came out like a luminous purple colour). Thank you for that interesting contribution to the great Corned Beef debate . You can add a few squirts to your corned beef con carne as a bit of seasoning and an interesting glow.

I got some muc off equivalent once (cheap and why not) that smelt really nice! Much better than WD40 (and it came out like a luminous purple colour).

Watching a drift 2 on ebay atm, only 2 on there (well 3 if you include buy it now one at £999) so fingers crossed. I'm sure if you manage to put a small plastic box stuck on by a double sided pad through crash helmet either helmet was totally fooked to begin with or that was some high speed impact and probably least of your worries... in fact just had a look to make sure... http://www.bbc.co.uk/safety/resources/safetynews/whatsnew/helmet-cams (tested on climbing helmets but same principle, if anything higher speeds of impact on a bike is more likely to cause it to break away quicker).

Looked at drift and were coming back 200+ as well maybe newer models will have a look for that one, sound don't bother me as long as good video, tbh anything that gets said over 45mph probably best not recorded anyway Does look much nicer than the gopro mounted.

I think the jack of all trades point sums it up, I've always got cans of wd40 laying around and it's used for everything from quick oil of gate hinges to cleaning parts. That said there are lots of specialist sprays that do some jobs better and some I've bought and used in the past these are more bespoke products and while needed for some things the cost outweighs the regularity of use and 'importance' of job. E.g. Would never use wd40 for clutch cable although know others that do as know other products much better and worth using. But would never go buy a specialist gate hinge oiling spray for a quick squirt on a squeaky hinge. In reference to the thread and contact cleaner tbh see both sides, contact cleaner would be better but at same time wd40 would do, if I needed to check a few contacts and give them a spray if I had contact cleaner laying around I'd use it if not I'd use wd40, I certainly wouldn't go through effort of going out and buying contact cleaner just because it is a bit better than wd40.

Want to get a helmet camera and struggling to find a good balance between cost and quality. Obvious high end choice is gopro, but even cheap session option at £200 is too much (won't be used for anything more than as a helmet cam). Then bottom end £30-40 clones, even the newer '4k' ones are terrible even at 1080p... Excessive light burn, horrible stabilisation, etc... Had one previously that video looked OK but was useless with detail e.g. Couldn't read a numberplate off it even if they drove over you! Can anyone recommend anything mid range up to about £75 / £100 max?

Must still be having supply issues, just tried to order that in KFC and just got a blank look

These always make me laugh, my car is quite high insurance group but with age, where I live and NCB I pay about £400 a year which I think is ok, yet when looking at comparison sites I still get quotes of £5000+ from some insurance companies!