fastbob

It's a fine looking bike but not the model I've got my heart set on . Too much chrome for me .

No. They only sell new and nearly new at official HD dealers , I just went for a look . I'm after a 2004 - 2006 XL 1200 R , its got all the features I want .

Jolly good, I got that tyre fitted this morning, got told off for having very worn brake shoes so I ordered some off eBay while I was waiting. Went into Birmingham to look at Harleys then the heavens opened so now I'm stuck in Costa in a mega garden centre waiting for the rain to stop. Snow on Monday, I don't know why I bothered.

Right with you on that one ! To quote Mr Boorman if memory serves me correctly " I'm on a train in India and whenever I look out the window everything I see is just .....India, how cool is that ? " A low point in television journalism that has always stuck in my mind . Alan Whicker must have been spinning in his grave .

Surely if its a new bike then the seller should fix it or replace it just like any other consumer product. If you try to fix it yourself you are letting the seller off the hook because they can now claim that you have caused the fault . If it was a new washing machine and it didn't work properly you wouldn't try to fix that .

Pilot Street on mine too.

I've got 3 different rust treatments in garage, I know one of them is really good, never remember which one though so normally end up doing it 3 times as for internal filter, being a £1300 new chinese bike I'm going to take a random guess it dont. ER5 is practically done just been a struggle with time lately, got a screen for it which went on the other week. What tyre was it? I just went with a pilot street on rear for mine. Got to take front wheel off again got the speedo pickup rotated wrong and it's got lugs on it so cant just loosen it and spin it round... typically it was last thing I went to connect! Doing the carb float needles seems to have sorted fueling issue, could have probably got away with a clean but tbh the lack of maintenance on the outside of bike is probably an indication of how well the internals have been looked after so thought may as well replace them for the sake of a few quid. Itching to get it on the road now. Whoa hang on , I wasn't talking about rust treatments I was talking about petrol tank sealer . Sorry, do these treatments tolerate long term exposure to petrol ? I somehow doubt it .

Could be the better option, I've used this stuff in the past and it seemed to work ok , can't remember the brand though. Remember to remove the internal filter if there is one but I'm not sure how you plug the hole . How's the ER5 going ? I've got to get a new back tyre for mine , its got the weirdest wear pattern . It's gone wavy for want of a better word .

Spot on by the way, took float chamber off again today ready for new gasket (managed to jiggle it off leaving carb on the bike) and was a tiny bit in bottom again so have it a prod and poke, sure enough it's water in there. So will get the tank drained and clean down the rust I can see then some fresh fuel. I wouldn't touch that rust at all . If you dislodge it you may never get it out of he tank because the filler hole has an internal neck that will prevent it falling out . Better to invest in a fuel filter.

Errr........do you read Viz? Less it will yus ar arl bang ya heeds t'getha .

I'm not sure about your particular carbs but is it possible that when you replaced the tops you either dislodged or forgot to replace the tiny little O rings that go around the vacuum gauge take off points ? It's easily done because they can stick to the carb tops and then fall off when you're handling them . The O ring is missing in this picture but you can see where it goes. I just happen to have a Mikuni carb as an ornament .

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you detected air leaks by spraying Easy Start and if the revs go UP then there is an air leak .

I saw him in the flesh at a custom show at Donnington and he was still whinging about America then .

Talking of drones , I was camping at one of Scotland's most beautiful campsites at Ardmair near Ullapool. The tranquillity was disturbed only by the irritating whine of a drone, or quadcopter to use the correct term . When the wretched thing flew right over me I performed an internationally recognised hand gesture that involves touching the index finger to the thumb plus a V sign for emphasis. Minutes later I was suddenly surrounded and verbally set upon by an extended family from Newcastle who began by slagging off my little ER5 . " What's the idea calling me a w**ker you f*****g pussy ?! " and " Who rides a piece of shit bike like that ?! " were among their angry comments.I'm not usually stuck for words but on this occasion I was a bit shell shocked after having ridden all the way from Keswick so I pretty much folded under pressure . I do realize that these things have cameras but it didn't occur to me that the operator would take it so personally. After they had gone away and had time to calm down I decided to approach them to apologise. My apology was readily accepted and we all had a good laugh and shook hands . They actually promised to put the uncut footage of me on YouTube but sadly I've never found it .

....so it wasn't just me, then..... PS. No diving, just snorkeling with a selfie stick????? Oh well, 'spose it keeps some people happy. This is on a par with the "footslider" from a few weeks ago......though not as likely to end up in the searing, burning agony of a broken ankle..... Oh yeah, I remember that one , something about spanking the monkey ( literally ) that turned out to be some twit going round corners dangling his feet wearing roller skates.

Must be the wrong video, all I got was some bloke on a scooter and some dreadful music that sounded like mice talking. I didn't watch the diving bit . Sorry.

No worries That's a glass jar (well a fancy one with some kind of embossing, think its meant to have a candle in it ) with what was drained from carb, bottom orange stuff was jelly, top was normal fuel) Oh , yeah now I see it , it looks like a squashed tin can . Are you sure that's jelly ? That just looks how water behaves in petrol to me . Stick some petrol in a jar and drop some water in . It will sink and appear to form globules but all its really doing is not mixing with the petrol. Cheers anyway.

And wrong bike this is my 125. Found one though on ebay, should be here by the weekend. Oops sorry ! But what's the picture of ?

Here you go. Oh shit sorry, just read the writing in red .

Hi mate, what on earth is that a picture of ??

Much appreciated Stu, gotta be an XL 1200 R though.

Ok, bearing in mind that this is pure guesswork based on Bullfrog's theory that the vacuum pipe to the automatic fuel tap has come off , here are some pictures that might help solve the problem. You can see where the tap is located from the picture of the tank . Looking at the tap itself, I would guess that the vacuum pipe goes onto the nozzle in the centre of the circular housing , that's the one with the 90 degree bend in it. If its come off the other end , look for a similar nozzle which is probably on the intake manifold which is the thing that connects the carburetor to the engine.

This is exactly what I was thinking, the question is which end has become detached ? Pictures would certainly help here .

Oh hang on then , the tube has become detached from something then ? You mean its open at both ends ? I think everyone including me assumed it was a drain tube of some sort and it was meant to be dangling . Best thing to do is post some pictures on here so we can get a better idea what's up. ( Attachments, Add files , select pics , wait for them to load, submit )

As described earlier, I had a confrontation with several dragons at work simply for voicing my opinion on the Sheeran phenomenon. So what's this Game of Thrones thing then ? I suppose its on one of those telly channels that you have to pay for isn't it ? It probably clashes with How its Made anyway.