Mississippi Bullfrog

Some roundabouts have a bad camber that makes it much harder on 2 wheels. There are two on a route I use regularly that are tricky in the dry and horrible when it's wet.

May there be cake, dancing, wine, song and ....er.....more cake. Have a great day.

I went with a mate to Old Stores, had brekky, then went to Wrenbury for a coffee at Berries cafe. Unfortunately the cafe was closed as they were catering for a funeral gathering so I used Google maps to find the nearest place for coffee. We ended up at No.18 which is less than 3 miles away. It's a very classy coffee/tea place doing afternoon teas for the mostly lady clientele. It all looked very refined, not your usual haunt for a couple of scruffy bikers but we were made very welcome and well looked after. There was one other male present. As we got up to leave, donned our jackets and helmets, he looked up, our eyes met across the room, and I could read his mind - he was thinking - "You lucky lucky bast*rds."

Those old Celicas were nice cars. What worries me is that these days given a choice between a Celica and an old Volvo I'd go for the Volvo.

The 208 is a PureTech wet belt engine. Keep the Mini. They don't have a great reputation in terms of build quality but it will outlast the 208.

I'll just echo what others have already said. Go for a used Japanese bike. It will be more reliable, less servicing, and you'll get much more back when you sell it on. The critical thing is that motorcycling is a journey. Don't overthink it or try to figure out your eventual destination from the start. Once you start riding you'll figure out what suits you, what your needs are and what you enjoy. So take it one step at a time. The only way to think about bikes is to go to a dealers and sit on them. No amount of internet research will tell you what bike it right for you.

I have Montreal trousers and they're very good. Versatile and keep the rain out. The zips at the bottom of the legs aren't the best and one of mine is a bit dodgy. But they've been hammered in all weather's and I just leave the zips done up.

First thing - I went to visit one of my riding buddies who has just bought a GB350 - what a nice bike it is! I've not seen one in the flesh and I was impressed. A really good looking machine. Second thing - the Bobber is known for poor connections at the battery from new. The earth lead doesn't bolt directly to the frame, there is a small bracket that it connects to which can get paint around the contact area in the factory. There is also a metal plate on the end of the earth lead where it connects to the negative terminal, that also can have paint on it. The first thing I did was to remove all the connections, clean them back to bright metal, add a very small dab of copper grease and I've never had any problems. I've met several Bobber owners with weird warning light issues, random starting problems and display issues. Every single time it's been a poor earth connection at that bracket on the frame. People clean the earth lead but they forget to clean the bracket. Last week I had a couple of times when the bike didn't fire first time, but it would always fire second time. I've just removed all the connections, cleaned them up as they had got really dull, and the bike fires up on the button. I suspect that bracket is a weak point because this is a common issue and every time cleaning that bracket resolves it. Considering it only goes out on dry days and it a fair weather bike I'm surprised how dirty the battery connectors were. My CBF goes out in all weathers and I've never needed to clean the battery connection.

Handy dry bag for the vast sum of £3.99 from Home Bargains. Be useful inside tank bags or panniers.

Lurking in my garage was an old parking lamp you used to attach to the driver's window and run a wire to the battery. So then I needed a car to go with it. Bought a literal barn find 1972 Viva. Bought a welder. Bought jacks, axle stands, full set of imperial sockets and spanners. Bought a sprayer and compressor. Bought angle grinder and powerfile. Bought timing kit. Which led to hunting replacement panels, seats, carpet, various engine and suspension parts. Then a full set of 4 brake drums which hadn't been manufactured since the last casting mould shattered. New brake lines and cylinders. Master cylinder rebuild kit. New radiator, carburettor, exhaust. A set of Rostyle wheels which I hid under the sideboard (not very successfully). So be wary of old parts lying around your shed. They can lead to great expense.

I was thinking of a photo of you wearing it back in the day.

Really needs a photo of it being worn.....

They taste horrible.

Birthday felicitations your Grumpiness.

When working exhaust studs expect the worst. Anything else is then a bonus. Personally speaking I tend to work on the basis of...If it ain't broke don't break it. If you decide to go for it soak the exhaust fittings in copious amounts a penetrating fluid in advance. There a numerous videos on YouTube showing various tricks with corroded fittings. I used to rebuild 1970s cars which threw up loads of seized fixings. Plusgas works very well. When it didn't do the job then a second application of Plusgas immediately followed by WD40 usually did the trick. Very rarely did I need to use heat or melted wax.