Mississippi Bullfrog

If it is to be left outside then even yacht varnish will only last a short time. It then needs rubbing down which will be a pain given the carving involved. I'd either use a wood oil and apply a few times a year. It depends how much direct sun it gets. Or use what has replaced yacht varnish in wooden boats and give it a coating of clear epoxy. You can buy epoxy for wooden boats from a boat chandlers or online. It will last much longer than varnish. Personally I'd go with wood oil and be prepared to recoat it regularly. It's not huge so it won't take long. A possible third option which I am experimenting with so can't promise how long lasting it is - is beeswax. I've been polishing wood with it over the past few weeks and the finish it produces is lovely. It ought to be very weather resistant but I'd suggest it would benefit from regular applications.

Have any of these lots of people actually done either of these suggestions? And if so did it work? Bear in mind that if you do something like this your insurance will want to know about it. It's usually cheaper and more effective to keep it standard and trade it towards a used Japanese 125. For city riding they're better suited than a 50cc machine.

Just when you thought this place couldn't get any weirder.....

I find it the easiest system I've found so far to add waypoints. Once you've set the destination you then tap the route anywhere and it opens a waypoint marker. You then drag that to where you want it to be and it plots a route via the waypoint. You can zoom in or out to be as specific as you want. My favourite route between home and the Ponderosa goes by a very out of the way route because there are a couple of really nice roads I like to ride. It took just two additional way points for the app to find that route and then you can save it for future use. You can also track routes you've ridden and if you find a road you like that can be saved as well. It's very intuitive to use which I find is a sign someone has thought this out.

I won't try to do a video of the Beeline as there's plenty on YouTube already which show how it works. I have tried various navigation systems, sat nav, various phone apps and different phone holders. I've never really got on with any of them on a bike. I use a dedicated sat nav in the cars and all systems have their strengths and weaknesses. What I like about the Beeline: Its simplicity. In route mode you get an arrow telling you which way to go. A dot that tells you which direction your next turn is. The distance to your next turn that counts down as the turn approaches. A scale that shows how much of your journey is completed. For junctions or roundabouts you get a symbol that gives you notice - eg for a roundabout you get a symbol with a number, the number is the exit you want. As you approach a turn the arrow and dot should coincide if you're going the right way. If you take a wrong turn the arrow turns black and you either ride back to where you went wrong, or press a button to recalculate the route. In compass mode the arrow just points to where your destination is. You then just ride down any road you like and head in the general direction of where you want to end up. You don't get speed warnings, estimated arrival time or a detailed map. For me I find these don't work using sat nav on a bike. I just find it too much to take in. I like the very simple information you take in at a glance. I have it set to avoid motorways so I haven't tried it with multiple lane junctions. I bought the kit with an additonal bar mount so I have a mount on each bike and just swap the unit between them. The mounts are nice quality, as soon as you open the box you know someone takes pride in this product. The display unit is linked to your phone which runs the Beeline app. I understand this is based on Google maps so you've got up to date maps all the time. The app allows you to set how you want to navigate - route or compass mode. You pick a destination, then you can add waypoints to tailor the route. If you want you can have the phone duplicating the display unit, or you can use the phone as a display unit in a car for example. The display is very adaptive to light conditions, it keeps a constant level of visibility as you go under bridges, in bright sunlight, or at night. You can do the obvious things like set it for km or miles, avoid tolls, motorways or ferries. The Beeline Moto was developed from a version made for cycling so the Moto version can be set to do both motorbike and bicycle routes. I do a lot of off road riding on a pedal bike and the routes it works out are the best I've found of any cycle navigation system. As a bit of a bonus the display clips into the cycle mounts I use for my Garmin cycle sat nav (which is useless). Cost is £149 for the black version. Or £199 for either of the versions with a bit of coloured trim around the edge. There are a variety of mounts. It comes with a universal band held mount and a stick on mount. There is a bundle deal which adds an additional mount of your choice - as said I went for the bar mount which is a nice bit of kit. It won't be for everyone. If you like your dedicated sat nav with all the information on a coloured screen this will seem a bit strange. But it is very intuitive and easy to ride with. The one minor niggle is that where two juctions come very close together it doesn't tell you in advance. That's where your sat nav with a visible map will be better. But usually those kind of junctions are in built up areas where you can easily just take the next turn to get back on route, and using a dedicated sat nav I've had dud information about directions at times so no system is 100% accurate. Overall for motorcycling I like the Beeline's simplicity, clarity, option to go freestyle and explore whilst still heading in the general direction. The display works for me and doesn't clutter the handlebars. The app is very easy to use and in terms of selecting routes the best I've found yet. The battery life is reckoned to be about 30 hours so there's no wiring involved.

imagine the relays on that Hmmm....these don't need relays. We had a scooter club used to meet at a local pub for rallies. I took a look at a few and they seem to have a really clever way of powering the extra lights that doesn't involve any wiring at all. No idea how they do it but not a single light ever had a wire running to it. In terms of the op's question, yes it can be done, but you'd need to do some fabrication. Has he actually offered the Bonny lights up to his bike's front end or compared the two sets side by side on a workbench?

And yeah I agree electric for the getting from A to B but for rides that mean something you need the IC engine. Yes you get the instant torque from electric motors and yes you can install a sound generator but its just not the same is it.... Agreed. If electric does get the range and speed issue resolved, which it will, then I'd still have two bikes. One for work and one for fun. One electric and one ic. I might set the electric to sound like the Bobber, but I suspect they'll never fit something to create the vibration or the thump of the crankshaft through the pedals. (Which some Bobber owners think is so strong it's a fault with the bike.)

Don’t fancy the pickled eggs much. Look well past their sell by date.

For those concerned about the lack of noise from electric bikes you can always do what scale model aircraft do and installation a sound generator. So your electric Spitfire can sound like a Merlin. It’s better than some ic glow two stroke whining away up front. And if we judge electric bikes by the first examples it’s like judging ic engines by saying a Model T Ford wasn’t very fast. They will improve and if they can get the battery technology right I suspect a lot of people will be surprised how lively electric can be. There will always be a place for ic engines, just for the sake of what they are. But for practical work getting from A to B I suspect electric will have a huge impact.

That will be dilithium crystals you’re thinking about.

Nice cat. Shed’s pretty nice as well.

I like good quality ale, lager, cider, gin, whiskey, brandy, wine, port, mead, sherry, etc. I'm not at all fussy.

Of course it's nicer. There's twice as much.

Surely the key lesson here is that there is no such thing as an easy two minute job. This is hardwired into the structure of the universe.

Isn't that Musk chappie hinting at some enormous breakthrough in battery technology? I love the noise and everything associated with IC engines but when lithium batteries and brushless motors were available for model aircraft the simplicity and performance meant I was totally converted. I can see that if range and life span of batteries takes a big step forward then most people will go for it. Personally I'd keep the Bobber just for what it is, but the Honda would be replaced with a washing machine on wheels without hesitation.

That will teach not to click on everything someone tells you to click on.

The day I was due to pick up the Bobber it was wet and the dealer point blank refused to let me pick it up from them. He put it in his van and delivered it. Then if I chose to ride it in the wet on new tyres it was entirely down to me. One advantage of buying local. A mate bought a new Street Cup from a dealer 75 miles away and had to ride it home in monsoon conditions. He said he nearly lost it twice even riding with extreme caution.

Interesting as that's what I always use on mine, which have anti reflective coating. Doesn't seem to cause a problem. I went over to them as everything else I used ended up damaging the lenses. I do them every morning as I hate marks on the lenses.

That's all right. We accept weirdos on here.

Have fun, just take it easy on new tyres. The roads are still either wet or tend to have a lot of debris and dust from the heavy rain.

I think 'unusual' is putting it very politely. I can see people liking something radical, but then in a couple of year's time what looks radical now seems to date really quickly.

Some coatings may be affected by strong detergents. I've damaged glasses by cleaning with washing up liquid but that's a while ago and over a long period of time. To be fair I used neat washing up liquid rather than diluting it. But I found it did degrade the coating and made them prone to scratches. I use the wet glasses wipes now and they clean without damaging the surface.

I used to work in a little back street garage after school, we had a lad with a 250 as everyone had in those days who was always messing around with it trying to make it go faster. Someone told him adding Brasso to the petrol would polish the inside of his engine, which being a muppet he believed. He ended up with a very neat hole through the crown of his pistons. They made a nice set of matching candle holders though. The other lark was smearing grease inside the exhaust of anything the new guy was doing engine work on. The smoke soon after starting it usually produced worried looks.

I second this. If it's not for commuting then you'll soon grow out of a 125 and want something bigger. A second hand Jap bike will not lose you any money.

No, it was a place in Huddersfield. Place you're thinking of must be Millennium Motorcycle Centre Millennium, that's the place. Keys can be weird. I had a key that was fine for years, then just snapped in half as I took it out of pocket. Anyway, the weather forecast is looking better.