Mississippi Bullfrog

It's monsoon season here. And I have a dental appointment this morning. On the upside I have been let loose with the joint account card unsupervised!

That's mad. The head bearings need some dismantling to get at them but the front pads are a 10 minute job. Just looked at your video....they need doing but when you get the races out you'll find the pitting will be tiny. I'll bet you haven't even noticed when riding the bike, it only looks so bad because the front wheel is floating free.

That's not unusual as the miles get higher. There will be small pits in the bearing races that the balls are setting into in the straight ahead position. They will be tiny and when riding the bike you wouldn't even notice the effect. It only shows when the front wheel is off the ground and allowed to float freely. So basically it needs sorting but at that stage you could ride the bike without noticing any ill effects.

Those are gel cells. They really don't like being left to fully discharge. What @Simon Daveysays about checking the respective voltages is how I'd go about it. You can disconnect the leads on the batteries and charge / test them separately.

Probably a dud battery after being laid up. Starting the bike probably killed it and just ticking over wouldn't put any charge back into it.

I prefer them to the full width ones. At least on a bike you can usually slip through one of the gaps either side.

Sorting out my garage. I used to restore cars so I have 4 sets of axle stands of various sizes, plus loads of tools I no longer use, I need to start getting rid of stuff. I sold my welding kit a while back. I found a half finished boat trailer project lurking under all the tat....so that needs finishing off and going up for sale. I've also discovered tools missing which I remember lending to someone...since I haven't needed them I suppose they've done me a favour.

I have them and much prefer riding in them to messing about with drop down visors. Driving a car they don't work so well but I find that on the bike the visor doesn't stop them from working. They are not as dark as the drop down visors in either of my helmets so going into tunnels has never been an issue. I find I can see better on roads with overhanging trees that create dark patches with photochromics than riding in untinted lenses and using the sun visor.

Both mine have sun visors. I don't get on either them at all. Much prefer how photochromic lenses work. Plus the lenses still work when you're sat having a brew sat in the sun. But it's personal preference at the end of the day.

I get bog standard glasses from Specsavers. I'm on varifocals so larger lenses work better. I have several pairs as my prescription rarely changes and I can keep old pairs of glasses to use. But I wear flip front lids Caberg Duke 2 and Schuberth C3 Pro and they work well with any of my glasses. I think it's better to have reasonably stiff frames rather than rimless glasses under a helmet. And I always hinges that flex outwards as well as folding inwards. Straight or bent arms seem to make no difference to me, other than bent ones stay in place when removing my helmet. Photochromic lenses are a must for riding bikes.

So far everyone has got this wrong. It is very very simple. At all times your tyres should be facing down. If they are facing the sky you have crashed.

The bushes and seal will wear putting very fine particles into the oil.

Changing fork oil is pretty simple so why wouldn't you do it regularly? I change mine every 10k, though the Bobber I did at 7k whilst I was fitting new springs. Even at that mileage the old oil was showing signs of getting mucky.

That does look a whole lot better. I hate those huge end cans on modern bikes. Re the cat....one reason I'm a fan of the Bobber is that the cat is very cleverly hidden. There are then two dummy covers that hide where the real exhaust enters and exits the cat. It makes look like a straight through system. So it can be done. Black high temp paint works and will certainly hide the cat visually. I use it on the CBF downpipes which are mild steel (Honda you cheapskates) but you need to repaint a couple of times a year as it doesn't survive the underside of motorcycles for long.

I think the general consensus would be to keep hold of your £100.

I buy tyres online and fit them myself. Balancing is pretty straightforward with a balancing stand. The CBF is tubeless. I've not had to replace the tubed tyres on the Bobber yet and I'm probably OK until next year on that score.

I've been exploring the Motobit navigation app which currently has a discount on full functionality. About £16 for a year which is way cheaper than Calimoto. It's pretty good. I've had a couple of dud turning instructions over 300 miles but all sat navigation have some issues. I'm not keen on the American pronunciation which is spectularly unhelpful in Wales. It also switches between kilometres and miles at random. On Friday we set it for a circular tour using back roads and it worked out a very interesting route...or "rowt" as it would say. One odd thing I found was that part way through Friday I kept getting a squealing noise which sounded like a brake pad. It took me a while to figure out that Motobit had analysed my riding style and the squeal is a warning that the bend ahead is tighter than you're expecting. Throwing the Bobber into bends is quite good fun so it gives the app something to worry about. I'm not sure it works as a safety aid as I found myself trying to trigger the warning and being a bit miffed if it didn't go off. In general though I'm happy with it. Much cheaper than most navigation subscriptions.

Have a great day

Since I work weekends I usually ride midweek and the roads are quieter. The thing I really hate about weekends in N Wales is the power ranger nutters who only ride at weekends, only ride on sunny days, and treat the roads as their personal racetrack. There was one lived near my daughter. Unfortunately he went out a couple of weeks ago and never came back. He rode like a madman and it caught him out.

Same here. Going to try tonight.

I think that's what I would do in that situation. I suspect whoever designed the risers assumed the lower bolts would be conventional hex heads.

Out yesterday on back roads around Wem area when a guy on a Triumph Tiger came hooning it round a sharp bend on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately I was on a bike hugging the apex of the bend. If I'd been in a car he'd have no chance of avoiding a head on collision.

Is the air filter soaked with petrol?

First question is when was it last fully serviced? Basic service items being past their best could cause problems. If the previous owner changed the carb jets ask why. If the oil is contaminated with fuel then change it.

I've seen faulty crank sensors do that. It's the heat that does it. Usually leave them 10 - 15 minutes and they fire up again. It won't repeat until the engine gets hotter such as at idle.