Mississippi Bullfrog

Ah well, maybe some other time. I hung around until about 10.30 but there was no sign of anyone else. I had a chat with a few folk out for a ride though. The weather was really mild and the roads had dried out. There was a guy who'd just come back from N Wales and his bike was covered in salt. He said the roads were covered in the stuff so they were still damp and greasy.

Somehow I have shovelled down choccies, beer and mince pies and my riding kit still fits just fine. If anything the textile trousers are slightly looser. Regretfully I can't indulge over new year as I'm on call all night.

no one else here. I'll head off towards Whitchurch and go visit my brother.

That is a pity. Well I'm heading off before too long. If anyone is there we'll have a brew and a bacon butty and take it from there. Hope whatever is coming is worth it!

OK. I’ll be leaving about 9.00 as I have an errand to do on the way. I need to drop something off at our new place in Whitegate and then double back to J&S.

I’ve used a Garmin and Waze, my only gripe with Waze is there’s a dialogue box that blocks part of the map. There’s probably a setting I’ve got wrong. But Waze seems to pick better routes than the Garmin. Most of the time I don’t use either, it’s more exciting when you’re not sure where you’re going.

That’s what I was referring to above. Mine is the DB power 16500mah which is a belting bit of kit. The look on people’s faces when it fires their car is a hoot. They can’t believe something so small packs so punch power.

Just off to look online to see what that entails lol Take the earth lead off the battery , then put your multimeter between the negative battery terminal and a good earth. Set to measure current. There should be virtually nothing, sometimes just a few milliamperes if you have an alarm running. Anything more and there’s a drain.

If the roads dry out I'll be on the Bobber, but I was out that way this afternoon doing errands and the roads were filthy in which case I'll stick with my winter hack. Either way the forecast is good so I'll be at J&S for 10.00am.

I had this with our old caravan lights. 12v everywhere but nothing worked. Turns out it was corrosion within the cables. They showed voltage but hardly any current was getting through.

If you can't use a solar charger then I'd get a lithium starter pack and install a lead to the battery so you can attach the starter pack to fire the engine. I use one about the size of a paperback book that has got our neighbour's 3.5 diesel going. You can also run lighting off it if you need to. I use mine for powering all sorts of things and just charge it once a quarter.

I've used solar panels and they are brilliant for keeping batteries charged. Very low output so ideal for trickle charging.

What kind of charger are you using? If it always fires up after charging the battery then I'd double check the battery first. Put a multimeter on it to check the voltage, you're looking for above 12.5 at rest. Then put a bulb onto the battery and check it's holding voltage. If the voltage collapses under load that would point to a dud cell.

I agree. I was never ever going to ride something like the Bobber, until I sat on one. Take it in stages, it's far better in the long run. Check the number of bikes for sale with less than a thousand miles on them. A lot of people buy bikes they soon regret.

If the bleed nipple is just cracked open enough to allow fluid to flow then nipped back again when the pistons are retracted you won't suck air into the system. You could always use a simple one way bleed tube to make sure. I may be wrong but I've always thought the key issue with pushing fluid back up the system with ABS is the chance of getting some contaminant into the ABS control. They tend to be very intolerant of anything getting in there.

Check there's no corrosion in the bulb holder. It might be shorting to earth when the bulb is installed. I'd try a spare bulb just in case there's an internal fault with the bulb. I've had bulbs test ok with a multimeter but still play up when installed.

Sounds good to me. J&S at 10.00am is fine. I'll be on either the Bobber or the CBF500 (black with a top box) depending on weather. No heated grips for me. If it's cold I'll have marigolds under my gloves.

Unless you're riding some kind of low powered round town scooter then even on a 125 you can get to speeds where protecting your feet and lower legs is important. Those are the bits most prone to injury so I'd always wear bike specific boots. What fits is very much a case of trying on and find what suits you. I know a lot of people like to buy online but for boots you really need to get to somewhere like J&S and try several pairs on. You'll know the right ones when you put them on. Go for fit and comfort rather than style.

That's a bit weird. If the crash protectors were stolen and you've ridden it with a loose engine my guess is there will be distortion in the frame that isn't showing until you strip it down. The broken bit in picture three is hard to make out but you'd need to dismantle quite a lot to weld in that area. That's why I suspect workshops are advising a new frame. Given that you'll need to dismantle quite a lot of it anyway to do the welding then to be honest I'd invest in a new frame and just reassemble the bike on that. Frame geometry is kind of important. I'm a bit puzzled how they are quoting £1600 for the frame and only £400 for labour - I'd have thought the labour would be more than that.

New Years Eve is a possibility. I can't do Friday or Saturday due to prior commitments. The only thing is I need to be back home by 5.00pm due to work commitments - but it's getting dark and cold by then so I guess that's no real problem.

I'd go for the Honda NC750. Very economical and the people I know who have them as commuters speak very highly of them. Probably far less prone to theft than the Tracer and much easier to live with. If you've got on well with the Diversion then the NC750 is probably nearer your cup of tea.

Me. My father in law dropped part of the fire set into the log burner so I got up early to try to find it amongst the ashes. I scooped out the bulk of the ash, of which there was loads as the fire had been lit most of the day. Then I decided to use my old workshop hoover to clear the debris and ash that was left. Which would have been great if I hadn't knocked the filter connection out of line. So when the fire place was lovely and clean I turned round to see the rest of the room had disappeared in a fog of fine ash dust. You would not believe how far ash dust can travel round a house! And the bit he dropped into the fire seems to have melted

I'm one of those who the first hint of any kind of odd noise and I'm convinced it's something terminal. So I tend to spot problems very early but it does sometimes mean I'm stopping frequently only to find it's some plonker's stereo ramped up to earthquake proportions.

Merry when applied to Christmas has a different meaning, as in the carol "God rest ye merry, gentlemen.. " the comma is significant! Merry in ancient usage means ' courageous'...as in those who have laid on Christmas dinner for 75 people in our community centre for those who would otherwise be alone this festive season. It takes guts to do something like that. So in its true sense, may this be a merry Christmas to everyone on here.

Halfords still do them but they're not always up to date and aren't brilliant for bike versions. I'd go online. The last few I've bought have been off Amazon.