Mississippi Bullfrog

Yes, the plan is to charge for the old bridge as well, which seems outrageous ad it's been free for years.

I know, I feel a bit of a divi. I nearly deleted it and then thought someone else might be wondering what the toll is. In my defence - it is first thing in the morning on my day off so I am not really in the land of the living yet.

Oops - my bad. Just thought to check in case they'd put it up and there it is - bikes are free. Hurrah.

OK - not a ride out chat but just wondering if anyone has picked up on the tolls for the new Runcorn crossing. Once the new bridge is opened the charge for cars is £2 one way. The Mersey Tunnels are £1.70 but bikes are free. Anyone heard what the toll for Runcorn will be for bikes? I guess bikes are free in the tunnels because of the delay bikers will cause taking off gloves, unzipping multiple layers, finding money, lobbing in the machine, re-zipping everything up, putting gloves back on, etc etc.

OK so his previous excuse was diarrhea and this time it was just wind. So he's getting better, right?

He's not been active on here for a while - so probably found out the hard way that being called a dick is the least of his problems.

Pah - I have over 100,000 pets and they all feed themselves. And sort out their own poop. Lovely little furry things they are. I can't remember all their names, except Queen Bee 1 and Queen Bee 2. If they get any freeloaders I have to gas them every now and again. http://i.imgur.com/hPzQX25.jpg?1 Scares the hell out of the neighbours.

I must confess that it is a while since I did my training - in those days if you could avoid the dinosaurs they let you out on the road for real. But the one thing I do remember is how detrimental it is to be tense on a bike. Easy to say but harder to do, it just takes time and that varies from person to person. But there comes a point when you stop being tense and then you discover that it's not as hard as you've been making it for yourself. That's still true all through your riding career. If you tense up it's time to get off and have a break 'cos something's bugging you and you ain't riding right.

I suspect the dealer didn't fully charge the battery before delivery - which is silly on his part. He probably expects anyone with a new bike is going to be riding it so the battery ought to get a charge that way. In your case that didn't happen. That's poor PDI on his part. In the end it sounds like the problem was a combination of a flat battery and then a blown fuse - could the fuse have popped when you where swapping out the battery? Who knows, but it was a simple issue which you sorted because the dealer was making noises about charging you to collect it. Which is precisely why he made such noises - to make sure the customer checks all the obvious simple things before he makes a long journey to find it's something relatively simple. I can see why people are saying it's the dealer's problem, but I can also see why he wanted to make sure you'd checked all the simple things first. A blown fuse is hardly a major warranty issue. Sure he could, and should, have been more helpful but my guess is that a local dealer might have been more helpful because he knows you could be a repeat customer. When you buy at a distance the guy knows he's never going to see you again. No excuse, but it's the way it works.

As a beekeeper I have a load of cheap washing up gloves lying around. I have found that wearing a pair under my usual gloves works pretty well - long enough for my usual winter distances. You can get them with quite a high degree of insulation - if they can keep your hands cool when in very hot water they ought to work the other way round as well. You do get some funny looks if you buy pink ones though

Thanks Hoggs I had a poo day at work - but then came home to a grand carry out with the family and the world's most humongous birthday cake (on account our daughter is getting married in Sept and my wife is planning to make the cake, so she did a trial run on my birthday. Not sure that much chocolate is actually good for you but what the heck.)

Never throw grease away. I wouldn't use it on a chain, but I do like applying it to the underside of my old Japanese cars with a big paintbrush. It's the only thing that stops them turning into rust buckets.

Also with mentioning the the charging system only really replaces the charge used to fire the engine, it doesn't always fully recharge a partially discharged battery. So th battery charge tends to reduce, especially during throttle winter. As has been said, an intelligent charger will help prevent this problem.

I've never used a vacuum bleeding system on a bike but I use a pressure system on cars and the trick there is to use very low pressure. Maybe your vacuum pump is putting too much force into the system?

I know a few guys who have used that particular oil in bikes with no problems.

This could still be the battery. I had one recently doing the same - the battery showed good voltage but was collapsing as soon as any load was applied. The charger wouldn't touch it so it looked like it was at full charge - when in reality it was fried. Try testing the battery voltage with a 12v bulb connected to it - see what voltage it is holding when the bulb is connected.

If you don't have much use for a grinder otherwise then consider putting the money into a Dremel - or one of the cheaper versions. It's the kind of thing you'll use time and time again all around the house so well worth having. I have a cordless Dremel which is brilliant for removing chain links.

Andrew needs to get a life.

That's easy - the black one is Ginger and the ginger one is - oh hang on...... I've never tried to name all mine, there's about 130,000 of them http://i.imgur.com/0eMZcYf.jpg?1

Many moons ago I started on a 125 - and there's much to be said for the experience gained. However I had to commute on some pretty quick roads on it and it wasn't the most joyful of experiences. Riding flat out trying to keep up with traffic on a small bike with skinny tyres and not much by the way of brakes & suspension got a bit tiresome. If your commute is round town or roads up to 50mph then a 125 is fine. If you need to travel on A roads at the national speed limit or dual carriageways I think I'd spend a bit more and go down the A2 route. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so I'd say the deciding factor is the distance and type of road you have to ride every day.

A friend lives on a rural lane and his house is right on a right hand bend - in effect you go straight ahead to go down his driveway. Which I did one day, parked up, and was just getting out of the car when a lady came belting up the drive and straight into me. Hit me so hard up the chuff the front windscreen popped straight out. Fair do's - she put her hand up straight away to what she'd done. What was a bit of shock was the red mess all over her windscreen which looked pretty grim - turned out to be a pizza she'd just bought and had left on her parcel shelf. I'd seen her glancing down all the way down the lane so I'd slowed right down and indicated for miles before pulling in. Still didn't help much.

Sounds like poor sparks not igniting the richer fuel mix on acceleration. As said, leads, plugs, could be damp in the connectors?

Slightly worried that the dog thinks it has two feet. It's not some kind of mutant toy is it?

Can you pull the plugs and see what the tips look like. That can tell you quite a lot about an engine.

What happens if you lower the headlight aim so that high beam can be used without dazzling oncoming traffic on a motorway? You said you'd raised the aim (presumably trying to make dipped beam reach further) in which high beam will be aimed very high.