Mississippi Bullfrog

I'll confirm this I find small FI engines feel fussy - like minor hesitation at light throttle setting. Then it pulls once you get past it.

Working on the principle that nothing will stop a determined thief I go for deterring the less determined variety. First thing is can you make the garage door harder to open? Ask your landlord if you can install a better lock on the door - so long as you make it clear you will leave it when you move out they may be willing to allow you to do this. Next would be some form of alarm in the garage. Plenty of DIY systems available which you can take with you when you leave. Then the obvious of adding more chains and locks to the bike. If you can't lock it to a ground anchor you can at least have longer chains/cables running through the wheels and frame. You might also get a scrap car engine block and attach that to the bike. Anything that makes it harder for thieves works because most of them are lazy and only go for easy pickings. A wifi camera/alarm system is a good measure - especially if you can record it. It's less of a prevention but at least if the worst happened you'd have some evidence for the police. The last break in we had the clowns realised they'd been filmed breaking in so they stole the CCTV monitor leaving the actual recording system behind. We got a lovely shot of them in the office removing the monitor - the police who attended were wetting themselves at the thieves stupidity. We are not talking about the brightest of the species here. Hope your new home works well for you.

And were the eggs free range or battery?

Ha! I'd have got my own back by going and parking my bike in a car space. Preferable right at the front of it so it looked like it was empty.

I had something similar recently. I got the leather warm and then worked at the offending area with my thumb. I was surprised how quickly and easily the leather gave a bit and they're fine now.

Ladies poop! Blimey, you learn something every day. My world will never be the same again.

That certainly does sound like fuel starvation. Has someone had the tank off and trapped or linked a fuel line?

I tried them having worn contacts for years, then going back to glasses and then getting to the age when vari-focals were necessary. They didn't work for me - after a month I gave up on them because working on a computer or doing paperwork just didn't work. For driving and riding they were fine but no good for when I was at work and there was no way I was taking lenses in and out several times a day. So I'm back on my glasses and a full flip helmet. But it is a very individual thing, they may well work fine for you. (Actually I prefer wearing glasses when riding as when I used to wear contacts riding with the visor open even a crack was lethal. I always ended up with grit under a lens and that's painful. I had a few nasty moments at speed when something got in my eye and I had to pull over. With glasses it's much safer and with the right helmet not a problem.)

Well I am certainly pleased to hear that. It means the roads will be nice and quiet for a little run up the Wirral that day.

Motorists will respond differently to different bikes. A 125 with L plates filtering might rouse the ire of a frustrated cabbie, whereas they'd probably not take on the rider of a larger machine on the basis that a more experienced rider isn't going to be intimidated. You'll get the hang of when it's safe to filter and when to use some discretion. On video it always looks faster and closer than it really is so don't be misled by YouTube clips. When filtering make sure you can stop on a sixpence because things can change pretty quickly and neither motorists or pedestrians seem to expect a bike to suddenly appear.

The fact that you've got two different bolts doesn't really matter in my humble opinion. They're not load bearing, just there to enable accurate adjustment. You've probably got it all to cock at this stage so let's go back to the beginning. Wind the two adjuster bolts out so that they aren't putting any pressure on the axle plates - the ones with the markers on that show where the axle is in relation to the swing arm indicators. Loosen the axle bolt just enough to enable the wheel to slide backwards and forwards. Move the wheel forwards until the chain is slack. Try to line up the markers / indicators both sides so the wheel is square. Now screw in both rear adjuster bolts until they start to pull the wheel backwards - do each a little at a time so that the wheel stays square. Do the chain side first each time so that you get an idea of when the chain is getting to about the right adjustment. When the chain is at the right adjustment, check, check and check again. Then tighten the axle bolt. As it tightens keep checking the markers to make sure the axle doesn't shift out of line. If you don't have a torque wrench just use a decent socket on one side and a ring spanner on the other. If you tighten up as firmly as possible with normal hand tools that's usually sufficient. That usually works for me.

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?