Mississippi Bullfrog

tbh my first thought would be points - I had one did that. Invest in the puller do the job, I had all sorts of pullers and none of them shifted it until I bought the specific CG tool - then it was a doddle. It helps to say the year of the bike when asking questions - later ones didn't have points.

Exhaust wrap is usually used to prevent the heat from the exhaust getting where you don't want it to be - eg in classic cars with hotter engines it's common to wrap the exhaust to prevent the engine bay getting too hot.

Yup - Halfords pro stuff is excellent value for money. I take rusty old cars to bits for fun and their tools take some punishment. I once managed to split a socket and they replaced it without quibble. Buy well and buy once. Buying cheap tools is only for rich people who can afford to throw money away.

I once used WD40 to try to fix the auto ignition system on our gas hob. This was not a good idea. The void under the hob filled with WD40 fumes and when I pressed the ignition button the hob rose about six inches out of the worktop. A friend had a similar mishap when he sprayed it into a model glow engine as an after run treatment, and then flicked the engine over by hand. Did you know that WD40 will ignite under compression like diesel? He didn't! He does now.

I have another solution to this problem - I have raging tinnitus so one of the joys of riding a bike is that it is one of the few times I am not spending my life listening to a jet engine at maximum rpm about to terminally explode.

It is a silly fault on ebay that once you've listed something as either 'auction' or 'BIN' you can't revise that bit. I had some car bits I was flogging off and every item was listed as an auction except one that ebay itself decided ought to be BIN so it just defaulted to that setting and I couldn't amend it. I try not to use ebay these days because every time I do so it ends in hassle. Too many muppets out there.

I use a Halfords digital tyre pump - for the bike I run it off a lithium ion starter pack. Does the job great.

You managed to break a CG! I feel some sort of award ceremony ought to be in order. You do realise that you now need to carry hammer with you everywhere you go. And one day Mr Plod will notice this and not be convinced that you need it to start a CG so you'll be charged with going equipped with intent and be thrown into jail.

I am sure the advise replacing the battery is right. But once you have a new battery you want to keep it up on charge. For tiny batteries like the CG get a plug in 12v charger for a gell cell, about 400Ma. When you're not riding daily just put that on the battery and it will keep it topped up.

Been there. Done that. Join the club. You ain't the only one.

Well I think that pretty much confirms what has been suggested on here in various other threads - it's got to be running way too rich for that to happen. Impressive, but hardly economical or good for the engine. The fuel will be washing oil off the bores so engine wear will go through the roof. Plus - Mr Plod may take a dim view of you riding a mobile flamethrower. I remember a severe talking to with a tuned Celica which had a side exhaust that spat flames.

Ear plugs - they'll make the whistle go away. Mine does it on & off according to the weather. I'm pretty sure it's just the pads ever so slightly kissing the disc when not in use. You could whip the pads out and clean the caliper if it worries you.

I wore my new pair the other day. The missus thought my butt looked rather good in them. I don't how far I can slide down the road in them - so far as I'm concerned they've proved their worth.

Is this the same one that worked after you disconnected an additional brake light? And you'd changed the carb settings? If you've made it too rich then popping in the exhaust sounds like unburnt fuel getting past the valves - whip the plugs out again and see what they look like.

I have chaired various groups including being appointed to the most significant position in a local club containing people with more experience and years of membership than myself. So I think I can understand your concerns. My take is that if there are members and committee members who would be qualified then in any form of election process they can be nominated and people can vote for them. It is very hard to find people to stand for office these days so maybe they are sitting on their hands not wanting to offer their time/skills/energy. It is possible your nomination may prompt one of them to stand. If they do - or don't - it's a fair vote and they have the opportunity to nominate other candidates if they've got an issue with you standing. If you feel you can contribute to the group set out your stall - let the members decide. The skills of being chair are different from the skills of being a committee member. There may be a job that needs doing which needs someone outside of the current committee. That was certainly the case with one chairmanship I took on. I made it clear I would do a set period then step down - which focused energy into resolving issues which had festered for years.

You know what they say about things coming in threes.... Out for a bimble this morning, the three events happened within an hour of one another, 1. I am approaching a 45 degree bend to the left in a 30 mph zone. Just before the bend a white Audi overtakes me at well over the limit. As I get to the bend the white BMW chasing / racing the Audi also reaches the bend and tries to overtake going round the outside of me. BMW loses it, goes sideways into the kerb, bounces over the kerb and lands sideways across the pavement. Luckily no pedestrians we there at the time. BMW suspension is apparently not designed to hit kerbs sideways. It didn't look very well afterwards. 2. A mile down the road in 20mph zone a silver BMW overtakes me, not going very fast to be fair but then comes a speed bump which he tries to straddle. Big mistake since he'd lowered his suspension. There is a rather loud crunch and the BMW comes to a standstill. Unfortunately the black Audi following didn't expect the BMW to stop and proceeds to go straight into the back of him. One has to chuckle on occasions. 3. Heading home I come to right hand turn I need to take. There is a blue Mazda coming briskly the other way so I am stopped signalling to turn right. There is a high hedge on the junction so the oncoming Mazda can't see down the lane. He then puts his left indicator on - so he's turning into the lane. Due to the hedge he can't see that there is an ambulance backing out of an blind exit just round the corner and he's not showing much signs of slowing down for the turn. So I wave at him indicating he needs to slow down. He glares at me, gives me the finger, then proceeds to very nearly collide with the ambulance. He did look rather sheepish when he realised why I'd been waving at him. So I came home, had a cup of tea, and decided today is the day all the nutters are let out so I'm staying off the bike.

Have you tried spraying them with a dilute solution of washing up liquid. Usually works for me with rubber fittings.

If you've left it a while any fuel in the cylinders should have evaporated off by now. If you want to make sure take the plugs out, put a rag over the holes, turn it over briefly which will eject anything left in there. Refit the plugs and see what happens. A flooded engine can usually be fired by opening the throttle fully to allow more air into the cylinders.

Sounds like fouled plugs due to the previously over-rich mix. Try cleaning the plugs, check the gap whilst you're at it.

I've just bought myself a pair of Red Route Ultimate Rider (006) jeans. Kevlar around the bum and down the thighs, pads in the hips and knees. Handy zips at the back and at the bottom of the legs if you need to open them out - since I grew up wearing flares I couldn't resist that bit. I tired a few pairs on as fit is a really personal thing, they just felt the most comfortable on. (I've seen a few reviews which vary whether they have armour pads in the knees / hips. When I was looking various pairs did or didn't have the pads in place. The bloke I asked said the pads have a funny habit of disappearing but any pair I bought would have the right pads installed before I left the shop.) And yes - after days or scorching sunny weather - they day I buy jeans it rains.

Sounds like it's running rich to me. Popping is unburned fuel igniting in the exhaust, black smoke is classic sign of rich mix, poor idle is also a sign of rich mix. It will pull ok on full throttle once the rpm rises as the engine will sucking in enough air for the rich mix.

Not the article I was thinking of but along the same lines..... The bit it doesn't cover it what happens when a battery is not brand new and doesn't perform in peak condition. That's when bike batteries, which are not huge in the first place, can get a bit marginal on starting grunt. Assume a new battery is charged to 70-80% capacity then an older one could be well below that which is why I prefer to give the battery a very low amperage charge whilst the bike isn't being used. it raises the battery back to its maximum charge and I find I get much better starting. Anyway - for what it's worth...... An alternator will not charge your battery fully.......It pays to look at the original engineering criteria of what the vehicle manufacture wanted to achieve. FYI... A starting battery has only one goal in life and that's to supply enough energy to start the engine with in a given time frame of around 5 to 15 seconds.... after that it has very little more to do. When they design a charging system for a vehicle there are many aspects to consider.... what climate is the vehicle going to be operating in.... what conditions is the vehicle going to be operating in.... how long is the vehicle going to be run.... how long is it going to be to start the vehicle.... what load is going to be placed on the battery when the vehicle is not running.... when will the vehicle be run again.... what type or manufacture of the battery is going to be used in the future.... what quality of battery is going to be used in the future.... is the battery going to be maintained correctly.... and what effect on fuel usage and emissions is it going to have. As you can see there are many criteria the engineers have to deal with, and there are many different charge conditions that have to be addressed. A vehicle charging system has two goals.... firstly it must supply amply current and voltage to run the vehicle and everything factory fitted under all conditions.... the second thing is to charge the battery enough to enable the vehicle to start the next time. The second one is the hardest criteria to design with so many unknown variables to consider, there has to be a big variable in charging the battery to not undercharge it or to over charge it, this is where this "a vehicle battery will only charge to 70-80% SOC".... 70-80SOC is reconsigned as a safe limit for charging battery's under most conditions, it enables the vehicle to start quickly, gives OK battery life, has ample reserve and places less load on the charging system. Hence "lets dump big current and volts into a battery for the shortest period so the battery can start the vehicle next time" Most charging systems fitted to vehicles prior to 2001 are very dumb in what they can do and how the function.... think " I'm not very smart but I can lift big weights". Around 2001 more and more vehicles started to appear with a smart charging systems where by an ECU with it's own map would process the information and only charge when really needed, modern day charging systems can control voltage, current and frequency..... the down side of this; seeing it was really designed for better fuel consumption, better emissions, more engine power and making the NVH of the vehicle better is they have lowered the SOC of the battery down to 60-70%.... most new vehicle have smart start technology making them start with in 5 seconds of cranking. Most new vehicle have time driven auto disconnect of factory fitted electrical gear just in case something was left on like interior lights..... they don't have to headroom anymore to get away with it. As for secondary battery's....... the engineers who designed the charging system had no interest in even thinking someone may add an aux battery..... with some manufactures you can spec an upgraded charging system designed to charge the starting battery more and also charge a secondary battery fully, GM do it in the USA and some of the commercial vehicle manufactures in Europe (ambulance and rescue vehicles) but to my knowledge this is not available to the general public. As for your 8 amp charger charging it to 100% SOC..... yes they do because the battery charger manufacture know the fixed non variable conditions the battery will be charged under.

Given the number of journals on my shelves that will take some considerable time. If I can find it I'll try but no promises. It's pretty well recognised is most classic car circles as we tend to notice the difference between dynamos and alternators, most folks who have only dealt with modern stuff don't realise the difference. But if you can access a car fitted with a dynamo it's easy to demonstrate. Take a battery, run a bulb on it until it's dead, fit it to the car and jump start it. Drive it 100 miles and measure the electrolyte in the battery. Do the same with a car fitted with an alternator. The specific gravity will be different.

If you don't ask you'll never know. Worst thing that can happen is that they'll say no. I get some odd requests all the time and if I can I will. If I have to say no there's no hard feelings, I'd rather people ask and give me the opportunity to do things if at all possible.

Years of working on classic and modern cars. There was an article on the subject in one of the journals a while back but it would take a while to reference. Over the years I have acquired dozens of batteries from cars which people have jump started, driven a fair distance, then found the car still won't start, so they assume the battery is dud. Most of the time the just need a proper charge and they are good to go. Classics fitted with dynamoes will fully charge a flat battery, alternators won't. The battery will still fire the engine but it won't be brought back to maximum capacity.