Mississippi Bullfrog

I had a Zoom meeting booked this morning for work, except they messed up regarding the date so when we all logged in nothing happened. Leaving me unsupervised used in front of a computer is expensive. I've ordered a springer seat from COC Customs in Australia and a set of Tec front springs and adjusters, both for the Bobber.

I haven't been there in years. I bought a bikes there back in the late 90's when I dropped in for a brew and wander round and found something I liked. It was an expensive cuppa.

The Bobber forum is hosted in the US, but I suppose the guys in the US who buy Triumphs tend to be a bit pro-British to begin with. Never had any issue with any of the American members. The only pillock who was picking a fight was a Brit.

The Triumph Bobber forum is generally very well behaved and very helpful. You get the occasional nutter but they get banned pretty quickly. To misquote an old advert - You meet the nicest people on a Triumph.

I agree - it does sound like the timing chain.

Sorry to hear about your bike. My experience with insurance has led me to try to avoid involving them if at all possible, but it may be too late if they have been notified already. Even for a 'no fault' claim you are now statistically more likely to be a higher risk so your premiums will go up. Protected no claims is a bit of a con since whilst your percentage NCD is retained the actual premium isn't. So even with protected NCD your costs can rise. Also - you say the bike is valued at £1200. Is that what you put in the insurance form? If so that's not what they will value it at. Their offer is usually what you might expect to get if you traded it in, not what it would cost you to buy it now. So the offer they make is usually in line with what the trade in price is, not the retail price. Hence it is often even less worth going through the insurance for older bikes. I hope you can find parts and get it sorted cheaply.

Does it have an immobiliser? If you've bypassed the ignition but the chip is still in the barrel and you haven't got the coded key then it may be an immobiliser issue.

If you can't dismantle it thoroughly then any treatment can only slow down the rust. You can rub down and treat with various rust treatments which slow it down but won't stop it. There are various paints that will cover rust and are quite good at slowing it. One of best I've found is Ronseal NoRust, but I've only found it in black. Hammerite is often suggested but I've found it to be pretty useless when there's already rust present. But you can get it in silver.

I have an old dishwasher in the garage. It's just a bit of pain getting the plumbing in.

I shall be spending the day wielding an angle grinder and cutting lengths of scaffolding to make new dinghy berths at our sailing club. ️

I saw it on a bike when the guy got a friend to paint his tank and really liked it. Then it came up for sale. This is it on his bike. I like my red and silver tank but I also love yellow on bikes. So now I have a choice.

I just bought this for the Bobber

So if iron kills moss then will scattering bits of discombobulated motorcycles across the lawn* do the trick. * lawn is used in a vastly over-optimistic description of the state of my garden.

In theory you could have stopped on the slipway but in reality that's stupidly dangerous. 1....you'll have cars coming up behind you doing 60mph not expecting to come across a stationary vehicle And 2.....you're then trying to accelerate into moving traffic from a standing start. You were in a no win situation created by a system that isn't perfect.

This reminds me, we haven't had a decent conversation about biscuits for a while.

Regrettably I fear you have been a victim of Sod's law. It's tough but at least you know the very particular circumstances and it wasn't down to your general inability to ride a motorcycle. I would have hoped the examiner gave you a thorough debrief afterwards. Hopefully next time you won't have any problems.

A couple of years back I forgot to MOT my CBF, it was after they extended the MOT during covid and it threw me . So in April I remembered the MOT had expired in November. I'd been riding it daily and not been pulled. But if plod does pull you then riding it to work in the morning with the MOT booked for the afternoon and you're in deep doo doo.

"Scratch" ..... reminds me of the Monty Python about the Black Knight.

When j used pay at the pump it was in Wales and took the best part of a week to refund the £92 pounds of fuel I hadn't used. It was near the end of the month and that much missing from my account was a problem.

I used pay at the pump once - the thieving blighters took £100 out of my account just to put £8 of fuel into the Bobber. Never again.

Things seem to have gone to the next stage. Vauxhall used to design their small SUV Crossover on the Astra platform, now it's the other way round. Since sails of SUV/Crossovers are high the new Astra is built on the SUV platform rather than the other way round. The outcome is that the internal layout of the new Astra is very cramped because they've had to use a SUV base and build a normal car out of it. Our daughter runs a Skoda Fabia which she can get the pram into the boot no problem. Someone went into the back of her recently so she had a VW T-Roc as a courtesy car. It was very nice and much bigger but the pram wouldn't fit in the boot. Give me an old fashoned estate if you want more space.

Which end?

I am surprised how many people still have centre stands. They seem to be getting rarer on new bikes.

That's a belting exhaust note. They've done a good job with that.

I don't sit on it whilst filling it just in case I spill fuel onto a hot engine. It's unlikely to catch fire but then the Titanic was unlikely to sink on its maiden voyage. It's easier to run away when you're not sat on the bike. I fill both on the side stand. The Bobber has the petrol cap offset anyway so when it's on the side stand the cap is at the top. Since it only holds 9 litres you need to make sure you fill it to the brim. Getting a bike onto a centre stand shouldn't be an issue - what's causing you to think it's going to fall over?