Gerontious

Start with your own town. Wobbly Goolies. ANy bike group that has the word wobbly in their name.. Definitely worth looking at. https://m.facebook.com/groups/105628006147156?

The CBR500 is a cracker of a bike, not a bike I would have paid much attention to, normally. But a few years ago a young lad on a restricted license came along with us to the Eifel mountains on one. And it proved to be very capable. No hindrance at all on the motorway and perfect for the roads in Germany and Luxembourg. He even took it on the Nurburgring for a lap.

Funny - I always imaged Six30 was a bit older than that... No he just dribbles/slobbers a lot and when he laughs you have to duck to avoid his dentures.

Where is the bike going to be parked in London? I mean... Under what conditions.

There are no numbers behind it.. It's all about positioning yourself at whatever speed is appropriate for an approaching bend... You would need to slow down if as far as you can see doesn't increase.. Like in a hairpin. Every situation is different. But "numbers" do not work.

I am... Six days, which began yesterday. 15hr days. 7 - 10. Which is alright... If a bit wearying. The compensation being I'm with two young men who have no family and find the whole "Christmas" thing very upsetting, particularly as one of them is 24 but has a mental age of 6 and so... Understandably believes in Santa. Which is unbelievably sweet and heartbreaking. I love this job

It may not be possible or practical - just now. But it soon will be. And for a reasonable price. And the benefits are huge. My bike has one.. I knew that before I bought it and didn't think twice. Obviously the price of a replacement is high right now, but as its not going to be replaced until around the year 2028 - thats not something Im going to worry about. The benefits for me are.. I should never need to buy a charger. because it recharges in minutes, replacing the charge used to crank the engine takes minutes of riding, It weighs next to nothing. it can be placed in any position. it doesn't lose power from standing.. so, if i were to stop riding the bike now and not use it until April? or July? No appreciable effect. I can remember a time when a mobile phone had a lead/acid car battery in it as power source. but demand drove technology. as phones became smaller everyone wanted one and lithium was the way to go. in the early days there were accidents. but who thinks about the danger of the lithium battery in their back pocket now? if you go out and forget to pick up your mobile do you spend any time worrying about your house burning down? probably not. Likewise.. a lithium battery in a vehicle is safe. perfectly safe so long as its from a reputable manufacturer and was built with safety uppermost - as they must be. And that is the way things will go, before long vehicle lithium batteries will be very cheap and most all vehicles will have them - it will be 'normal'. its just a matter of building the charging/management system into the battery so it can be charged by a normal vehicle charger. And thats the next step. My bike is parked just a foot or two from my house. it has a lithium battery just inches from a tank full of petrol. I'm only thinking about that now. I'll be off to work in an hour and not back until 10 tonight. I wont waste a moment of my day worrying about the battery, the bike or my house. just as you never think for a moment about the phone on your bedside table, with its own lithium battery, when you go to sleep. when you ask.. why lithium. ask yourself, why does a mobile phone not run on ordinary AA batteries. or even a full size lead acid battery. as they did in the 1980s.

You will be insurance void. Because you can bet that as a restricted rider the bike will be gone over with a fine tooth comb looking for the slightest reason to void the claim. Any 'device' such as this will be spotted by the assessor and immediately recognised as not standard. Say goodbye to your insurance and hello to bankruptcy and likely a prosecution. It's just not worth the risk. Restriction devices for most A2 bikes allow you to ride at legal+ speeds.motorway and more. A chap came with us a few years back to Germany on a restricted CBR500 and at no point did he hold anyone up. He was was as fast as the rest of us. Pootling along at 85 on some French motorways. He even had a blast on the Nurburgring. On an A2 bike.

They didn't sell all that well in the states, but have since developed almost a cult like status as possibly the best handling cruiser ever produced. Almost zero dive under hard braking. A more normal footpegs lever position and just beautifully made. A lot of polished stainless steel instead of chrome, for instance. And paint a proverbial inch thick. I've never seen one in bad condition... They still look great all these years later and some have clocked up big miles without any issues. A surprising number of them were converted to trikes or outfits. But,, in the states they just weren't competitive. Costing "too much" more than the base model 1340cc HD. And "only" a 1200. All this was before BMW became cool... Still a fairly small player. Before the transformation after the LWR.

If you go to any deli counter in Germany, or even a lidl or aldi, you will see ham that has never been cooked. Just cured and smoked, where the temperature never goes above 25c. But it's smoked for weeks on end. And is ready to eat.

My mum used to do something similar when I was a kid. Half a leg of pork up the kitchen chimney. She used to complain that wood wasn't as nice as the turf her mother used when she was a child in Ireland.

Mmmm. The countdown to Easter eggs has begun. Only a few days now and the Cadbury creme eggs will be on display and that's the start of it. 4 months today. 21st April by which time Spring should have firmly sprung.

£40 for a few key strokes that will have zero effect on your immediate cover. No refund as your level of risk has reduced - obviously. Its quite outrageous really the way they use any and every excuse to squirrel more cash from you. when renewal comes.. take any NCB you have and run. but be sure to tell them exactly why.

Local knowledge counts for a lot.. especially in a country with roads as dodgy as they too often are in Belgium. From our base its fairly close.. but, lessons have been learnt. If I mention Belgium the guys make it very clear. NO. But thats mainly because the Eifel.. the German part of the Ardennes Massif. is Sublime. As is the north end of Luxembourg. This year.. one memorable event, bimbling down a country lane in Luxembourg and we reached the border with Belgium. on one side.. lovely, but ageing tarmac. on the other side.. a river of gravel. we turned around.

Belgium is strictly 'alright'.. but be warned, the roads can be shockingly bad and that is an understatement... But carry on east and a bit of magic happens, you arrive at the Luxembourg border and there is a transformation. And its not like you can get an idea from the road numbers, you cant. Some of the N roads are great. some of them are shit. as for the minor roads.. its pot luck and more often than not you will get the booby prize. This is fine on an Adventure style bike or a sofa on wheels that dont really care about road surfaces.. but on anything else you can expect.. occasionally a tooth chipping experience. maybe worse than that.. actual physical damage to your wheels. you think that sounds bad? it gets worse... dont be tempted by roads that look interesting that angle off into woodland... and no proper sign telling you where it goes. it can easily be the road to hell. Use Belgium as a shortcut. stick to the Motorway.. but even there, always be alert for potholes or lost armchairs and wheelie bins cluttering up the carriageway. Keep going and head into Luxembourg.. carry on into Germany and paradise (for bikers) awaits. https://www.adac.de/_mmm/pdf/TK_10_Eifel_%20Luxemburg_210807.pdf

I can just imagine Balloo reading this and having a tantrum.

yes.. but that wont have traction control. if that is important then its the 2019 model. and its at most £7,100 for the manual bike. but there are deals to be had. have it on PCP for £100 a month or less.

New.. probably the 2019 NC750X second hand.. there are others. but they will all be relatively new as TC is a fairly recent innovation on mid range (lower priced) machines. Though its been on the top of the range bikes for a few years now.

Clearly the helmet was not properly fastened, not something I see rarely.. in fact its really quite common especially for scooter riders. (I'm not in any way anti scooters) I remember the last time I did it.. it completely freaked me out and I pulled over straight away to fasten it even though it meant having to take my gloves off. I believe that the fine is the same as wearing no helmet at all. possibly a £500 fine.

Fancy the Ardennes. Loosely planning a trip in May. Want to check out the wartime history in that area. There's a lot of history.. But Relatively little that had a British involvement except in a very minor way. WW1 it was the French fighting the Germans and it was a slaughter. In WW2 it was the Americans and the battle of the Bulge.

I just had an "I wonder" moment and had a look at the parts fiche. and it gave a price. Im going to look after this battery - its made of bloody gold.

My owners manual doesn't beat around the bush. it says that the battery must be removed from the bike for charging. Fortunately its very easy to get at. Given that you really need a charger specifically for the battery.. ie one that balances each cell (sub battery?) as it charges.. im not entirely sure that an ordinary charging system that you have in most if not all bikes is suitable. its something to check before you buy. My bike came with one of these.. but Ive yet to have a look at it. it weighs 3lb.

A bike.. particularly one thats a few years old. and say... the manufacturer no longer supplies fairings. can be written off as a Cat D for simply falling over. a cracked.. split or otherwise damaged fairing is more than enough. Insurers demand the bike to be put back 'as was' - but its often the case this is impossible. though anyone else will just buy a second hand fairing part and perhaps have it resprayed, or the entire bike resprayed to match.

when a bike is written off. the owner gets a payout and the bike becomes the property of the insurer and is usually sold later. Or.. the original owner usually has the option of buying the bike at its 'scrap value' and then effecting repairs. But.. the bike will forever more be a write off. so.. in theory yes. the bike may well have been repaired with insurance money. but definitely not by the insurer. It was done either by the original owner. or that is another 'fib' and the bike was bought cheap at auction and repaired by that buyer. There are people who specialise in this sort of thing. buying write offs and then repairing them and selling them on at a profit. sometimes a very good profit. Im talking about honest buyers. not the types that will bodge a repair.. or even worse. repair a bike that should be crushed. My own bike came from that type. It had been stood for a year and he fixed it up. replaced a few things so the bike was 'sorted' - it had never been damaged, it was written off due to the payout being made after it was knicked and the bike not turning up for a year. it spent that time in a lockup. so needed new tyres. battery. and ignition and locks replaced. service and MOT.

Personally. I would walk away from that. Its blatantly dishonest not to mention that it was written off and I couldn't care less if its 'only' a Cat D. When you buy a bike from a private seller there has to be a measure of trust. That has gone out of the window with this seller. There will always be another. Patience.