Gerontious

Perhaps Im thinking a tad more recently than your earliest post on this forum, where it appears you already were riding in 2017? maybe. A lot can happen in 5 years. but, lets see how it pans out in the here and now for the OP. The quote may be an outlier, or it may be average. we'll see.

It doesn't surprise me at all.. this, as far as my memory serves has been absolutely normal for years now. Age etc has zero effect. when you take out bike insurance for the very first time you are a complete unknown to the insurer, they are placing a bet with absolutely no idea if they will win or lose that bet. The premium they want for that bet reflects this. My own opinion is.. go for the cheapest possible. and don't crash and definitely do not allow the bike to be stolen. and most important of all for that first year do not even think about making a claim. just don't. unless its a total loss and even then think twice. think about insurance as nothing more than a tax on ownership. which will get a lot cheaper after the first year. If you don't claim.

I don't get this. we have a new member joining the forum and getting some help.. and the suggestion is toddle off to another forum. The CBF125 is one of the most popular 125s of recent years... are there no members on this forum who have ever owned one? Ive never owned one.. Ive never owned a 125. and yet it was easy enough for me to find answers. but.. and this seems to happen a lot, the suggestion - go somewhere else. I wonder about this forum sometimes. I really do. Thats just a general observation. not a dig at you. But.. now the thread has been sidetracked. so Ive said my piece and will not return to it again.

it tells you what year it is for. If the manual was copyrighted in 2016, then that means its valid for bikes from that year or 2017. new models tend to appear at the end of the year from Honda. And the manual will remain in force until the bike is updated to the point that things change.. with modern small capacity bikes that's nearly always (mostly) on the electronic side.. though they can take it further.

Fascinating. while reading this I was torn. should I make a coffee, or just grab some filtered water. luckily this was decided when I remembered I had a brand spanking new pack of chocolate coated oat biscuits. so that helped make my day complete. I had two as my diet is ongoing and im in no rush to change trouser sizes, it is only Monday after all.. and there's a whole week to get through and although its payday on Thursday I have to choose between trousers or a new winter coat. its not easy.

because they want you to use the dealer for everything. my dealer will happily adjust my chain if I ask them... they will also clean and oil it for me too.. and then charge me £37 I didn't ask them how much it cost, they told me... because they half expected me to need them to do it. this was back in early 2019 and I asked them for a quote for new tyres supplied and fitted. They assumed I would want the chain looked at too, at the same time. its actually not needed any adjustment since its first 600 mile service, and the cleaning/lube stuff I bought back then (costing £20) will probably last me another 10 years. Im sure they have customers who take the bike in every year to have the chain adjusted and cleaned. when they can rattle off the cost off the top of their head, it must be a common thing. people eh... you have to wonder.

you have the manual (it came from Honda).. and I checked, its for UK/EU bikes... as that's the only code they add. its for an earlier bike. it was copyrighted in 2016 so is out of date. But, as I said.. I wouldn't worry too much about major differences. Even if the engine is redesigned the torque values won't change much if at all. A lot of people don't bother with torque values at all and just go by 'feel'. you'll find that one of the most controversial questions you can ever ask is "what torque wrench should I buy?" as a lot of answers will be NONE. followed by a load of ridiculous reasons. The less info they give you, the more reliance you will be placing on the dealership. this has been going on for years. owners manuals and included toolkits are nothing like they once were. I got a fairly OK (ish) toolkit with my bike... in America, they only get a screwdriver and a single Allen key. Thats mostly because if some American muppet messes with his bike and causes an accident, he can blame the tool kit and sue Honda.

in my own owners manual for my 2018 Honda Africa Twin, it gives torque values at the very back.. its actually at the very end of the specifications section. and they only give 9. and these are the most basic possible. allowing for an oil and filters change (my bike has two oil filters). chain adjust and front wheel removal. and that's it. Anything else I have to refer to the Haynes. Black dipsticks are standard. though sight glasses are becoming fairly common on larger bikes. where you just put the bike upright and look at the oil level in the sight glass and ensure its between the markers. simple. My own bike has a black dipstick. (thanks Honda).. but you would be amazed how many people underfill the oil simply because they couldn't be bothered to read the manual. In fact it never ceases to amaze me just how many people ask questions about their brand new bike. questions that are answered in the owners manual. Only a week or so ago a fella complains about a horrible noise and some bright spark asked him to test the chain slack. it moved 5". it should be max 2.2. He said... "who reads the owners manual?" seriously. And this for a bike that cost him circa £16,000. its only money. its only his life at stake.

Seems unlikely to me. if you think things are bad now, things are about to get very much worse. We're on a slippery slope to a housing crisis. Not due to a shortage but current mortgages are about to be come unaffordable for 10's of 1000s of home owners. private landlords will be forced to increase rents due to their mortgages escalating. First time buyers are already being priced out of the housing market. and that's just going to get worse. All credit is going to get more expensive. all loans. And who will be blamed for this? Yes.. of course the Tories will say "not our fault guv... this is worldwide" and that might even be true.. but it won't help all the people who are about to become significantly poorer. And the is to a great extent their core voting base. Add to all this one the past months leading up to and following Johnsons resignation the Tories have provided shedloads of 'attack ad' material to both the Lib Dems and Labour. And don't get me started on Brexit because the shit is going to hit the fan over that soon too. When Tory papers are saying "Project fear were right" you know the whole house of cards is about to come tumbling down. Of course all this is going on while the Tories have spent these past months sitting on their hands and arguing amongst themselves. After purging themselves of sensible politicians post Brexit. They have no capacity for shame or embarrassment for what they have done to this country. And that will stick to them like white on rice. just think about it. Truss gave everyone an average £65 per month towards their fuel bills and at the same time caused average mortgages to rise by £500. and called that a success... her crowing achievement. they are toast.

I am looking at the manual now.. and the torque for the drain bolt is 30Nm its on page 60. Of course the manual im looking at might be different to yours, but it seems highly unlikely to me that (engine and chassis) basics like these would change much over the life of a machine like the CBF125.. manual is here. https://2rom-prd-data.hondamotopub.com/om/HMEE/CB125F/2017-2018-2019/CB125F_32KPNB11_0.pdf

Its not odd at all.. in fact it's perfectly normal. only a tiny minority of owners are even vaguely interested in the details of maintenance. they just pop the bike to a dealership and pay the bill on completion. I would guess that there hasn't been enough changes in the model to justify a new edition of Haynes, or maybe they just haven't got round to it. what is it exactly you want the torque for?

If very early launch reviews from 2016 are to be believed.... Apparently the Bike is not available for sale in India (as BMW does not have a dealer network), but TVS have now produced their own bike that is using the same engine.

That page looks very much like its from a Haynes Manual.. a maintenance book you can buy. its not the sort of book that comes with the bike, unless the previous owner includes it.

If you have big hands perhaps consider adding grip puppies. these make the grips a little larger, but much more easy to grip as they are made from neoprene and have a textured surface that is unaffected by anything. wet or cold. whatever. inexpensive. at circa £13. https://tinyurl.com/5n7b4ux4 Even if you don't have large hands, I would still suggest you try them, as with anything different.. you just adjust. Just to add, I do have large hands and so holding the original grips, well, I sometimes describe its like holding a pencil in each hand. Also, some grips might be heavily textured but the type of plastic they use can be very... slippy. Add all these together and. I can't be doing with it. So.. for years now grip puppies have been my first update. I ordered a pair when I bought my current bike and fitted them as soon as I got it home a week or so later.

I thought the engine was made by BMW and then shipped to the TVS plant in India for final assembly. of course it might be a Rotes design.

All he needs are 100 mps to back him and he will be the next PM. We’ll know on Monday. But I reckon he will win as all those red wall mps and those with a small majority Looking at losing their seats will see him as their best hope. I think that’s a vain hope, even with the Johnson magic, they’re still doomed.

If Bojo is on the final ballot that goes out to Conservative members, they will bring him back and that will break the parliamentary party. But whatever the MPs choose, I can pretty much guarantee the Tory membership will choose the worst option. Not that there are many good options. It’s very entertaining.

Six weeks. SIX WEEKS!!!! She's got her place in history alright, the shortest lasting PM of all time. But.. I cocked up. The odds were 7/1 that she would be out by Christmas and I didn't place a bet. woe woe and thrice woe.

Me too, never. I notice that my profile has been hacked and someone has added that I own a Honda. I want to disassociate myself from this scurrilous lie. I did own one briefly and managed to ride it as far as Scunthorpe. for the glorious views. obviously. Sadly, on the way back it rained and the bike collapsed into a pile of rust. I walked away without a scratch as the bike was running quite badly... I was pushing it. Seriously, Im old enough to remember when 'Japanese' was a byword for badly made... and then suddenly it wasn't. but.. that's not really what the OP was talking about, was it. As the vast majority of owners won't remember this sad little truism or never really cared. I kinda did.. because since I passed my test in 1982 Ive owned only one Japanese bike, which also happens to be a Honda and was manufactured in 2018. During the 80s and 90s I didn't want one because I thought they were bad bikes. I didn't want one because they did nothing for me. Once I passed my test my first 'proper bike' was made in Warwickshire. and looked very much like this. Were there bikes at the time that were better? of course. did I want any of them? NO. One of my earliest memories was my dad taking me to a garage. (dealerships didn't exist) to gawp at some bikes and the first thing he noticed was that the bikes were parked up on CARPET and none of them had drip trays underneath them. The garage was making a point that wasn't lost on him. I remember this so clearly because he never shut up about it. As he made pin money at the time by rebuilding British bikes to achieve that same thing. If Hondas have any kind of bad reputation nowadays that's probably more about the marketing strategy of their Japanese competitors than problems with the bikes themselves. Kawasaki. Yamaha and Suzuki spend a fortune on trying to gain market share... and some people are apt to believe them, or believe them more because they were convinced enough to buy one. They become fanboys and so... enough said.

Hate it when this happens, put me right off my beef lasagna!!!

I grow tired of explaining to people (not on this forum) what waterproofing sprays are and what they do. They are utterly pointless for motorcycle riders clothing. If the gear isn’t already waterproof they won’t magically fix that. thin layer waterproof over garments are the cheapest fix. Best if the pants are made for bikers as the legs tend to be longer and usually have Velcro tabs so you can cinch them up over the boots and stop water getting in. The jacket needs to have longer than normal arms due to stretching to the handlebars. And a high neck. The long term cure is Goretex. Or one if it’s better copies. Preferably laminated. But this comes at a price. Though you can often find bargains on such places as eBay. Whatever you judge to be your normal size. Go a size up at least. So you have a better chance of a good fit or have room for extra layers underneath as the weather gets colder. The big plus with goretex is that it’s guaranteed waterproof for the life of the garment. If it leaks Gore will replace it or send you the cash. This assumes the item is undamaged or not falling apart due to normal wear and tear. This alone goes some way towards justifying the higher price tag. No receipt needed.

The Honda 500cc rebel has a very low seat height - 27", if you can cope with the cruiser(ish) vibe.

Its a bit like saying Suzukis are rust buckets.. or Kawasaki's are all a nasty hi-viz snot green colour. or Yamahas are something or other. Or BMWs are old mens bikes. or KTMs come with a maintenance manual thicker than the bible and 5yrs free recovery. (because you'll need it) Someone I knew (who's now dead) once visited the Hinkley factory and then went round telling anyone who would listen that the bikes were rebadged Kawasaki's, because all the machinery there came from Kawasaki heavy industries. so that made perfect sense. Oh.. and don't get me started on Italian bikes as my soldering iron is on the blink and I've run out of fuses. (and the shops are shut) is any of this true? Absonotley. oh look.... a broken down Honda (with its seat off) Tradition can be a right bitch. He eventually cheered up... after some dab handed bodgerizing.

meanwhile, in an alternate universe. where people occasionally ride their bikes and do things. I oiled my chain.

Obviously (or maybe not) I don't pay much attention to these sorts of places, but, I do remember not so long ago.. there were dealerships that dealt mainly in auction bikes. At one time dealerships could never hope to display all the bikes they got as trade ins, some were simply too small. for example and didn't have the space. So the bikes went to trade auction and were bought up mostly by dealerships that specialised in selling second hand bikes only. There were quite a few such places. Im pretty sure CMC operated under that model. I know the bike I bought from them was originally a trade in from a BMW dealership. And CMC were not a BMW franchise. So, you get these dealerships full of bikes from all sorts of brands and on-site mechanics with across the board experience, but perhaps lacking the specialist knowledge and some of the special tools or currently software, that they really needed. So.. bikes would be prepared to the absolute minimum required to get through an MOT and then sold on. And given all that is it really a surprise that some these bikes have hidden gremlins? An emphasis on having the bike looking good and hopefully last through the rather short warranty period. Before these gremlins raise their ugly head with a problem. Too bad if this problem occurs after the warranty ends!! If I could offer any advice then it would be, visit these places by all means. They usually have a wide of choice of bikes all under one roof. But... leave your wallet at home. Don't be tempted by that shiny looking bike and the attractive finance terms. If you absolutely must buy via a dealership.. and there is nothing wrong with that. Decide on what bike you really want. For example. A Honda CB500. And go to a Honda Dealership. They will at least have all the back-up you might need. The bike will very likely be known to them. They sold it in the first place. Decide if you want to use their finance company, or if you want to arrange a loan yourself through your bank. But.. leave these bucket shops alone.