Bianco2564

What does your commute look like? Urban or cross country? Mine is 28miles each way, mostly 50/60 mph A roads and i think a 20hp 350cc would be a bit out of its comfort zone whereas the 650 would be fine. You mention the 350 doing 100mpg, how important are the running costs? The 650 is in the highest VED bracket and will probably have higher servicing costs.

My arch enemy, pesky squirrel that keeps raiding our bird feeders. Actually tapped him on the shoulder this morning, he had his head stuck inside the feeder, he didn't see me walk up. Gave him a tap on his side, he pulled himself up and we eye balled each other for a couple of seconds before he scurried off.

Haha, thanks. Deffo not in the club, at my age.... Did another test this morning and still positive. Wiĺl go a take a pic of something else this morning to add to the thread

Not my best but only photo of today

Hello, What is wrong with the bike, what have the dealer's told you?

Stopped here once en route back from Matlock Bath, seemed to fit the image of a bikers pub if you get my drift. A bit rough around the edges, but a certain charm. https://www.vicbikerspub.co.uk/ I hardly drink any more, certainly don't drink & drive/ride.

Nice write up. Reminds me of a pub I occasionally visited in the early 80s, the Fox inn in Lutterworth. https://www.fox-lutterworth.co.uk/ They had an upstairs function room that always had a sweet, herb like aroma. Now the place is a family pub, if only the walls could talk.

That must have been caused by contacting the piston, assuming it was straight when you fitted it. Cam timing incorrect? Incorrect combination of parts, crank, rod, piston,cam? Has the barrel or head been skimmed reducing the valve to piston clearance? Head gasket wrong thickness? As suggested was the valve seized in the guide?

Won on the premium bonds again, only £25 but it all helps.

Just been out shopping for new trainers for the Mrs, ended up in Sports direct. Got the pair we needed and waited in the queue to pay. Unhappy bunny bloke at the till, " I bought these half hour ago, you didnt have the Air Force? pair I wanted, went to a different store and bought some there ,so I want a refund on these" Shop assistant ,"sorry Sir we,don't do refunds unless they are faulty, just exchange or credit" UB, I don't want a credit, just my money back" Repeat cycle for several times. SA, "I'll call the manager" Big guy manager turns up and repeats the store policy. UB"it's not my fault you don't sell air force trainers" BGM repeats policy UB, gets his phone out and looks on Sports direct website, mistakenly sees the online refund policy and shouts this at BGM. BGM corrects him. UB" I want my money back" BGM," we only do exchange or credit" Repeat again several times with UB getting more irate and starts F@ing at him. BGM asks him to stop swearing as does a lady in the queue UB," I going to call the police" BGM" you can do that sir" At which point BGM moves to another till to serve us. Know your rights, not all stores offer change of minds refunds.

My monthly commuting costs on the Silverwing are around £150 , fuel and tax. That's just over 900 miles a month. If I could lease an EV bike for that or less,that had enough range and performance, I'd go for it. However there isn't so I'm sticking with the scooter.

Bought a new cover for the scooter, old one has seen better days.

Changed a front side light bulb on the Silverwing. The lamp holder is underneath a plastic panel below the screen, one of the mounting clips had previously been "repaired" in a fairly ugly style ( not me I might add). Out with the rapid Araldite and good as new....

My two great uncles served in WW1. My Mum always remembered them every Nov 11th, since she passed away ive picked it up. Called down to the memorial in Church Stowe this morning.

It was in MCN recently, on my list to pay a visit.

Perhaps if all these diy mechanics learnt how to use a torque wrench, there wouldnt be half as many knackered threads? A typical fastener is tightened to 75% of its yield point ( excepting stretch bolts) so to strip the thread initially they have had to overtightened it by a fair amount.

Yep, a predictable outcome, its under torqued and the thread is virtually stripped. Ignoring it is to be expected by your diy mechanic, anyone with an ounce of pride in their work would fix it.

Indeed, the amount of bolts you see laying in the road is quite scary.

In our hypothetical situation, its a new or recently calibrated wrench.

Just trying to understand this thought. If we have two M10 8.8 grade bolts, both partially damaged but "servicable" threads as you describe. Both threads are free of oil ,grease and dirt. Target torque is 55Nm, typical torque for that size fastener and grade. Our torque wrench operative comes along and tightens one bolt, reaches 50 Nm and the thread starts to strip, torque wrench doesnt click, he keeps going and the thread goes completly, game over. Operative B goes to tighten the 2nd bolt without a torque wrench and.....

So if you undo the rear wheel nut, the axle won't move? . The forces from the chain and braking will start to move the axle because of the clearances in each mating part and the clearance will get bigger and bigger from the constant reversal of acceleration and braking . The adjusters move the axle to tension the chain correctly and set wheel alignment, the spindle nut keeps it all clamped up in the correct place. If your damaged but "servicable" thread cannot hold the torque its designed for then it's not servicable, it needs replacing. Using a torque wrench will show this up, doing it up by feel will probably result in the fastener being under tightened and you are just ignoring the problem. Perhaps so we don't hijack this thread any more, start a new thread , Torque wrenches? Tighten stuff up correctly or guess.

Like I said , you can tighten it correctly or just tighten it. Clearly OP wants to do the former with his research on the web and youtube, so it would only be right for us to tell him the correct procedure. To say just tighten it up, there are variables which we don't know that would affect the outcome. OP could weigh 8 stone dripping wet and be using a 19mm spanner or he could weigh 20 stone with the strength of a bear and use a 3 ft breaker bar. A torque wrench will cancel out any variable. In particular OP sounds like a biking noob with probably little mechanical experience so let's start him off on the right foot and do maintainence correctly. When he's an old hand like us with many years experience, yes he can probably tighten it up by feel. As for the wheel spindle nut, the specified torque is is to clamp the rear axle assembly to the swing arm to prevent it moving from the forces from the chain and braking so not a small job to do.

Yes the tech didn't follow the correct procedure and the result was the prop came loose. When it cost 100s of thousands £ to get a car to the grid, there can be no second chances if something has not been put together correctly. Sponsors get very upset when their car stops. Lets hope HGV garages have improved their standards from scaffold tight, no fun seeing a 44 tonne truck bearing down on you knowing it may have been assembled that badly. I was nearly taken out by a loose truck wheel when driving in the USA. It's a binary choice, tighten it up correctly or just tighten it. Back on topic, my point was to say don't believe everything you read on the net. I've seen a lot of statements on different websites that have clearly been plagarised from the language used, so the disinformation spreads. Always check your source.

It was drummed into us to use a torque wrench throughout my apprenticeship, it was at an old school garage where things were "done proper". Then moved to race engine building where everything and I mean every nut and bolt had to be torqued up, again another old school company. Failure to do so meant the sack. This has stuck with me as the correct way of doing things and I torque up all key parts of my cars and bikes. I don't use a torque wrench on everything, I'd like to believe I have a good feel for non critical fasteners. You have got to use an appropriate wrench to tighten a fastener, so why not a torque wrench, anything else is guesswork. As for the propshaft, I've seen the consequences of a prop coming loose at speed.

We bought a Bosch heat pump dryer a couple of months ago. Mrs grumbled at first because it took 3 times as long but now she's got used to it. Another benefit is the heat given off by the dryer is kept in the house and warms the utility room up. It's going to take time to recover the £500 we spent on it but the sooner you ditch the inefficient B rated machine the better.