Bianco2564

Bought a pair of these off Ebay from Busters, price £29.99 for a Kawasaki Ninja 250. LH grip fitted ok, just the right size used a bit of contact glue to help it slide on. RH grip was just too big so had to wrap a layer of insulating tape around the tube. With this done it was a good fit. Control box bracket fitted well on the bars but the sticky pad used to fix the box to the bracket wasn't super sticky enough, as I bent the wire underneath the bars, the box popped off the bracket.Had to turn the box sideways so the cable run was straighter. Main cable to the battery was easy enough, just had to lose a bit of the excess length under the side panel. Wires from the grips to the main cable are way too long, I know its a universal kit for all types of bars but it seemed over generous. Found a relay in the garage to wire it in with the ignition, picked a signal feed up from the tail light. Had to machine the end off the RH bar weight for clearance to the twistgrip. Proof of the pudding is the testing. Heat up fairly quickly, RH gets noticeable hotter because its insulated from the steel tube of the bar. Good heat output on max setting, I had to turn it down even in 5 degree ambient. What is poor though is the led display arrows for the heat setting, its stupidly bright and a distraction. I've put a couple of layers of masking tape over it to tone it down a bit. Out of 10. Fitting, 7/10, RH tube should fit better and cables are too long. Operation,7/10, LED is too bright.

Hello. Don't know about the battery code thing but I'd be checking with a voltmeter that you are getting 12v where it needs to be when the engine is cranking. Check for good earths and bad connections. Are the cranks seals ok? If they are tired , it can cause starting and running issues.

Ouch, what happened?

After finishing work on the Kawasaki went to put all my tools away. Everything there except my 12mm spanner. Not with the bike, Not on the floor Not on the bench where I had all the tools Not in my pockets, Not in the drawers with the other tools I'd used. Not in the house. Spent probably 20 mins looking for it. Thought I'd wash OHs car and while on this was retracing my steps in my head, (always remember this method from an old Sherlock Holmes movie) and had a lightbulb moment....... "magnetic dish". Sure enough, there it was stuck on the side of my tool box. Tw@t.

Did a few jobs on the 250R. Replaced the tacho bulb that had blown, have to remove the entire fairing to get to the back of the cluster. Lubricated the speedo cable, noise from it is a common fault on this model apparently. Same with rattling from the clutch lever with excessive play. Found a wavy washer just the right size to take out the worst of the free play. Replaced the air filter. Gave it a good clean, it was absolutely minging after using it last Wednesday.

Top marks to our GP surgery today, had a bit of a plumbing issue the last couple of days. Mrs B rang them up about 3.30 this afternoon, no appointments available unsurprisingly, Mrs said weĺl what can I do to get me seen as I have stage 4 kidney disease , she said the receptionist changed her tone and said the duty doctor would call. Within 10 mins they rang back and prescribed some antibiotics. Shot up to the surgery , collected the prescription and went to the local chemist for the pills. Aĺl done and dusted in less than 1hr.

The latest from the US police force. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64404827

Found a suitable relay in the garage and finished off the heated grips.

Fitted heated grips and a rear hugger to the 250R. Took it for the obligatory test ride to check the work, grips were starting to come through toasty after a couple of miles. When the weather improves will take the rear shock and linkage apart for a clean up. Now ready for its debut run to Banbury.

Glad you and the bike are ok. I bailed out from Tuesday morning, no snow here but very icy. On the commute near Banbury on the A361 there is one bend that has a lot of water running off a bank, it flows down the kerb and at the next bend crosses the road. Riding home on Monday evening thought if the forecast is true and minus 6 expected this will be lethal. Sure enough Tuesday morning, a Focus ST was being hauled onto a recovery truck with his nsf wheel smashed up into the wheel well.

Picked up the Kawasaki this afternoon, managed to dodge the torrential rain on the way back. Ran fine for the 60 odd miles from St Neots to Rugby, will just have to recalibrate my riding, much like a two stroke with no bottom end go, need to keep the motor spinning. Sat on the A14 at 60-70mph, engine was doing 8-9000 rpm for 55 of those miles, did sounds rather alarming for a while. It will be fine for the commute, might see 60mph on a good day between here and Banbury. It's got a much bigger tank than the scooter, I have to refill that every two days, hopefully might last 3.5 - 4 days . Will give it a good once over tomorrow. Checked the service history, looks like its been looked after at Chris Walker Kawasaki, several invoices for work done. My first Kawasaki, joins the Honda,Suzuki and Yamaha in the garage. Only saw one other bike out, a Triumph Trophy? or something overtook me and gave a thumbs up.

We have similar at work in the canteen but its people watching YouTube videos and the like. One group of guys play an intros game I think, plays the first few bars of a song and they have to guess the track, if they can't it repeats it with the next line and on and on, really f@kin annoying. However I don't want to be the Victor Meldrew and ask them to be quiet.

My insurance for the R1, 380, RGV & SS with Carole Nash is about expire so was looking at combining the Kwak 250R with it. Renewal price was £321, up a bit on last year but tolerable. They will only cover 4 bikes so asked to replace the R1 with the Kawasaki, this was going to be £440. Tried Peter James as suggested, for the 5 bikes it would be £388 conditional on joining something like VJMC, another £30 or so. The Silverwing is insured separately with Bennett's, so gave them a try. After 50 mins on the phone covering various options ,we got to all 5 bikes, fully comp, 1000miles on each classic, 10000 on the 250R, for £336.

Around 800 bikes there yesterday and in excess of £5000 raised.

@Tinkicker yes that sounds about right, me an my older brother had the 1.5cc motors, my little brother had the 1cc. I was the only one who really stuck at it, had three planes, IIRC, the first was just some generic thing that my uncle smashed up when he had a go, a Focke Wolf 190 that I destroyed on its maiden flight and this one which has had various rebuilds, still on the original fuselage. Great fun times.

Good turnout today, weather was mostly kind with the odd shower. Apologies to all the traffic between Northampton,Bedford, Olney this afternoon while they let all the bikes through, all for charidee y'know.

@oldgrump yes I have moved companies before,Swinton and Carole Nash. Have tried various others who do multibike, inc Footman James before but they have been uncompetitive. Will give Peter James a go. Thanks. Tried just doing a quote for the 250 on its own, fully comp, 8000m pa , best was £91 Just changed the bike to the R1, same conditions, £161

Insurance?? They must make it up. My multi bike policy with Carole Nash is due for renewal in 10 days, renewal was £312 which was fully comp on the R1,RGV, 380 & SS125, not too bad, gone up £25 from last year. My plan was to stop riding the R1, the riding position is just too much for me now, so rang CN up to change the R1 to the Kwaker. So going from a 150hp bike to 33hp, I assumed it would be a bit cheaper, despite it being newer and upping the mileage from 3000 to 8000. No, none of it, £120 more.

Put a deposit down on this Kawasaki 250R 2014, 10700 miles. Pick it up next week . Decided to retire the scooter, needs a new back wheel, once I got the disc off, the rim is so badly corroded there isn't a decent surface left. Rest of it is getting a bit tired so decided to treat myself.

This Sunday, Chilly Willy run, Sycamore cafe next to Billing Aquadrome, Northampton. Meet starts at 10am, ride out at 12 I believe. I think they only have a FB page if someone could share the detail?

Taxed and rode the R1 today, 8 weeks ahead of schedule. Scooter is off the road, waiting for new pads so been using OHs car for the last two days. She needed her car today so I was going to use the M3, got in it at 7.15, started it up and a rear light warning came up and I noticed the brake lights were stuck on. Restarted it a couple of times and it didn't fix itself. Gave that up and quickly taxed the R1, dragged it out the garage, checked the tyre pressures and set off, still got to work on time.

@Gerontious,That's not our experience, we have about 10 of them of various sizes and find them pretty reliable. They get calibrated once a year.

We use a mix of Snap On, Norbar or Gedore torque leader at work. We have an on-site calibrator so it's easy to check any wrenches but if any are out of calibration they have to go back to their relevant supplier, normally around £80-100 per wrench. I have used the bendy bar type but didn't like the scale & pointer set up, but that's just personal preference. I guess there is less to go wrong with them. The dial type (Gedore) are nice, you can see the torque rising so you know if the thread is good and a tell tale indicator to show the max torque. I have a couple of Snap on wrenches that I've had for years, only used now at home. Took my 3/8 wrench into work and checked its calibration, it was only a couple of Nm out throughout the range, not bad considering its over 30 years old. If I had to buy one, it would be Norbar, well made, nice to use and reasonably priced. Made in Banbury so easy to get serviced as my work is also in Banbury.

Has our Kev overlooked the GSXR has variable valve timing?

Started up the R1 and SS. Gave the Silverwing a once over ready for the return to work. Rear brake was sticking a bit, so stripped that and found the pads were getting low. Checked the front pads and found the same , fired up ebay and got some on order.