XmisterIS

Well, the horn arrived today ... going to fit it later!

I shall be sure to do that every day, for five minutes, at 7am. I live in a built-up area too! :D

I'm being random! I have my random moments ... some call it "slightly unhinged" ...

Boil 'em up in a barrel of tar. I have no idea whether or not that will shrink them though ...

What bike did you have? I have an SV650N, I'm on sv650.org and someone on there says it fits and works perfectly with the existing relay. Perhaps you needed a new relay with yours? (apart from it not fitting on your bike, obviously!).

I've just bought a Stebel Magnum (139dB!) on EBay - the reviews say that it's a real teeth-rattler of a horn. My OEM horn is pathetic, like most bike horns. The Stebel should make my bike horn at least as loud as a car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AteFCZfJ ... re=related I hope the dozy cagers can hear THAT! If it does live up to what is promised, I think it will have been a damn good buy at only £11 plus postage.

Sweet! If I can get one of those with bluetooth, that will be perfect - small enough to fit in a jacket pocket quite easily. Does that cost include all the maps too, or do you have to buy those separately?

Try Three Cross Motorcycles near Bournemouth - I got my bike there and they threw in a pair of Triumph kevlar jeans for free. They are tight in the waist (I had to get them in a 34", I'm usually a 32") but the legs are too huge and flappy! I have the opposite problem to you - I am a tall and slender.

Hmmm ... perhaps! The trouble is that storage on my bike would best be described as "minimal". Lol! Also, I like technological gizmos

Yes, they will take knee and hip inserts. Here's the website showing where all the kevlar goes: http://www.hoodjeans.co.uk/html/woven_aramid.html

Lol! I just think that some of the boots out there look like something out of Transformers, with all the angled plastic and bolts and what-not!

If you break down in France ... your bike will be fixed in a fortnight ... perhaps two ... and it might not be the same bike that you get back! If you break down in Germany ... an army of technicians will appear as a small platoon from the back of the bike shop, field-strip your bike to the frame in two minutes, perform a full integrity check on every component and re-build your bike, fixed, in another two minutes.

If you ride with kevlar jeans rather than leathers (as I do), you could do worse than to buy Hood jeans! I bought a pair recently and they have far more kevlar than any other jean I've looked at. They are almost completely lined with kevlar.

I am getting tired of printing out pages from Multimap, then sitting in a layby in the middle of nowhere, scratching my head (well, helmet), trying to figure out where I am, then letting go of the printout in the wind and watching it blow into the nearest cowsh1tty puddle. (The A4-sized Hampshire A-Z that I carry in my car doesn't fit on my bike very well!). Can anyone recommend a decent satnav that I can put in my pocket and listen to with an earpiece? I would rather listen to it than put it on the handlebars to look at. (because looking at the handlebars for too long quickly results in ground/sky/ground/sky/etc). It would be much more convenient to have a voice in my ear giving me directions so I don't have to take my eyes off the road.

Bullson Maddox. Cheap (as far as bike boots go), good protection. I never get cold feet even when the rest of me is cold! They're not over-hot in the summer either. Also, you can walk round in them without looking like a Transformer They're black leather, very unobtrusive. I got mine from Hein Gericke - just go to their website and search for "bullson maddox".

When I did my bike test, among the bumf that came with the test certificate was a flyer from a company called Ultraseal. I have had it knocking around for a while, not sure if I should go for it, or if it is a waste of money. Here's the website: http://www.ultraseal.biz The product itself is called Puncturesafe. Has anyone else used it? Verdict?

When: Every first Wednesday of the month in the BST (British Summer Time) months. That means there's two more this year: 5th August and 2nd September. Where: On the seafront, in the big coach park behind the D-Day museum. Looky here: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=portsm ... PO5%203NT| What: Apparently there's hundreds of bikers there, kit stalls, hog roast, etc (I have never been there before, so don't take my word for it!). My mate Gary who rides a Harley (chortle) will be on the gate ... (don't tell him I said "chortle" about his Harley though ... ). What Time: 6pm onwards (I think - I will check with Gary).

I have ridden pushbikes all my life, so when I got the confidence to start filtering, I judged it by pushbike experience ... if it looks dodgy in any way, don't do it! For example, I was behind a guy doing 25/30 in a 40 zone today (dual carriageway). I could easily have nipped into the outside lane and booted past him ... but he was all over the road (e.g. drifting out over the white line, then back again, almost mounting the kerb, then back out, etc), so I sat behind him at a healthy distance until I could give him an incredibly wide berth! I think Its all down to reading the road and personal judgement. I agree with the 125'ers on here - I have a lot more confidence in filtering to the front of the queue on a 650 than on a 125! Mind you, for some reason I am very careful on a motorbike ... but a complete maniac on a pushbike! Lol!

I'll bet that this has been posted before, but it might be nice to have it as a sticky ... (vicki? no pun intended! ) http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/Motorcyc ... /index.htm

Yep, I have had the cover off and the crap behind thoroughly cleaned out. If you are saying it should go straight into gear, I will get it checked out by my local Suzuki dealer when it is due for a major service. It only does the not-going-into-gear thing occasionally though.

Nope, the clutch seems fine - perhaps it is just the "clashing gears" thing that MtotheJ mentioned.

Ah! Ok, nope, there's pretty much no play at all front/back, it's just up and down that it kind of wobbles a bit.

do you mean up/down play or back/front play?

the clutch lever feels a bit "looser" than the front brake, but it seems to work ok!

Nope Sometimes (but not often) Nope