chris128

Well I live in grimsby, I actually rode through cleethorpes twice today I think you might get rather bored riding with someone like me on a CBR125 when your on a fireblade though!

I think I left at about 2:30 - 3:00 so I wouldnt of been there when you got there, but yeah next time you are going there then give me a shout

Thanks mIdLcRiSiS thats good to hear and yeah feel free to come along too, the more the merrier (if thats how you spell it?) What bike will you be on then if its not the honda that you mentioned? I forgot it was easter next sunday but doesnt make much difference to me, so if anyone is up for it on either the saturday, sunday or the bank holiday monday then that would be good

Ta Yorbandit - let me know if you do decide to head down sometime and i might be able to come and meet you

I currently dont have anyone to ride with at all as none of my friends have bikes and to be honest its getting a little boring always being out on my own and not knowing any other bikers. I went to willingham woods today and there were about 50 or 60 bikers there and I've heard that some people from here go down there sometimes so I was just wondering if anyone was planning on going there next weekend, Sunday preferably (which is the 12th of April in case anyones reading this after that date) ? I'm fairly new to riding still and I've got a black and white 2008 Honda CBR125 (with L plates wooo) so might not be the fastest rider in the world but I'd love to go for a ride with some other bikers and see if it helps improve my riding a bit too Anyone feel like letting me tag along?

From the DSA website: New test can be booked from 30 March 2009 Testing to commence on Monday 27 April (like Korben said)

So when exactly does this new test come in then? I thought it was the start of March..

I'm planning on taking my DAS test in July/August so I think they are bound to of implemented these new test by then

cheaper? I thought £5 was pretty cheap for anything! Yeah we do have a motor world I think... but to be honest for the sake of saving a couple of quid I would rather just go to halfords as its easier to get to. EDIT: besides, doing a search for Disc Brake Cleaner on halfords website only brings up the following: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... -1&x=0&y=0 and as you can see, the cheapest one is only about 70p cheaper than the muc-off one lol Cheers Chris

Ah I see, sounds good! I'll go to Halfords tomorrow after work and get some - anything that says Disc Brake Cleaner on it will do yeah? I mean if anyone has any specific brands or anything they use then that would be handy to know. Thanks again - I'll let you know how it goes! EDIT: Would this be ok you think? http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65742#dtab

I know this doesnt help but my car (MG ZS 120) has been doing the EXACT same thing as of about 2 or 3 months ago and its really annoying when you go to pull out and roundabouts/junctions! I've just kind of learnt to live with it as I'm probably going to get rid of the car soon anyway, hope you get yours sorted though.

ah ok, so brake cleaner for cars is the same as brake cleaner for bikes yeah? (my back brake is a disc brake) So do I just apply this brake cleaner to the actual disc on my wheel or to the calipers/pads when I've taken them off? (or both) Thanks Chris

Cheers, any particular brake cleaner you would recommend? I've just ordered some of that Muc-Off cleaning stuff which says it doesnt damage disc brake pads but I dont know if that means its suitable to use for cleaning them or not?

oh sorry, didnt notice that section! Feel free to move it Para - I tried braking hard to see if that would clear it but no joy. As for putting it on the center stand and spinning the wheel I can give that a go but I would of thought if anything was stuck in there then after riding around for a few days it would of come out? (as I said, its been happening for a few days) thanks Chris

yeah it is really annoying! So cleaning the back wheel and brake doesnt seem to help you then? I was hoping that would fix it!

this has been annoying me for a couple of days but seems to be getting worse now. Basically whenever I use my back brake I hear quite a loud squeeking sound - not like the high pitch squeel you hear from car brakes when they have worn down, its a lot deeper than that sound. It even does it if I just sit on the bike, with the engine turned off, and push it forward a bit then squeeze the back brake slightly. I assume its just some dirt or something on the wheel but the bike was nice and clean when I bought it just over a week ago and its not as if I have ridden it through loads of mud etc so I dunno. Do you think I should just try clean the wheel & brake and if so is there anything special I should use to clean it? I'm sure someone told me ages ago that you shouldn't clean brakes with normal car/bike wash stuff so what do you use? EDIT: just read a thread on here from a few days ago about cleaning bikes and seems like Muc-Off comes quite highly recommended. So would it be worth me getting this? https://ssl52.secure-websites.com/~alex ... litre.html as it says that it wont damage disc brake pads? Also, how do you actually clean the back brake calipers etc as it looks quite hard to get to any of the bits that need cleaning (I've got a CBR125 but I assume its the same on any bike) Cheers Chris

I agree that you should wear boots in the interest of safety... but I cant see why people say you need boots otherwise you will hurt your foot changing gear :S I did my CBT in a pair of trainers because there was no definition of "sensible footwear" on the CBT school's leaflet so I just assumed trainers were fine. I didnt have any issues with changing gear on the CBT and haven't had any issues changing gear on my bike now that I've got it. To be honest I have been putting off buying some boots because I feel like they will be way more restrictive and make it harder to change gear

Did my CBT today... the school recommended that because I had never ridden anything before I should use a 50cc moped instead of a geared 125 - but I said no I would like to do it on a 125 (this was when I booked it). So I turned up today and everyone there again tried to tell me that I would never get the hang of it all straight away on a 125 and that I should use a 50cc ped so again I said no I want to use a geared bike. We went through all the normal stuff - riding round a car park like area doing U turns, emergency stops, controlled braking etc and then went out on the road. There was only me and the instructor as there was an odd number of people doing it that day - so we rode around for 2 hours and it was absolutley bloody freezing and windy as hell but I still enjoyed it. Got back and the instructor said I was one of the best riders that had taken a CBT there in the last year he said he thinks I would only need a couple of lessons before doing my test so I'm pretty pleased with the overall experience. The instructor also apologised for doubting that I would be able to 'handle' a geared bike lol I dont know why, it seemed pretty easy to me but I think thats because I've been driving a car for a couple of years (i did explain that to them). However, I do think that I would of been absolutely crap if I hadnt already been driving a car for a while. There were loads of junctions, traffic lights, one way streets etc that I wouldn't of known what to do at if I didnt have experience driving a car... I hope the Honda shop round the corner from me is open tomorrow cos I want a bike!

thanks akey, I think I'm going to have to do what you suggest and just get a 125 that I can practice on and take my test as soon as I can, then get a bigger bike and restrict it. Then when I take my DAS I dont have to buy a new bike I can just derestrict my existing one having said that, I still think I'll go for a CBR125 or something like that instead of just a cheap as chips bandit. Like you guys said, if I look after it then I probably wont loose any money on it when I sell it after passing my test. Now I just need to find somewhere to do my CBT!

but the insurance on a bigger bike will be a hell of a lot more... I'm sure when I'm 21 I'll want to just do my DAS and get a bigger bike anyway but this is just until then. I dont really want to be paying out the ear for insurance on something that I've got to have restricted to 33 bhp anyway

bummer... looks like I'm going to have to try find an NSR 125 thats worth having then... they seem to be so rare compared to the other two types of bikes. Anyone think this one is worth a look? Its odd that its done a lot less mileage than all of the others on autotrader but is cheaper: http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/bikes/HONDA+NSR/Ne-2-4-7-8-27-64-104-133-146-236,N-117-239-4294959676-4294967221/advert.action?R=200841320856410&distance=92&postcode=dn33+2hu&channel=BIKES&make=HONDA&model=NSR&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage= EDIT: just this second got a reply from the guy selling it (i asked what kind of condition it was in) This was the other one I was looking at: http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/bikes/HONDA+NSR/Ne-2-4-7-8-27-64-104-133-146-236,N-117-239-4294959676-4294967221/advert.action?R=200839319673607&distance=86&postcode=dn33+2hu&channel=BIKES&make=HONDA&model=NSR&min_pr=&max_pr=&max_mileage= but its done twice as many miles as the other and is more expensive...

As some of you will know from my previous thread about which bike I should get - I'm looking at buying a 125 very soon and I'm basically trying to choose between a Honda NSR125, Honda CBR125 and the new Yamaha YZF125R. I assumed that all of these bikes made about 15 bhp when restricted but when derestricted would make around 30 bhp. However, I read on a few sites that dereistrcting the Yamaha is a very bad idea as it can cause it to pretty much die within weeks. Basically I want a 125 that I can ride on L plates (so limited to 15 bhp), then take my cat A test and have it derestricted and ride it at around 30bhp until I can get a bigger bike. If the CBR and YZF can never do get anything more than 15 bhp then they are pretty much out of the question... so anyone got any thoughts on whether or not this is the case? EDIT: oh yeah and one other question - what sort of mileage is good or bad for a bike? I mean I'm looking at 2002/2003/2004 registered bikes so should I not get anything with over 10K on the clock or is it safe to get something up to 20K or what? Thanks Chris

wahey, I better get myself a bike and get my test done before March!

excuse my ignorance but whats a lanyard? lol

yeah I appreciate that lol like you say, thats basically what you buy it for - worst case scenario. Otherwise we would all ride around in shorts and a t-shirt (yeah ok maybe not in england...). I'll add boots to my shopping list then lol Thanks again