manxie49

Never been to Sri Lanka, but my wife didn't have the courage to allow to drive when we were in Egypt!

I envy you the weather in Tunisia but not the traffic! I rented a car out over there a few years ago, we drove to Sfax to see the amphitheatre, I can safely say driving there is the only place I’ve ever been that scared the crap out of me the drivers are manic! There doesn’t seem to be any road or lane discipline, I suppose you get used to it though. I bottled out and returned the car after two days

They have the offer on again for this weekend $146, got an email this morning

Langness, where Jeremy Clarkson used to live

Like Husoi I can't really say I've experienced any issues. I was fortunate enough to cut my teeth driving a lot in Germany when I was in the Army. The only near mistake I did make was almost going around a roundabout the wrong way. That was a good few years ago though. As you can imagine, we get a lot of riders from the continent where I live, most accidents seem to occur when the rider panics and reverts back to what he knows, that is, switching to what is normal for him / her. I suppose what I would take away from it is, if it's your first time on the continent, take your time, keep calm and don't be harassed by other drivers, you very quickly get into the swing of it.

You weren’t one of those three geezers on a ride out following a star into the East were you, delivering presents by all accounts?

That was a really good deal. I purchased a year’s membership, I admire you for using base camp , I really couldn’t get my head around that programme

I thought I'd share this with the forum, although I'm sure a lot of you know about it already. I've been trying this app out now for about eight months and find it absolutely brilliant. It allows you to pre-plan routes, add in waypoints and stops, upload maps to most GPS systems, plus a multitude of other things. To be honest, I'm still learning about everything it can do. The site has instructions, online video tutorials and a discussion forum to help if you get stuck. Although that said, I'm no techno geek, but even I found it relatively easy to use, far easier than some of the other apps currently available, to me, it's pretty straight forward, and I like that. Registering gives you full, free access for fourteen days, after that, there is a yearly subscription of £35. However, if you decide not to pay the subscription you can still access the basic functions of the app. Overall, great app for planning tours, or just travelling through an area you're not familiar with, people even upload and share their routes with the community, giving you the highs and low points of the journey they did and tips on what to avoid. https://www.myrouteapp.com/en

These guys are 1st rate .... Different levels of training both on road and track, great for building skill and confidence, also good for helping older riders like me to stay on the ball! https://www.rapidtraining.co.uk/bikemaster

I was taught how to trail brake, but the only time I've ever used it, was when I've over cooked things into a bend. Pragmatically I would say, at the time, that wasn't good riding on my part. Personally I would sooner use good forward observation, be travelling at the right speed and in the correct gear for the prevailing weather and road conditions, planning my entry into and exit out of a bend without having to do any of that. There is a place for trail braking definitely, more so on the race track, but having an understanding of it can go some way to getting you out of trouble should things go a bit awry, trail braking carries with it it's own inherent risks though, as was discussed on an advanced course I did some time ago. I think it's good to have in the "survival armoury" of skills, but I'd sooner ride within my limits and therefore not have to use it.

Congratulations on passing your test. I can empathise a bit with some of your problems, I experienced the same with my MT10. Firstly, snatchy throttles, as has already been said, is the downside of modern bikes, made worse by them running lean because of emissions controls. You can sometimes smooth a snatchy throttle out by having the bike remapped, just bear in mind, doing so, can sometimes, potentially, cause other problems. As for suspension, I personally find setting up suspension properly is an acquired skill, I found my MT10 had a tendency to drift on tight corners. I opted for taking the bike to someone who knew how to set suspension up properly and got them to do it. They found that, among other things, my rear suspension was too soft, basically causing the front end to go light in the bends. Once they set everything up it was perfect, the guy that did it for me had years of racing experience though with a lot of knowledge to back up what he was doing.

Like you I've been riding for many years, in all weathers, I was bought a clapped out old Honda SS50 when I was 14, I was allowed to ride it around the farm fields, I was told if I can ride a bike around farm fields without falling off it'll make me a better road rider, and I actually believe that to be true. I've had two accidents in my biking career, neither of them my fault, however, the scariest moment I had was from a near miss. I was doing a lap of the TT course and going through Glen Helen, back then there were no speed restrictions, I was on a CBR600 and doing, probably about 70-80mph, enjoying the lovely sweeping bends. It was a real thumb up back side moment and totally my own fault. As I rounded one of the tighter bends, going a lot quicker than was probably safe, I was confronted by a tractor and slurry tanker right in front of me, I slammed the brakes on and locked the rear up, went into a skid, realising I was still going to hit the rear of the tractor I released the brakes and went round him. To this day I still do not know how I "one" stayed on the bike, and "two" didn't collide with the tractor, I was also extremely lucky that nothing was coming in the opposite direction. I don't think there was any skill involved, it was all just pure luck. I recall having to stop the Bike at the Glen Helen Hotel and get myself back together again. Very nearly the worst moment of my life and definitely one of the scariest on two wheels. We all take something away from near misses, learn from them, what I took away from that was to never ride like a t--t around country lanes and always expect the unexpected.

The only thing that changes for me is the winter gear comes out, liners get put in, and my heated gloves get charged up and ready to go. I usually prep the bike around October. Good clean and a covering of ACF50. The only weather I try and avoid if possible is snow and ice, I actually hate riding on icy roads, even more than ones with snow on them, at least with snow you can see its there.

Fitting was pretty straight forward "which surprised me", not sure if it's anew thing or not but I can view and download footage on the Innovv app .... Seems to work pretty good

I use Monimoto, never had any issues. Reliable and pretty accurate. You need to take the time to find a good place to install it though. A lot of people put them under their seats, and this is, apparently, one of the first places these thieving scum bags look. I have used Datatool in the past which was also pretty good, customer service with them was excellent, yearly subscription can be expensive though. Mine was also connected to the bikes battery, and I did hear some state that it had a tendency to drain the battery, I never experienced this issue though. It's as pie man said above, just depends on how much you value your bike .

I was wondering ..... Are you sure it was the "Bomb Squad" they called? Surely if was the a job for the "Bum Squad" .... Sorry could't resist, just another of those thoughts that just popped into my head!

Ask anyone who works in an A&E department, whenever a patient comes in with something stuck where it shouldn’t be, the usual excuse is, ‘I slipped on it in the shower’! Not sure that excuse is gonna wash in this case!

Have you tried MDS batteries? They stock Yuasa

Just saying!

Mmmmm I ride a Beamer .....

I bought that camera, 2nd hand but looks perfect, hopefully get round to fitting it this weekend, doesn't look to onerous ..... Although I've said that about other seemingly simple jobs that turn the air in my garage various shades of blue Thanks for your input

He’s making money out of talking shite though ….. he should maybe go into politics

A longish you tube video but worth a watch, this guy makes a lot of sense, the future for what we all love doing looks bleak!