kingmunky

My first one was on my very first day of my CBT! Practising emergency stops on the yard, I grab the front brake without closing the throttle completely, rearwheel spins out from under me and I ditched it infront of about 10 people, including a couple of instructors! D'oh! Never mind though, they just pushed that bike to the back of the yard and wheeled out the bright yellow one for me instead (so people would give me a wide berth lol!)

When you changed the bulb before were you wearing gloves or holding the bulb with a clean rag? If you touch the glass the oil from your fingerprints can be enough to cause an hot spots to form and as a result the bulb breaks. Got to make sure the glass stays completely clean, even if you've just washed your hands the natural oils left on your skin can be enough to ruin a new bulb.

That's unlucky, but at least the only thing to take away from the test is what you already know - don't trust any other drivers and especially not their indicators! Number of times I've seen people going in the opposite direction that they're indicating is ridiculous. Sounds like you had a great ride overall though, take the positives from that and keep that mindset going into the next test and you'll do fine.

Different test centre might be a good idea - did you ask the examiner if he's a member of TMBF by any chance??

Spot on

The thing with filtering is the HC definition of doing it "when safe to do so", it's open to interpretation and everyone's got a different opinion of what is "safe" ie. speed/distance/when to stop or pull in. You've probably just done something that this rider wouldn't do themselves, hence the wee shake of the head. Only time you really need to pull in early at lights is if there's a pedestrian crossing with zig-zag lines, HC explicitly says not to overtake on zig-zags so if the police see you doing it you could be in for a ticket. Sounds like you did everything right in your example though

Link is no longer valid as there's only 5 invites per link, so others have signed up already, and there's no risk of ID theft with just a name and an email address. I did a fair bit of reading up on it before signing up and it does reek a tad of MLM-type deal but there's no requirement to pay any money in, or even give any information to them. I'd rather sign up and see what happens than just ignore, I've given my name and email to worse opportunities before.

I'm pretty new to this I'll admit, but I came across Initiative Q, a new payment network that is run by the former owners of Paypal and it seems like it could grow to quite a scale. At the moment they are giving away shares of the future currency to early adopters, because how can you encourage people to buy a new currency if nobody has any to sell, so if you're willing to give them your name and email address you can reserve a share of future currency for nowt. No risk, potentially some reward further down the line. It’s by invite only and I have a limited number of invites. My personal invite link: https://initiativeq.com/invite/HfEogxTi Anyone got any thoughts on it?

I record all my journeys, but purely for my own comfort, in case of an accident. I'd only send in footage of really dangerous/bad driving to the police. Can you imagine if every cam warrior send all their clips of red light jumping, mobile phone use etc etc, the Police can barely do their duties now without that additional workload I've asked the police about sending in footage before, and I know this varies from force to force, but in my area they told me that I would need to capture the vehicle reg and face of the driver for the footage to be used as evidence.

Have you checked all of the caliper and hose bolts are torqued to spec? I thought I had tightened mine sufficiently, but there was another 1/4 turn needed on the new banjo bolt and bleed nipple to completely seal them.

As mentioned above, try bleeding at the M/C first as there can be a surprising amount of air trapped in the cylinder piston. Once you've done that, the easiest way that I've found is to use a syringe and plastic tubing on the caliper bleed nipple to push fluid up through the system, just keep a keen eye on the level in the m/c to make sure it doesn't overflow. Have you checked the pistons, piston seals and the calipers generally? If they're looking a bit grim it could be time to overhaul them and replace all the seals etc.

Not got any experience of the circuit training but as far as IAM go, there's absolutely no pressure to go on weekend rideouts or socialise - sure you get invited and encouraged to go along but that's not for everyone. I just went to my training and test sessions, now I'll occasionally go on a run if it's a good location and suitable time but family comes first at the weekend (or so the Mrs tells me!)

Same as the bandit engine - utter pain in the arse to remove the sparks although I found 2 & 3 were the problem not so much 1 & 4. Anyway, the best way I found was to twist and pull the plugs bit by bit and when you get them high enough to come into contact with the frame turn them about 150 degress so the lead connection is facing in toward the engine, tilt the plug that way and it *should* slide out. (EDIT: Removed 45 minutes of swearing, smoking and frustration for sake of a quick post)

Wurth chain cleaner with a decent spiral chain brush to get the crud off, rinse and dry thoroughly (I usually clean it, go and have a brew and then come back to finish the job) and Wurth dry lube for the summer months. When winter sets in I use white lithium grease as you can clearly see the coverage, it's anti-corrosion and doesn't go flying everywhere - you do need to give it a bit of time to set on the chain before riding off though as it comes out quite loose.

Not sure if this is allowed, so won't be pissy if it gets deleted I signed up to Bulb energy last year and have saved a ton of money compared to my last supplier (Sainsbury's energy), who were previously the cheapest in my area. I'd encourage anyone who hasn't swapped for a while to check them out and get a quote - 100% renewable energy sources, cheaper than the big 6, they'll credit any exit fees to your account after you switch and have no exit fees of their own so if you don't like it, there's no financial loss. If you use this link to get a quote and sign up, we both get £50 credited to our bills as well, win-win - www.bulb.co.uk/refer/greg290

I'm not a cyclist, and not one to defend them for anything either, but it sounds as though these guys were riding 2/3 abreast? ie. That's exactly how they're meant to ride - it's easier, and safer, to overtake 2/3 cyclists next to one another than 3 that are riding end-to-end. Rubbish ... depends what road your on . On a road that’s not that wide and they are riding 3 a breast ... they deserve Lucille. Yeah fair point if it's a narrow road, but if it's a regular width road I'd rather pass 2/3 next to each other than a chain of them.

I'm not a cyclist, and not one to defend them for anything either, but it sounds as though these guys were riding 2/3 abreast? ie. That's exactly how they're meant to ride - it's easier, and safer, to overtake 2/3 cyclists next to one another than 3 that are riding end-to-end.

I'm in Edinburgh so a bit too far to be arranging rides out and about but you might be worth getting in touch with your local IAM group. You can get a free assessed ride before you decide if you want further training, there's no pressure or hard-sell. They do regular group rides and, in Edinburgh at least, try to make a few of them 125 friendly so no motorways etc. This is the page with the Tayside group's contact info: https://www.iamroadsmart.com/local-groups/results?indexCatalogue=local-groups-search&searchQuery=PH1&wordsMode=AnyWord

Add brake and fuel lines to your check list - 15 years is a long time and they will likely be in some state of decay.

Someone wants your bike, they put glue in the unattended lock. You pull up for work, can't lock your bike, leave it unlocked and minutes later it's gone... Fair point I suppose, I don;t even have to think about things like that at my work. Loads of bikes parked up on the street with no security, usually pretty quiet, so I just use a disc lock so mines is the most work to steal.

Grab a spanner and have at...! https://www.triumphrat.net/attachments/tiger-800-800xc-mods-and-workshop/191682d1407768744-tiger-800-maintenance-sheet-and-data-sheet-triumph-tiger-800-scheduled-maintenance-check-sheet.pdf https://www.triumphrat.net/attachments/tiger-800-800xc-mods-and-workshop/191674d1407768736-tiger-800-maintenance-sheet-and-data-sheet-triumph-data-sheet-tiger-800-and-800xc.pdf

If you don't use the lock other than when you're parking up at work, why not just leave the lock attached to whatever post/pole/fence etc that's next to the bike parking?

They're certainly not fun or entertaining to watch but some of them can be a valuable resource for learning what not to do. Seen so many videos of people showing off, riding with poor technique or being hit by careless cagers that it kind of prepares you for what might happen - on any road at, any time, you just have to be in the wrong place.

Or, thoroughly clean and dry the bike then apply ACF50 liberally to all exposed metal before winter comes round, then you don't have to bother washing too much in winter as it's all protected. I've done this for the last two years and have no new corrosion issues where the treatment is applied. Just use a hose to quickly wash off road salt etc and job's a good un. It gets another deep clean once the roads aren't being salted anymore.

I've got that, does the job just fine. Definitely would recommend.