Smee

The main issue with tubes is a puncture is almost certainly going to be an instant deflation, whereas tubeless tend to deflate slower (most of the time). Losing all tyre pressure at 70mph because I run over a nail is scary enough that it would put me off. But then biking in general is all about trading off risk vs reward, so it's whether the risk is worth the aesthetic reward for you. There are tubeless spoked wheels available where the spokes attach to standoffs or an additional flange instead of going through the rim. They are double the price with far less options but you'd get the aesthetic look (nearly) without the safety trade-off. Found these via a random google search just as an example: https://www.bikehps.com/acatalog/Kineo-Spoked-Wheels-BMW-R-nineT-Racer-2017-onwards.html

Interesting that some of you covered it during training. Maybe (as you say) it's more of a thing in places where heavy traffic is the norm. Did you filter during the actual test also? I guess it's not impossible that in places like London you'd be expected to filter during your test otherwise you'd never make any progress and that's why it's covered in training down there...? Or it could just be my instructor didn't want to add any unnecessary pressure. As a bit of a perfectionist I spent my entire time training doubting myself so I may have swayed his decision on whether to cover stuff that isn't part of the test.

Thanks for the replies guys! Some material for me to watch whilst munching my sandwiches at lunch I know there's no replacement for personal experience and I have no expectation of emulating whatever I see, but since filtering isn't even mentioned when doing CBT/DAS i'm hoping the videos impart some starting knowledge that I can then use on the road (they really should cover some basic filtering in the M/C training, even if it's not assessed. Like how car drivers can now do some training on motorways even though it's not part of the test)

I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for decent riders on YouTube. The ones just sharing their daily experiences rather than the idiots being stupid for the likes. In particular i'm currently interested in seeing how filtering works in the real world. As a new rider I know I can filter (under the correct conditions) but I never do. I did try it once when out with a more experienced friend, he went right to the front of the traffic lights (front wheel over the line, which I know isn't legal!) and pulled away swiftly without issue. I ended up going slowly between two cars pulling off at the same time as me, and poo'd myself until the car on my left made a gap for me. Entirely my own fault of course and down to lack of experience. Since then i've read and watched plenty of material, but it all seems to focus on some perfect world i've yet too see. Usually one where there happens to be a nice gap between the front car and the solid line, or a good gap between the 1st and 2nd car to slip into. Or when riders get caught in the middle and the lights change, they happen to have a courteous driver that lets them slip in. So yeah, i'd love to see how these more advanced practices are executed in the real world by someone not doing an instructional video or similar.

I'd echo that question. If you do buy your own tyres whether second hand or brand new, make sure you have somewhere local that will fit them! I bought some lovely imported tyres for my car a few years back, premium rubber without the price tag. Took me over a week to find someone who would fit them for me, and they only did it because I paid to have the tracking done at the same time. There will certainly be someone, somewhere who will fit them, it's just how many places you have to try and how far you have to travel in order to find them. I'd find a fitter before you buy anything yourself. You'll also need a buddy with a car to take the tyre to the shop for you, unless you find a mobile fitter. I'd also err on the side of caution and get cheaper new tyres over second hand. Quality S/H tyres are out there, but they exist in a vast sea of old rubber and damage from monkeying them off rims. Of course if you know what to look for and have a local place you can visit and inspect before purchase then it's a good way of getting decent rubber on the cheap, but not everyone (including myself) has that knowledge and experience. It's very much a "your mileage may vary" situation with S/H. Some people will always go S/H and never have an issue, others won't be so lucky. If funds were low i'd take my chances with S/H on 4 wheels, but never on 2.

Have you washed the items since purchase? If you have then you may need to re-proof them (especially if you threw them in the washing machine like I do). You can get aerosol, pump sprays and washing liquids for this; most sports and outdoors shops will sell the aerosol stuff for less than a fiver. My mate had to re-proof his RST gear earlier this month (admittedly much older gear but he also doesn't wash them that often either!), so it's not necessarily just a cheap brand issue. Unless you buy stuff that is made from naturally waterproof material, you do have to do some maintenance.

Since there is barely any foam (a very small slither) in the ear pocket, not sure if that would help? Unless the ear pocket itself is bigger on the 2XL but I understood it was just the amount of padding that changed? Not saying your wrong, you know far more than me about this anyway. Just working through the options. I do need to go back to J&S for some new gloves for the colder weather so i'll see if they stock the spares anyway. They might let me try it out for free to see if it feels any better.

I have the XL shell with the XL liner and XL cheek pads (30mm). Confirmed by the labels on each part just to be sure. I believe they do a 2XL in the liner and cheek pads and of course they do Small and Large. For the ear pain, I doubt changing any of that would help? Going down a size would add more padding but it's already a snug fit, going up would reduce the padding, but the part that hurts I don't think is due to excessive padding (since I think it's on the stick seam) and may not fit as a snugly on my noggin if I went up. For the crown pain I guess I could try a smaller liner, which may give me extra padding on the top. So maybe a Large liner with the existing XL cheek pads. I guess the best thing to do here is to add the padding myself temporarily to see how it feels, and if the crown pain is gone with a little extra padding, then try and purchase a new thicker liner. Thanks for the reply, never thought to check what insert options were available. So if I can test it cheaply and it works, I can spend some £££ and buy the inserts that match.

It's entirely possible it's the wrong fit, I was thinking that could be the case. I'll check out that site for some info. However since it's a problem I can't discover with a 10 minute try out in store, I figure i'll try a few things out first to be sure as I could just end up splashing out another £250+ and have a similar issue. Since I can't modify the foam of the helmet in the affected areas I know I can't destroy the stuff that protects my noggin at least. If I can't work something out though, I may just have to take a punt on a new helmet. I guess at least the next time I'll check how my ears sit in the pockets so I might be able to avoid that issue. I guess thats the main reason I posted the question. Being a very new rider I don't know what is normal so I thought i'd draw on the collective mind of the [strikeout]Borg[/strikeout] forum. The 6 hour stint (first ride out) included a 30 min coffee break in the middle. Second ride lasted 2 hours with no break. So probably need to get out a bit more with it before I have a good idea how long it takes before it starts causing me problems. Anyway, next time I venture in to town i'll grab me some of them memory foam things and try it out. If nothing else i'll have a nice smelling helmet for a few days if I get the scented ones

Apologies in advance, this is a long one I bought a HJC Rpha Max from J&S when I first kitted myself out a couple of months back (https://www.jsaccessories.co.uk/buy/HJC-Rpha-Max-Helmet/13497.htm). I took on board the usual advice of trying some on for size and I think the guy on the counter was being helpful. The shape seemed fine, no forehead pressure which the guy said was a common issue if you get the wrong shape. Got the XL size which was snug enough to "chew my cheeks" at the time, but as the guy said that will (and has already started too) relax with wear-in. Not much movement of my head in the helmet if I shake it around so generally seemed fine at the time. However i'm now noticing a few pressure points after wearing it for a while. Sometimes it takes an hour or so to reveal itself, other times it can take 6+ hours of near constant wearing it. But there are two points of my head that eventually start o get a little painful. Crown Did a little googling and crown pain seems to be common with helmets that are loose fitting or the chin strap is too tight. Basically suggesting it happens when the weight of the helmet isn't distributed across your head so it all sits on the highest point of your head. I'm fairly certain this isn't the case. I can get my fingers under the chin strap so that's not too tight. I also tried pushing down on the helmet when wearing it too see if it was touching the top and sure enough there is definitely a little room there. Not a lot but enough that I can tell I have to the push the helmet down before I feel it pressing on my crown. So i'm at a loss at the moment. My only thoughts are if when going over uneven surfaces, me bouncing up and down slightly translates to the helmet bouncing up and down a little, maybe just enough to bump my crown on the top. Although I can't say i've noticed it happening (and i've been conscious of it on my last 2 rides trying to work out what it is). My current plan is to buy some of them memory foam in-soles from Poundland and create a 2nd strip of liner inside the helmet across the top, in order to give a couple extra millimeters of padding. I can fix it would a couple of small bits of double sided tap whilst trying it out, and if successful i'll probably grab a pack of velcro sticky tabs to make it a little more semi-permanent. So on this one, does anyone have any thoughts? Ever experienced something similar? Ear pain The second point of pain is my lower ear. I'm not too sure if it's my Anti Helix or Anti Tragus to be specific. There's no compressible foam in that part of the helmet as that region of it is plastic lined (no doubt foam underneath but I can't reshape the plastic). So the common "get a spoon and press it down a couple of mm" fix can't be tried out. I'm certain my ears are lying flat (i always stick my fingers up there and flatten them out after putting the helmet on) and it happens after periods of constant use so it's not caused by taking the helmet on and off. The ear pockets are made up of a V shape in the cheek pads and my current thoughts are that I think the pain happens along the seam. Not 100% sure yet, but feeling around the area with my helmet on, the painful spot I think is where that seam is. The liner is much thinner and is backed by plastic, which could be the cause? My current plan for my next outing is to use those memory foam insoles again and try and cut a piece to fit between the plastic and the liner. I should be able to stuff 5mm or so between the plastic and the fabric up against the stitch line. I'm less confident about this fix as adding more padding might increase the pressure, but then memory foam is softer so it might work, if my theory is actually correct. Once again there's a few things I could do to make it more permanent if it works. So once again, does anyone have any thoughts on this? Things I can try or check?

So i'm awaiting on the dealers to get in touch telling me my first bike is ready to collect, and in the meantime I seem to have found myself engrossed in watching crash videos, near misses and road rage videos. I went to show a biker friend of mine a particular video which was more humorous than anything else, but before even looking at the screen his response was: It wasn't, he watched it and a cringe and giggle later all was good. But it got me thinking of how other bikers feel about such videos? Me personally, I find comfort from information; the good and the bad. I'm very much an extreme over-thinker. I'm acutely aware of the increased dangers of riding a bike versus getting in my car but watching these videos somehow puts me more at ease... it actually makes me impatient to get my bike and get on the road. In part that may be because I have something I've come to learn is called intrusive thoughts. It's supposedly my brains way of keeping me safe by exaggerating the worse outcome of a scenario. On a train platform if I hear "stay well back, this train doesn't stop here" my brains like: "It'll be going pretty fast"..."What if you stumble in front of it, that's going to kill you"...I'll just step a back a little I think. Or in the car on a motorway i'll think: "Turn that wheel slightly and you'll hit the central reservation and probably die" with a result of me making sure I have a good position in my lane. I guess in a way the saying "Every car driver is out trying to kill you" will be well and truly planted in my subconscious anyway because of this. I also watch the video's and such a great deal of the near misses and crashes i'm like, "if you rode defensively, that probably wouldn't have happened". Another thing I always want to ask other bikers if they've ever had any crashes e.c.t but i'm never sure if it's a bit of a taboo subject. To me it's fine, but I know i'm a bit weird Anyway, I was wondering how other bikers feel about watching these sort of videos?

Mod 2 this morning and passed with 2 minors so i'm happy with that! 1 minor for positioning on a left turn (narrow road, should have stayed centre in the lane and not moved to the left before the turn) which I knew was a better line to take but test nerves kicked in and questioned myself, so I decided to stick to the general rule of moving over to the left. 2nd minor was for moving into a right lane between a car and a lorry and the examiner said I should probably have abandoned the turn and carried on straight instead of moving in front of a lorry. Didn't cause the lorry any issues as that would have been a serious fault, if it had been a car it wouldn't have even been a minor but i'll accept I should have waited for more room as lorry's can't stop as quickly if he needed too. But I can't complain. Started never having sat on a bike, CBT plus 2 days of 1-2-1 training on an ER6-N over a few weeks and it's all done and dusted. Now the real learning can begin Going for a look around and to sit on some bikes the weekend but keep going back online to looking at the Ninja 650 tourer so unless I sit on it and hate it, i'll probably end up with one of those.

The important part is unless signs or markings indicate otherwise. I cannot stick to the right as road markings tell me not too. So your saying the image is correct and I should keep my right indicator on, even though it may confuse people into thinking I want to move back from Lane 3 to 4, which I do not want to do? I'm not saying your wrong. But I want to be sure the ambiguity (in my opinion) in my signalling in this scenario is what the examiner will be expecting.

Hi Everyone Been lurking around anonymously for a few weeks and picking up some really useful info. Got my Mod 2 next week and there's something I need a little clarification on as we've not really covered it much in my training and I don't want to get caught out on my test on something silly (and probably a few more questions to come over the weekend!). So basically, roundabouts are easy and common sense for the most part. 1 and 2 lane roundabouts are fairly obvious to navigate; indication and life savers are common sense in the required places. However one thing i'm wondering about is when you have larger roundabouts, specifically one's with "pushover lanes" (or whatever they are called, the ones where you basically just follow the same lane round to your exit without having to cross a line). Here's an image of such a roundabout (specifically the one I was driving on yesterday that made me think "what the **** should I be doing here?!"). I've drawn a line and some indicators on there as an example of what you may do, if you followed the same rules as a smaller roundabout (signal right until just after the exit you want, then signal left). Local knowledge tells me to go for lane 4 even though I'll end up in the second lane of the exit, purely because so many people in lane 2 on the entrance go for lane 3 also and on a bike I'm not going to risk shoving my way in. When i'm in my car, I approach it a bit differently. I will signal right to start to show i'm going for the inner most lane (lane 4, if i was going for lane 3 I probably wouldn't signal at all, unless I felt it would help in some way). Once i'm in lane 4 i'd cancel my indicator, treating it like a large one-way street if you will. I'll flash my left indicator briefly (gentle push on the stalk for the lane change flash) when the lane pushes me across to the left at the 2nd exit, just to make others aware i'm moving position (because road markings mean nothing to some people), and then finally left indicate again before exiting. The reason I do that in a car is because I feel it communicates everything I need to, to other road users in the best way. If I leave my right indicator on as per my image, it's ambiguous. Am I signalling because I want to get back to lane 4 after moving away from it, or am I carrying on in the same lane, that just so happens to be going further on round. Other people can't be sure my intentions, and that's the start of a not so happy ending. My instincts tell me to do what i'd do in a car. 8 years without any issues tells me people know my intentions, but then my brain tells me that what the DVSA tells you to do on a test is not always translated to the road when your on your own. So what indicators should I be doing on this roundabout? Specifically talking about what the DVSA examiner wants to see me do? (not that I don't value the advice of seasoned riders, stand on the shoulders of giants if you get the chance). Any advice on this so it's clear in my head would be appreciated, as i'm sure i'm going to hit one of these on my test given the located of the test centre.