Pete

WalnieFrankey's been fiddling with his brakes recently. Ask him, I bet he'll have a few good tips.

Like others have said it's perfectly allowed. I've worn mine up past police bikes before (with my big aviator sunglasses on I might add!) and there's never been a problem. I only tend to wear it up at very low speed, such as around town or when parking/pulling out, for the reasons that Korben has said. As a side note I thought it was interesting when my riding instructor told me that flip front helmets are the only ones you don't need to take off in a bank! With standard full face helmets the law says that you have to take them off at places such as petrol stations, etc (though many don't do it). However with a flip front it's all good. Strangely the only time he's ever been told to take it off was at Blockbuster Video when returning a DVD! Banks fine, Blockbuster no!

Best example I saw of someone doing a U-turn was a while back when one of my uncle's mates did one outside his house on a big 1100. I asked him how he made it look so easy, all he said was "get her over and gas her up!". Sounded funny at the time but it makes sense. The more lean you get on the bike (not the rider, if the bike leans one way you lean the other at low speed so you don't drop it!), the tighter the turn will be. When you "gas her up" the bike wants to stand up straight so you won't drop it. I gave it a go and it's marvellous when you get it right. Just take it easy the first few times so you don't drop it. The reason you're mate probably finds it easier is most likely because he's practiced it more. Do a few slow ones without the lean technique above, doing what people have said getting the biting point right and feeling the back brake. Look where you want to go (definately most important), and get it round. Who cares if you mess it up at first. If it takes 100 attempts to start to get them everytime you will get there. Just keep at it and find a way that suits you and your bike. These guys know all about "getting her over and gassing her up"... ">

Get some of that £1 non-slip matting stuff from Tesco or the £1 shop. Put it over your seat and put the ends under it so it clips nice and neatly and tidly down. That should work

I normally keep a little bottle of visor cleaner spray and a microfibre cloth in my pocket. I massacred a few hundred flies over the weekend on a lovely 300 mile trip

From http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070306 So overtaking a car/lorry/motorbike is not permitted. Yeah you can, as long as it's stationary. This was mentioned a while back in another thread (read from my point on about halfway down the page): http://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/view ... white+line In answer to your original question about overtaking traffic jams on A roads, like Techno says - yes you can. If it's a dual carriageway or motorway and you're filtering try to keep the speed low. Anything over 20-30mph region is classed by some police as riding dangerously, and if the traffic you're filtering through is doing that speed then it's time to rejoin because you're undertaking them! There have been quite a few threads about this sort of stuff but general rules when filtering (as well as the one above) are that on a motorway try to keep between the outside and middle lane, not inside and middle lane (less lorries, people expect you more, no junction to deal with, etc.) and on A-roads make sure that if traffic is coming the other way that you can see somewhere to pull back in so you don't whack into them!

Throttle cable getting snagged?

Caberg have a good range, all nice helmets in my opinion. The V2 and Trip are nice, both under £100. Also they have internal tinted visors which are great! If you can stretch to £130 then the Caberg Justissimo comes very highly recommended from me and a few other people I know who have one. It's a lot like the V2, but has a flip front, which after having one I don't think I could do without!

Don't be daft, bikers are a friendly(ish) bunch! I live just south of Birmingham but will be in Lincoln this weekend until the bank holiday visiting mates. If people are up for a meet I could try and squeeze in a nice ride round lovely Lincoln area. I might be fully laden with panniers, tank bag and sleeping bag unless I manage to drop it all off somewhere first though! There's nothing like making someone's day to make your day

Yeah that's a good point. One of the jubilee clips on my carb to engine manifolds had gone (don't know where!), so I replaced it and it smoothed out my idling somewhat. Don't know why I didn't think of that before. Have you checked the blanking cap on the carb...though perhaps it doesn't have one if it's on it's own. Just kicking ideas around.

Hmmmmmmm If you don't know much about bikes then this could be a great project to get your hands dirty on. You could do allsorts like stripping the carbs (or carb if it only has one), taking bits off, putting bits on, learning about bikes! £300 isn't bad if you can get it going. Knock them down a bit, even if they say they can't go much lower, keep pushing for less Of course if you're not up for getting your hands dirty and taking bits apart then I wouldn't bother. To get it going again, if you don't know what's up with it you could pay a mechanic lots to sort it. Much better to do it yourself as it'd be free

Sounds like a strange one to me. Personally I'd walk away, there're plenty of other bikes out there (that start!). Starting off a car battery is OK, but only as long as the car isn't running, because it can surge the electrics on the bike. If they're asking for £200 for it then it's a different story, but if the asking price is the same as others that definately do work then just forget about it.

The Knox Contour won't fit inside your jacket, no. However, before I bought mine I thought the same as you about it being just an extra piece of kit. I'm glad I got it, and it's not that big either. It's pretty thin and stores easily. It's not until you get a 'proper' back protector that you realise how rubbish the foam inserts really are. I say back protector because the Contour protects most of the back, not just the spine.

Only one carb? If it's more than one then try balancing them, that helped mine when it had the same problem. Check the gap on the plug. Even new ones need gapping. Can't think of anything else, sorry!

Yeh any blocked jets could cause idling problems. Best thing to do is get anything off of the carb that isn't metal and blast the whole thing with carb cleaner. It's great when it goes 'pop' while it's stripping all the crap off! The picture's quite grainy, but I think that little metal thing goes on the back of the float. You hang it in between the bits at the back and it just hangs there (until you put everything back together, then it sits there because it's upside down when you put it back on!). Look at this link, ignore the red circled part but go up a little bit and look inside the holed part of the float. There's a little bit of wire, I think that's the part you're looking at: http://media.photobucket.com/image/insi ... /float.jpg

Snap! I have that one as well. The thing that got me convinced to buy one was that I was in a bike shop one day just reading the labels on the back protectors. I hadn't really thought much past the 'getting paralyzed' part but then read that doing damage to my spine could result in loss of all sexual functions! So I thought "F*ck THAT!" and got one, pronto!

Yeah I've heard a lot about other people having trouble. When I was doing mine I read about some chap and his dad having fun showing the caliper a blow torch and a few other 'wicked uncles'. Not too sure what happened in the end, I think he foolishly boiled his brake fluid and ruined the tyre because he was lazily trying to do it with the caliper still on the bike! Oh how I laughed verily

I just remembered, I didn't use a hacksaw blade in the end because I couldn't get it to fit...I used a chisel and a mallet! Not the gentlest approach but it worked with no side effects! Well done for spotting them, I always get edgy around MOT time!

Wow, what was it you were saying to me a while back about doing it the long way round?! I had that problem but just cut through the retaining pins with a hacksaw blade! Then I pushed out the pin on the outer most side, removed the pad and I could then get in with some pliers on the remainder of the pin Not the greatest design in the world. I just put a blob of copper slip on the end of mine and they come out nice and easy now.

Is that the same ones has the handsfree kit for my mobile? Ive got a sony ericsson cybershot that has music on it Might not be the cybershot ones, mine are off a Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. The older cybershot phones only sent out rubbishy ear bud type things, not the nice rubber ones that sit inside your ear. Actually, here's a picture! http://mobilementalism.com/imageSnag/859-453bbb5b8832d.jpg That's the phone I got mine off of about 2 years ago and the ear phones are still going strong! Here they are on ebay, but best to make sure they're the genuine ones that have a 3.5mm jack before you order (if you do): http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-EARPHONE-HPM- ... 1|294%3A50 And some more: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EARPHONE-HPM-70-F ... 1|294%3A50 You can get wireless ones for a bit more. They're exactly the same, except they're bluetooth so no need to plug in, etc. It's worth mentioning that with the wired ones (above) the lead really is short (about 15cm!) so you will need a 3.5mm extension lead...like this one! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3m-3-5mm-GOLD-EXT ... 1|294%3A50 Wow, bargains!

Best ones I've ever used are the Sony Ericsson in ear ones, fantastic. The lead on them is short which is good because you can plug them into a nice long extension lead, and when it comes to fill up you just pull it out of the extension and leave them in your ears. They cut out as much noise as the foam ear plugs that you get in bike shops, and they're cheaper than the shure ones too, oh and I haven't tried it but you could also clip the in line mic to them as well, put that in your helmet and take phone calls

Jesus Christ, £22 quid each that's a bit steep where abouts are you getting that quote from and I'll make sure I steer clear What bike is it btw? I'd've thought this would have been a more likely price for a float bowl gasket (and you even get the bowl with it!): http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-HONDA-NX50-Ca ... 1|294%3A50 Or even this: http://shop.wemoto.com/pictures.dyn?u=3520329qqq5828705 But obviously depends on the bike. Can't recommend any sealant as I've only ever used gaskets, sorry!

Bandit! I've got a GSX600F and it has a Bandit engine in and it's great. Very easy to maintain and look after. I agree about looking at the Blackbird. They look big (and are really!) but the weight is just right and nice and low down so it doesn't feel too massive. Can't go wrong with a VFR if you check the very few known faults. I think whichever you may go for it'll be a good bike...but for me it's the Bandit.

What a truly thrilling installment this is! I'm on tenterhooks waiting for the next exciting, yet informative episode...

Add me to the list, I'm in Redditch too! I agree about the weather being pants. On a brighter note (pun intended) it's good to see that 4 pages worth of people from in and around Birmingham are on the forum and that's after less than one day. When the weather brightens up I'm sure it'll be no drama getting a good few of us together, I know I'd be up for it whenever and whatever the weather! However I am one of those people that can't be bothered with organising it, so when a knight in shining visor comes along just put a post up and I, and no doubt many others will be there!