SometimesSansEngine

Yup and as you switch bikes you can definitely get a rude awakening as what you got away with before suddenly doesn't work in the moment.....

That's nothing, near here we have The Road To Nowhere https://www.southglos.gov.uk/documents/Road-to-Nowhere-Website-Document.pdf https://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/18068497.car-chases-set-filmed-crews-take-yates-road-nowhere/

Sorry to hear that [mention]GiorgioG[/mention]. It does happen... it's how I failed my second driving test (true story, I failed my first because the examiner deemed that doing 50mph in a rural NSL on torrential rain was too slow, but I finally got it correct in the third ) It sounds like you've already taken it on the chin and it seems like the rest of the ride was fine, so just be safe in the knowledge that you'll get there.

A day late, but I'm nominating my insurance company. 5th August, agree to buy a new bike. Will be ready the following week 8th August, sell my bike and new owner rides it away 10th August, need to get the ball rolling to switch the vehicles on my cover around. Know currently they prefer you to submit online rather than call. Login to my online portal and see a letter generated that day about my cover. Read it and it says: We’ve found that [bike] is showing as being insured with us twice. This means that someone else has insured since you took out your policy. We’re very sorry about this. If you want to keep your policy, please get in touch by webchat as soon as possible. If we don’t hear from you by 17/08/2020 we’re sorry but we’ll have to cancel your policy from 24/04/2020, which is the date the other policy started, as we can’t have two policies running on the same bike at the same time. I assume that the new owner of my bike has the same insurer. No bother, I go onto web chat, say I've received the letter but I'm changing the bike anyway. Operator says they've noted that the insurance shouldn't be cancelled and sorts out the bike change. Fast forward to yesterday, post arrives with a letter dated the 17th August confirming that my insurance will be cancelled on the 24th. Back onto webchat. I assume the letter has just been generated in error but figure it's worth sorting out and I'm asked a load of questions. And to double check the bike on my policy. Which is of course my new bike. I'm thanked and told that my bike is insured with them twice but they will note that this cover shouldn't be cancelled. Er... can I just check that the letter I received last week was for my old bike, and this is for my new bike. Just you said you'd noted I didn't want the cover cancelled but you've still sent me this letter. And I don't get why you're asking me about this bike. No, she says. The letter on the 10th relates to this bike, she can see that in the notes. Er.......... Simply put..... you're telling me that you knew I was going to insure a bike with you that I hadn't actually fully purchased yet and hadn't told you about yet? That doesn't make sense and you're starting to worry me now. "I am not sure of this I'm afraid as we have a technical team that look behind the scenes, so it must of showed up on a report." is the reply. Er.... Can somebody phone me please, as I'm not accepting that a technical team knew I was buying a bike before I told you about it. Nope, that's not possible (of course it is!) but rest assured the policy won't be cancelled. So I simply ask for confirmation in writing, so if they do feck up and cancel it they can't just point to the letters they sent me and say "well we did warn you". Don't get me wrong, I think it's as simple as the whole thing relates to my last bike, but the fact she was so adamant that it was about my new bike does make me worry that I have a whole new ballache to deal with next week.

I believe [mention]Marino[/mention] is right. I wasn't around when the Japanese got into this game but what I can see - including the attitudes towards them - is history repeating. One day the history books will say the incumbent manufacturers were slow to spot the danger and react. You can dismiss some of what has been produced to date, but ignore it at your peril.

Remove it from your mind, ditch them and get another bike school. A decent school wouldn't attempt to shoehorn you into a twist and go. A decent instructor would have laughed off your first mistake, but kept an eye on your progress and suggest you come back for more training if you needed more tuition. A CBT can be quite an intense day as there's a lot to learn if it's your first time (I know, I did it a couple of years ago) but with the right instructor you'll be fine. Clearly being a traffic cop doesn't make you a good teacher. For what it's worth, I'm still in touch with the bike school and all the instructors I learnt with through to my full licence. A great bunch. That's what a good bike school is all about. This isn't me in this vid, and it's mod 1 practice but not CBT, but reading your experience made me think of this video I watched when I was learning so I sought it out again. If your instructor isn't like this chap in this vid, change bike school

Watched episode one last night. Liked the guy's style. Both getting involved but also raising his eyebrows a few times. Like an overseas version of Louis Theroux. Thanks for the tip.

Here's two to get you going I'm not hugely mechanically minded (and I would have been the same as you over two years ago) but feel confident enough now to at least look at a bike and make an initial judgement. I also look for things like corrosion on bolts, corrosion on the frame (have a look under the seat, it can hide all manner of horrors) as an idea of how the bike has been stored and cared for, and if the wiring has been hacked at. I'm definitely not clever enough to spot all things but I'm sure this will save you grief on more hidden things that the likes of you and I don't understand. And make sure when you view the bike it's stone cold, and get them to start it up.

I watch his videos occasionally even though he annoys me, purely because annoyingly he may have a bike or a product I've been interested in. Not a subscriber or regular watcher. And I've seen him do this a few times. Including one bike review where he had just picked the bike up and proceeded to do a multi-vehicle overtake and speeds approaching 90mph. Didn't seem overly clever to me.

Would you consider a sightly older second hand bike if you got some tips on what to look for? You'll save in two ways, on the bike cost and insurance. A few years older will still be decent.

I'm going to assume that you are also going to propose a second bit of legislation to do with speed limits - anyone going slower than you is a dawdling fool lacking confidence so needs their licence revoked, and anyone going faster than you is a reckless nutter with a death wish who needs their licence revoked...?

Well done [mention]BellaR[/mention], I was thinking about this earlier but didn't want to ask in case it was bad news

And they'll always look massive on the test, but remember that's just visual, if he has done it in practice you can do it on the test pad Good luck for him

Lea Valley Road also a good ready reckoner on reading the speed limit from the road. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6465297,-0.0365111,3a,75y,136.86h,97.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sK_f_gMynei_bmnVJQvYGVg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en This is a wide road with a central reservation, it could be easy to mistake this as a 40mph road. BUT street lights and no repeaters. It's a 30! It's not until the end of this road that you hit a 40 https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6450624,-0.0331202,3a,75y,125.43h,97.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbnSJ7Yw9xvBjrKWUL-DTZA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en If you go straight ahead here you start to get repeaters for the 40mph limit, despite the street lights https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6433587,-0.0305005,3a,75y,132.96h,80.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqgte8JSrBrsCpqa805wV6A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en Hopefully not overwhelming you here, I've never driven through Enfield in my life to my knowledge, just hoping to show you what you can glean if you suddenly find yourself not sure Going under for a short while until you see a repeater once in the mod2 is unlikely to be terminal.... but speeding is (direct experience, second car driving test....) Of course if you consistently do it they might start to question your adherence to signs, but once shouldn't see you failed if you sort it at the first repeater that you see.

If in any doubt, STOP. You won't fail for one bit of 'hesitation' if it wasn't actually a stop line, but you will if you roll through a stop line! (And you'll only fail for 'hesitation' if you do it consistently at most junctions and roundabouts you come to when you could have kept going). I had a quick look on GSV at that location though, it's worthwhile mentioning that is a good example of the difference between a 20mph limit and a 20mph zone. A 20mph limit will have repeater signs because it'll look quite a lot like a 30mph road A 20mph zone (note it says that on the entry from the A110) will have traffic calming measures Read this for a bit more info and to put your mind at rest a bit https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/drivers/20-mph-zone-factsheet.pdf

As [mention]goat[/mention] says, get a quote without too - when I bought my most recent bike (which has a manufacturer fitted alarm) I was advised not to declare it, because it won't make a massive difference to the price and if they have any hunch I didn't set the alarm it would just cause me unnecessary aggro when dealing with the claim. I did a quote with and without and I think it was about a tenners difference, so I didn't bother declaring. I've also heard the same about saying you keep it in a garage overnight, if you ever do leave it on the drive one night you may end up with a headache...

Try to make it a 'thing' to look for speed limit changes as you approach junctions you're turning into and across the roundabout when scanning for your exit. When you're concentrating on lots of difference things they're easy to miss. Remember street lamps and no repeaters: 30mph limit 20, 40, 50 and NSL will have repeaters if there are street lights around. If there's a lot of traffic calming measures you may also be in a 20mph zone, but usually you won't be able to go that fast in these areas anyway.

We have a couple of the V6s and never had any issues with them. For the price very happy. Only real issue is the buttons are small, but that was never a huge issue for us as once paired we didn't need the buttons (they're mainly if you have more than two units paired and allow you to switch between units as they can only connect to one other unit at a time. We have changed now but only because if me and my wife got out with the kids we wanted four way intercom. I've been meaning to sell our excess ones - let me know if you want them and save a bit of money vs new! As I was posting I see Husoi wasn't a fan, I can't say I ever had these issues and most reviews online will back this up. Never had an issue with battery life either.

Rode it home... It rained, A LOT, and the traffic was terrible, but she's home I kinda wish the guy handing it over didn't mention that it had a new tyre and to take it steady as I probably would have been a bit looser

I was going to say that winter would be worse than a bit of summer rain, then read this! https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/summer-gritters-heatwave-road-melt-4417432

I loved the Corbin on my last bike, managed to snap it up in eBay for next to nothing in relative terms (just over £100). I was more than ready to take it off and sell it separately if someone started hard balling on the price

Sounds like it'll be worthwhile to get some ACF50 or XCF? Slap that in a few times a year

...and if you start hallucinating and see elephants driving cars and stuff, pull over and have a break.

Picking it up

How long has it ran for? Can you see any drips of oil on the exhaust? (Just had a look online and it looks like you've got a fair shout of avoiding the exhaust unlike on my wife's old Honda, but you never know!)