SometimesSansEngine

The previous owner fitted an MRA adjustable screen to mine, so effectively it can be medium sized or large. Works well, and was reminded of how well it works when I rode [mention]Magpie84[/mention]'s Hornet the other weekend which doesn't currently have a screen. Not sure if they have anything for you though. https://www.bikehps.com/acatalog/MRA_Adjustable_Touring_Screens.html

The chap we bought my wife's Hornet from had been contacted by the local Superbike Factory within hours of his bike going on Autotrader. They said they'd offer him the list price but would arrange an appointment for an assessor to come and check the bike first. I can't help but think that that assessor would be like the webuyanycar people who turn up and then argue there's loads of reasons they can't now give you the full offer they'd made.

And my point still stands, as demonstrated by the stories people tell of brown trouser moments. But this is circular now and about semantics & how what you think is a clear statement can be misconstrued and misunderstood by others, so I'll leave it there.

Indeed, but words that can be taken in different ways by different people, depending on their personality. I've been out of my comfort zone frequently since end of March last year, since I've gone from CBT to 125 to A licence to advanced training. But always focused on getting home safely. To other people, the concept of "getting out of their concept zone" may be attempting to get their knee down on a B road corner.....

Yes, but there's out of your comfort zone and then there's beyond your abilities. I will always, always prefer to ride to 80% of my capabilities on the road. That doesn't mean you can't improve and you don't have to be shit scared to be improving. A brown trouser moment only means that something went a bit wrong.

If you're not 100% sure [mention]winston smith[/mention], most groups do taster sessions. My local group also offered a discount if you joined after doing a taster ride. Go and see if it's for you. I'll admit that listening to some advanced riders speak I don't think I'll ever fully ingratiate myself into their world. I think it's healthy to maintain a level of skepticism of your own abilities and some that I've met seem to have a... well... inflated opinion of how good they must be as they've got an advanced qualification. And some do seem to get stuck on an "overtake everything" mindset. Not all by any stretch. But just saying that I think you can take or leave the bits that work for you (as [mention]exportmanuk[/mention] says, he doesn't really do the large group rides, others seem to love doing them). For me my observer has helped me confirm my initial attitude that I was generally a safe and perceptive rider who could read road situations and predict what may happen next, but given me some additional pointers along the way to improve it even more (the benefit of someone watching you from afar and giving you some feedback), but then also helped me with technique in corners and overtaking safely (I'm still more hesitant than most, but when I commit it's because I'm very happy to do so, and I'm happy to keep it that way).

One issue with all this [mention]Wakey638[/mention] is that it's a very hard to build up time doing it. After your test when you can ride your bike wherever you'll get lots of practice in. It's a bit different compared to learning to drive where you can go out accompanied by a licence holder as long as they passed their test over three years ago to do some more practice. So just keep doing what you're doing and know it'll come in good time

Bits of this may help too ">

Yes, the guy I bought my ER6F from asked me to call if there were any issues. Checked in after a few months to ensure all was well (and I got the distinct impression he would have bought the bike back if I wasn't getting on with it, I think he missed it). I haven't got a huge amount of experience (both riding and mechanical) but if you're buying a relatively new bike I think you can at least visually relatively quickly tell what looks a bit iffy and you get a lot of vibes from the seller too.

It's amazing how cheap people will go on a bike. I get two very bad questions, both of which I now give very blunt answers to and wince as soon as they're asked of me: 1) I've seen this bike for £100, will it be any good? 2) I want to buy a bike, what should my budget be? For one, the answer is always no. They'll of course say "But I'm not sure if I'm going to get into it yet/I only want to use it at the weekend to go down the towpath and if I enjoy it I'll spend some more later" etc. But they're going to get some heavy crap that will never shift gear properly, simply put they'll never want to ride it. I always ask them to mentally tot up all the bits on a bicycle they can think of and try to attribute some form of monetary value on each of them... then try and think how vastly different it is to that £100 figure Two is always dangerous because no matter what figure I'll give, I'll get a response like "oh wow, is that for both me and my partner?" (because they inevitably want to get one each, and seemed to think they could spend £150) There's a really good charity here that gets homeless people to refurbish donated bikes under the tutelage of qualified bike mechanics, the idea being they learn some skills that can help them find employment. I always try to send people there. They won't be far off their budget and get a serviced and very workable bike that someone with an actual bit of knowledge would have helped them choose. But I can almost certain guarantee they'll still buy the piece of crap they first asked me about, because it's a "new bike". If they do really really want new I try and at least up their budget to a basic Carrera from Halfords, which should usually be serviceable. Shame they are usually looking at a bike from Asda or Sports Direct. (Extra hilarity points when they then need to build bits of it when it arrives).

Good luck [mention]fastbob[/mention], those components are probably made from cheese and will never work perfectly.

To a degree [mention]Six30[/mention] yes, but I'd also argue that many youtube uploads show how lacking this is in many.... I think there's some good stuff about positioning to be seen which maybe many riders don't pick up. I already did chunks of it because of my cycling life, I imagine many people who have come from car driving have never had to consider that as their car takes up the full width of a lane.

Thanks [mention]exportmanuk[/mention]. I know what other riders do can easily look crazy to you, any maybe those other riders were more skilled, but I felt there was a few occasions that a rider went into a bend at a speed I'd class as faster than ideal. I mean, obviously they made the corner, but if we start factoring in what could be lurking around the bend then for me I'd rather do the 10mph slower and then re-accelerate. It could be their skills are better than mine, who knows, or maybe it's just that they have done 200 corners like that now at that speed and all has been well, but my more pessimistic brain sits at 'what if?'. Not coming a cropper to me isn't necessarily 100% proof that you did everything well. And that's where I'd rather be and to stay - I don't fancy being first on scene to my own incident If people ever tell me that that's not advanced riding then we'll have to agree to disagree - I did overhear one guy say "if you're not doing the speed limit it's not advanced riding" and safe to say to me it proves it takes all sorts.... I'm doing this to be a better, safer rider and not to pretend I'm on a blue light run. Hence why I was happy to ride my ride and sit at my pace. We had more than ten riders out but the drop off system worked well so wasn't worried about 'losing contact'. I will admit to one corner I came in a bit too ragged and didn't take it as well as I should (and then started to do all the things you should, such as braking, nearly coming off the throttle etc), I just mentally rebooted and reminded myself that I was riding for myself ready for the next corner.

Here you go ">

Just remember that you have less grunt on your 125. So what you need first for on that you will probably get away with 2nd on a big bike. Having said that, any hazard where there is a chance I may need to stop I'll mostly slip down into first. It's the old adage, preparing to stop, looking for opportunities to go. It'll stop that last minute panic when you realise you need to stop and then a potential bike drop. It is hard put you may find weighting your opposite peg to help lift your upper body helps, this will prevent you closing the throttle inadvertently and will also turn your chest in the direction your turning. Hard to explain, but don't panic about lifting the revs as you'll be controlling the speed with a combination of the clutch and rear brake. You can rev it to 7k revs, it'll sound horrible but with the right clutch control you'd still do the same speed (don't recommend this, obviously! ) You will go wider with more speed, but there is a definite better feeling of balance at a slightly higher speed, use the rear brake as necessary to tighten the turn. Have you seen the Roadcraft Nottingham vid where he has a trainee on the test pad?

I think the use of https doesn't help

'tis the frame that' [mention]Westbeef[/mention] attempted to use, try the direct link instead https://gfycat.com/greedylastingheterodontosaurus-oddlysatisfyingvideo-interestingasfuck Edited as the forum keeps trying to load the video, copy and paste the text above into your browser (works on Chrome, IE may be wobbly)

I realised today I hadn't updated this thread for quite a while. So where am I with all this? Well, I've been out a couple of times but today was my first outing since the end of November. Once winter kicked in I gave it a little break, I had planned to pick it up a touch earlier in the year but as my wife is working most Saturdays getting out on a Sunday relied on both mine and my observer's diaries syncing up, and we couldn't go out in the evenings due to the light levels. Main things I've had to work on has been that old nugget 'progress'. A combination of coming into motorbiking in my mid-thirties and only having passed my test in August meant that I've had to gain an understanding of planning my overtakes and completing it. It hasn't been that I've needed to calm myself down, actually that I kept finding reasons not to go... in itself not a bad thing I guess, but also gaining an understanding of the acceleration capabilities of my bike. Getting there now though. Today we went out and it was a group ride. A first for me and a touch of trepidation this morning. My observer and I met up and rode an hour to the meet up point, then we had an hour and a half ride to the lunch stop with the group. We then mutually decided to come straight back ourselves to make sure we weren't back too late, which included some motorway miles (crikey those are dull, eh?) Things I learnt today: crikey some of those riders can crack on. I was happy to focus on riding my own ride and not get myself into any situations faster than I wanted to, there were a lot of twisty quite narrow roads at NSL and they were going a clear 10mph faster than me around them. I think the main thing I need to concentrate on is rolling on the throttle just a little more to settle the bike around the bend and feel more assured in the handling. But otherwise I was really happy with how I rode on what ended up being around four hours of riding in total. My observer is now happy to put me forward for my test, he's just told me to focus on a quick right shoulder check as I approach an upward speed limit change, which supposedly assessors are big on at the moment, and left shoulder checks on roundabouts which he says I used to do but appear to have now stopped (but I do check to my right...) I also need to work on explaining situations I was in using 'IPSGA' if asked, but he was happy both with the overtakes I did today and the ones I decided against doing. So a check ride with another observer just to make sure there's nothing he's missed and then my assessment!

I'd say Monimoto would be a better bet, especially once you factor in the reduced faff of charging & the fact your own mobile would be much more of a passive system. https://www.amazon.co.uk/MoniMoto-Motorcycle-Suitable-Scooters-Snowmobiles/dp/B072HV5SLQ

Wiring got inspected recently, rented property and landlady is a really good one for a change so all that, gas, heating etc... Checked yearly, think answer is just bad luck. So after spending over £500 for a new one today opted for £7 a month insurance, now I'm paying that I guarantee it will never die until I cancel it. (Just my opinion) cancel it. That's £84 a year, and if it dies in the first couple of years you would have a pretty reasonable case using the consumer rights act to get it sorted. I'd say it's worth a punt. Failing that have a look here https://www.money.co.uk/appliance-insurance.htm

It's called Bikeability now https://bikeability.org.uk

I'm not overly bothered just choose one and leave it is my preference. A week on I'm still a bit messed up by the time change.

Yes after every day of bike training I was crackered and just lay on the sofa not doing a lot

As soon as I saw your name pop up I wondered how you were getting on. Great news Get that new bike and give yourself some time to get used to it. It's a wonderful feeling though, isn't it?

No, no harm in jumping in. Don't give up if you don't pass first time. Enjoy and try to be relaxed on the bike (Excuse brevity but on my phone!)