learningtofly

I'm definitely going for Pilot Road 4's on my Street Triple as soon as I'm needing a tyre change.

No need to ask, the evidence is here https://www.themotorbikeforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=68238 Ouch

I went pretty much straight onto a Triple (don't ask!), and I'd say it's an absolutely perfect first bike. Light, manoeuvrable, and quick when you want it to be whilst being very stable and easy to handle at slow speeds. It's a wonderful bike.

Very sensible advice!

Okey, the next thrilling episode is now available

If you have zero NCB that's probably not too bad at all. The cheapest quote on my Street Triple was double that!

... and what's [mention]baz[/mention] 's relationship with Viper?!

This could have all been averted with a cup of tea and a nice nice biscuit.......... If you mean a nice Nice biscuit, I haven't had one of those for years!

Late to the party on this one, but sorry you've hurt yourself, and good luck regarding the nail re-growth. Another example of why riding defensively is so important.

I use one of these Abus locks on the front wheel - each part of it spins independently of the others, so it would be almost impossible to cut through. On the back, I use a padlock type disc lock but I secure it to the sprocket so that it’s hard to get to. I carry both locks under my seat and tend to use them any time I park up. Not a guarantee, but it would certainly be enough of a pain that I’d expect any scrotes to look for easier pickings.

Don't leave, Mike! The interweb can be a strange environment, and meanings/intent are easily misunderstood. All water under the bridge, anyway (so stop being a snowflake )

I'd be very interested to know where your threshold is on this. By the following use of snowflake I would assume you mean "Millennials". Yeah but you think 27 is middle aged I’m more than twice your age, and I’m definitely still a yoof.

OH WE MIGHT, MIGHT WE? Yeah alright seems a good idea! Ah. Thought I was going mad for a minute

I’ll be shooting some YouTube footage for my remaining subscribers.

Thanks everyone. We did discuss the options in respect of ride management, but we (and I) wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Everyone will have the route on their chosen devices so cornermen, etc aren’t going to be necessary. There are ample windows for hooking up/rejoining along the route so it shouldn’t be an issue at all.

Confirmation on the GOV.UK website!

Thinking about it, I'd be dead worried about giving out my post code if selling a motorbike. Not sure what real alternatives there are, mind, but it's a great was to enable thieving scrotes to target your steed.

Last summer I bought my son a scooter for his 21st birthday. He'd just passed his CBT, needed something to ride to work and back on, and absolutely loved being mobile. It pretty much changed his life, in fact. Fast forward to December, and the bike was stolen by some local scrotes. They seemingly rode it for a day or so and then proceeded to smash it up before dumping it. When it was found (dumped locally), most of the panels/fairings were destroyed and the ignition barrel had been torn out. All in all, it was in a sorry state, and given that it was only worth about £650 - and his insurance excess was £850 - I suggested to Sam that he see what he could get for it as a non-runner. Well, he then really surprised me by refusing to give up on it; he sourced some panels and a new ignition barrel, and with his mate's help slowly rebuilt it piece by piece. It's now a week or two from being a runner again... just needs to be popped into an auto-electrician and then needs it's first MOT (which hopefully will be a formality). Anyway, yesterday he received a letter from the DVLA, stating that the Motor Insurance Database showed the bike was uninsured on 13th March (a pretty random date!), and that he was being fined £100. The only way in which he could dispute the fine was by having proof of insurance on that date; a valid SORN from prior to the date; evidence that he hadn't been the keeper; or evidence that it had been stolen. Well, of course it had been stolen, but given that the police have a record of its recovery that one's a non-starter. I feel a bit guilty, as when I advised Sam that he may as well terminate his insurance (we knew it wouldn't be on the road for months) it didn't occur to me that - even though the bike has been garaged since and has been a non-runner anyway - he still needed at least third party cover to avoid falling foul of section 144 of the Road Traffic Act (which requires all vehicles to be insured unless the DVLA have been formally advised that they're off the road). Had I realised that I'd have told him to SORN it straight away, and there's no way he'd have understood about that himself having never owned a vehicle before. In any event, I'll be paying his fine and making sure that he now does the necessary. I'm obviously a bit miffed about it, but thought that it was a lesson that might benefit others who weren't aware of this requirement (remember, the bike has been in a garage, and unrideable, since its recovery).

Thanks all. The smallest bike will be 600cc, and we won't be racing on dual carriageways... it's just going to be a bimble through the Chilterns, ending up at H's but with a couple more stops along the way. Everyone has the route already, either on Google Maps or one of the GPS formats.

Haha - thanks. 4 and 5 are noted but already taken care of (I've spent a lot of time on the organisation). In fact, a couple of riders are hooking up with us en route.

Wise words.

Next weekend I'll be going on a ride out that I organised on another (non-bike related) forum. There'll be about 20 of us, ranging in experience from relatively new to advanced/biker veterans. Many of us won't have ridden as a group before. If you were going to pick out (say) the three most important things in terms of safety to touch upon before we set off, what would they be?

This is true with most things. There's a mini roundabout on my commute I used to dread as I could barely get round it. Now I wonder how on earth I managed to get that wide on it! I was talking about this earlier, actually (how the things I dreaded on my Mod 1 are almost second nature a couple of thousand miles later). Anyway, whilst Mike's comments were unnecessarily harsh ( ) I don't dispute that I have a long way to go. However, given that I'll be recording anyway (just in case of incidents) I may as well just keep going with it

Appreciated. A bit like Gary Lineker on MOTD

Watching The Leather Boys now - got a huge smile on my face