winston smith

As Fastbob said, live at a circuit is very different from tv/screen - and every circuit is different. Silverstone is probably the worst place to start out - spectators are a long way from the track, so much of the energy/atmosphere is lost. It's also mostly grandstand seating which costs extra, and is almost always cold n windy. GP is also not the best way to start out - over the ticket price, plus grandstand seating, food is extortionate and awful, merch is overpriced, queues to get in are bad, getting out is worse ( a few years back the support races were rained off after a wet go, I waited til 800pm and still queued for an hour to get out of the circuit) I would recommend going to a local-ish club meeting or a BSB event - there are loads from April onwards. You can get closer to the action, there are fewer people, it's far far cheaper, and you can wander through the paddock to meet the teams or watch them prepare/repair the bikes if you want - there's a more friendly, inclusive atmosphere at lower level racing. I can't comment on trackdays - it's never appealed to me, but I would do a day at the ron haslam race school if I had the spare cash.....maybe worth a look?

Sorry to hear about this. M C E are crooks......and that's a polite description. They offer slightly cheaper premiums by jacking up the excess, and they put really harsh Ts&C's in the small print. They use a fraud investigations company to trawl through anything you've told them - a date discrepancy on your CBT will likely result in a 10% reduction on the gross valuation of the claim, even though it makes absolutely no difference to the claim. They will also value your bike at the absolute minimum they can.....eg my bike had a real world market value around £3000-£3500, M C E valued it at £1600. So, going forward, my advice to you is cancel the insurance claim and let the last 2 months if the policy run out. Make sure you've reported the theft with police and keep records if that. SORN the bike otherwise the tax will automatically restart. It's a bitter pill, but long term could save you money. Best of luck

Crikey..... Short people sometimes go to extremes to have an adventure bike

How long is a piece of string - sometimes these things are really straight forward and if the insurers are a competent bunch it can be as little as a month, but generally 2-3 months seems to be the norm based on people I've known. M C E took about 14 months to settle when my bike was stolen-damaged-recovered......mostly cos they damaged the bike further, then lied, deceived, cheated and eventually ripped me off and I fought them all the way. My car got (deliberately) rammed by someone I vaguely knew in April 2016.......that claim was finally settled last week - the other side finally accepted liability when they got a court date from my side.

I used a firm called "my UK mail" a few years back - avoid them, they are shite.

The boundaries of the public road, in this context, would be where it joins private property - presumably the house/garden walls on either side of the street. That includes any footpath or verge area. So, regardless of any local bylaws about parking, you shouldn't park an untaxed/uninsured/unMOT'd vehicle on the public footpath. As above, try to find a friend/relative/neighbour with some free space to store it

I heard similar....gpz750 turbo - I wasn't aware there was such a thing. I reckon a 400r or 500 would be more suitable for Cruise's 24 inch inseam My brother has a gpz750r of that era. Sadly it's a project he doesn't have time for at the mo. Amazing looking bike for it's day

When I was a kid my dad had a yellow rd200. When that got nicked he replaced it with a white rd400. I used to beg him to take me to cubscout footy matches on the bikes. I was shite at footy, and didn't enjoy it, but the rides there n back were awesome ...... probably counts for nothing in this thread, but fab happy memories coming back now

I think I'm lagging behind some of you guys.... Yamaha dt125 ( early, air cooled) --16 year gap -- Kawasaki kmx125 (2002) Suzuki sv650s (2001) Suzuki sv650s (2005) Honda vfr800vtec (2002) Ducati 750ssie (2003) Honda vfr400 nc30 (1995) Kawasaki gpz400r (1987) Suzuki gsx750f (1992) BMW r1100s (1999) Yamaha TDM 850 (1998) Best bike - the vfr800 Worst bike - the 750 teapot The bike I wish I still had - the Ducati

Get yourself to a racetrack ( knockhill I presume is your nearest) during a meeting - club level, or bsb - the paddock is always accessible to the public. Have a wander, chat to the riders, mechanics, owners etc they're all a friendly bunch, they will guide you. Nobody will hand you a bike + gear and say go have a play, but they will give some advice on what to do, where to go, how much it'll cost etc etc

106 is ok for urban, stop-start etc. My vfr was the same. It's a pressurised system and will be ok up to about 120 degrees. If the fluid appears to be a 50/50 mix, based on colour or using an antifreeze tester, I would be tempted to remove some fluid to get the level correct then use the bike as normal while keeping an eye on temps and checking for leakage/usage.......then change the coolant as part of normal servicing when it's a bit warmer out

I'm no expert in these things, but I imagine a Chinese or other pattern part may not match up with existing panels or the bolt holes may not line up. And its unlikely to be as good a quality ( thickness, rigidity, finish etc) as genuine Honda. So you could end up replacing all of the fairing panels just to make it fit and match.....more than £267 total. What's wrong with your fairing? If it's got minor damage you may be able to get it repaired.....plastic welded, filled, painted ???

There's a lot of horseshit in this thread. Firstly, that 2 minute (bad)explanation in the linked video is a rip off from The Workshop - look him up on YouTube, he did a series of 3 or 4 videos explaining torque and bhp. Secondly, torque (as quoted by manufacturers, racers, journalists, etc) is a construct for advertising purposes. It's not a real thing. Torque is a turning force at a given distance from a rotation centre or fulcrum. Singles and twins generally have a longer stroke and a bigger "bang" per piston than a four of similar displacement, so the torque will be higher. Thirdly, BHP (as quoted by etc etc) is a construct for advertising purposes, using a calculation from torque & revs. And the more revs an engine can do, the more BHP can be created. Fours can generally rev faster than twins because they have shorter, wider (oversquare) stroke. So basically, a "torquey" engine gives it's best performance at low to medium engine speeds and a high BHP or revvy engine gives it's best performance at high engine speeds. And in the real world that's all you need to know - peak torque and Max BHP numbers are largely irrelevant unless you are a bike racer, bike maker/seller or a twelve year old fan-boy I recommend going to Matt's channel: The Workshop, and search for the Torque series - the guy is an engineer who understands how engines work, and explains it all really well. Be warned, he smokes and swears on camera - some people are offended by that

@ Fastbob. I should add, ethylene glycol is still available here, although almost all generic antifreeze is propylene glycol. EG has bittering agents added to make it less attractive to mammals in UK (probably in all EU countries) and I think there may be higher duties or other restrictions on EG to force manufacturers to use PG instead. For example, the overpriced Evans crap is 95% PG and 5% EG. Outside Europe ethylene glycol is much cheaper than propylene glycol, so it's possible some dodgy independent suppliers could be selling black imports of EG antifreeze. (And that might explain people dieing after using unofficial vape juices)

Almost all modern antifreeze in the UK and Europe is propylene glycol, which while is unlikely to kill if ingested. Older stuff, and US antifreeze, is ethylene glycol, which is poisonous to all mammals. Fastbob is right to remind us not to leave the stuff around for anyone/anything to drink - it may not kill, but may make a person/animal very ill. As an aside, I recently had a conversation with a guy that had vape shop/distribution/import business. He told me that the "oil" in vape juice is Propylene Glycol.....he had no idea that it was antifreeze. On the original question, I wonder if the dealer did a coolant change but didn't bleed the system properly. Now after a few miles the bike has bled all the air out giving you a low level ?

https://www.yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/products/motorcycles/urban-mobility/ys125/ Thanks I'm not familiar with that....is it a restyled, rebadged ybr? Is it just me, or are 4T 125's getting slower n slower? I keep seeing posts all over with complaints that they struggle to make or keep nsl. I know 2T is frowned upon for being dirty and polluting, but at least they had enough ooomph to get learner's out of a tricky situation (sorry, off topic)

What bike do you have? .....Not all 125's are the same - although they all suffer the effects you describe to some degree. I had a kmx125 about 17 years ago, crosswinds would sometimes pick the front wheel up and move the whole bike a metre or so sideways, which scared the b'jesus out of me. I found that in strong crosswinds shifting my weight (arse) to the windward side helped with stability. Most car drivers don't understand how much bikes are wind affected - sometimes moving about within your lane helps them take the hint, or can dissuade impatient years from doing close/same lane overtakes. Be safe out there - it's about getting there, not getting there 2 minutes quicker, so back off the gas if that feels safer.

Vehicle insurance generally goes up year on year, because too many idiots are not competent to drive, too many morons drive as if they really do own the road and everything on it, too many people claim for stuff they shouldn't (fake injuries, hire cars, stolen property etc etc), too many insurers use " approved repairers" who ramp up the costs of even simple repairs, too many insurance providers are just plain greedy There are plenty more reasons, feel free to add to the list

Since it's your bike and your money only you can choose whether to sell it, restore it, or modify it. If it was mine I would try to keep it as original as possible, while replacing or restoring anything that's looking tired. I wouldn't recommend going down the streetfighter of cafe routes as crashed bikes often go that way - puts me off buying one. Whatever you decide, good luck with it. Might be worth keeping a diary/photo record of everything you do, for a future owner, and I'm sure the guys here would be interested in seeing the project as it progresses I have a very tatty TDM same age as yours which I'll try to restore over the next year

For average sold prices, ebay is a good place to look because you can toggle the filters to only show listings that have sold. It's great if your trying to sell a bike, because the weather can have an impact on the buying demand (less people buy in the winter), which can be reflected in the price. Same goes for soft top cars etc, whereas parker's and other guides just give an average price Great tip. I'd forgotten the Sold/Ended option

Your bike, so your choice. But if it was me, I'd put up with a less "pretty" bike tail (which I'd never see while riding) if it prevented ear-ache from a soggy-arsed passenger.

I'm curious that it appears your first thought would be changing the discs - unless they were worn out, damaged or warped, they would be the last thing I would change. Always best to start with the simple/cheap stuff - like pads, fluid and bleeding, and cleaning/returning the calipers.

I agree with everything Gerontious wrote - spot on sir! Last year m c e valued my (real world £3000) bike at £1500, less excess, and sold it on as a cat s for around £1300 - bunch of crooks, made a killing out of my misfortune. Glass's guide and the CAP Black Book are still out there but only available to the trade, and I think there was a minimum subscription - 6 or 12 months I'm not sure.

Rich, as per previous comments, a union rep is a great place to start. Broadly speaking, domestic rules don't really apply in the UK transport industry any more, and any company that runs hgv/lgv will run under EU rules by default. All commercial drivers are bound by the working time directive. You can Google this, it's fairly straightforward in isolation (gets more complicated if you have tacho too tho). The EU have been pushing for van drivers to be required to complete driver certificate of competency courses for a while now (hgv,lgv,bus drivers have had this for 10 years) but UK blocked it - taxi drivers in northern Ireland now have to do driver CPC training, so it's probably coming soon. Incidentally, I did some work for Hermes about 20-25 years ago ( called something else back then) they were crap even then, managers seemed to think there were 36 hours in each day, nowhere was more than 5 minutes from anywhere else, and the volume/payload of a transit was the same as an artic. Hope you find a good solution

and don't forget to replace the steering lock as that could invalidate any future theft claim.