mealexme

I'm not familiar with these bikes, but I know it's always good to start with the basics. In general motorbikes may not spark if it's not in neutral when the kickstand is down. Expanding on what @Tiggie said, the clutch may also need pulling in. On the bike I have, the wires for the sensor are on the underside of the clutch and can be pulled out if knocked, which prevents the bike from starting. The other thing I've seen people do way too many times (including myself) is not realising the kill switch has been hit. If you're good with a multimeter, it may be worth checking this switch isn't defective too. I know on some bikes, there is a tip over sensor, which stops the bike when it's been dropped. These have been known to stick and prevent the bike from starting. Again, I have no idea if your bike is equipped with one, but if the bike was dropped recently, it could be worth looking into it.

I recently bought some new RST trousers, which use a 360 zip to zip to the jacket, except the zip sizes are different to my current jacket, so they won't connect. I'm overdue a new jacket anyway, but I don't like the looks of the RST ones. Are there any other brands which use the same zip size?

Sticking with gloves, I had a pair of gloves years ago with tiny plastic sliders on the palms. The reason being, your palms can grip on the tarmac when you come off and bend the arm into positions it shouldn't be in, but the sliders help you glide, and reduce risk of a broken arm. I thought it was a good idea when I bought them, but haven't really noticed them since I bought my previous pair all those years ago. The second thing, and something that I think should be on all gloves, is the bit of material connecting the little finger to the finger next to it, because your little finger is most likely to get caught and broken if you go down. Weirdly, when I was looking at new gloves the cheap pair priced at £20 had this feature, but none of the others did until you start looking at far more costly pairs.

I heard about this the other day, it's fairly local to me too. Sad really, that people put animals through pain and suffering just for a little profit

Wait. You have to look over your right shoulder when turning left? It's been a long time since I did my test! Good luck with your re-test. At least you know you're doing everything else right!

Have more sex, burn more calories. I'm roughly the same height and weight, but I've had the opposite in the last few months, my weight just went up out of nowhere. Maybe it was Christmas, or the very convenient pasty shop at work. Or maybe the regular takeaways, who knows. It's a mystery. There will be a million and one tips on the internet, but honestly, I have a lot of friends who have tried to lose weight and the only ones I know that have actually succeeded are the ones that join those weight watcher type of groups, where you go for weekly weigh ins and stick to a certain diet. I believe they give good advice and really help you lose the pounds. It's easier too if you have someone doing it with you, especially if it's someone you share meals with at home or at work. The only downside to that, is most people seem to put that weight back on once they leave those groups.

I wouldn't want to meet a train coming the other way in one of those tunnels!

Ah yes, the old 'too much ACF50' jobby. You aren't the first and won't be the last. Did you also get a lot of smoke from the engine the first time it warmed up? I'd try just standard washing up liquid and hot water myself. If you ever talk to anybody that wax's their car, they always tell you to stay away from washing up liquid because it removes wax's/oils etc that people put on to protect the paint. I'd assume it would work with ACF50 too,

Having never used spotlights, id presume a problem with spotlights is they don't have a high beam / low beam, which I'd need to use as headlights. Searching on Google for led chrome (or silver) dual headlights, the only things that come up are headlight bulbs, dual headlights with halogen bulbs or single headlight units rather than dual ones. Amd Amy that I can find seem to have bad reviews. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the MOT has been changed in the past few years to mean that putting an LED bulb in a headlight casing designed for halogen is now an MOT fail. But even so, I'd rather avoid this route as there is nothing worse than an oncoming driver with LED bulbs dazzling you because their in a housing not designed for them

Anything is possible if you can find the right person to work with to modify it. After a quick Google search, I found something else that may be helpful to you. I'm sure you've already done your own research anyway, but a website in America came up with this as a solution

Doesn't look like they do any LED

I currently have a set of headlights that came with the bike which look similar to the ones below. They really suit the bike, but the light output is dreadful and the halogen bulbs really make the bike look outdated. The lens is smashed and won't pass an MOT, so I need a whole new unit anyway. I've been looking at LED units, but I can't find many dual LED headlights in chrome and the ones that I can find either have bad reviews, no reviews, or don't come in chrome. Does anyone have any experience with any dual LED chrome headlights? Failing that, could anyone recommend me some brand names who do good LED lights, so I can have a browse of their catalogues? Thanks in advance

Oooh, drama. Unfortunately I can't help you with what paint to use, but luckily others with more experience have weighed in on that. I just wanted to put in my input. You mentioned originally about looking at Simoniz products. My personal experience is that you get the odd good product, but on the whole they're just cheap and poor quality and I've tended to stay away from them. Don't feel obligated to start a topic of the restoration, but it would be an interesting read and would probably help you out as you come along various issues along the way as well as helping other members out when they're doing their own restorations

Glad you found something. New bike day is always an exciting day!

A category C would put me off, but not because it's been repaired. My issue would be the re-sale hassle. The fact that you're asking on here, and the responses prove that a lot of people would be put off and I'd imagine when it inevitably becomes time to sell, it would be on the market a long time before someone comes along and tries to knock you down on the already low ball amount you've put it up for. If it's something you're going to own for a long time, or something that's already cheap that you won't loose too much money on, then I'd consider it

I just had a quote through from my insurer for next year, with a reasonable quote, but it was missing some modifications on the paperwork. According to their own website, there is a long list of modifications I don't need to tell them about, but my handlebars (which I told them about last year) and brake/clutch levers are not on that list. When I told them about my handlebars last year, it did not alter the price. So, to cover my own back I informed them of these modifications over their chat function, but the poor girl on the other end didn't really seem to know what she was doing and said it would be best to ring back the next working day. I just got off the phone with them today and I'm a bit bamboozled. They can't find brake levers on their computer systems (which is exactly what the girl on chat said the other day), which I thought was strange because I'd say is a fairly popular modification to have. Then they put the price up from £208 to £360 (which again, is exactly what they said on chat) Then when I said that's too much of a jump, especially when they have a list of over 30 modifications I don't even need to inform them of, he said (direct quote) "what if it went down to 280? or 260 or something like that" Do they literally just keep saying random numbers until you say yes? They were so easy to work with last year. This year, it looks like I'm putting the stock levers back on to save myself being ripped off for £150, or £70, or £50, or whatever number they make up next.

In that time, I got something bigger, something bigger again, got a second bike, sold them both, left the forum for a couple of years, then bought two more bikes, so you've been gone a while haha.

I have to agree with OP. One of them has 30 years for attempted murder with a firearm. From the very quick google search, the minimum time for actual murder is 15 years and firearm offences have a minimum of 5 years. As with anyone who has quick access to firearms like this, I'd imagine this wasn't there first offence, so they got more than the minimum sentences

I've got some waterproof, RST trousers with a removable liner and it's that warm that I've removed the liner and still get to work nice and toasty. I'd definitely get some thicker trousers over a tank protector

You beat me to it. It likely won't have insurance, it definitely won't have a valid MOT or tax. I wonder if you can get your employer to start charging him a storage fee, then when it reaches the value of the bike, email him again and offer to take it off his hands (agree it with your employer that you won't have to pay storage fees though) Every time someone replies to this thread I get excited that you'd got your hands on it

For me, I would if I could but the zips don't match. I'm due a new jacket though, so I'll purposely be buying one with a matching zip. It's better for the 364 days of rain we get and safer too, so it's kind of a no brainer for me

I've had the bike about 6 months. Its 20 years old and came to me with no rust and has loads now (mainly on the bolts admitadly). I do have a sea view though, and park right on the sea wall at work, so salt is always in the air. I dunno, I never had a problem with my old Honda or kawazaki, but this suzuki and my last suzuki both rusted pretty quickly when being left outside, so maybe it's a brand thing

I've never been to the carwash with the bike as I've heard they're not good for bikes with exposed electrics and it already has enough electrical gremlins. Also, it's an old bike with some flaking paint. And yes, I did mean I don't have a hose pipe I did think about just rinsing with a bucket of water (that's what I do with the car) but I want to get under the bike to clean it properly and I want to make sure everything is rinsed off before I put some (admitadly overdue) winter protection on her I'll probably get one of those hand pressure washers, cheers Stu

As per title really. I bought the bike months ago and I've been treating it with scotoiler FS 365 or whatever its called to prevent rust. It says to use on a clean or dirty bike as it nuetulises salt etc. It seems to wash off as soon as it rains though, so I want to give the bike a good wash and use a different rust preventing product. I've got some heavy duty cleaner, but no way of rinsing it off because I live in a flat with no running water. How does everyone without access to a hose rinse the bike off? I don't want to use the waterless wash stuff, because I really want to get into everywhere and remove road salt etc

Not my thing personally. Carbon fibre to replace items to make them stronger and lighter, yes. Carbon fibre to replace plastic, I just don't see the point. Personally I'd rather colour matched plastic. Having said that, good luck with the business. Have you thought about having a word with Stu and getting some adverts on the forum (if you haven't already)?