mealexme

Could it be possible to polish it out? And by polish I mean the abrasive stuff that removes scratches to remove the clouded layer of lacquer?

Only if your a motorcycle thief

Random question, but is filtering in a cycle lane legal? I've always thought its not and have never used them to my advantage. Not that I've ever had the chance, but thinking about it; Presuming traffic is at a stand still Presuming the cycle lane is on the road and not a footpath Presuming the cycle lane has broken white lines and NOT solid ones Then surely this means you can enter it and therefor overtake in it?

I passed my bike test years before the car. The bike test is still a full licence, so you get a pink card. Even though I have a full car licence now too, I have no interest in actually buying a car any time soon either, nor being put on anyone's insurance to drive theirs

This isn't a hard and fast rule. e.g you can't do it in London or the town that I live in, but you can in Plymouth. It depends on the council I believe - noting that double yellow lines carry across to the pavement. Anyway, enough of legalities, they bore me. Personally I do it anyway, depending on the layout. If you can park and two mothers with prams can still pass each other in the gap you've left, people with their trollies arent going to knock into the bike etc then it should be fine the thing is, most supermarkets have car parks, so any pavements just outside the doors are owned by the supermarket themselves, and they can't ticket you for parking there and probably won't bother asking you to move (unless your causing an obstruction or customers complain)

Overall I agree that the CBT needs an overhaul. When ever I see someone on L-plates, I know its likely they are going to be unpredictable and I think one days worth of training isn't enough to be able to go out on the roads by yourself. The CBT should teach you more road experience than it does, and having a quick skim through at 4am with heavy eyelids, it seems as though they are looking into doing this. A) having a 2 day session and B) giving more emphasis on the independent riding, which will hopefully up the standards of those new to the biking world p.s no offence to anybody who has just passed their test However, personally I think you should be able to go from a twist and go scooter to a geared bike without having to do another training session and forking out even more money. I'm getting fed up of this progressive access bull. They are just creating even more hoops for young riders to jump through, and yet you can learn to drive in a tiny classic mini, then jump in a wide and very powerful bugatti veyron the day after you pass your test...

I believe the bike you have, the bandit 600 is cable - changing to electronic on the updated 650 in 2005, but don't quote me on that. I also believe there is no way of adjusting the cable, it may have to be replaced. However if it turns out to be electronic, you can get a speedo healer. The fact that the speedo is so far out is ringing alarm bells in my head that says it may not be the cable thats the issue. Speedos are usually set to show around 10% over your actual speed, so when it says your doing 40mph, you should in fact actually be doing 36mph. I tested this on my old bandit 600s and this was true at an indicated 100mph, my actual speed (verified with GPS over a good few miles) was 90 Which brings me on to the next point. How do you know that your actual speed was 50mph? I guess the first thing I would be checking is that each end of the cable is actually screwed in tightly. If its not, it could well be slipping. Also check for kinks in the cable, although if that was the issue I would expect the speedo to jump every now and again

he didn't put diesel in did he?

Those who know me, know how much I value my bike. I will make every effort to park it in places it wont be scratched, I'll try not to park it on gravel or anywhere I'm likely to drop it etc etc, which is why I was so effed off when one of the fairing bolts popped out a while back, but it was seized into one of the fairings (its hard to explain, but basically the fairing is not being held together by that bolt anymore, but the bolt needs to be drilled out to be replaced). Unfortunately I didn't have time to drill it the other day before setting out for a bit of camping. Quite a few miles later, plus some slightly inappropriate speeds resulted in this happening... The fairing has literally started to rip itself to pieces. So now I need a new fairing, but new oem are stupidly expensive and I cant find any second hand on ebay within the uk of the correct colour, so my next option is Chinese... Ok, so Chinese fairings have a bad reputation, much like Chinese bikes, but there have to some decent aftermarket ones out there that can be picked up cheaply? Or can anyone recommend me somewhere to pick up 2nd hand that isn't ebay?

Happy birthday!

Haha, well that escalated quickly The thing about bikes is they are easy to steal. You just have to search youtube and you will see them being nicked within as little as 20 seconds, so the bulkier the security, the better. The best way to keep it secure is to physically attach it to something immovable. Whereas a disk lock with alarm is a good idea, they can be silenced and the bike can still be easily nicked. Simply put the wheel on a skateboard (or something with wheels) and wheel it out - its not very secure What is it thats making the noise? Is it dragging along the floor, is he chucking it in a pile afterward? As its been suggested, its probably best just to ask him to change his habits. He won't bite and probably doesn't realize how much noise he's making, with a helmet and earplugs in, he can't hear a thing As its also been stated, a cover that goes over it will help stop the noise from dragging on the floor

Oh yea, I forgot to add to the end of my last post, "its probably best to wait for someone to reply that knows wha they are talking about before doing anything" haha In which case, have you made sure no cables have been pinched when doing the work? As for the original question - if you put the old one back in and it runs fine, even though you don't have the packaging, it shouldnt be too much of an issue to get your money back if its faulty I'd ring 'em and see what they say, but as long as you can prove you've purchased it from a reciept/email etc, I don't imagine there would be an issue, especially from such a large company

thread hijack time (sorry) That relates to guidance issued by ACPO which is only discretionary, and not enshrined in legislation. Whilst we are on the subject of ACPO and speeding, is everything ACPO say only guidelines and up to the discretion of the officer? I only ask because over a year ago I got caught speeding by a cop who told me my average speed at the time of the offence. I later found out that ACPO say I should have received a summons for doing that speed, but due to the time, place and the officer at the time, he let me off without so much as a speed awareness course, but I've always wondered if he was risking his job by doing so, or if they are actually allowed to use discretion in situations like that?

couple of things to check Did you have much petrol in the tank when you laid the bike up? Does it have enough to start? Did you turn the fuel tap off? If it was on bricks, did you catch the side stand switch? It may be worth looking at it to be sure its not damaged If everything is fine, its problem solving time I'm not sure how into mechanics you are, but a bike need two fundamental things to run. Fuel and fire. Fuel - try starting it, if it fails again, remove the spark plug and see if there is any sign of fuel in the chamber. Spark - test that its firing by connecting it back up to the HT lead and resting the metal part against the engine (don't touch it and be aware there should be a small spark, so be sure there is nothing flammable around) then hit the starter motor. The spark plug should give off a spark This should tell you if there is an issue with the fueling system or the electrical system and we can help you diagnose it from there

You say its not taking in the air it should be? Are you sure its not taking in too much air? Because if so, I've had the same problem with the same bike. Does it have a non OEM (non original) exhaust on it too by any chance? It's probably breathing a little too well. People usually buy K&N when modding a vehicle to get more air into the system. You should be able to swap an OEM filter for K&N without any issues if everything else is standard. The issues arise when you do it alongside modifications like a full exhaust, or even a slip on (which is what I had when I experienced the same issue) Too much air in the mix makes it run lumpy under acceleration. I believe you'd need to take it down to a dyno and get them to re-jet it to get the mixture right if you want to keep the K&N and exhaust (if you do indeed have a non OEM exhaust on it) Or DIY it - http://www.bikebandit.com/community/gui ... X_W7PlRHIU The above is on the presumption that you have other mods on the bike, in which case you probably won't be able to send it back now its been opened, fitted and taken off again, as the purpose of the filter is to let the bike breath better, which it sounds like it's doing

Just goes to show how easy it is to break in when someone with no experience can do it without any help and without drawing any attention

yea, you could be taught how to suck d*cks.. Anyway, he isn't hiding very well. There is a list of places he could be here - http://www.safetycamera.org/camera-loca ... he-mobiles

yup, thats the way it goes. A mate of mine got caught doing about the same. He got an awareness course too and was not happy at the time. He was even less happy when he followed me about two weeks later past a cop with a speed gun. I was doing about 40 in a 30 at the time, the cop followed me with his gun and I never heard anything from it - presumably because I was only speeding to get out of a sticky situation, but still, he was not best pleased. (sticky situation = me doing the speed limit on a 2 laned road in lane 2. Another biker tries to undertake me, but sees the cop and slows down but ends up beside me doing the same speed. Road narrows to 1 lane ahead so I slow down to get in behind him, but he slows down too matching my speed, right next to me so I still can't merge, so I then accelerate to get into lane 1 before lane 2 closes, get up to about 40 and see the cop stood there pointing his gun at me)

anything with a gortex lining will work. Look on the gortex website to see what they are about then look in shops for gloves with tthe lining

sounds like a lot of fun. Personally, I don't have a 50cc, so I'm not in, but where are you planning to tour?

Firstly, the bit you don't want to hear Unfortunately, the instructors have a few people to teach at the time. Part of the CBT is out on the road in real world conditions, so he was more than likely doing that part of the CBT next. Obviously he has to be 100% confident that you can control the bike before he takes you out onto the road, otherwise you can't carry on. Don't worry too much about having to do it again. It's not about doing it quickly, its about doing it safely and learning as much as you can. The more you do it, the more you pick up Now for the helpful bit, the government run a scheme called "get on" - its a free hour session on a bike. I think they do it in a group of up to 3 people, but you are likely to be with people who have never been on a bike in their life, and the instructor should go over the basics a bit more clearly. Its worth a look if nothing elsehttp://www.geton.co.uk/free-motorbi ... xperience/

I just want to pause this rant thread for a second to say RIP to the Pilot who lost his life in high winds over the mountain road this morning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe- ... n-33034542 It's a bit gruesome , but I think the current death toll for this year is up to four - one racer, two visitors riding bikes and a pilot RIP to all

My view is exactly the same. The visitors also know exactly what they are getting into, and yet thousands upon thousands of people choose to attend each and every year. It is one of the last places on earth that health and safety hasn't taken over. This is the reason I will be one of the many thousands of people attending next year. Having said that, it is still sad news that both these riders have lost their lives. Unfortunately, I think we are set to hear of more deaths over the next couple of weeks from the island, but if people are doing something dangerous, know the dangers and are still willing to actively go out and do it, then they should be free to do so.

tbf, it probably is set to the nicest roads for the motorcycle one, otherwise they wouldn't bother having specific car and motorcycle settings The quickest route is more than likely the quickest whilst still using back roads. If you want the pure quickest route, why not just switch to back to car mode?

Speeding is one thing. 140mph on a motorway in the middle of the night, like he is doing in the photo - not a massive deal. Doing 80mph in a 30 limit? That's where the problem starts, and running a red light, at those speeds?!? Well, as someone has already stated - the wrong person dies in that crash!