elwon20

Honda XR125... hated it, never wanted it, parents made me get it instead of what I actually wanted. Don't get me wrong it was my first ever bike so I was still super excited at 18 years old. Bought it new, sold it after 3 months for quite the loss. But admittedly I had some fun on it and it did teach me some stuff. But those stock tyres were super sketchy in the wet. After I sold it I got an old beat-up de-restricted RS125 (totally behind my parents back and against their wishes)... Absolutely loved it. Looking back now it's a good job I had the XR125 first, the RS125 would have been far too fast and touchy for me. It was too fast and touchy for me anyway, but at least I had a few months riding experience. If it weren't for the general unreliability of almost every single moving component, and the usual 2-stroke requirement for changing the piston-rings on such a regular basis, I'd have another RS125 as a second bike in a flash. Same goes for the RS250, barring the sacrilege of riding one of those on the road. If I ever decide I'd rather do regular track days than save up for my retirement, I'd probably be doing them on an RS250.

Rode it in the rain to work through the 1ft deep floods despite having not ridden it since it was freshly cleaned a week ago Mrs has taken hers to work cos we're riding to her mum's straight afterwards. Meaning I had to take mine this time Doesn't she realise I got her into biking so hers can rust on my daily winter commute instead of mine?

Message reads: With a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels wrapped inside. Backstory: Was out on a ride with the Mrs early last Autumn, on the way home, saw a guy stumbling down the wrong side (walking in the same direction as traffic) of a busy 60mph single carriageway road. Sent the Mrs on home (5 mins away) turned around at the next island, put on my hazards and pulled up alongside him. Guy, was very drunk. Could hardly understand him. Turns out his phone was flat and he was on his way to his mates 3-4 miles down the road. He didn't know his mate's phone number. Travelled down the road to his mates house based on this guy's drunken description 'there should be a black Honda Civic outside his house, he's always working on it!'. True to his word several miles down is a black Civic, and luckily enough his mate happens to be outside cleaning it. A quick chat with his mate who frustratedly states "he's always doing **** like this" and his mate jumps in the car and goes and picks him up. That was months ago. I can only assume this little gift was from the drunk guy. He's got a pretty good memory considering the state he was in!

Looks like I damaged the wiring in the right-hand indicator fixing the wiring for the clocks, so I'm going to have to take the fairing off again anyway. When I get around to fixing the indicator I'll take some pics of the connector

Ooh good call, didn't know they came out tbh... Are you able to point me in the right direction?

Fixed clocks on Mrs' new bike not getting power when ignition is switched off. And installed (but not yet tested) her a gear indicator (at her request). Next is tank grips, and adjustable footpegs. And she's all done for now!

Okie, looks like the connector on the right shoulder of the bike the female pins of the white/green had corroded and snapped, causing it to not make proper connection with the male when inserted. Too deep to solder, I'll be damned if I'm replacing the whole plug, far too many wires! Not replacing the loom either... So I stuffed some tinfoil into the socket as replacement for the missing metal... Working perfectly now. Simple as that! Thanks for the suggestions all!

And people ask "Why do you need a litre bike?"

Not sure if this issue was happening before the engine was taken out... didn't have the bike long enough to notice. Datatool was fitted by dealer from new. You're right I did mean white/green wire. I checked White/Black with ignition on and got 11.something v I don't recall what. I also tested the white/green wire and got 9.something v. I'm guessing there is some corrosion somewhere along the white/green wire causing a voltage drop. I will check the ground to the negative for voltage, and then the white/green to the positive for voltage and see what comes up. I'll also look into the Green/Black wire continuity. I don't like the Datatool tbh, but it reduces insurance a bit, it was fitted from new (according to the documents I have) and I'd really rather not go around unwiring it and putting it back to stock if I can avoid it. Around £130 for used clocks, but the bike has only done about 30 miles in the month I've had it, and it's cost me over £600 already!

I don't think it's power to a memory module as such because the tacho doesn't reset to 0 either, it just sticks wherever it was when the ignition was shut off. For all intents and purposes it appears as though no power is getting to the instrument cluster when the ignition is off. But as I say, I've looked at the wiring diagram and checked the voltage at the appropriate points on the instrument plug with the ignition off and it's getting just over 9v. So it is getting power... It's just acting like it isn't! God I hope I don't need a new instrument cluster!

Symptoms: Clocks work great, switch off ignition and the tacho sticks wherever it was (doesn't reset to 0) switch ignition back on, clock resets to 1am and trip meters loose values. Tested: My immediate thought was it's not getting power with the ignition off. Checked fuses, there's some custom wiring involving the green/white wires that supply power to the clocks with ignition off but this is apparently the datatool alarm wiring in place. Checked for voltage at the 20p connector with ignition on as per service manual, all is good 11.4v. Checked for voltage at the 2ndary point with ignition off as per service manual, expect to get 0v. I get 9.4v, wtf? It has power? Then why isn't it working?! Only things I can think of are f00ked battery, but it starts and turns over just fine. Or f00ked clocks. Anyone else any ideas? Update: I connected a 2nd good battery to the main battery using jump leads. The issue is still present

Update: Bike repaired and back. Total cost £500 which included engine out, mount welded, helicoil on corroded manifold bolt, sidestand shortened, 4 new intake rubbers (£95) and engine back in. Many thanks to Joe Porter motorcycles! Guy is a legend. Now I just need to figure out why the clock resets every time I switch the ignition off (new thread in pitstop incoming!) Thanks again for everyone's help and advice.

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=engine+stressed+member

Get it ceramic coated. Not a permanent solution, but far longer lasting than wax. Like with paintwork, the trick here is to layer protections. I'd invest in a professionally applied ceramic coating, these are as close to permanent as you can get. Next coat it with a home applied semi-permanent ceramic coating, available on Amazon and various other outlets. Reapply this as per instructions, usually 6-12 months. Next, apply a sealant (a more durable alternative to wax). Apply this with your main/big/thorough wash at least every three months but preferably monthly. If you want you can then wax your sealant. Do this with every wash. Your wax protects your sealant. Your sealant protects your self applied ceramic coating. Your self applied ceramic coating protects your expensive professionally applied coating. Your expensive professionally applied coating protects your work. Each layer is less durable than the previous but also cheaper and easier to apply. Its job is purely to protect the layer beneath it.

Totally, I don't think anyone is in disagreement with you there. More just analysing to see if the situation could/should have been avoided by the biker. I certainly will pause for thought the next time I come across a similar situation when out and about.

Wow, I'm surprised the copper did that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I may well have done exactly what the copper did, It's difficult to judge without being in that exact situation. But I'm an idiot and although I should, If I'm honest with myself, I don't always hold my riding to the same standards as the police. On the flip-side of the coin, I also can't claim myself to be a member of the most highly trained group of riders in the country... But even I know, As someone above mentioned. Green doesn't mean go, it means "check if it's clear and then go". He couldn't check if it was clear, so he shouldn't have gone. Incredibly unfortunate, but avoidable none-the-less.

Ahhh sucks that it wasn't a happy ending, but at least you got an adventure, and we got a well-written story! Top marks for trying also! Fwiw, if you get caught out in stuff like that again, you can sometimes find more grip in the uncompacted snow, than there is on the black bits either side. Love the pictures btw, they really helped with the mental imagery!

Personally I wouldn't use these at night on public roads outside of real fog. At night when we can't actually see other vehicles. Many of us unconsciously judge the distance of a car from us by judging how far apart it's two lights appear to be. If the lights are far apart they are very close, if they are close together they are a further away. With these on at night, you look no different from a far off car, when in reality you're a bike that is very close. I don't want to get pulled out on, or have an oncoming vehicle overtake a tractor or something believing I'm a far off car. It's for this same reason leaving your main beam on at night (which some riders do ) is an even worse idea than many people realise. Not only will you dazzle people, but you're likely to t-bone people pulling out of junctions also. I'd stick to using them in daytime fog where visibility isn't really low, or off-road.

As a full-blown squid in my teens, I certainly learned the hard way, I used to have the mentality "If you're not at full throttle, you should be at full brakes". I dropped my bike 7 or more times in my first two years from overcooking the front brake, usually in the wet. On the plus side, It taught me to consistently catch a front slide by reflex (eventually). But If I had to do it over again,... I'd want ABS. I've ridden/commuted all year round since I started riding and haven't gone down through overdoing the front brakes in about 12 years. Never thought ABS would be any real use to me. Very recently I commuted on a bike with ABS for the first time. I realised that having it is such a mental relief during winter, that I simply won't buy another bike that doesn't have it.

Good to know, I'll be going with propylene from here on out!

Best guess is you just need to replace your speedo cable.

Our 1-year-old cat died a horrible death late last year due to what the vet can only assume was anti-freeze ingestion. Gawd knows where he found it, but mine is kept sealed in the garage on a high shelf. Took him to the vet, the vet thought he'd likely ingested a spider or poisonous bug due to the time of year and bugs slowing down. Next morning we found him lying in a pool of his own vomit and excrement barely able to lift his head. Took him back to the vet, he spent an agonising 2 hours there waiting for blood samples to come back, everything was off the charts. They put him out of his misery as soon as the results came in. It's hard enough with a cat, I wouldn't want to contemplate a child going through that!

Slightly and I only quickly scanned this thread so forgive me if already mentioned and I missed it. But whatever you go for, if it's your first big bike, and you're commuting on those kinds of roads, with little experience and 4.5k budget I wouldn't consider anything without ABS at least in your shoes. Grabbing a handful of front brake in an emergency and the front tyre slipping is a very likely scenario, and with so little experience ABS will be worth its weight in gold.

Starting in 2003: Honda XR 125 2003 - Never wanted this, 'rents made me get it. Aprilia RS125 2000 - Amazing bike GSXR 750 SRAD 1999 - I loved this bike soooo much,.. then I f00ked the engine by letting the cam chain slip. Yamaha Thunderace 1996(ish) Yamaha Thunderace 1996(ish) - yeah I owned two of these at the same time, never even liked the bike much xD Aprilia RS125 2000 (another one!) - Worth owning twice GSXR 1000 2010 - Current daily CBF125 - Mrs Learner, my salted-roads commuter SV650 2008 - Mrs's first big bike, my salted-roads commuter CBR600RR ABS 2011 - Mrs's second big bike, will be my wet weather commuter once it's fixed. ...I should really start letting the salty roads trash my bike instead of the Mrs xD

That's odd, perhaps head bearings or steering damper in need of a service? Either way, I'd certainly check for free play in your wheel bearings.