mackemforever

Now I apologise for asking stupid questions but I'm a newbie when it comes to doing any work on bikes. I'm currently doing up my old Varadero 125 so it will actually pass an MOT and I can sell the bugger and I've run into a lack of knowledge! I've removed the brake callipers, stripped them right down, cleaned them and replaced the brake pads, but now that I've come to putting them back on the bike I realised that I have no idea how I'd go about bleeding the system after I've replaced the brake fluid. Would somebody please be able to give me some guidance as to how I would go about doing that. Thanks.

A lot won't offer you a saving for it, but quite a few companies make it a condition of your policy that it has a thatcham approved lock on it.

I've currently got this: http://www.chainspeed.co.uk/products/*NEW*-XENA-XX14-Disc-Lock-Alarm-in-Stainless-Steel.html It costs a bit but its pretty compact so it will easily fit in any small space under your seat, is thatcham approved and has a bloody loud alarm!

Not sure if this is the right place, but I'd have thought it comes under accessories! I just wanted to ask for some opinions on what stuff it would be useful to buy for cleaning my bike. Currently I've just been cleaning it all by hand with a bunch of cloths and come car soap but it takes bloody ages and doesn't really give that good a clean. Was just wondering if anybody can recommend me some good products to use, I was looking at some of the muc-off stuff but wanted to get some opinions from a few people before I bought anything. Thanks.

Ok, not really sure how to go about this but I thought I could post this up and hopefully get a bit of advice/help from people. I'm fairly new to biking and have recently got my full (well, restricted!) licence and have moved up to an SV650S. I would love to do a bit of a road trip around France this summer, I would do more of Europe but I can't really afford to and I wouldn't be able to get enough time off work. So, would there be a few people on here who would be up for a week to 10 days abroad this summer? If so then please let me know and we can hopefully organise something. Thanks.

Well I don't mind if its seperate from the jacket as I'm only ever gonna wear it for going back and forth from University on the motorways, a journey I'm gonna do about 10 times a year if that.

Got a fairly simple question for you guys. Could somebody please recommend me the following as I'm a bit clueless on the matter: 1) A good, but decent value, alarmed disc lock. I would prefer an alarmed one as my SV doesn't have any alarms and so I would like to have some form of alarm on it as it may put off an amateur thief. 2) A good, but decent value, back protector. I don't mind if its one that is completely seperate to your jacket or if its one that fits into the jacket. All I ask is that its decent value, will do the job in a crash, and isn't really uncomfortable or makes you sweat hideously! Thanks very much.

Its still a damn sight better than a Honda Varadero 125cc!

After failing first time with a couple of major faults, I just passed with 4 minors. Picked up the minors for not slowing down enough when passing a school running slightly wide on a mini roundabout, getting a bit too close to the back of another car when I pulled out to overtake somebody on a dual carriageway, and the last one for getting a bit too close to a bin lorry in a queue of traffic. Now, time to get the SV650S restricted and get on it!

I was speaking to him before the test about it. He does hold a full bike licence BUT he hasn't owned a bike for the last 5 years, and hasn't been on a bike since he sold his 5 years ago.

Its not being followed in a car that bothers me. Its the fact that I was being followed in a car by somebody who doesn't even ride a bike that gets on my nerves.

Yeh, I know that schools do book loads of tests in advance. I've put together a list of every single bike school in Bristol and am going to ring around them all tomorrow to ask them to let me know when they cancel some bookings.

That was a real situation. I wasn't going to try and get anything back from the test as I know I should have failed for the other mistake, but its just bloody annoying that I got the first major for taking the course of action that was least likely to cause an accident. Now the thing annoying me is that the next available bike test isn't till October 19th, which considering I'm starting University on October 2nd isn't much use!

Just got back from my mod 2 and I failed with 2 majors. 1 of them due to genuinely bad driving and 1 which absolutely takes the piss. The legitimate fault was for pulling away from the pavement and causing a car to brake. He didn't have to brake hard, I just slightly misjudged how far away he was when I pulled away. The one that made me want to thump the examiner is as follows: You are riding down a slightly twisty, 60mph road. You are approaching a right hand bend while travelling at 50mph. You see what appears to be oil covering about 2/3rds of your lane. You have 4 possible courses of action: 1) Ride through the oil at 50mph. 2) Try and ride through the small gap between the oil and the verge on the left. 3) Move onto the wrong side of the road and go around the blind bend on the wrong side of the road. 4) Check your mirrors, check over your shoulders, slow down to around 25mph to safely get through the gap between the oil and the verge, then get back up to speed straight after. Anybody with half a mind would choose option 4, but the bast*rd doing my test failed me for that because apparently I was riding too slowly and causing a danger to other cars on the road. The only problem with that theory is that there were no cars on the road behind me at that time except for his and he was a long distance behind me and my decrease in speed didn't cause him to have to jump on the brakes or do anything out of the ordinary. When I told him that I saw oil in my lane and slowed down so I didn't hit it and risk crashing his reply was "well I didn't see it" said in a tone that made me want to punch his sodding lights out. So, thats £75 down the drain and now I've got to wait for ages to do my second test. As you might be able to guess, I'm a bit annoyed.

Yes the A2 does involve the exact same elements as the DAS. The only difference I know for sure is that if you are under 21 then you have to be restricted to 33bhp after passing all 3 elements (theory, mod 1 and mod 2) whereas if you do the DAS (and therefore are over 21) then you can ride anything after doing the 3 elements. I've only seen a couple of places that advertise a specific A2 course and I'm not really sure how they all handle it, but it might be worth ringing up some local bike school as what you are taught is the same whether you are going to end up with a restricted or full licence, the only difference is the end result. I also think that there is some rule to do with which bike you do the tests on, now don't quote me on this but I believe that if you are doing the DAS then you have to do your tests on something larger than a 125, but I might be talking out of my ass here.

Ok, so I've got my mod 2 test tomorrow and I just realised I have no idea at all what the "show & tell" questions at the start of the test are. Could somebody please give me a list of as many as you know, as I've had a search online but can't find them. Also, am I right in thinking that the order they expect you to do things is as follows: Mirror, Signal, Livesaver, Manouver - For any manouver while moving (things like changing lane, taking a turning, roundabouts, pulling away from the side of the road, etc...) but that for things like pulling away from a junction you do not have to do the livesavers (I tend to do them anyway, but just want to check if forgetting would be a minor or not). Thanks.

Just got back from doing my mod 1 and I've got to say, it was absolutely hellish experience. The test itself was fine, and I passed without any faults at all, which I'm chuffed with, but everything before that was bloody horrible. Here is the list of things that went wrong: 1) I turned up to my first test without my theory test certificate which meant that I couldn't actually sit the test. 2) My satnav broke on the way to my 2nd test today and I got completely lost. It should take about 25 minutes to get to the test centre, so I left myself 90 minutes so I could do some practice on the local roads when I got there. I arrived 2 minutes before my test! 3) You're allowed 5 minutes to fix any mechanical problems before you start your test and I took up about 4 minutes 55 seconds of that time. I left my alarm remote in my trousers yesterday when they went through the wash and it was refusing to turn the alarm off (I've only got 1 remote), after just under 5 minutes of trying I managed to get it off though. 4) As I rode into the test area my bike died. Turned out it had run out of fuel but it took me a minute to realise this and actually switch to the reserve tank. So, all in, it wasn't the most relaxing build up to a test, but at least its out of the way now.

Yeh, well I was pretty damn impressed that I can pick up a decent set of leathers (well, they have very good reviews) for £100 there.

I'd be a bit cautious of J&S. I have had a bad experience with the one in Bristol. Essentially I went in when I first got my bike and was after helmet, gloves and trousers, and all I asked for was the best value gear they had that was 100% waterproof, even in really bad weather. The reason I asked for that was because I don't want to have to buy any more kit when it comes to winter. The problems with what they have sold me are as follows: 1) The gloves are not waterproof at all. So much water comes in through the fingers that I finish any ride in the rain with completely numb hands. 2) The trousers are waterproof for around 10 minutes but after that just seem to give up and allow everything through right onto your crotch. 3) The helmet is fine in good weather but when it rains you quickly find out that there is a small gap between the visor and the helmet which allows water to run down the inside of the visor, meaning you can see precisely f**k all. The end result of my visit to J&S is that I've got just under £300 worth of kit that I can't use when it rains. I gave H&G a ring yesterday evening to ask if they could kit me out with a new helmet, trousers and gloves for under £250 that were all properly waterproof and was told that it would just about be possible and the guy ran me through what he would choose, and it came to £270 (I was checking on their online store) but he told me that if I came into the store next time he's working then he will put it through for £250 for me. I've just finished looking up reviews for all of the kit he recommended and it all gets great reviews.

Sorry to hear that mate but I think its something about filter lights that many people don't know. If the straight ahead green light is a normal light then you can turn once that light is green, even if the arrow for your lane isn't. The green arrow for your lane only comes on when there is no traffic moving in the lane you need to go across. The only time you HAVE to wait for your filter light to come on is if the straight ahead green light is an arrow.

If the green light for straight ahead is just a green light you can turn right when the road is clear. If the green light is a straight ahead arrow you have to wait for the right filter to turn green before moving off. If thats correct then I now realise why I often get honked at for sitting waiting at a set of traffic lights near me. For some reason the filter light only comes on once every 3 cycles of the normal lights.

Well the good news is that I think I fixed it. Turns out I had been quite stupid after I put the new battery in and the plate which holds the battery in place was in contact with one of the metal ends on the wire, which was shorting out the battery. I put everything back together as it should be and left it for 36 hours and it started fine with no signs of the battery being run down. I guess the biggest problem with my bike is just the idiot on it then!

I know that this thread doesn't really fit here but I thought it would be most likely to be seen by somebody in Bristol. I just wanted to ask if there was anybody in Bristol who knew there way around a bike well enough to help me try and find a fault with mine. It is draining its battery from a full charge in around 36 hours, so it is obviously shorting out somewhere but I don't have anywhere near the technical knowledge to want to risk poking around myself. So, is there anybody who would be able to have a look at the bike for me and hopefully teach me a thing or two before I have to take it into a garage. The bike in question is a 52 plate Honda Varadero 125. Thanks very much.

It has an alarm/immobiliser (datatool system 3 to be exact) but its been fitted to it for around 3 years now, and as I said before, it had no problems with draining the battery till about 3 days ago.

Also, for some reason the new battery I put in around 2 weeks ago was perfectly fine till I last used the bike on Tuesday, but when I went out today to go for a ride it was completely dead. Its currently sat outside with a battery charger connected and hopefully it will eventually start. I assume that it is shorting out somewhere and draining the battery, but does anybody have any suggestions for things to check. The odd thing is that it was fine for the first 6 weeks I had it on the old battery, and then that one died while I was on holiday for a week (it was pretty much due to reach the end of its life anyway so I wasn't surprised), and then the new one was fine for the first couple of weeks, even though I have only been using it every few days, and now its died in only a couple of days. Thanks.