curlylegend

2 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

Would make a good "sticky" 

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a "Sticky" please ?

1 hour ago, KiwiBob said:

Its simple .. You let her go away for a few days while you have the kids!.. She lets you go off on your bike

That's the perfect arrangement, is it not ?

It's always been the case though that some couples are more welded at the hip than others. I can think of some cases where it's just pure jealousy and suspicion on one or the other's par.  You'd think that's not a marriage that's going to last, but the one's I've known are still going fifty years later.

On 01/06/2024 at 20:58, bonio said:

You've got better weather than here in  northern France mate. Cold and windy and wet is it. Bleg. 

 

I'll agree with that !

4 hours ago, Gerontious said:

They look like pickled peppers (of Peter Pecker fame) sweet and sour with just a hint of heat and uttterly gorgeous if you like that sort of thing. I’ve been known to eat them straight out of the jar.

Jings, you must have a sound set of tripes on you !  

Brittany in 1989 was experiencing a serious heatwave and my idiot friend suggested that if we tucked into a jar of pickled peppers we would sweat like rapists and be cooled down naturally. Well, it seemed like a good idea because I liked them anyway. But I'd never eaten half a jar of them straight from the jar, so didn't realise there could be consequences.

Well, we probably never really cooled down anyway but decided to stroll into the centre of Morlaix for a couple of drinks. We ended up in a rather elegant and popular cafe which was busy coping with a couple of busloads of Welsh grannies. We'd both sunk our first beer when at the same time we started feeling those ominous rumblings deep in our guts. There were still plenty of Toilettes a la Turq in Brittany at that time so the Cafe de la Grande Terrasse had probably been recommended to the Welsh grannies because it boasted a pair of cubicles with properly plumbed in seating arrangements. But because there was only two, there was a fair queue of the aforementioned Welsh grannies.  My friend and I both decided that our needs were definitely greater and much more urgent than theirs so we desperately elbowed the poor souls out of our way, muttering "Excusez moi, excusez moi, s'il vous plait" between clenched teeth. Fortunately we both managed to rapidly jettison what felt like quarter of our body weights in seconds avoiding a pair of clothing disasters. I remember one shrill voice exclaiming "Oh Myfanwy ! did you see those two ignorant French pigs barging in like that ? Well I've got my handbag ready for them when they come out ! ! "  and my pal whispering through the partition to me  " for F*ck's sake don't talk English when we go out or we'll be really for it !"

3 hours ago, Davidtav said:

Well it was the RAC. And eventually after emailing directly the CEO. They paid me £100. I can’t wait for this subscription to end. I would never use these cowboys again

Never trusted those buggers since they left me stranded in Glencoe in 1985.  A flat battery, and they had no-one in that area who could respond !  I mean it wasn't bloody Benbecula or somewhere like that, 80 odd miles from Inverness, the same from Perth and 100 miles from Glasgow . 

Chancers !

13 hours ago, Nick the wanderer said:

One of the things I like about Germany is the noise laws. On Sunday's they have a thing called a Quiet Law, so you can't be noisy mowing your lawn with a knackered old petrol mower for instance, or drilling holes in your house, also between 10pm and 6am.  They do vary from district to district but the principals the same.

Same in our part of France. You don't do noisy work out-with normal working hours i.e. You don't start jack-hammering your concrete floor before 08.00 and you make sure work stops between 12.30 and 14.00  and stops for the day at 18.00.  Sunday you can cut the grass from 10.00 till 12.30 and that's it.

The aim of this is to encourage consideration for your neighbours.  All well and good, but a few years ago we got new neighbours who decided to have a house warming party that was still going at 07.00the next day. I don't think anyone called the cops but I did see a couple of neighbours going into next door and there were sounds of a rather lively altercation. Next thing there was a lot of car door slamming and screeching of tyres.

Then silence !!

They never stayed long.

I've always drained oil when it's warm, if not hot.  Interesting to see what other people say ?

11 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

My mistake was wearing my summer gear to go north on Sunday. Waterproof over trousers aren't waterproof anymore. At least the jacket still is. My only sensible decision was to take winter weight goretex gloves but even with them I had the heated grips on full blast. Wore 3 layers under my jacket and was still cold. 

Snap !   I did the same for a short tour of Brittany at the weekend. Set off having consulted two separate weather forecasts promising sunny weather, light winds and 18C to 20C temperatures. The only thing they got right was the damn wind direction. The hotel turned out to be a shit-hole and on the second day my sat nav started imitating HAL from 2001 !  

Went home in a mood !   Think I'll take up Trainspotting.  The one with the drugs and drink and sex.

Thanks Fiddlesticks, won't try and kick the cat today.

Come on folks ! What's happened to the jokes ?   I'm getting right grumpy here, I need some jokes !!

And are we not trespassing on the wrong on the wrong bit here ?   Apologies !!

Is this what you're looking for ?

www.motorworks.co.uk/fuel-pump-retaining-plate-fua61609-1.html

14 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

The bushes and seal will wear putting very fine particles into the oil. 

14 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

also v fine dirt/organic matter (black/dark part) that DOES and WILL pass the seals, hence why old oil is thicker and smells so bad.

9 hours ago, Fozzie said:

 

You can get some misting, which can be too small to notice which could cause a slight loss. But if it's a lot in a small space of time, that sounds like you'd see it. The oil goes manky as the components inside wear and deposit debris into the oil. Contaminants still get by the seals in very small amounts, and over time cause the oil to discolour, smell, and sometimes you get thick deposits at the bottom of the fork you find when you're doing a overhaul. Like thick green/grey snot. 

 

They wear at very different rates, which also disturbs my OCD. You wind out the preload adjusters and they end up in different positions as they have different levels of travel. I know winding them in equally keeps the suspension fairly equalised, but it bothers me  

All sound hypotheses fellow motards.  If MY ODC kicks in any harder they might actually form the bases for a Theory ?   Don't hold you breath !

11 hours ago, Fozzie said:

Could your dampers have a bit of air in them when you swap the oil? I've had this with an old Blackbird where I pumped them and rechecked the level and it seemed fine, then later one of them was way off. No leaks, so I assumed I hadn't managed to get all the air out of the damper. That would cause the level to drop as soon as they bled themselves through properly with a few miles of Britain's best pot holed roads  

Not impossible but I don't think so.  I always pour a measured amount into each leg and after a good deal of damper pumping I adjust the oil level as per factory manual .  Usually only a few cc to get the levels right.  And what's causing the discolouration ?  

7 hours ago, Fozzie said:

 

Based on every bike I've ever done, no one else ever changes out their fork oil regularly. The stuff usually comes out looking like something from a swamp, and with a smell to boot sometimes. 

I change the fork oil on my old Yamaha TDM 850 every year, usually having clocked another 10-12000 km.  I use a decent brand of ATF.  However I'm always puzzled by the fact that the amount of oil  I drain from  the forks is always much less than I put in ?  And it is definitely well contaminated going by the colour and smell.  There are no leaking seals and no vents to atmosphere, so where does the oil go ?

I do notice an improvement in the action of the forks with fresh oil .

1 hour ago, skyrider said:

the joys of modern bike ownership classics never had these hideous things 

You do wonder though, don't you ?   Modern motorcycles engines are very efficient. But a Boeing airliner taking off will burn through over 500gallons of fuel, and how many planes take off and land every day around London for example ?  Compared to this, motorcycles are unlikely to be doing much damage to the environment. 

Vegan and vegetarian flatulence probably contributes as much pollution as motorcycles.

10 hours ago, Fiddlesticks said:

For the bikes with centre stands I get them delivered and fit them myself. Quite enjoy the process, but you need a compressor, levers, wheel balancing kit, tools, ability to not scratch wheels (or worry too much about it) tyre paste etc. Don't have a bead breaker - I find using the levers is fine. It's part technique, part brute force.

I do the same.  Not really for the cost, it's just that I like doing a job myself. 

I don't have a compressor but most of the time my portable electric pump will get them seated and inflated. If I get a stubborn one I just take it down to our local filling station and use their compressor.

Bead braking was sometimes a bit of a bind until I got these, dead easy now !

A basic wheel balancing jig isn't expensive and well worth getting.  A wheel will need to be well out of balance before you'll feel it, especially a rear.  But properly balanced wheels are very important.

So work on your technique and the brute force will decrease...

11 minutes ago, gaspoweredcat said:

Embrace the freedom of casual encounters on the best dating app in town!
Looking for my other half for the night
Genuine Females
Optimal casual Dating

I wouldn't bother.  The operative word there is CASUAL.   I contacted them and turned up at the RDV, toupee well stuck down, teeth in and matching shoes and damn, they never turned up !

That's really casual if you ask me !

11 hours ago, Fozzie said:

But maybe they just ran out of things to go on about. Or were bored. My girlfriend thinks I shouldn't say anything, so to here I came!

There's always a manly shoulder here to lean on ..... am I allowed to say things like that now ?

4 hours ago, Fiddlesticks said:

I don't think you can even tell the age of the vehicle from the plate?

That's right. You can't even tell where the car was first registered on the later type plates because the addition of the regional number is now optional.

2 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

Signed up to a Bike Safe course in June. Bound to have some uncouth habits I have picked up over the years.

Keep us posted, please, this will be interesting.

There's no such thing as a "vanity plate" in France. The nearest to such a thing is a pair of Presidential Citroen SM's with the numbers 2-PR-75   and 3-PR-75 but these are rarely seen nowadays.

There is also a rumour that people like Johnny Halliday and Jacques Anquetil had very individual registration plates, but I've never seen them.

When I mention the subject to French people they're somewhat bemused and class it as "un folie anglaise"

I've got a private plate on my moto. Totally unique , no-one else has one, and it never cost me a sous.  The government gave me it.

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

They just can't get their heads around why I don't want a screaming baby just yet. 

They don't all scream.  

2 hours ago, RideWithStyles said:

The mofo in a tesla

Anyone driving a Tesla should be given a wide berth...