Martyc

It's good practice to put your left foot down to keep the rear brake covered with your right. Otherwise you could be seen to not be in full control of the bike, so I was told by my instructor anyway.

Plenty of revs, keep off the front brake, dab the rear if you need to slow down and look where u want to go is the key! You'll get there it'll click all of a sudden one day.

Fixed! Was the regulator/flasher unit after all. Now for that mot!

Try spraying the switch with wd40/electric contact cleaner and flicking it side to side to work it in? Had a similar problem on my ped and it fixed it

Errr isnt that south west?

No harm in asking them to fit them for you, worst comes to worst they normally lend you safety clothing anyway.

My DAS I budgeted 700 but came in just under 500 with test fees, I had 2 full days (£130 a day, about 7 hours per day with 1/2 hour lunch paid for all inclusive I.e bike hire etc) and half a day which was £60 quid (about 4 hours) just mod 1 training just going through each bit on a private training yard over and over til you could do it in your sleep. Which turned into a competition for highest speed thru the speed trap on the swerve test. It may sound irresponsible but it was a great laugh in an enclosed safe environment, and the trainers never let us get out of hand.

You'll be restricted to 33bhp for 2 years. That's what I was going to do but a 500 is easier to ride and costs the same to do DAS. That said though, if you're used to your own bike you'd find it easier on that probably, as long as you drop any bad habits you may have picked up for the vital half hour. As my instructor always said 'you're only putting on a show to pass, you still can't ride yet'.

Look on you tube, plenty of mod 1 stuff on there, and a few funny ones too (knee down, stoppie kinda stuff). I'd recommend professional tuition though only if it is 2 lessons, one to assess where you are and one to polish up on stuff (assuming you can already ride ok) I only done a lifesaver over one shoulder every time, was fine for me and test standard (as long as you look over the proper shoulder each time!)

Gotcha Does it seal ok without a stat in the housing? May sound silly but I know on some cars the housing doesn't, not worked much on bikes.

Plus you'd only be masking the problem, the fault will still be lurking somewhere because they're designed to run with a 'stat.

I've ordered a reg/flasher unit. It occurred to me that poor battery voltage could be to blame so I hooked it up to the car via jump leads but made no difference. I hope the flasher unit sorts it or it's 30 quid down the drain! Just gotta wait for it to arrive...

Couldn't you just adjust the cables to take up the slack if they're too long? Or am I being silly?

Race exhaust systems are designed to increase performance, and normally have a remap (and other mods sometimes) as you've said. I'm just not 100% sure a commuter 125 has the flow or power to make the most of an open exhaust!

Back pressure does affect performance on n/a cars so i'm pretty sure it would apply on bikes too. Tends to lose power and torque at everywhere but flat out. It's why kids in 1.2 corsas with big bore straight thru exhausts make lots of noise and go slower than they would if they'd stuck with the standard one (but most people have done it anyway)

Cheers I'll let him know (I think he's got an iPhone too, everyone seems to these days...)!

Has anyone used one of these or can recommend one? Trying to help my mate get his licence too but I didn't really study apart from the hazard perception and a free online test (but I can't remember the email address )

I just found the first one (2 days after passing my mod1. I booked it as soon as I passed, how lucky was that??) that the school could do then told work I couldn't come in. I work next to the test centre tho so everyone saw my tears of joy and started shouting outta the window when I passed!

You can get battery optimisers to monitor and keep your battery in good condition. I've heard they're a good idea. Or just disconnect the battery so there's no drain on it

I've kept my pass certificate (in a frame...) so should it happen to me I'll be ok

I was told to imagine squeezing out a sponge... Same principal tho!

There's a guide in this months ride mag too which might be of some help?

Was that plug in before doing the exhaust? Really you need a fresh plug and take it for a ride then look at it as it'd still have deposits on it from before the change. But in the pic the plug doesn't look too bad, maybe a bit lean. White is lean, black is rich, coffee is about right and oil is bad.

Best thing to do is keep an eye on compression if this drops it's rebuild time but at least it's easier and cheaper than a 4 stroke. Apparently. Using quality oil and letting the bike warm up before using over half throttle should help make it last a bit longer.

That sucks stick it out, it'll be worth the wait! DSA here seem to be really good fortunately