PaulCa

This time though I went fully comp premium with Carole Nash for nearly twice the cheapest quote. Brand new bike and all.

Yea, when I got my first quote for the CBF1000 7 years ago, they quoted me £86+fees. Which was £104. I just changed from a KLE500 where they charged me £130 the last year. I think I triggered the "over 40" bracket. My car insurance came down as well, although a little old lady running a red in front of me and a certain incident of 88mph in a 60, broke that for 5 years. Thankfully it's back down to £330 for a 2 litre sports car.

On the body position thing. It depends on what I'm doing as to whether I will be neutral, leaned or counter leaned. An important aspect not often mentioned is "view". A crotchrockeer hanging on by his calf, dragging his knee can see exactly fa^2 where as the next rider counter leaning to stay upright and thus have a higher view point can see much more. In traffic that can be as simple of leaning the bike right to go round a round about, but you moving your body to the left to sit up straight and look over the cars in front. Cruising down the road. Neutral. Arches on the pegs. Blasting down the road. Leaned in shoulders and a slight shift of the cheeks. "Looking over the wing mirror" position. Doing a u'ie. Either, depends on how tight the u turn and how tired I am.... or if it's not my bike In traffic, whatever body position lets me see more, around, over or further.

Thanks for all the responses guys. If I look at other things to compare it to, I have the car and push bike. As a teenager and well into my 20s I went everywhere on a mountain bike. Off road, on road, long distance, short distance, commuting or just to the shops. I had no problem ripping that thing sideways at 30mph with the rear wheel locked up. I used to ride through town like London cycle couriers do, up/down pavements, weaving through people etc. I had no problem handling wheel spin in mud and I have road rash to prove I didn't always get it right. I binned the bike "low side" twice at close to 40mph. Once on road, once off road. Both times I remember sliding so long I had to time to think, "Why am I still sliding? I hope I don't hit anything! Why are their sparks coming from my brake lever?" it was only after picking myself up I realised it was also my shin and elbow creating sparks (or bits of skin). The thing was, I knew where the limit was and could easily approach it, listen to the off road tyres sing, feel the tucking of the front wheel, feel the tyres sliding and control it with body weight etc. One section of coastal path here is covered in crazy paving, but a lot of the bricks are loose. Even when they are not, you lose traction over the gaps. I used to love hurtling into corners over the limit, throwing the bike in deep and letting the tyres slide wide over the crazy paving and then try and throw some pedal in if I could spare the lean angle to get the inside round to try and step the back end out. All at 20mph. In the car it's the same. I drive a GT86 and when it's wet and nobody is around it's hilariously easy to reach the limit and drive it like your stole it without breaking the limit. I know exactly where the grip limit is at both ends and have tracked it to prove to myself I could. I didn't pretty well matching laptimes with 2 race cars, an AE86 Corolla rally car and a ZTec Fiesta, both on slicks with racing brakes and tune. Although granted I had the horses on them. The fiesta in particular was in my mirrors every corner having pulled 30 yards on the straights. But then there is the motorbike. I just see a mistake approaching the limit might have too great of consequences. I sent many a pushbike down the road. I've done the picking gravel out of my knees with teasers and detol for hours. I get the feeling dumping a bike while it's moving will hurt more, cost more and be far more embarressing. At the same time however, if I'm caught out of position on a wet diesel spotted roundabout and need to jink the bike or lean it over more .... can I? Is there room? Where is the limit? How far away am I? Would I be better off righting the bike and burying the brakes and trying not to hit anything or should I push/pull it down further and risk a low side? It's that not knowing thing. I can't think of many safe manoeuvres for testing grip limit of the front end in corners, actually either end on tarmac. In the car, I know there is a zone where you feel and hear the car begin to float a little, the tyres squeal and that thing they call "handling" comes into play. However, I am also aware that in the wet in particular, the sudden drop in grip when you push it just that little bit more is huge. Slip angles and getting a little rotation is one thing, a full break away slide is another. I'm worried there is little to no way to safely test where that zone is for the rubber or the lean angle. So I steer well clear of it entirely. On the push bike, I would routinely jab the front brake in corners on gravel to remind myself what happens when the front locks, or try to come to a stop with the front wheel locked on lose gravel. I tried this a few times on a motorbike and found it ok, unless you mess up and the front ends direction disagrees with the bikes. Then it changes as the bike weighs a lot, so intervening with your feet is much harder and any kind of speed might result in a broken leg. On courses. Yes. Sounds like a good idea. However I'm not mainland. I'm in Northern Ireland and while it's a lot cheaper to take a bike over to the mainland, it's still a faff. I did an off road (dirt) weekend in Spain 6 or 7 years ago which I recall improved my street riding confidence too. I think I'll do some research and see what kind of courses I can find. Especially if it rents you the bike!

I have had this when I didn't brief my pillion. When I told them just to stand up on the peg and step over.... they put their foot on the peg and used me and the topbox to pull themselves up, suddenly putting their entire body weight hanging well outwards from my CoG. I explained to them to lean over the bike and lift, not the other way around!

Getting the new bike today, hopefully! Been watching a lot of videos and reviewing my road craft etc. I've been riding for 19 years. I've only scraped a peg or centre stand twice and it scared the shit out of my both times. The first time I nearly popped my knee because I put my foot down, at 30mph. PING! On the two test rides, both times I had a "block" in what I call "intuitive automatic control". Both times going through a corner and the "autopilot" just stopped banking into the corner further and I had to "intervene" and consciously push the inside bar. Not talking about ripping it, not talking about running wide, just that my confidence bumped into it's limit and I had to drive consciously. Maybe that's just being rusty. I'll keep an eye on it. Some of my video watching tells me, that on warm tarmac/asphalt the bike, most bikes, will happily lean that far and the peg scraper is designed to give you warning before any other more solid part of the bike contacts the road. I suppose other than driving round and round roundabouts, or doing car park slaloms to gain lean angle confidence, there isn't more you can do? I'm not interested in knee down and body position stuff, and yes I know body position reduces need for lean angle. What I'm looking for is to remove that "block" I talked about, where my confidence won't let me push the bike down when I need it without having to consciously intervene. Consciously driving is too slow, too reactive. Especially in the wet. I have a tendency to drive too cautiously in the wet, trying to keep the bike upright, always paying attention to the balance when hitting the brakes etc. I'm 100% sure the bike has a lot more grip than I am relying on it for. So while my approach to date has been always error with margin on the safe side, I think I've been over doing that for a few decades and approaching the edges of my comfort zone would do me good. Be nice!

Random memory, the KLE500. Commuting during winter, I used to give it full choke, let it rev up to 4k (it didn't go much higher and it would sit there in traffic for an hour soon anyway!) and let it sit there until I was ready all buttons done up and then drop the choke out completely. It would usually idle and be workable with after that. See the comment below though. Consider... When you get into the car on a cold day, it too (electronic fuel injection) will hold a high or very high idle on first start up. To offset the low idle stability at low rpm of the cold engine. If a cold engine cuts power on you, also cut the throttle. Your right hand will instinctively continue to wind on looking for the response it expects. Then the engine recovers, and suddenly all the power comes back and you are at 100% throttle. PING! I did that mistake on small bikes thankfully and only tyres were harmed. Think about a cold engine like a mate your just woke up. Tread carefully. It has things in reach to throw at you and it can always hit SNOOZE in traffic.

Actual actual mopeds. I seen a few of those in Ibiza in 2000. Very popular with the locals.

Choked/carb bikes can be complete divas at cold start. You'll learn it's little ways, but as you have no reference I understand it's difficult to know when it just needs a bit more working or if something is wrong. One thing I would say, until you have comfortable with how it behaves cold on choke, avoid riding it until it will idle off the choke. I have had some pretty scary "choke" incidents. Usually a bogging down in traffic followed by a massive surge because I just held the throttle open and waited. Lessons you learn while shiny side are the best ones. As Billy points out. Poor behaviour on the choke can be a sign of other issues.

Work with it a while. Let it rev up a bit, not much. I found starting up the biffer after a cold rest up, it would start on some cylinders, not others, cough, grumble, labour, stall and be a right princess, and it's fuel injected. I would just tickle it to keep it running until it smoothed out, usually followed by steam from the exhausts for a while. Just play the choke / throttle game, trying to keep it running aiming to let it run on it's own, then let it warm up properly and see how it it. If you can't keep it running. Check the obvious, like no funny mates have swapped your plug leads around. Leaks, water in the fuel. Mouse in the airbox, those kind of things.

It can play in your favour, how granularly they are willing to look at your risk profile. I drive a GT86. A large portion of it's market are 20 something rich kids who, bling it, mod it, sup it up and then write it off. In the UK and the states 20 somethings are finding their insurance premiums rise year on year. However mine, being well outside that demographic and never having insured a modded car, get mine for £300. A 20 yo would expect to pay about £2000 more.

Stuff like this is my day job. I keep trying to tell people to be careful with their information and who and what they give it to. 99% of the time people say, "Oh, I have nothing of interest." I desparately try and point out that they have NO IDEA what they are interested or even WHO they are. So how in hell can you know you have nothing that's of "interest" to "them"? The amount of information you can glean from mass data storage and analysis is profound. It's not just one database or one companies. The data trade and market is massive trillion dollar monster. They (for now talking about legitimate companies, not scammers) will have analysised insurance claims and driving behaviours across vast datasets. They will profile you against that analysis and charge you according to that information and their current risk profiling systems. If it turns out the computer says that in your general area men aged 58 who have had their current car less than 2 years are at high risk or a high value claim. Then it doesn't matter how you feel if you fit that profile or not, they will charge you based on it. Granted, you have to tell them the information, even if you don't know how it will effect your claim. You can try and ask for a subject access request to the data they hold on you and it's purposes, but it will be void of any information you expect when it returns. It will not include the industry shared databases or the proprietary risk profiling information. For other online (or any form). Don't tell them what they don't need to know. Also be careful when more than one online entity shares information with another. Particularly consider information you use to authenticate yourself to your bank, email, employer etc. DoB, Phone numbers, Post code, Mother's maiden name. Even or ESPECIALLY if it's a random internet survey on facebook asking. Remember, data lives a LONG time. What you did or said last week will not be forgotten and may be stored in a database somewhere and held against you for decades. Also, data gets moved, lost, sold and end up in the wrong hands all the time. Then you really don't know what they are going to do with it.

My understanding is this is to stop the following: "I'd like to switch insurers to you." "Here's our brilliant offer offer....." 1 year passes. "We sent you a renewal offer, for £100 more, we hope you think it's a good deal even though everyone else will offer your it £150 cheaper!" The problem with this is the insurance companies lose revenue unfairly raising return customer premiums. That will get passed onto the introductory offers too, which will go up in price.

I hate to be victor mature, but I made quite a few mistakes on my 125 and 500 that I am VERY, VERY glad I made on it and not the CBF1000. The 125 and to some degree the 500, didn't have the grunt to throw me into traffic. The 1000cc would have done exactly what I'd ask and dumped me off in the ditch. I think you should take the feedback the system is giving you VERY seriously. I seen your insurance quotes on the other thread. They tell me one thing. They think you will kill yourself. The fact you are failing your test is because they don't think you can ride. Your statement that you have a litre bike that you can't ride is, correct by the sounds of it. Your regard for the highway code is clear, as is your attitude to your own and other safety. And on that note, I'm out.

Car pron! Branded brakes, all 4 corners, £280. Oh how much fun bedding them all in together will be.

On the risk. I, long ago, stole this saying from an old grey beard. "Learning risky things is sometimes about borrowing from the bag of luck to fill the bag of experience." I think the safer option is to have a good stock pile of caution to pay with. It's not as valuable as luck, but it's more reliable. Still need luck though. Good luck.

I've not ridden there but traffic in Cairo is insane like this. A 3 lane highway will be at least 5 wide, more like 6 with cycles and motorcyclists weaving through. I asked why everybody drove so close and was told, sometime to the effect of, so nobody gets in front of me. The driver noted that expensive cars had space cause everyone else was driving a shit box full of rust and holes covered in dents and pantina. I think we were in 3 different car accidents on the 1 hour drive to the hotel. Mostly just bumps or a little scraps and a minor fold , you know, normal rush hour. An important tip. In Cairo flashing your lights does NOT mean, "come on ahead". It means "Don't you ****ing dare." In Istanbul, I had to push my friend out of the way because he was being polite and letting a woman cross in front of him. The trouble was we were all standing in the 6 inch gap between two taxis, he had just left that gap and the taxis were not waiting and were currently pushing me along with that gap. I had to shove him forward, just as I got shoved from behind. He hadn't a clue what was going on. The traffic wasn't even going to wait while you are standing in it. They will expect YOU to move along with it, if you want to cross. When you learn this it works quite well, you zigzag across flowing with the 2 -3 mph traffic. Just don't stop!

Holding on too tight. Trust the bike. If you suddenly disappeared I guarantee you, it will carry on, on it's own perfectly fine without your input.... for a while, in a straight line. The bike will need to make continuous little movements in the steering to keep the bike stable, especially at speed. Holding it with a death grip stops that happening and fights against the bike's inherent positive stability at speed. Totally different ball game below 10mph though. A very simple way to think of this, is how you car steering wheel wants to spin back to centre and go straight. Your bike will try and keep itself upright without your input. Deep breath, smile, sigh and wiggle your elbows and knees like a "funky chicken", helmet sound effects are optional, but often cheer you up. When you are relaxed and thinking straight try again, trusting the bike and identify what is it that you are afraid of. Then approach that very thing slowly and carefully until you are riding along with it and it hasn't killed you, hurt you or even frightened you. After a few thousand miles of doing it everyday, you are still aware of the risk, but, you have enough positive experience doing it, you don't freak out doing it anymore.

Character seems also to be about rider identity, group collective and "competitive nature". Jack of all trades, master of none. To me is better than a master of, say, something specific, I can rarely use on a daily ride, like 100+mph or 16" ground clearance and off road shocks. (Remembers foundly the KLE500's opinion on speed bumps. It just didn't have one, completely ignored them.) A specialised commuter focused bike doesn't suit me either. If I wanted a bike with "that" character I would probably have went with a 125cc auto for £4000 and got 100 zillion miles to the gallon and full body wind protection. Where's the FUN in that? To be honest I used to find it fun, but it gets old fast when you have to plan over takes for over a mile. Such a sense of achievement when you succeed though.... or shame when you have to abort. I once spent 20 miles trying to over take a lorry on the motorway on a 125 only to realise, the only reason I could go faster than the lorry (56mph), was because I was in it's slip stream. It took me 3 attempts to work this out. The NC if you work with it will still get to "oh ****" speed quick enough on twisties and will go round them faster than I'm prepared to go round them. Who cares that as soon as the road opens the Suicide Sunday power rangers blast past you up over the ton. The places that I am comfortable to get above the limit these days are so rare, it's not really worth having a bike with a lot of authority in that area. Not when you factor the budget, bike, insurance, tax and maintenance all go up, not to mention the tickets/points for trying to stretch the poor cobbled pony's legs once in a while. Not worth it "to me".

There is something to be said about 2 cylinder (or smaller) engines and having to work with them to get the best out of them. While your mate on the litre bike is "Dum, de dum, de dum" bored able to just dial up and down the revs like a singer, hold 40....0.5 seconds pull, hold 60... dum, de dum. You are clicking up and down the box trying to staying the right torque curve band. But your having more fun "trashing it", "getting your money's worth out of it". If you have ever tried to trash a litre bike that way. Good on you. I "noped" right out of that about 10 seconds later. Being able to leap frog past cars doing just shy the limit with just a twist to gain 30mph in under a second on the motorway. I will miss that on a big inline 4. We won't agree on Harley's though. I just don't get on with the engineering or the culture, I don't see the point of them and they are still to this day, almost as a feature, inherently dangerous. But tell me this is a myth.

From captain Hindsight

Yea. I have 2 test rides on it, probably 2 hours. My last bike was a CBF1000. So, no, the NC750X doesn't have that relentless pull in any gear across the whole range. It isn't even frightening. However, it will happily munch highway miles in comfort and the low down torque is really "useful" in traffic. It feels like it leaps around in little squirts blapping and thumping like a twin. 2nd gear is good for nailing it out of 30mph zones and it has no problems accelerating own the slip road onto the motorway. As long as you are willing to stir the box and ride it in it's narrow torque window

The 850cc version is still "CGI-ware" for now. I'm have my eyes more on the up coming road version of the Africa Twin, I think they are calling an NT1100? The 2021 has the 270* crank. Yes, it makes the appropriate BLAP noise when you blip it on downshift. An after market can would make that even better. Any way, I had another chat with him and I think I found common ground. You see he owns at any one time 3 or 4 bikes. He rides 50cc 2 strokes and uses a 1990s Honda 650 for longer trips. When I pointed out I want a single bike that does everything adequately, an all rounded, with modern tech and be bullet proof reliable for a non-mechanic he could see the point. He is more interested in bikes that do somethings well and are rubbish at other things. Fair enough.

"That's a bland, bland bike with no character", said a friend when I told him my new bike was an NC750X. What exactly does this mean? Granted my friend is a life long bike tinkerer, runs his own business, but what he usually does is goes out and finds death traps from bygone years, usually small 2-strokes and soups them up into being even more of death traps. He owns a V6 custom bike, which he is actually fitting a supercharger to it now. It already had something like 200bhp. He does not own any bike gear, rides in a normal coat, jeans and trainers. So I don't take bike advice from him, except maybe to discuss bike mechanical issues. But this "Character" they talk about, I still trying to work out what they mean. To be honest by first thought is that many bikes have faults and annoyances which people learn to live with then refer to it as "character".

I had a CG125 as my first geared bike, following 3 scooters. I lucked out and got one in mint condition with only 2500 miles on it. Usual story, someone bought it to learn on, got their test, traded up. It doesn't do anything special, but it's reliable. I completed my first full service on it. Oil, (no filter! you have to take the engine part to get to the centrifugal separator they use), plugs, brake pads. I think hit the wheels with chrome polish and gave the bike a full detailing. That night some drunk teenagers came into my front garden, snapped the steering lock and wheeled it into a near by waste ground, pulled the fuel line off the tank and set fire to the bike. It still to this day makes me wary of cleaning the bike too well!