What did you do to your bike today?

[RideWithStyles]

1 hour ago, Simon Davey said:

@RideWithStyles

Which tyres do Suzuki fit it with as a new bike? Are they work considering? 

This is a 20year old bike now, original fitment in typical Japanese fashion back then was Bridgestone bt…dinosaur age, which is a tyre stopped making many years ago.

brief summary:

This bike came on some Bridgestones when I bought it years ago and they were…(thinking of diplomatic to not offend the BS die hard slags)...not to my liking one bit so I will not be considering that brand what so ever. Had them on cars too but just don’t like them.

 

so brands to think about was;

Metzelers as I’ve had a lot of them like rensport, m3,m5,m7, z8. (Z6r, 955,gsf)

z8 have been great again though I was hoping for a bit more mileage from it…so was looking at the possibility of a more modern fitment. The Roadtecs are a massive jump in price with low chance of improvement in mileage to the outlay required.

 

pirelli, had a good few of these Diablo, Rosso 1and 2, st etc. (Zx6r,thunder,955, benelli)

GT, was on the wifes 125, lasted very well but the grape vine and pasting shows these will be dropped some time soon, so don’t want to fall into that problem of sourcing.

not wanting to pay for the overpriced gt2 if avoidable.

ST I had on the Benelli was okish (compared to the Flintstones) but the only tyre apart from BS that set off the tc ever wet or dry, easy to break its limits of braking and acceleration dry or wet even on a 200kg 46hp bike so not wanting to jump on that with more weight, power and less adjustability.

Michelins: road2 and 2ct, (zx6r, benelli) good times and last well but also disconcerting. Price has gone up a lot with these as mentioned before. Brilliant tyres but My only gripe is that they don’t talk much due to the soft carcass which makes a lovely ride and finds grip but where that point of limit is and trust of when (wet or dry) I never can seem to relax about.

 

was maybe looking into the Dunlops, I did ride on a laverda many moons ago that were on d214 which one point surprised the shite out of me on a round about but these were very re known for sketchy behaviour but more modern ones are better than the death traps. A 748 had a different model on, abit harsh (the duc was set up firmly too i believe) but never quite managed to make me need dry cleaning or hospital food unlike the 214’s.

this would be mega premium to make me uncomfortable buying the mutants (things may change with my employment so all year riding maybe on the cards). Roadsmarts 3 was a possibility.

Avons I’ve had some good times on (thunder cat,zx6r,benelli) and one blotch (thunder cat) but never got to working out the solid reason for it. Now they are harder to get hold of, cost more, fewer available and made in the EU. So not them.

continentals, was on the cbf125 which I didn’t mind while the wife wasn’t as keen. 

General Difficultly sourcing and availability seems to be a a turn off. Had them on many cars and been ok to good with them.

 

I was even looking left field (desperate) of maxxis, cst and anlas….but the risks were higher with less potential rewards.

 

so as brief goes, I’ve been considering quite abit recently. 

 

 

 

Edited April 17 by RideWithStyles
Autocorrect

[Simon Davey]

Blimey, that's an exhausting amount to consider 

 

Edited April 17 by Simon Davey

[S-Westerly]

I like Metzlers, had them on the Ducati but I found they error prone to suddenly wearing at the end of their life. They'd look decent but 700 miles later They'd be squared off and the tread would seemingly evaporate. Currently got Continentals but haven't made up mind about them yet.

[Mawsley]

Dear 10yr old motorbike bolts...

[V650]

Got out early for a small run of about 50 KM

Of course it lashed rain so the bike was manky when I got home

a quick wash and a bit of lubrication  and then a lick of Autosol on the pipes

 

[Simon Davey]

Not sure if those pipes should be so shiny, you're just showing everyone else up

[V650]

4 minutes ago, Simon Davey said:

Not sure if those pipes should be so shiny, you're just showing everyone else up

Gotta have some bling  

And as it is a bank hol here in Ireland tomorrow I might get out again just to muck it up

[bonio]

I admit being a tad envious of shiny headers.

[V650]

After the polishing of the headers I straightened out a couple of the fins on the radiator where a couple of stones had hit and then gave it a little bit of paint to tidy it up

 

Looks like were in for a bit more rain here in the Wicklow mountains so not sure if I will go out again today ( the thoughts of cleaning and drying it again ) 

I do need to readjust the new chain though so that might inspire me to get out of bed

Edited April 21 by V650

[Tinkicker]

Confucius say man with shiny pipe has sore fingers.

[V650]

7 hours ago, Tinkicker said:

Confucius say man with shiny pipe has sore fingers.

Ah yeah but he diden't mention the sore back / Knees

Had to have a couple of shots of Bushmills purely for medicinal purposes of course Wink Wink

[Simon Davey]

I grabbed an hour to fit the SW-Motech crash bars. Or, to be really honest, my SW-Motech crash bars come expensive light mounts....
Those two small bolts where the bars meet in the middle were so fiddly, and were the most frustrating part of a very simple task.

 

Edited April 22 by Simon Davey

[Mawsley]

Battery may have said 12.6V but turns out it delivered bugger all torque, dying on the button press. Something so simple I forgot to check. Kicking myself.

 

New Motobatt - instant engine - dead bike lives! 

 

Only shag was removing the fuse box cover. Took me almost 3/4hr. Unbelievable stupid bit of plastic. Safe to say it hasn't been put back on.

 

[Joe85]

No tickets yet… 

[S-Westerly]

2 hours ago, Joe85 said:

No tickets yet… 

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. You may have got away with it if you've not heard anything by now.

[Tinkicker]

Took the 175 out of conservatory, fired her up and let her warm through.  My she sounds lovely.  I hate the idea of parting with her.  I also hate selling stuff.

 

No nibbles yet though.  I am well aware that she is VERY expensive compared to most 175s but unique and pretty much a brand new 1979 bike.

Despite over 1200 views and a few comments from people wishing they had the money, nothing has turned into a offer.  29 watchers, but watchers are immaterial.  Dunno why fleabay bothers recording those.

 

There has been a flurry of tidy 175s appeared since I put mine up, all around £500 to £1000 or so less, albeit not quite to the same standard, and after a week, I am starting to see emails from ebay telling me they are now open to offers as they thought I knew something they didn't and tried to sell at an inflated price.  Nope, I had a price in my head that would persuade me to part with it at a small loss and less than its valuation, nothing more.

 

I will allow the ad to run the full month at full price then keep it.

 

Seems nothing over £3500 is getting any real interest.  I guess with the state of the economy, no one is really up to parting with large amounts of cash on a 1970s motorcycle.  Even 250/ 350LCs seem to have hit the stops.

Edited April 24 by Tinkicker

[Mawsley]

7 hours ago, Tinkicker said:

... I guess with the state of the economy, no one is really up to parting with large amounts of cash on a 1970s motorcycle.  Even 250/ 350LCs seem to have hit the stops.

 

Houses in our village at the bottom end of the range used to go within days of going on the market, usually investment companies from London. We've got five homes near us that have now been up for two months. Not even the buy2let crowd are buying anymore. Personally, I can't help but feel that the secondhand bike market needs a decent shakeup - prices got mad.

[Simon Davey]

 I jumped on last minute and road for an hour.
I only clocked up 45 miles, but it was a test ride.
I had lowered my seat, as the seat was putting pressure on my inner thigh, and was also tilting me forward, which put pressure on my coccyx leaving me with a very numb arse after an hour. So much more comfortable, and only stopped after an hour because I had to fill up. 
I'd also moved my Zumo to the side a little to allow installation of a mobile phone cradle/wireless charger, which does the job very nicely.
Once again the 1050 was a dream to ride, it dares you to tuck into corners, and having taken the SDMS out of "baby mode" I was impressed with the throttle response, which although more responsive, was still predictable and controllable.
Fantastic bike, can't wait to get out again. Even at the "running in" stage, it's still great fun on one hand, but quite sublime and "waft-like" on the other.
Lastly, I tried my new ear plugs, they're just £15 per pair, they do a superb job of filtering out wind noise, but, although not crystal clear, I can still get decent audio from my Cardo, and I can have the same volume at 70Mph (ehem) as I can at 30Mph.

[Tinkicker]

10 hours ago, Mawsley said:

 

Houses in our village at the bottom end of the range used to go within days of going on the market, usually investment companies from London. We've got five homes near us that have now been up for two months. Not even the buy2let crowd are buying anymore. Personally, I can't help but feel that the secondhand bike market needs a decent shakeup - prices got mad.

Even stuff like the CRF 1000 and 1100 dct africa twins are sticking.  12 months ago they would have flown out the door.  I have been watching at least three 1100 autos with hard luggage, less than 12000 miles and seemingly reasonably priced, fail to attract a singe bid before running out of time, never mind the buy it now price.

 

At work, I just took wednesday and thursday off as holiday because there was feck all to do.  We are just ticking over.  No big projects so little demand for heavy equipment.  Mining equipment and airport equipment still coming in, but the rest such as big crane transmissions has dried up.

 

I figure we are in a world recession, the economists are just not admitting it yet.  I am so glad I can cover the very little debt I have if needs be.

Edited April 25 by Tinkicker

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Oil change on both bikes. Blimey - oil is getting expensive these days. They both get annual oil changes despite the mileage being much less than the service intervals. 

[Fiddlesticks]

Well, it was a nice day so I thought I'd have another stab at loving the Thunderbird. (To ride, not just to look at). So added it onto the second insurance policy and took it down to SRT for a quick MOT. 74 miles since the last one - a far cry from the 14,000 miles we've put the Explorer through.

 

 

It passed.

 

So this year's mission is to move house to somewhere with a bigger garage, and buy a big red toolbox for the stickers I keep collecting. And ride the bike more!

Edited yesterday at 13:56 by Fiddlesticks

[S-Westerly]

I give stickers to my grandchildren. Drives their parents nuts when they have to peel them of the walls.