Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Sounds nice, would love to see some photos.

france on the bandit.!

That's quite a lot of kilometers. If you haven't had fresh tyres, and a chain and sprocket set, in the last year, I'd change both. Check brake pads too. Other than the mechanicals, a triangle of insulation tape over the 'high-beam' part of your headlamp lens if it has one, and tell your insurers you are going abroad. A Green Card is no longer valid currency, nor, in my short but detailed experience, is an E111 NHS form.

And some foam ear-plugs. Tinnitus ain't fun.

Bikes don't have directional headlamps like cars do. No tape necessary.
Make sure you have European breakdown cover.

The clear visor its coming with is antifog but I don't seem to be able to find an antifog tinted one, might have to go with these pinlock things, anyone used them?

I have a pin lock thing on my Arai. It was a bit fiddly to fit, because I was paranoid about putting fingerprints between the layers. Now it's on, it works perfectly.[/QUOTE]

Cheers. I had a thing similar to the pinlock in one helmet, that stuck on to the visor and it was keech, the adhesive was poo and it got wet and foggy under/between it and the actual visor.

I can buy a tinted visor with pinlock already installed from racevisors.co.uk so may go that route.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn/news/newsresults/videos/2013/may/may0313-video-pinlock/

That's quite a lot of kilometers. If you haven't had fresh tyres, and a chain and sprocket set, in the last year, I'd change both. Check brake pads too. Other than the mechanicals, a triangle of insulation tape over the 'high-beam' part of your headlamp lens if it has one, and tell your insurers you are going abroad. A Green Card is no longer valid currency, nor, in my short but detailed experience, is an E111 NHS form.

And some foam ear-plugs. Tinnitus ain't fun.

Wouldn't worry about tyres unless they are quite worn, it is a bandit not a hyper sports 20 miles and new tyres type of bike. Just be wary if doing motorway miles and wearing the middle out ;) The chain should last if it is not at the end of it's life, maybe take tools to adjust it.

Everything else I agree but telling insurance....

Bikes don't have directional headlamps like cars do. No tape necessary.
Make sure you have European breakdown cover.

Bindits do, some later bikes have neutral lights.

Its just over a week until my 2nd foray into france on the bandit. I've installed a small screen since last summer, and i won't be going avec pillion this time so it should be more fun (and a bit quicker).
I've ordered some fresh oil and filter to do this weekend, and i'll check tyres and chain before i go. Is there anything else i might have forgotten? I don't remember preparing anything last year, but i may have just forgotten.
Riding Birmingham - Eurotunnel - Calais - Brittany then back the same route (ish) after a few days.
I hope it doesn't rain!
Check air filter?

Oh and use the super plus and not the normal lead free petrol as the forrin petrol contains lots of ethanol and motorbikes don't like it.

hmmm, used the regular stuff last time i was there, i found it was easy to distinguish between the regular unleaded, super unleaded and the E petrol with the ethanol in....

it should only be a thousand miles there and back, so not too worried about tyres. euro breakdown cover though - can i get that just for the trip? c'est combien?

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn/news/newsresults/videos/2013/may/may0313-video-pinlock/

Cheers fur that, hadn't realised they had a silicone seal.

I'm also off to France soon, for the last nine days of May. A loop from Calais to Reims, Dijon, Clermont Ferrand, La Rochelle, St Nazaire, Brest, St Malo to home. Mainly spending time in the Massif Central doing canyon roads and white water rafting.

My tips: legal requirement to carry spare bulbs. I take a waterproof pouch with v5, mot, insurance cover note (inc euro breakdown numbers), E111 card (these are free and better to have than not imo).

Last year we did many more countries on our trip but it was the petrol stations in France that gave the most grief. Quite a few are unmanned and wouldn't accept any of our credit/debit cards. I've also had many a friend who've had cloning issues after using their's too. Beware. It's common sense but if you're riding with someone with a smaller fuel tank never be tempted to skip topping up your own tank (or vice versa), otherwise you may have to be doing twice the number of fuel stops or even worse a bit of syphoning - although this was only on scooter trips to be honest, the bandit has a good 40+ miles on reserve.

Are you camping or B&B'ing?

And if you're a ponse like me, get a sat nav. It's fucking great for finding inner city hotels, petrol stations, hidden campsites etc. Still use a map but can't fault it once you're actually rolling.

Just thought of one more thing too, if you have a spare set of keys leave them with someone who is prepared to overnight fed-ex them to you! Again, not saying how this one sticks in my mind cough cough

I've similar problems with petrol stations when driving in a car round France - one return journey involved us almost running out of petrol, and preparing to sleep in the last petrol station we found until they opened again and a cashier could take our physical money. The final stop happened to be a Jet - the only one we saw in France - that accepted our visa cards and we could top up with enough to get back to Calais!

Luckily i'll be staying with friends rather than camping/B&Bing.

do you get euro breakdown just for the trip? who from?

I have it included in my insurance, full Euro breakdown with the RAC. I wasn't cheap but I go away every year so consider it a must. I've also broken down in France in the past and apart from rolling to a stop outside a remote pub I do not want a repeat of bullshit phone arguing that followed.

Don't go to Le Havre.
It's a nice enough place, but if you go there it will rain all day as some kind of cosmic punishment. I have no idea why.

Do not tuck your waterproof trousers into your boots. That, it turns out, is an unbelievably silly idea.

Service your bike before you go. When it decides to cut out at 80mph on the autoroute and you spend the next 4 hours in fear and misery wondering if you are going to be stranded or killed, and when you make it to an authorised dealer the cunt shrugs his shoulders at you and refuses to look at your bike because it's not booked in you will wish you'd just booked it in for plugs and oil before you left.

Final tip. Make sure you actually catch the ferry.

Went for an extended blast this morning on the new ZX6RR, took it to the redline several times and ohhh mammy! Really fast as you'd imagine, only after a couple of rides on the bike I'm feeling really confident and slightly relieved. Obviously the bike is fast, but what really surprised me was how the handling feels a lot more balanced and lighter than my old 400. Really looking forward to the summer and just relieved I hadn't spent my money on something I would resent. Nürburgring anyone?

Apologies if repost. But Lotus Motorcycles from Germany look mad as a hive of bees, all smoking cigars.

Carbon Fibre. 200 HP.
$139,000.oo each.

www.lotus-motorcycles.com

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That lotus thing is hideous. The antithesis of what lotus stands for...(in my opinion)

Jambon - great! I reckon my next sportsbike will be a 600 (or maybe 675.) Litre bikes are too lairy to really get after these days.

That lotus thing is hideous. The antithesis of what lotus stands for...(in my opinion)

That's what they stand for now, unfortunately. All bloat and bling.

washed and polished the Kwacker yesterday, even the wheels which was horrendous - now it still looks dirty due to the tyres - is it ok to use tyre dressing/back to black on the side walls?

Don't do it. Tyres best left well alone.

yeah probably right cheers

Any recommendations for learner 125s that would suit tall people? googling is turning up the Varadero, but I'm after something that looks a bit more like a transalp.

I'm 6'4" with long legs and got a Varadero (07) after i did my CBT late last year. Really enjoying it!

The CBT was on a CG125 (must've looked like a clown!) and I'd taken a CBF125 out for a day on hire before i went shopping for a bike and the difference is really telling. Much more room, and feels really 'big' (i.e. like it's not a 125 - although i've not yet done my DAS).

I did a lot of looking round for tall people-friendly 125s and have a feeling the Vara is probably your best bet - i was always under the impression it didn't look to far away from the transalp anyway, ha!

Don't do it. Tyres best left well alone.

Or buy new ones - if they are old junk-em.