Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Route 66 east from Chicago to LA, then up highway 1 to Monterey, over to Yosemite then back to San Francisco to finish. September 3rd to 29th.

Look me up when you hit LA fella - can recommend some of the local twisty road highlights.

Oh I went to watch the Supercross at Anaheim on Saturday night. Truly insane - the 450 final was 20 laps. I wouldn't have made 1....epic commitment. A very fun evening out - wembley should host a round!

I will try to remember! I'll be in LA on Monday 19th of September for 3 nights. Staying with a family member on Venice beach somewhere.

We're renting a GL1800 (the missus is coming) so not sure how many twisty roads i'll be searching for!!!

Cripes - at least you'll both be comfy and not have to panic about petrol!

Fortunately there are plenty of highly scenic, straight or mildly curving roads also....

Indeed. I figured for about 90% of my trip, i wont really be worrying about corners anyway.

Never ridden anything over about 270Kg before so another 100kG ish, excluding passengers might be interesting.

A few Goldwing handling tips here...seems like they can be hustled along OK!

http://www.motogeo.com/just-cruise-honda-goldwing-motogeo-adventures/

Did the cannons, vegas, death valley, west coast on a harley ultra, had a great time. The riding was very easy, you do have to get off the tarmac occasionally which needs care with so much weight to handle. Was scraping the foot boards for miles of bends in death valley.

As you're renting I would recommend paying for the damage waiver. It's easy to drop one of those super weight tourers especially when you get tired and the rental companies love to make a big fuss over tiny damages. I dropped a harley on a petrol pump in NZ, would have cost £750 to respray the fairing.

Had a great time though, would love to go back and do more.

On the clothing side of things, it's surprising how abrasive tarmac is. A 30mph slide can destroy normal fabrics.

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If you're looking at clothing for that trip I can recommend the Rukka Air suits with a lightweight waterproof for when it's cold or wet. Really comfortable from snow to 38 degrees and very good protection. Even second hand Rukka is a good investment.

That is so hideous that its perfect, I need one. Paint the nose cone tank bomber style?

Nothing hideous about it! Taking the husky out for occasional blast to keep it warm. Steep learning curve. Lot of stalling and flying away from junctions! Good fun though and getting a feel for it. Still haven't managed to straighten the gear shifter and to be honest I'm a bit worried cos, if it can shift up to 2nd, I would've thought the same action would bump it up to 3rd and so on. But anyway just wondering if riding it around only in first and second is gonna knacker it some how. Jung, sounds like you're making the most of it out there!

If you can shift 1-2, you should be able to get third. I'd take the lever off and get a workshop to bend it straight in a vice if you don't want to do it yourself. Take 5 minutes.

Are you sure you can't get third? Be surprised if anything is up with the gearbox. I'm assuming there is oil in it.... :)

Hi Guys,

Looking at doing my CBT this weekend, and then hopefully picking up a Vespa GT 125 I've had my eyes on for quite some time on gumtree.

So here's where I'm looking for a bit of assistance. In regards to insuring the thing, how do I go about this. If I like it and want to take it off his hands there and then do I then need to call the insurance company up and get them to insure it for the ride home?

Also In regards to the insurance, I have been looking at some quotes and am I right in saying I can put the bike value lower than its real value to make the overall insurance I have to pay lower. For example It will probably cost about £1000, but If I set it the bike value to £250 Is that allowed, I've been told by a mate it is. I know it means that if it gets stolen or is totaled I will only get back £250 but that doesn't bother me tbh.

Cheers guys

You can get 24hr cover to test ride a bike online quite easily. Then if you buy it you have time to take out a full policy.

I don't know for sure on the insurance point, but I assume that it will totally invalidate it in the event of a claim. Also lying to insurance companies is generally not a good idea as it's a bit fraudy.

You need to think what the point of insurance is. 1) it is a legal obligation, in which case you can just 3rd party. 2) it compensates you for loss.

For eg in my case my bike wouldn't be worth much to sell maybe £500 on a good day. For me to buy some sort of replacement until I get my full licence, I'd hope to get something for about £500-600. The insurance company quoted me c.£500 in which case there is no value in me doing anything other than 3rd party.

If the bikes value is £1,000 I think my it would be worth at least getting 3rd p, fire and theft. Especially as Vespas are desirable, light and often get stolen. You could always increase your excess to reduce the cost.

Put what it is worth - you won't get more than what is valued at on the open market on the day it is damaged or stolen. Watch out for excesses reducing what you will get - its worth playing with the amount of the excess to see how much you bear of the loss drops the premium in relation to what the payout is reduced by.

Do the same between having comp. and TPF&T cover - I think you could be surprised by how little the premium reduces if you take TF&T.

I've seen tpft premium being more than fully comp on more than one instance.

Took it off, got it pretty straight, is pulling through the gears pretty good I think! lots of stalling and trouble getting it going again. Just had to push it back from Holloway to Finsbury Park, think it must just be out of fuel but don't think I've done more than 30 miles on 5.5 litres though!? Dunno. Definitely leaking brake fluid so maybe leaking fuel as well. Oh yeah! Gear lever almost came off while I was riding it! Luckily I was just by a hungry house depot and their mechanic helped me. Fucking fun but problematic as fuck!

Oh and it started racing (that the right word?) when I was at a red light, like it sound like it was just revving up to infinity but I wasn't touching the throttle. Killed the engine and got it off the road

Sounds like carb action is required. Possibly a sticky throttle return cable but not as likely as vacuum leak or crudzilla in the thingamybob

An air leak probably. If pulling the choke out stops it then that proves it.
If it was a Vespa I'd say it was the flywheel side oils seal or the carb needed a rebuild.

Slightly unrelated but can anyone recommend an insurance broker in north or east London please?

Looking to insure a 125cc but since moving to Walthamstow premiums have gone insane (£400-£500 for 3rd party!)

Not London, but gives a quote online, and I thought very good when you ring them.
http://www.peterjamesinsurance.co.uk/
£82 TPFT named rider only for two 'classic' mopeds - might be worth a few minutes online to find out?

I had a bike stolen which was insured for the price I payed, I had a bargain and the insurance company paid market value which was about a grand more at the time. The price you give is just an indication and is unlikely to affect the premium much. The largest risk the insurance company are taking is the 3rd party risk. If you injure someone or damage property more valuable than your bike then they could end up shelling out tens/hundreds of thousands.

You usually need a valid insurance policy to tax a vehicle and these days you are expected to tax the vehicle when you purchase it/before you drive it home, either online or on the phone. If you don't think you can manage that or want more time, see if you can get the seller to bring the vehicle to your house and offer them a cab ride/train ticket home. I've done this in the past but visited them first. Some sellers will do it to get the money.

You don't need insurance to tax a vehicle.

You can also tax a vehicle online with the v5 info.

So, you could tax it online from your phone after purchasing it, then ride it away. (With the insurance cover that was mentioned up thread)

Cheers all yeah I'll try getting the crud out the thingamy for a start