Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

EU safety standards are about as effective for bike lids as they are for cycle helmets. The minimum standards appear to be trivial to achieve yet there is a huge amount of debate as to their effectiveness in real life accidents.

Whilst I used cheap lids when I was young and invincible, nowadays I err towards caution.

IME the things you're likely to fail on...brake efficiency, emmisions, numberplate, sidelight etc bulbs out, grips not firmly attached.

The first two are probably big jobs, easiest way is to make friends with the tester. Others are just a case of going over the bike with a fine toothed comb prior to the test.

Lol

I finally got mine pretty good.

Cleaned it as per instructions then twisted one of the screws a little to tighten.

Clapham North Repairs have been my go to for many years, not been recently though and they were talking about closing as the place was going to become a bar. They've known me for 15 years and helped with many small issues over that time, things have got tighter with MOTs in the last 5 years though, there's less allowed to slip. Usually no appointment required for motorbikes but you might have to wait or go for a coffee/Infinity in Clapham High Street.

How far SE?

Try Russell Motors on Falcon Road, nice and helpful guys.

What the fuck! I expected the people in this thread to be all about civility, but all keep hearing now is "stop fucking around, get a hoon bike"!

Much obliged for the fantastic advice @Jung
Thanks a whole bunch @lynx really needed more hair tearing! I really like this ratty/project bikes. Bandit over SV?

Personal preference for me in the bandit as I like them, have owned a few and like modding them and easy way to do valve clearances ;)

Both the SV and bandit need suspension playing with and standard rear shocks don't last. SV do have a race series.....I know a few people who have modded the engine to 700cc ;)

i have an agv skyline, its ok, better than the cheaper caberg helmet i used to have. its nice and light and snug, I tried some in a shop then bought the best fitting one online that i could afford. its a lot quieter than my old helmet which is something i wanted, and it has a flipdown sunvisor which is OK as well.

I would always just try to spend as much as I can afford on a helmet if you're going to be razzing about - i only wear it out of town, commuting etc i just wear a much cheaper open face helmet as it's pretty heaby traffic/low speeds.

Bandit is a bit intimidating for some reason at this point, it's got that old Lamborghini "I will suddenly murder you" feel to it, hence the SV.
Suspension wise the gsxr front end swap would definitely be on the menu, as will a shock tune/replacement for the rear.
I hate the internet. Curious question, what makes you say this one is crashed? The nose cone raises some eyebrows, but what would one look for?

Front light and clocks. Does it have the dash lights, indicator lights needed for an MOT?

Also gear lever looks like it has a bolt instead of the correct rubber.

Also has clip ons not handle bars as if it were a naked SV.

Yeah, the wonky light and clip ons gave suspicion. The lack of detail in the advert nailed it in.
What the hell is it with people writing a single line of description. Do you want to sell the bloody thing!

Could be cheap...or look on sv650.org see what is for sale.

Thanks man, the hunt shall begin

@Sparky ... Scooterworks on Enid St, SE16. Really good guys, lots of old Italian scoots. I've been taking my bike there for its MOT for years.

Thing about bike MOTs is that pretty much everything that they check are things that you should be checking on a regular basis - and it isn't hard to learn how to do it, so by the next MOT you won't be needing to wonder if it will pass or not. Mate of mine likes to do videos on this sort of stuff, though you might have to adapt it all to a scooter. Here is his video on pre MOT checks.
https://youtu.be/uSC0MmS65qo

pinlock - didn't realise the bloody screws on outside of lugs weren't just ordinary philips screws, so have almost reamed them out trying to turn, then realised the whole cam thing going on

too late, no matter which way I turn, the pinlock seals OK when the visor is out of the helmet - when its placed on helmet it stretches it slightly, enough to make the very bottom of the pinlock open up, and that's where the condensation starts to rise up into the visor

shit design have to say

bought some Muc Off Premium Anti-Fog treatment last night - first 5 mins this morning thought it was great, no misting at all - until, it actually starts to turn the vapour from your breath into liquid, which then forms all over the inside of your visor - fucking shit

I'm so pissed off with riding in this fucking weather :/

I always found pin locks a pain as well. Only thing that reliably works is that Foggy neoprene breath guard

^ thanks will check this out!

My pin lock seems to work just fine. But then I can never really be sure as my glasses are misted up anyway.

Mine works really well but, after about 45 mins in this weather, i do start to get condensation creep from the bottom of the visor. All it take is 2 mins with the visor up to clear it though.

Never really found a solution in town other than opening and closing the visor when stopping and starting.

Here is his video on pre MOT checks.

Haven't watched the video yet but since it's a Harley in the thumbnail I presume it goes along the lines of "Yer bike's 3 years old now, it's bound to have gotten wet at least once so it's gonna be fucked. Throw it out and buy a new one and avoid the worry of the MOT." or something along those lines?

True dat. Having a big schnozz doesn't help either I'm sure. (me)

Harley hater eh? What's not to love about a bike designed in the Fifties that you can sell after three years for as much as you paid for it?

Eh?

When we sold our three year old one we got about a third of what we paid for it. And that was after having an engineering firm remove stuck/sheared exhaust studs, replacing the ecu, repainting/powdercoating about 75% of the bike to cover corrosion...