Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Spotted this in my way back from work yesterday. Do want

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Spotted this in Finland.

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"On point"

Dropped the Mrs at work yesterday and headed out for a couple hundred sunny miles.

Cafe stop with lots of bigger engined and aftermarket exhausted bikes had me feeling a bit sorry for my sewing machine 375cc but getting completely airborne a few times and pinging the front up over the lumps and bumps on wee lanes made up for it!

Cafe'd up old Hondas always look a hundred times better than they should for some reason. Saw a girl on a mid 70s Honda in Dalston the other day, couldn't have been more than a 125 but it looked and sounded killer.

Shame there are so few around with original headers. They are cool.

this is my buddy's Honda.

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There's a girl on a proper tiny engined cafe racer who I see about Dalston, massive L plate on one side

That's gotta be the same one. Sort of metallic green?

Edit - the only thing I don't like about those cafe'd up Hondas is the removal of the front mudguard. Every single one I've seen has the mudguard removed, and yes it looks good, but it's dangerous if you're planning on throwing the thing around corners. That mudguard doesn't just stop mud getting in the engine, it also reinforces the front forks and stops them flexing and bouncing when you're down low and turning a corner at speed.

Yeah I've got a pic somewhere, I'll post it up.

Ha that's her. Such a great bike, clearly not the original colour tank but works so so well. I think it's a CB125 if I'm not a mlilion miles off.

Do you guys know of a good combined breakdown cover for both car and motorbike?

I have just renewed my motorbike insurance and didn't take breakdown cover.

Thanks

Vince

You'd be hard pushed to make anything look crap if you were making a cafe racer unless, of course, your surname was Teutul.

True that, though frankly if you were thinking of hurling something around corners just buy another bike in the first place. Count me in as one that really doesn't like most of the CB range - I got stuck with plenty of them as a kid out of poverty and they really are shit for the most part. The only one I kind of like is the 400/4, which is a pretty little thing with one of the nicest factory exhausts ever made. The CD200 Benly also gets a mild fondness rating for having the lowest pegs of any bike I've ever owned. (You could legit grind them, two-up in the pissing rain.) And for being quiet, frugal and virtually indestructible.

If you want an old, air cooled 8v four cylinder, buy a Suzuki or a Kawasaki. The GS motors are absolute peaches. As for the twins, aside from the Yam XS650 (which is actually really nice,) most are horrible.

If I fancied a vintage Cafe Racer, I'd start with an RD400 or 350LC. For something to cruise around on and be pretty and reliable, a mildly modded late 70s Triumph.

Every single one I've seen has the mudguard removed, and yes it looks good

I always thing it looks a bit odd TBH.

99% have some sort of slope or curvature on the rear even with cut down frames. Not having even a small cut down 'guard on the front wheel throws the aesthetic balance off for me.

Plus that it's obviously really impractical.

Out of curiosity with those cut down rears does shit get thrown up your back or into the engine?

It is not the size it is what you do with it.

Both

I like old CB's to be honest, cb750 is up there in the dream garage and the cbx has always intrigued me.

anyone ever ridden one?

Took the Husqvarna to a mechanics (not sure whether to name them) they took about two months to do the work I was asking and them made a massive fuss about it being a lemon, how dare you bring us this bike, that needs loads of work etc. (I did tell them that I didn't want to spend a shit load so that was sort of fair enough). Anyway, rode it home (about 8 miles) went away for three weeks, had a bit of trouble starting it but not too bad, rode it to work and back with a bit of a run around (max 20 miles) and the same problem they said they'd sorted has come back, that being oil leaking from the exhaust on to the back tyre. I paid them 450 for the work, sent them an email saying the same problem had come back, got no response. Wondering how to proceed. They made it pretty clear they never want to see the bike again, fair enough but that's a decent wodge of cash, for the same problem to appear after 30 miles.

I don't know what the problem was but I assume that it is two-stroke oil that's getting on the tyres, or is the bike four-stroke and it's a gasket problem? Both my SR500 and Tenere dribbled oil which ended up on the rear wheels. I found that the gearshift oil seals on both bikes were were to blame. A small diameter drill, self-tapping screw, a pair of pliers and a hammer and they were out and replaced. Just a possibility.

There should always be a bit of oil residue in a two stroke exhaust and depending on how it's been designed this may spray out of the end of the pipe onto the tyre. Especially with enduro/mx based bikes where a small bit oil won't make the blindest bit of difference to the amount of grip.

Can you post a photo of the oil both the leak and the tyre and explain where it's coming from? It may be that the pipe is full of oily gunge and just needs a de-coke with some caustic soda or it may be that the bike is over-oiling due to either incorrect oil pump/pre-mix settings or not being razzed up the revs enough.

salivate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8cx_3Nilmk

So I'm trying to replace the rear turn signals as the old ones were totally corroded and the bulbs couldn't be removed.
Mate gave me some LED ones but I'm getting nothing. Is it a case of having to replace the relay too as they draw less power?

There is a big resistor thing that you can put into the circuit, so that the whole thing draws the same power as the original bulbs. Trouble is figuring out where to put it, because it can get very hot.