Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

You may be able to claim from the council for repairs:

https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/pothole-damage-how-to-claim

Picked up one of these for my colleague on a trip recently. Want levels for a 2-stroke have gone through the roof since.

Report it, if for no other reason to prevent a cyclist finding that big puddle is in fact, an abyss which will have their front wheel resemble a Pringle and see them off to the emergency dentist.

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=20858

I had to report one yesterday which I kid you not was nearly a meter long and not much off a meter deep.

The roads North of Glasgow are in an appalling state after that cold snap. Be careful out there.

I'm still dealing with an acccident I had over 18 months ago, anyone that knows me can see I don't walk well these days, and i'm only 30!
Hit a series of potholes that had been repaired many times, fork crown partially snapped off sending me to my doom. Solicitor's don't really know how to deal with it, should be simple, but I think council making it very slow deliberately.

Forks now top out badly on the funduro, suspect I sheared one of the damper shafts, no oil has come out, they were recently rebuilt (with VERY correct level of oil in them) and aren't a shim type damper (which is easy fixed if shim's get distorted from such a violent slam). So either something loose, or something broken, either way, yeay.... *

*Should just drive everywhere in a heavy mod'd balloon tyre Land cruiser, its the only safe way!

Just bought a dehumidifier to keep the man cave dry, its roof and construction is good, however with high winds and rain a small amount gets under the door, with no ventilation this just wick's into the air and makes all my stuff damp.

Got a desiccant type machine which work down to 1c, whereas the cheaper compressor machines only really work down to about 10c, and even then, they aren't efficient at their task as they tend to ice up. Hopefully it can keep the moisture at bay, currently never goes below 85% humidity in there which is not good for anything.

Also a massive 4hp/200L/18-20ccm compressor, was going cheap despite being new. However, was a bit dense when it comes to power needs, its single phase (yeay?) but means it draws upto 40a, which is tricky as consumer unit in that building has a peak of 62a, but that includes a bunch of other stuff.

They're lovely, a 3XV is definitely on the wish list. One day...

Yeah, stunning bits of kit ... very close to a GP bike, but for the road!

Dead cool bike - looks immaculate too! (They're really nothing like the GP 125s though, which is mostly a good thing for road use.)

I want to start riding bikes in the spring... Mainly for a 10-mile commute with big hills, twisty bits and national speed limit sections.
I know nothing about bikes and have full car license etc, what are my options? Obviously start with the CBT but then is a 125 going to be enough/safe? Worth going for direct access?
Also what would be a good/cheap bike to learn on?

I'd say go big, it's not cheap mark you. I was in a similar position 18 months ago. Did DA passed and I started on a 650 Bandit.

No regrets.

rgv 250.....you know it makes sense.

Fair play, I was thinking more GP bike of the 1990s, with it being 2-stroke sports bike. The RGV250 is much closer though.

I suppose cheap is relative, I’m just a bit confused about how you get trained on >595cc without the licence...

You're allowed to ride a big bike under supervision of an instructor, part of what makes the process expensive. Some people prefer to get compulsory basic training (CBT), ride a 125 for a while to get used to the roads then take a course on the larger bikes. A 3 day course is usually enough to prepare you for the main test (mind you it's a long time since I did mine and they've got more complicated).

I took the CBT/Full licence later option and rode a 100cc for a few months. It helped me to feel a bit more comfortable with the training/test.

What I wouldn't do is full licence straight into brand new big bike. You will most likely have some sort of accident in the first year, even if it's just dropping it at a junction because you miss your footing but it will cost you much more on a fully faired brand new bike than it would on a 10 year old 600cc. I've heard plenty of first hand horror stories about that path. One which still makes me laugh is a guy who bought a TL1000, passed his test and jumped on it, stacked it at the first roundabout as he had no idea how to turn it in fast enough to go round. They teach you how to ride a bike according to the rules but not really how to ride a bike!

I'll probably have a shot at direct access sometime this year. I'm familiar with riding though - on a learners back home in NZ you can ride basically the same bikes as an A2 here, so I started out on a 250cc dual sport bike and then went to a small, light and slow 500 road bike, and rode it everywhere. I think you're very likely to drop a bike at least once in your first couple of months (particularly off road), so something cheap and hard to damage is a good option.

I think getting used to riding on a slow-ish bike is a good idea, but I'm not sure about a 125 on the open road...

I’m fine with an old/cheap/hard to damage bike and I don’t want to hurt myself (or anyone else) but I also don’t want to waste money on a bike which isn’t going to work for the riding I want to do. Had no idea until recently that a 125 tops out at ~65, which doesn’t sound great for keeping up with cars.
My only bike experience (other than cycling obvs) is riding a 125 scooter (with broken speedo) in Thailand 🙄

Oh and I’m quite certain I’ll drop the bike getting up my driveway at some point, it’s bad enough in a car!

I guess you're thinking about the motorway part of the journey and keeping up with cars. You can't ride on a motorway with L plates anyway (which you'll need if you only have a CBT). Try taking an alternative A road it would be more fun anyway.

T junction safety is one of the big problem areas of motorbikes and where you need to worry most, getting overtaken by cars in almost any scenario doesn't pose a huge risk as you're not that big an obstacle. It doesn't happen very often anyway.

Maybe try a 5 day course where you go from no license to fully licensed.

There’s no motorway (fortunately), it’s all fun A-Road - there’s just a couple of bits of fast and steepish uphill where I imagine a smaller bike would struggle. Should probably talk to the motorbike boys at work tbh

Sounds like you're going to want something bigger, it's just a case of taking time off work and spending money on a course then the gear and the bike + insurance. If you've got a few grand to spare should be no problem.

When I did it time was tight and money too, doing them separately and putting up with a small bike for a few months helped to spread the cost. If you have a permanent job and a family, giving up the time/money to do it can be an issue. Great to get the full licence though and well worth the price of entry.

Yeah there's basically nothing much in common between the road going GP replicas of the late 80s and 90s and the RS/TZ etc customer race bikes.

They're still awesome though, I had a TZR250 and an RGv250. Would have another in a heartbeat if you could find them here, they're so exciting.

This is my working RS125 (1995) positively jewel-like (to me at least.)

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Learner legal ;)

More pics plz.

Awesome fun!