Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

140 mile round commute. :( FML.

Ah - that'll do it

I want one now.

Ha - there is that.... :)

I hated my 04 ZX10, gutless like a 600 with a surge over 9k, awful tingly vibes and a shit gearbox. I really wanted to love it as they look so cool and it was my first Kawasaki since a much loved AR50/80.

My love of K5/6 GSXR thous is well documented - one of the all time great superbikes and absurdly competent as an all rounder.

Gearboxes on big Kawasakis do tend to be a bit "agricultural".

IMO the 750 is the K5/6 GSXR to have ... much more fun and really rewarding to ride.

All that generation GSXRs are great. I love the 750s too - they're definitely less intimidating if you're getting after it which is fun on track. Less versatile on the road perhaps as you miss the astonishing smooth-turbine midrange shunt of the thou.

I have a soft spot for one of the anniversary GSXR750XK5 they did, to go along with the 750L special I've been building in my head for years. I definitely prefer that K4/K5 shape for the 600/750s. The K5/K6 thou is the one though, still a stonking bit of kit 13 years on.

Double post fail.

Water in fuel again.
Bike lives outside (no cover, because humidity rots everything out), fuel tank removed, cleaned (plastic tank) refilled with 100% fresh fuel inc tap, carb and lines totally cleaned out 3 months ago. Now I've got around 3l of water in a 17l tank again.
Not sure if its the water drain/overflow at the neck that keeps blocking* allowing rain water to get in there or if its just utter shite fuel I keep ending up with. In that 3 months done about 5k miles (courier work, hardly ever get out of city).

*Just taken apart and not blocked, but it is quite small ID tubing (maybe 3mm?) so doesn't exactly flow well if anything but pure water ends up in there.

Manifests itself as when fuel gets low and turn to reserve that everything below the level of the normal tap height is pretty much water, so it sucks that in, blocks up the jets (water doesn't atomise out of the jets like petrol does) and get a no start, or it'll only run off choke until that also clogs with water.

I've got a plastic tank too - problem I've got is ethanol in fuel permeates outward causing localised paint blistering - common on 955i's with similar tank.
Think your only solution is replacement tank, can you get a steel/alu alternative ?
Just cover the tank only ?

I used it as an excuse to sell my CBF500 and buy the tiger.

I am doing 250 mile round trip to Suffolk to see my little one whilst my divorce is getting sorted and so wanted something more comfy. PIcked up the '11 plate low mileage Tiger and it is so, so much more comfy and having 6th gear gives great MPG too at just over 50mpg

What bike?

Seal on the fuel lid? Are you getting fuel from the same place?

Every cloud, nice one!

New helmet day! Just picked up a Shoei X-14 to replace my beloved Kiyo rep X-12. In a gaudily taste-free 'colorway' that's rendered it sale proof. (Except at 300 bucks off RRP to me.)

I'll leave it a couple of days for my card to stop smoking and order up a fire orange, iridium visor to complete the 90s crotch rocket-naff aesthetic.

This is my 4th Shoei and only 6th road Helmet in 20+yrs, clearly goes to show I'm a lot better at looking after them than I am bikes.

1. 30quid plastic FM (or maybe AGV) Horrible. Lasted mere months before I realised it wasn't proper.
2. Very tatty Kev Schwantz Pepsi Rep Arai, bought from my colombian mate Jose for 30 quid and painted by me a garish orange and silver. Made me realise Arai don't fit my breadbasket shaped bonce.
3. Shoei RF700 Nobby Ueda Rep (barbed wire and sparkplugs) bought off another courier whilst I was working for Chain Gang for 70 quid. Great condition aside from a hole in the front chin vent where he had stuck fags through to smoke whilst riding. (No shit...) Fitted with a blue iridium and lasted 3 years until I wheelied into the back of a car and landed on it. Ended up giving the carcass to a Mexican dude in part trade for a motorhome in LA.
4. Shoei 'Spiderman' RF1000? Bought NEW but cheap...no one wanted to be spidy and I was skint. Fitted with a ho-hum black visor (because skint)...lasted (eh-hem) TEN YEARS before I gave it to a mate. Paint work and lining still in superb condition, that was one quality helmet.
5. Shoei X12 Kiyonari Rep - Silver Dragons. Bought new, fitted with a silver iridium visor. Lasted 6 years and still in good shape but now too loose on my wrinkled old dome. Likely hair loss a contributing factor. The helmet that made me bessies with the old ladies in my local Chinese restaurant. They love the dragons. Never had the heart to tell them the rider and helmet were actually Japanese.

1. Pics to follow!
   
   

....OCD helmet screed over //

1996 BMW funduro.

Generally same two places, a sainsbo forecourt (fairly new built and very busy all the time) and a BP (older, less used).
The contents of tank today were full disgusting, black stinking water, fair bit of silt, horrible but prob about right for 5k miles.

Never figured out how cars seem to deal with bad petrol, when was the last time any regular car ever had its tank dropped and cleaned out.

Fuel filters, big ones, too big for motorcycles. In terms of water though it does affect cars, had water in a carb ice up one year and couldn't start the car. Got a lift home from a girl at work and got lucky though, every cloud etc.

Also just found fuel hose (marked with r9 which should be able to deal with the 5% ethanol petrol that the UK gets) rotted in a number of places. Hose is about a year old
Just rang Al the local mc dealers, a triumph, ducati, Honda and suzuki dealer. None of which seemed to know there was a difference in the rating of fuel hose and most had the response of "just get this stuff off a roll mate, works for me"*

• says the guy who has obviously never experienced a vehicle fire due to decaying fuel hose.
  

My fuel pipe rots in around 2 years. Had the same problem with suppliers, just shrug their shoulders. If you find a good one let me know.

Don't know if you can get it in the UK but I've had good results with Motion Pro Grey Line and our petrol is even shittier and full of ethanol. It's softer and more flexible than regular fuel line so make sure all your hose clips are good, it's easy to pull off a line by accident.

Great will try for some of that, motion pro make some good tools, their tyre lever/bead breakers are brilliant

Back together abd running like a bosse again.

So my XR is working again - after rebuilding the carb for the 4th bloody time. It got the full ultrasonic treatment along with all new jets, seals and everything else down to a new float bowl. Good news is that it runs great, definitely a crisper throttle response and it ticks over properly too. The odd thing is that the pilot air screw does almost exactly nothing.... I can only think that it's because the slow jet has been bumped up so much it just doesn't make enough difference to affect it?

I'll do a bit more commuting this week before I pronounce it fixed.

Just an FYI sportsbikeshop have discounts on AVG helmets at the moment.

Gratuitous new helmet pic.

1 Attachment

Looks nice. How heavy?

Good question...not sure. It does feel lighter than the previous X-Spirit though I'm pretty sure you can find lighter helmets. It's also very stable on your head at higher speed. Very happy with it - highly recommended.

Anywhere good for tyres in Vauxhall or tooting way. Need to get a new tyre for my gt550 as the rear seems to be ten years old and shit. I've never really liked it, always seem to have no idea what's going on at the back with it (metzeler lase tech I think) any recommendations for a decent commuter tyre, thinking bt45