Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

New seals also.
Over time they swell and bind. You'll still be able to drive pistons back in with your fingers so think they are ok.
Sounds like a very slight bind, but worth doing.
My funduro needa front and rear rebuilt, both have swollen seals which manifests itself as a very small amount of travel in front lever and constant slight drag on rear disc. Passed two mot like that, it's not noticeable to someone who sees many bikes in a day, but I know what they feel like when all fresh and difference is worth it. Just got to actually do it

Also helmets on bars, mine practically lives on my massive mirrors. Keeps helmet dry when raining and impossible for it to fall off thanks to shape of mirrors.
See many folk leaving helmets on seats and tanks which makes me cringe.

Ws a local storey recently that a biker dropped a helmet off back of bike at speed, hit front of a car causg slight damage to car.
Biker didn't notice, car driver thoughtfully put helmet in prominent place by side of road.
Next day helmet gone
Day after car driver saw same bike again, with a child pillion wearing that exact helmet. Total twat. Car driver should have kicked the helmet in or binned it, though obviously they thought they were being a good person

I've just won this on ebay. It's a 1999 250 Virago.

Picking it up Monday.

According to the photo of the speedo it's only done 4200 miles!

Planning to extend the sissy bar, remove the screen and swap the bars for some narrow Z type bars. Eventually I'd maybe swap the seat to one of those one piece stepped ones like you see on 70s chops but that'll depend on what I can find cheap and what I can make fit the bike.

Should be fun.

Argh, insurance! What a fucking ball ache.

Current insurer won't add a 2nd bike to my policy, I can ride other bikes but the one I've just bought isn't currently insured by anyone else. Don't want to swap them over right now as that'd leave me with an uninsured bike to try and photograph and sell.

I've ended up having to buy the cheapest 3rd party policy I could find so I can ride the new bike home, I'll then cancel that as soon as I get home so I only incur the £25 fee not the £35 that it goes up to after 14 days and then once I get my current bike sold I'll swap the bike on the policy, which will probably incur a fee and fuck knows how much if any of a refund they'll give me.

Some places wanted to put an excess on the policy which was more than the value of the bike.

Where you going to sell it? I put mine on eBay but not had luck yet.

Also, could have looked for a policy that doesn't charge cool off period few (isn't that illegal) and then cancelled, regardless of actual policy price.

Was just gonna put it up on eBay.

£25 was the cheapest cancellation fee I could find. Most were £50.

Annoying. Cheaper than renting a van though.

Went to pick my bike up at the weekend. Was nice to spend some time with my dad, I don’t speak to him that often and we’ve not had too many shared interests before. Also don’t know how many more years he’ll be riding so was great to make some memories

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Cheaper than renting a van though.

Only just.

Re helmet safety, I use one of these, straight over my shoulder, no worries but I have a topbox to carry it in...

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I'm riding London to Chester this evening after work. Think will do m1 or m40 to Birmingham then a41 from there to make it a bit more interesting.

Are there any other routes or main roads up through Oxford to Brum to look at?
Mways are just fucking dull on a bike and easy to start getting faster on them.

I vaguely remember some great roads going in to Banbury from the north, I wish I could be more precise. Had great fun whipping through them.

Depends how long you've got but A40, A44 (Fish Hill is shelgripped for max lean), A49 then A51 would be my choice for an A-Road route.

That looks good, thanks, where would you recommend jumping on the A44?

Is this better then staying on A40 until A49 at Ross on Wye?

I'd stay to the north of Oxford and pick up the A44 there, the A44 is a bit quieter than the A40 and a bit twistier. Fish Hill is a great set of sweepers if you get a clear run at them and worth it just for that. There's a roundabout at the bottom in case you want to go back up for another go...

Hate that stuff, all over central Scotland it's that chewed up that it's worse than having none, tyres don't know what to think!

Have found a lot of policy are up around £75-90 cancellation fee even within first week or two.
UK vehicle insurance market is a right swindle. Many folk get stuck moving vehicles around because of the industries greed and total inflexibility

Yeah if it gets water under it in winter then freezes then if lifts up and ruts up something rotten. Hopefully Fish Hill is a bit more tropical than central Scotland and it's still intact!

Having had my provisional license for long enough that it's due to expire in August without me having actually ridden a bike I think it's time to start looking into getting something and getting my lessons out of the way...

I have a Ducati 600SS that I've been chipping away at a rebuild on and turning it into a sort of cafe racer/ custom effort but I know I'm going to be absolutely crippled on insurance for such a thing as a learner rider so I was thinking I'd be better off with something that's already learner legal...

Bizarrely (or not) due to the power to weight ratio most of the big HDs are learner legal and I've been admiring an advert for this beauty at €5,900...

Is this an absolutely stupid idea?

How old are you? I'm guessing you're not based in the UK if the price is in € but I was surprised at how cheap insurance is as a freshly qualified rider...

I'm 29 but the Irish insurance industry is our best joke since Paddy Englishman, Paddy Irishman, Paddy Scotsman...

Have to admit the idea of a big torquey sled kind of appeals to me too, it's mostly just going to be used for sunny Sunday coffee spins anyway, I have mountain bikes sating my adrenaline quotient and the roads and drivers here are even worse than the UK!

Seems a bit crazy. They are a handful at low speeds but fortunately if you drop them they don't lie right down so the plastics are saved, unless you drop them on something else! If it's the kind of riding you want to do though, they deliver. Of course you need to get screaming eagle everything and customise it constantly so the sticker price is just a down payment.

Yeah I think it's something I'd like to have in the garage anyway so it's more just a question of whether or not it's a terrible idea to start with one.

The whole Screaming Eagle/ RSD thing isn't my jam though so at least I'll dodge that bullet :)

Pics of the 600ss pls

I know it's a technically a modified Ducati but surely an air-cooled 600 twin can't be too mad on insurance, can it?