Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Vision hold their money well but do get through parts quite rapid (when doing epic courier miles on them), 110 is slow but good on fuel, very small tank, 3litres I think which is a joke. April aren't hard to get parts for anymore, esp somewhere like London, will be much quicker but maybe depreciate harder?

I'd just get whatever has biggest wheels and screen options.

Why?

Cheers. I’m up in Derbyshire these days. Whatever I get will do about 100 miles a week so not courier levels of abuse but a fair few miles on shitty roads.

The SH125 has the biggest wheels but they sell for considerably more. They look like great scooters but probably out of budget.

riding along the southbank of the thames round the o2 and then sth towards greenwich there's a little detour around a new development, it takes you past a ducati specialist ray petty ? went past there last week and outside was an 848evo and a 998r plus a bunch of other dukes stunning machines both
there is a little cluster of bike shops in that street, all well worth a look if you are passing

If you're not in London why get a scooter? There are some great 125 bikes around.

I'd have absolute faith in any product Schuberth are willing to put their name to.

I’d really like a grom/msx

In Derbyshire? Wouldn't do anything but fully faired up there.

Never really thought about a bike but that might change.

As Dram Ham notes, the Grom is a cool little bike. Other people on my CBT were riding those and couldn’t stop grinning. But then neither could I on my scooter.

Grom with Ducati Hypermotard kit is awesome.

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Fixed a thing today!

Rear shock has been getting more and more saggy to the point I can flat foot (2 years ago it was barely tip toes) despite winding on more preloaded, assumed sprung was slowly weakening.

Turned out the hydraulic preloaded adjuster has just been slowly loosing it's fluid (to wrong side of Master piston), took it apart, cleaned up, new random o ring from a Reba build kit seems to fit nice, new shimano mineral oil, boom, have around 47 of my 50 clicks of preloaded now instead of around 12 of 50 yesterday (75kg rider should be 20 clicks).
Rides great now.

Here we are:
Anybody got a lead for parts for an old Guzzi?
The usual suspects have failed to deliver so far (gutsi-bits, guzziriders forum, etc)

I’m hunting for a left side intake manifold for my bike.
It’s a 1982 V50III (but apparently same part for C, Monza and police versions too)

This part number: GU19115081

And yes, I did break it myself, and yes I'm getting a torque wrench now...

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So It was about time to look at the braking on this bike. It's all pieces pieces on the table. Not exactly stuff to write home about.
Out come the pistons, and all I see is a single dust seal on each bore, which hints that someone opened them up before and left out the outer seals, which means I've got RSI from digging in to the seal collars to remove all the corroded shit.
Looking forward to some sweet sweet stoppies!
I've also concluded that stock levers are awesome, and shorty levers suck.

Most likely, dust seals seem to swell up fastest jamming it up, some folk just whip them out to get through mot.

Got some good seals from "powerhouse" on eBay, came with genuine brembo grease sachet which is a nice touch.

Got some good seals from "powerhouse" on eBay

Not in the UK these days, and buying anything online to get delivered here is harder than crossing Mordor on one leg.

Haha, which country?

Always find the UK very fortunate place to be. Can get almost anything same or next day.

Even places like Spain or Australia (not the remote bits) surprisingly hard to get anything more complex than zip ties.

Spain....and not even on the mainland.

I popped in on the Friday afternoon to a motorbike dealer/workshop to try source some. Normal opening hours are till 8pm. They were closed by 6; I asked around and apparently they weren't busy, so they decided to call it a week....

Finally got round to starting to do my fork seals today.

Disassembly wasn't too bad, supposedly you need a tool to reach down in side the fork leg to hold something while you undo the bolt at the bottom that releases the legs but compressing the spring a little seemed to do it, fingers crossed it'll be the same story for reassembly.

Before I put everything back together though I thought I should have a go at sorting the pitting on the tubes that's probably done the old seals in.

Started with 1200 grit emery paper and that seemed to knock most of the high spots down. 2000 grit has polished the marks from the 1200 out quite nicely. Anyone know how far I should go? I don't mind shelling out ten bucks or whatever it'll be for a mixed pack of Klingspor that'll take me up to about 7000 grit but I just wonder if it's really worth the effort.

Also, that seems to have smoothed off the high spots but there are still divots in the finish, not sure what I could apply to fill them in, or if they really need filled.

And yes, I know I should just buy new tubes or get these ones rechromed but that's all £££.

I was gonna chuck a set of gaitors on the forks, partialy for looks, partially so the ot tester doesn't see the pitting, partially to (hopefully) protect the forks moving forward. Bit worried that they hold moisture in though, just do it on a dry day and zip tie them tightly to the forks? Or will the fork legs lubricate themselves a little making worrying about this null and void?

2000 grit is as far as i've bothered before. With gaitors on, just smear up the inside of them with waterproof grease and seal top and bottom with a zip tie, makes a nice greasy atomsphere to prevent them from corroding again.

Have previously used lacquer and a sewing needle to dab in the pit marks, leave to dry (a week sometimes), then sand down with a rubber block + 2000 to make them smooth.

Not even been riding 6 months yet, just got knocked off on my way home. Not serious, only got cuts and bruises but the bike is fucked. Cracked one of the engine cases so it pissed out all it’s oil, fork is cracked at the axle end too.
Traffic was moving walking pace, clear oncoming lane so I was filtering on the right, only about 10mph and a driver suddenly turned right without looking in the mirror or indicating, hit the left side of me with her door/front wing.
Not really sure of the next steps so any advice appreciated. She’s immediately calling her insurance and reporting it to the police which I told her wasn’t necessary anyway. I don’t want to involve my insurance as I was not at fault so don’t plan on making a claim with them. Will want to make a claim through hers. I have a witness who corroborates that she moved without indicating and that I wasn’t travelling fast etc. She doesn’t have his details.

Fuck man!
Take care of yourself first, proper head to toe check, you'll be finding new scrapes in a few days time.
Bike home or had to get it recovered?
Pics of everything close up and far. Nail down that witness otherwise (and prob still will be a) knock for knock.
Avoid insurance if you want to a) not be paying for someone else's mistakes upto 5 years down the line b) want to get your bike and body fixed this year.

It happened about 300m from home so walked home, got changed and had a sit down then went back and pushed the bike back. I’m gonna give a solicitor a call in the morning. I’m getting worried now that she’s calling police and her insurance that she may be blaming me. Gonna walk back up to the scene to take photos of the road scrapes. I’m sure she pulled out a way before the junction to skip waiting. She gave me her address too and that road isn’t a route she would have taken home so I’m guessing she got fed up of waiting in traffic and decided last minute to pull out to go a different route.

It's a common one, folk rarely ever look over their shoulder, usually your 6th sense picks up the ones that are gonna pull that manvoure on you, and other times, not so lucky :/

First mark on the road, clearly before the left lane of the junction and bear in mind that’s where the bike hit the ground but I’d stayed upright for a few metres previous so I think it’s clear that where she pulled out was before you should have done to pull in to this junction

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dude that sucks. hope you're ok. sounds almost exactly same as mine.

dont insurance companies say you have to notify them of any accident and they do the claiming against her insurance for you? thats what happened with mine. as long as its not your fault it doesnt count against your future premiums. well thats what those snake charmers told me anyway...