Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Have just stumbled in Suzukiland - I became enchanted by the noise of a Fuel endcan on a SV650. First v-twin ever - will fit the best Electrex can offer and keep my fingers crossed.

If you come by a bike that has been knocked over do you pick it up?
I did that this morning, but then had a thought that by doing so the owner may not know it happened and therefore not check for damages that could turn out dangerous.

Any thoughts?

It happened to me a couple of weeks ago and it took me a good few minutes to figure out what had happened, but ultimately I was glad that someone had cared to pick it up for me.

Would be more concerned about irate owner going off on one and assuming i knocked the bike over or was trying to steal it.

Sign of the times, few decades ago people would go out of there way to help, now the first thought is if i involve myself will i get blamed, be dealing with the police or get sued if by helping something else goes wrong.

Yeah that was my first thought.

TBH it would depend on whether I had to get somewhere and how hard it would be to get up myself. Imagine if you dropped it a second time!

If I did pick it up I would leave a note so they knew.

I swung by the scrapyard and this white Yamaha QT50 had been scrapped by someone. I fell in love a little, and then remembered it would be a silly idea and a money pit.

Reminded me of these two in Italy, Piaggio Si and red something or other. There were actually 4 plus two other Vespas among other ‘stuff’, at the ex’s dad’s.

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Think I have 6 or 8 ciao/si all are broken in some way. In the mid 90s to 2000 they were worth nothing and people would give then, or mainly I asked if I could take them as they had no value not even scrap men would take them.

Sounds about right, probably how her dad came across so many. I like them in a non-serious kind of way. Shame they didn’t work, or not.

Same issue. See it fairly often as folks badly parking their micra knock them over causing between superficial and write off levels of damage, then drive off. Would love to have a little Bobcat or something and in turn knock over their cars onto their roofs, see how they feel then.

Saw the aftermath of a parking failure on a fairly steep street in Glasgow, was 6 bike I think knocked over into each other, required a recovery truck with a hydraulic crane to untangle the mess, driver who caused it was never found afaik.

Would love to have a little Bobcat or something and in turn knock over their cars onto their roofs, see how they feel then.

Always had a dream of driving an old beat up Volvo 740 following the highway code to the letter knocking into bad drivers.

Aluminium bumpers bend quite easily on 740, I can tell you how I know.

I’m thinking about changing the old heavy brake rotors for some stainless ones, possibly floating too.
But there are none made for my bike.
Can I take the measurements from the old rotors and put them in some kind of database somewhere to find the ones for another brand/model that are the closest fit?
I’m not afraid to fettle a bit to make it work, but if at least the bcd was the same it would be a lot less work.

If you go for a two piece rotor system then you'd have though it would be pretty simple to get a custom rotor drilled and machined. I guess the challenge is if the circumfunce of your drill pattern is super small and all the cnc ones start with a pattern.

My starting point would be to drop EBC an email with the the bcd numbers and a diagram asking about custom rotors.

What bike is it?

Worth noting heavy non-stainless discs are likely to give better braking performance.

Stainless is not a good brake material, you want high chromium steel.

What bike?

These guys might be able to help. They're in London and make everything themselves, for pretty reasonable prices too.

http://www.allbikeengineering.co.uk/

Apparently even Brembo are using a hi carbon stainless on their stuff these days? Used to be stainless was shite?

Yet BMW had stainless front disks for donkeys years. Everyone complains about them though.

Thanks everyone.
I’m on the cheap hence wanting to find something standard to use.
It’s the Guzzi V50.

Just ride slower :)

Problem with improving the brakes on some bike designs, the front tyre gives out before the back wheel lifts.

It seems that stainless rotors are not an upgrade so that’s not gonna be a problem?

Anyone else done it?

Tyre materials have moved on a great deal, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I tried to squeeze the yard owner some more, but he’s adamant that he’ll get good money at auction as-is. So i took a couple more photos before it gets gone. Apparently he’s got a big collection (hundreds of bikes) so he isn’t without knowledge on the current trends.

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Not that i know of, no.
Did a search for customised bikes V50ies too, but didn't find any with non stock rotors...

I'd rather not test the theory on the R80 or V50, seems very unlikely that either would lift the back wheel with most tyre choices even the newer designs. I would like to see a picture of an unmolested R80 doing a stoppie at a normal road junction though.