Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Duff charging - welcome to the wonderful world of motorcycling - by a cheap voltmeter to check your system.
Most of us have been there - it'll put hairs on your chest.

SV sure as shit ain’t a comfy. The 600rr I had was more comfy over distance. No idea why, but with the SV, the quicker you go, the more comfortable it gets like you said. A bit like a gsxr.

Yup! Stupidly it was sat right next to the socket with the moto charger plugged in! (Bought for a camera flash that runs on small moto batteries.) Worse still, I have at least two multimeters languishing in the electronics toolbox in the bedroom. Should have tried to fully charge the battery then read what kinda output I was getting. Suppose there could be busted wiring/ecu/alternator that I don’t know about too!

On the plus side, the DIY seat cover with added stiff foam was quite comfortable while struggling to start it in traffic. Incredibly comfy while sat lamenting my poor decisions outside McDo.

Don't take me too seriously, I mean with the skills you have you could make a decent tank bag (unlike the kind that are around). I've used a tank cover (is maybe a better term) for 15 years, people don't like them but I get to feel smug when they scratch their tank with their jacket zip. Or in my case when you are removing the tank from the bike or just general damage from living on the street. Bikes like the R80 are a good era for tank covers but there must be loads of 80's bikes with ratty tanks that could be improved by one. I'm probably in a minority with my appreciation of them.

When it comes to touring you can make them with straps to connect a bag to.

tldr - nice sewing chops

I had to push my TZR250 from Vauxhall to Fulham one night because I went to the garage in Vauxhall and jet washed it. The coil dried out 15mins after I got home and it started.

Saw a lot of tank bags use magnets. I have the fear about using magnets to hold anything to anything, especially whilst moving and vibrating. Sod Oriental special magnets. Straps ftw.

Tank covers would be pretty easy, and looking online maybe it’s just the bags are so damn ugly, why I can’t envisage their use. That, and a laid back scrapmobile like mine has ample room in the pillion area to strap down a bag to the grabrail. I’ll have a think about the most useful setup for myself and then get to making something to try.

The guys at the mechanics called just now. Apparently they have stripped down the carb, checked valve clearances, put a new spark plug, oil change (it was overfilled they said), replaced the something-filter that was falling apart, and they said the battery charged up fine so didn’t replace it. They also put some air in the tyres to see if that improves its handling, before swapping out for any different ones. £60 all in, and done.

Gotta decide after more than 15-odd miles by bmx, and wet misty rain if I’m too tired to pick it up today.

Bet you were glad it was Vauxhall, not Peckham!

Sounds good all in at £60. And they reckon battery is good, bonus :)

Air filter failing apart ? that could account for things as carb would be set up against the airbox and filter and X - amount of airflow, punch holes in the filter and airbox would upset fueling......

Not so much on Fuel injection enegines as the ECU adjusts fueling. If you plan on riding over vast mountain ranges then a carb set up at sea level will need rejetting/adjusting to cope with thinner air at altitude...... FI just deals with it.

It was the fuel filter, got a funny little square thing instead of the nasty bulbous one. I guess the air filter is okay-enough, or they would have remarked.

Man what a difference. I can actually hit it down into first and sit with my hand on the clutch and it doesn’t drop below 1k. Just ticks over like I’d expect it to while waiting to move forward. Has a real kick too now. Oh and apparently an adjustment screw was seized, so that’s been sorted.

Didn’t actually enjoy the ride back, though, as it got dark and lots of assholes in the pre-rush-hour rush. Barely even got on the main road outside of the mechanics and a guy squeezes past me and an oncoming car, on the crest of a bridge, just to sit in standstill traffic immediately after, for minutes on end. I’d been in 2nd position and luckily no potholes as I was forced toward 1st. Literally couldn’t have held the lane any better, guy just had to do it. Resisted putting the high beam on, but aimed the dipped light at his rear view mirror while sitting behind him. He was too busy texting to notice though.

Shifting, accelerating, everything felt totally different, and took me some minutes to find my place with it all again. Had my first whiskey throttle moment too, got the front a few inches off the ground as I slipped the clutch to get forward waiting at a busy roundabout. Definitely couldn’t do that before the servicing!

Hope to actually enjoy riding this thing now. Oh wait. -1 forecast from now on.

Nice work there!

When do you start taking commissions ;)

As soon as I can!

If there’s the original cover to use for the exterior pattern, it will be much better. Any others I do won’t have all four layers of additional foam as it’s quite unnecessary. I have some nicer thinner foam stuff, and could happily do genuine leather, crosshatched or any other stitch pattern.

Bargain at 60 quid. Great mechanic.

What a difference that made! It actually feels like a motorbike now! I felt very anxious about going out on it after all the troublesome woes so far, and clearly a stupid time of year to try lean into shaded country lanes, but had to actually test it on open road.

Fortunately had a real blast going out of town. After Swindon and the hell of Wootton Bassett, took one of my road cycling training routes that goes out past Bushton, up Cherhill, and down again toward Avebury.

Easy getting up Cherhill but felt a much stronger breeze high up on the plains whilst accelerating past 50mph. It’s only a little bike! With confidence I think it could happily stick at 60, maybe 70 is asking too much. I was pushing it to 50 on a gentle uphill and relatively low revs (under 8k), so anything is possible.

Then again, I was knees clamped, chin on the bars cafe-racer position at times, just to fight off the wind resistance.

There seems to be a moment - noticed it on the Yamaha CBT-bike too - that around 50 the bikes feel much more like they’re on rails, and you need to commit more into any lean or turn. Didn’t feel quite ready for going beyond that after Cherhill, especially with knowledge of the really sweeping downhill that stops abruptly on the Beckhampton roundabout where a girl from school crashed her car and died.

Nice stop at Avebury to have a pint of coke and a stretch, and wait for the feeling to return to my index finger. Then back along the road to Wroughton and back over Old Town and crawl through traffic home.

Steep downhills into blind, clearly wet and shaded areas like Wroughton were definitely annoying for the HGV sat behind me for 5 miles, as I kept right on the speed limit. I was grateful for his patience. That road is scary as hell on a road bike, can’t say it felt any better on a motorbike.

Back in Swindon what must be my first real world U-turn ticked off as well, where a little shortcut was totally blocked with two flashing police cars, cones, and backed up traffic, so swung back around. I was a little surprised how easy it came.

7/10, would get numb finger again.

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Older vfr 750/800 are more fun/lighter than the newer ones, considered sporty ish compared to the 2007 onwards (850?) which are quite high at the front and a solid 30kg extra if not more. Not a wheelie machine though, sounds like he wants a mid 00's GSXR 600

He’d said how much he liked the Bandits, so GSXR600 wasn’t far off the mark.

Forgot to mention the sketchy csb bit of yesterday, relatively flat sharp blind left-hander, oncoming car came out the turn far enough that I had to move over, so having slowed and unable to see round the corner I was bemused to exit the curve and see a full size tractor with trailer cutting the hedges... driving at me, on my side of the road.

Fortunately slow enough and with enough room before the next oncoming car, but it was certainly a brake-check moment.

Was glad the asshole that did over 50 through the village had already passed me on the straight a few yards before.

Glad that’s out the way.

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Well done Sir!

Excellent

Right, so I replaced the worn drive recently as it was buggered and the rubber o ring was shot. Bike was fine until a few days ago when clutch just stated slipping at around 4k on 1st/2nd. The bike has around 72k on it, is it likely the plates have said goodbye or should I start from the bottom up and check my setup.
How likely are clutch plates to wear out on a 650? I do tend to clutchless shift when occasion arises. Have I screwed the pooch?

@pdlouche Congrats!

Clutch-less shifts probably hurt the clutch less than actually using it. Could be plates, just as likely tired clutch springs. It's easy enough to check mate - if you're really lazy (like me) you might get away with laying the bike on the side and not draining the oil to open it up and check.

By the by, if they're flat, I almost never order new steel plates - total waste of cash. Springs and friction plates almost always does the job.

Is that only true of particular bikes? I thought the whole idea of a wet clutch was that it’s for constant use, so to avoid clutchless shifts?

By the way, thanks all. Haven’t had many hours out. Did around 50 miles today (35+ on country roads) getting off the A420 as soon as possible and enjoying rural stuff. Not enjoying muddy rural stuff though. Sod constant undulating hairpins covered in literal shit.

Spoke to the trainer guy, he’s flat out til Jan now, but I’m happy to get the miles in independently before training on a big bike.

Nah motorbike gearboxes are different from cars. If you can unload them for a fraction of a second while you change you don't need a clutch at all. Much easier (on the road at least) to try it changing up. Just chop the throttle a fraction to unload and quickly bang it up - with a bit of practice you can make it almost seamless. Start with the higher gears, not the 1-2 shift. Doesn't hurt the box at all.

You can do the same going down but it's very tricky to unload the box the same - you'd need to have the back wheel almost off the ground on the brakes really. Big difference to off road - MX you just stamp down on the shifter, no clutch at all as there's less impact through the transmission from loose surfaces.

Ah I see.

I missed my footing after a junction yesterday and as I accelerated and went to get my foot to shift up, I clutchlessed down. Gotta say that was an incredibly unpleasant experience as the bike dived and revs went through the roof. Do not want.

I think I have shifted up without realising it on occasion. Even the instructor guy had remarked on it. Glad to learn it’s not a bad habit.

What bikes are they riding?

Usually you learn all this clutchless shifting the first time you break a clutch cable :)

It's tougher in C. London because you need to be able to shift in and out of neutral with great timing. I've heard from friends who've ridden back from Spain without a clutch cable, probably easier than making it across London at rush hour without one.