Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

So since the DR is waiting on calliper seals, I ran a couple errands on the GN. All went swimmingly until I decided to bunny hop some speed bumps a couple miles from home, engine cut out. Seems I pulled a headlamp wire loose, blowing the fuse. Had the spare, went home without the lights on and will disassemble and trace the wires later.

Laughing hard about this. Was well worth the 10cm airtime.

It’s there but was loose so got rain under it! Sorted now for the ride home. Unfortunately there isn’t a pinlock for glasses though!

Fog is the worst.

Agreed. On that motorway ride in Sunday the sun was so damn low it was dangerous. Glare was impossible.

Damn! You had everything against you then.

Yep! Fine on the ride home, which makes me feel more confident about wet-weather riding in general.

I bet! A few torrential downpours and regular rain doesn’t seem so scary

This is a particularly dangerous time of the year in my experience. Especially if you're commuting.

Never seen as much diesel on the roads as I have today.

I ride with a peaked helmet, instant sun blocking ability, but adds weight and drag. No idea how folk with regular helmets get through winter and sunset.

I’ve spent the past year in the HJC IS Max or whatever long ass name they gave it. Flip front is luxury, incredibly easy and off, and internal sun visor. Everything is still clicky after almost exactly a year now.

At speed it’s still a noisy helmet, and can feel heavy after some time, and is definitely not suited to less-soft greenlanes. The road shape has been so much better to avoid the drag from a peak.

I haven’t suffered too bad with sun glare so far, but there is a moment in the day when the light is just flaring between the two visors. It’s less of an issue when the visors are totally clean, but this happens normally toward the end of the riding when the road grime/spray has got all over everything. And yep, lift it for just a second in the rain, and watermarks on the pinlock later add to the flare.

Triple whammy that borders on zero visibility. Game of visor up and down at every stop

Saga continues. Removing header bolts is a shite experience and fuck all manufacturers for not using stainless bolts. On the other hand, plus gas is awesome.

Oil pan out and gasket replaced. nice to see bottom of pan free of any debris.
Temptation to go full stainless system is high.

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Damn, yo

I'm about to have to do this, really not looking forward to it. Original 1996 header bolts on a bike I keep outside :(

A bit of a fuck up as I've got few things going on right now.

My tax ran out yesterday. Tried to renew and it sensibly pointed out that I don't have an MOT.

What 's the best move here? - It's parked off road on the drive under a cover.

a. Sorn now today, try and get MOT this week/asap, retax,
b. Don't sweat and book the MOT asap then tax?

Any consequences to having a short period of Sorn on the bikes record? (No immediate plans to sell.)

Cheers.

B. would be my choice, especially if it's covered with the reg hidden, but feel free to ignore me.

Can’t help on the other questions, but call around and try get it done asap. Thanks to that 6 month MOT holiday garages have been inundated. My mechanics told me there’s about 5-6 week wait for appointments at the two places they use.

That's my feeling. If I was still commuting it would be a different story.

On my first bike I went to renew the tax and it wouldn't work. Called up and the lady on the other end gave me a telling off as I'd totally forgotten to tax it for the previous year!

My usual local place doesn't open until Monday, but at least WFH now means the usually logistical nightmare is removed. Fingers crossed I can get a slot and no new restrictions prevent me from doing it. If it comes to that I'll just sorn and unsorn.

Isn’t there insurance implications of sorning?

I can’t really remember to be honest coz it was a while ago but I had a sort of similar situation where I fucked something right before mot time so there was a couple weeks where it wasn’t taxed or moted but it was in my garage so not too much of an issue.

Maybe it was actually that you can’t insure an untaxed vehicle?

I think it's both.

Most policies require notice of sorn. But you can call your insurers on a Sunday, and you can't get an mot if your not shop is closed.

Anyway it passed the MOT today. Going to tax once mini-H is in bed.

Bit random, but does anyone have a Richa D3O CE central back insert they don't want?

Rectangular like this ~48cm x ~18cm:

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The DR is running really nice now that it’s back together. The mechanics finally received the post that was delayed thanks to an outbreak at the local sorting office, so a week delayed receiving my rear calliper piston seals. Once it was all back together the braided HEL Performance brakes lines are working (and looking) great. Plus, bleeding them with an ebay cheapo vaccuum bleeder made so much simpler and quicker than squeeze open close release squeeze x30 minutes.

Poor dad, though.

He got jealous and went and bought a brand new CRF250L, having not had a bike in 40 years. A couple short rides and he seemed like a duck to water, until we went out today for over an hour and his stamina dropped through the floor.

A couple miles from home, he was showing some impatience and then the next thing he didn’t get his feet off the pegs, fumbled at the roundabout, kept leaning and turning left toward the kerb rather than feet off, straighten up and stop. He didn’t stop properly, grabbed the brakes leaning over, stumbled and landed on his left hand side with the bike on top of him.

Really disheartening for him, with a few scratches on the brand new bike, and some scuffs and dirt on the ATGATT clothes I made him wear (mostly on the armour points). He broke the bike’s fall, mostly.

Gotta say, the CRF’s are incredibly easy to pick up. A lot easier to lift up from a road nap, than the DR was from a swim.

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Grease your fecking swing arm bolts people, every year without fail.

New sawzoll making light work of the old swing arm (nothing wrong with it, but only way forward at this point).

Also looking at a classic old 50s bike as a winter project, defo won't be any seized bolts on that thing!

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I may have acquired a 76/77 Suzuki RM250 in boxes. Perhaps a little vintage MX action if it’s not too far gone...