Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

not sure what you mean, it was £200 used from eBay... I wanted the SC Project one but that was £580 used so I compromised.

Ah that price was okay then. Whenever I checked LeoVince prices they were very high

Wow prices seem much lower than when I last checked. Weird

Can't remember which one of you linked this channel, but thoroughly enjoyed this.

https://youtu.be/W4Lay0FO8Sw

Slight revelation on a couple of fronts this weekend. There's a few off road circuits near me. Closed today but couldn't resist riding up to the local enduro circuit where trail bikes are welcome. Squeezed in some obligatory green lanes on route and experienced the rear tyre clogging up to essentially become a slick and lost all grip. In classic You've Been Framed fashion I went straight into a hedge, although only at slow speed. More aggressive tyres are needed. Lovely out mind.

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Have fun when you learn sticktion.

went straight into a hedge

Been there, done that! Ha!

MCE insurance gone bust. Just got an email saying cover ends for all on 31st of this months.

Me too. This is going to be dire.

Big bike insurance in London has become almost impossible, even with a perfect record. How do city dwellers without a garage get affordable insurance? Are there any dodges, like going vintage or something? Maybe I'll have to go back to small bikes. There are a few arseholes who do rev bombing on their litre sports bikes in Brixton. No way can they have legit insurance. They probably lie about their address.

Guys I know said there's a big stolen bike scene especially south of the river. So likely a lot of the proper bikes aren't legitimately owned.

I saw some pretty sketchy riding through reds down Streatham.

My first thought was that they're stolen. By 'they' I mean four x S1000RR + Akrop which would do Fri and Sat night circuits of S. London. Where they had an audience they'd do max revs while sitting at red lights. Sounds exactly like a Grand Prix. Quite popular at the strip of bars 30 yards from me in Brixton. I asked a biker traffic cop about them. He knew who I was talking about and said they'r not stolen but probably insured at out of London addresses. I didn't see or hear them in 2021 so I suppose they've given up or died. Good fucking riddance.

Other similar cunts who ride on their own also seem to be on the decline. They all have/had R1s. I do hope they've been busted or crashed or something. They looked like they'd had no lessons apart from watching the Matrix or a Destiny's Child video. If you're going to ride a stolen bike, why bother with all that A2 licence bullshit?

Interesting. The mix of bikes I saw last autumn were unlikely to be legit.

To be honest, when I have had to drive into Shooters Hill I have done so like my license was already revoked. The first time was on the DR350 with road tyres, in the evening… I was not conscientious. On the XJ I can’t flick the bike the same, but it has more power.

I guess on sport bikes you lose the fun of flickable little engines and gain massive asshole status with your 0-60.

MCE are just a broker. There are still others.

EDIT Looks like I was wrong, MCE are a broker and insurer so https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/11/over-100-000-hit-as-motorbike-insurer-mce-falls-into-administrat/

MCE insurance went under in november, if you took your policy out after that you are OK. Your policy if taken out before read the article. If your broker is MCE check whom you are insured with. Also if you pay in instalments how you stand.

Tracking keyword use on webpages, guess whose advertisements are all over my social media?

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Good ridence to MCE TBH, their business policies were good, never needed it, but others did and were well looked after in fairness. Their domestic policies were a joke, know personally at least ten people who were massively fucked over by that company. I know the actual bods in the call centres and offices will have also been messed about, where the actual ones at the top doing the screwing over will have likely got away scott free.

In positive news, after 6 years of faffing about with screens, no screens, different helmets, canards, bits of cardboard/plastic/wood stuck to my old bike, I have FINALLY sorted the buffeting issue. Or at least it now only buffets in very particular circumstance which I can live with.
Folk kept saying 'yeah just take all your windscreen off, problem solved'. Not on this bike, has the aero of a part demolished house.
Was out most of yesterday in the cold but glorious sunshine. Amazing in normal riding position, and total bliss if you squat down a few inch's, as in silence (with no ear plugs), damn near silence from the wind, love it. Found a few new twisty roads in rural Ayrshire that were fun for me/that bike with those sweet 30-50 mph sweeping corners back to back and no cars.

I know the actual bods in the call centres and offices will have also been messed about, where the actual ones at the top doing the screwing over will have likely got away scott free.

Guarantee that. As proof look at where MCE insurance were based.

Congratulations on solving the issue.

MCE was my way of being self-insured. I'd buy cover in the certainty that I'd never, ever claim. It was strictly for third party claims only. If you live in a city, claiming for theft or damage hurts your chances of getting cover for a big bike in future years. So fuck that, the one thing I don't want is to have my wings clipped. So I get TPO cover, and a BikeTrac tracker, and try not to crash. You can't get TPO on a high value bike, but that's not the end of the world. My recent bikes have cost 3 or 4 k. I can't have a 15k bike. Not unless I buy a stolen one and ride uninsured.

If I do crash, I have to fix the bike myself. With second hand parts and a bit of DIY I can do it much more cheaply than an insurer could. If the bike is stolen I'll almost certainly get it back. So, if you plan to never claim for theft, you can lie to get the best rate. So I say I have a garage.

If there's a big 3rd party claim and the insurance investigator pays me a visit and finds that I have no garage, the 3rd party's payout will be unaffected but I'll be in trouble. Maybe I won't be able to get any cover for a decent bike for n years? I don't know.

So I get a shitty policy on a litre/fast/stupid bike for £120 - £160. I can live with that. The goal is to keep on biking!

but I'll be in trouble. Maybe I won't be able to get any cover for a decent bike for n years? I don't know.

If you got caught and were to fill in any insurance application honestly, you'd have difficulty getting any insurance (not just motorbike).

Indeed. It would fuck up my campervan plans. But if it were a third party claim, would they send an investigator to check me out? I don't know.

Warning: don't hide the heroin in your top box https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/motorbike-top-box-hid-100-000-of-heroin

Idiot. Must have never seen Easy Rider.

Everyone knows the drugs go between the freshly oiled air filter* and the carb, in the air box, amateur.

*If you use hypoid gear oil the smell is so pungent it puts most dogs off

My bike aways stinks like hot GT85. I guess I could be earning a second income.

Back in the first lockdown, the sprag clutch failed on my Triumph. This is a bullshit job to fix, involving splitting the engine. Initially I planned to do it myself but dropped the engine and decided it was totally beyond me. This was back in May, but earlier this week I finally took the engine to a garage for them to do the surgery. Fingers crossed re-assembly can begin fairly soon (with minimal time for the engine to spend sat on my driveway wrapped in tarps again). I'll probably put everything back as it was initially, just to see if it will start again, but then...

This bike is inherently undesirable but I really like it and it suits my reserved riding style, so I'm thinking of spending a bit of time fucking with it. A load of Motogadget stuff, potentially a new rear shock (I won't do that bit), and I'd like a new exhaust system that is a little more present without being obnoxious. Hopefully it can be a bike I keep riding for ten years or so.

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