Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Congrats - wow everyone passing tests at the moment. We should all go for a ride once we've found bikes :-D

Embarrassing but we’ve all done it.

I left mine on my Tracer 900 and dropped it trying to pull out of a doctors surgery carpark.

Did the whole “I’ve got it, I’ve got it, I don’t got it” shuffle along with a pathetic whisky grip of the throttle (clutch in) whilst desperately trying to keep it on its wheels as it slowly leant itself down.

Proper wally moment.

Haven’t forgone the reminder cable since.

Cheers :) Yeah finding a decent bike is the task at the moment. I've already developed an irrational hatred for idiots who can't even be bothered to list their bikes properly on Autotrader etc...

No plans to get a motorcycle atm but I’d quite like an old one like this if I did. Are they hard to maintain / upkeep?

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I’m working on a film set in Poland during the 2nd world war hence why I was asking about Zundapps a couple of pages back. Found a guy in Hungary who restores them and was up for having me come round to do some recording.

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Kind of depends how much you already know about working on vehicles. If you've ever maintained a car with a carb you'll appreciate the simplicity. If you've never done timing and valve gaps you might find it's a steep learning curve on the roadside.

The older one's are prone to corrosion, especially tanks - Bear in mind the electrical loom will be very old too - spares on some models a bit tricky. Absolutely worth it though and you'll learn a lot. Gofrit.

I’d say @pdlouche Honda is a great bike.
Any 600 is deadly, but the CBR is smooth. Vtwins are…angry. Reckon it’s why they get crashed a lot.
Parallel twins are much smoother as well.

@MrBaklava everyone’s done that. Wouldn’t worry. Why not repair it yourself, it’s really not every different to a bicycle wheel.

I have been considering that, but I'm struggling to find somewhere to buy a couple of spokes and nipples from rather than a complete set for a hundred quid.

Reckon this will be a lot like valve shims and O rings. Workshop will likely order them just as you would.

Try to find a motocross/offroad specialist. They’ll be used to hammering out dents in spoked wheels, and may have some in stock.

Nice that. Great condition.

Well, I bought a bike. Not the one I wanted but the combined ownership cost worked out. A 2010 Street Triple R.

How it's cheap to insure (relatively) is beyond me, I thought they were the most stolen bikes in the UK for a while.

Anyway give it a year and I'll either love it by then, or be able to insure a 90s Honda!

Thanks for the insurance advice from everyone as well. Ended up with Lexham, put in a massive voluntary excess as suggested but they ended up doing it with a low excess anyway.

Lovely riding it home in the dark and drenched streets of London in rush hour... Not...

Flashing ECU.... 2022 thruxton RS.... new full exhaust from British Customs. DNK has maps for exactly this bike with this exhaust.

https://britishcustoms.com/blogs/bc-blog/dnk-tuneworks

I can mail the ECU ($$) in... or buy the map ($) and adapter ($) and do it myself. The total cost is the same between the two options, but I've never flashed an ECU. On the other hand, I'd like to have an adapter and do it myself.

Advice? Is there much to it? It looks super straightforward.

https://youtu.be/GE7_Cos8lmY

Flashing yourself was easy if your not totally incompetent and make a save of your current map.

Personally have done this and also gone with a twin to a proper rolling road map, I'd only bother doing the second again. Worth the few hundred quid.

Settled then, once I figure out the saving of the current map. Thanks

By using said cable and software.

Street Tripple is a good move. Enjoy.

By using said cable and software.

So TuneECU can pull the current map and save it?

I was going to use my Pixel Android phone for all this, as my work PC is restricted and my home computer is an Apple. Can't imagine that's much of an issue.

I used the PC software to download and save current map. Can't answer to phone app

I second rolling road set up. You might get lucky with a map but they can be all over the place. My mate's Aprilia Tuono ran like shit with the Aprilia map and pipe - he took it to a dyno place and it made 24hp more at peak and a shit ton everywhere after set up. Also improved the 15mpg economy.....

@Jung

Almost impossible. I haven't looked closely, but I called two car motorsports garages and called the shop I bought the bike at and none even reported scent of a Dyno near by.

I'm guessing probably nearest one is 200+ miles away near or in Chicago which means trailering the bike there as it's not fit for that kind of journey while running this lean.

These maps are not perfect but at least developed for this bike with this exhaust.

If someone's interested in a good condition, ~8700 miles 2015 CBF125 in London, let me know - I'm selling mine to upgrade :)

Working myself up to buying a new Tuareg 660, probably yellow. Few shops are struggling to shift them so have them on at £8500-8995 out the door. Haven't found a demo yet as shops keep selling them (MC shops need to sort this out, so many bikes I didn't even bother looking at as no one has a demo, do folks REALLY just spend £10-20k on a bike without even an idea what its like? For me its an absolute requirement that my ass + legs don't go numb and it doesn't buffet).

Old BMW is either going as it is, or might refresh engine, been sat all winter and now valve stem seals have gone, leaks oil into cylinder pretty quickly causing starting issues + smoke. Pretty simple job on old rotax engine, but honestly kind of fed up trying to make bikes work.

I can well imagine.

When I bought my MINI the dealer said I was one of the only people who'd test driven one. All of his orders were over the phone (this was back in 2010 or).