Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

No. I've been using them for working out.

I also will be needing them again from today ;)

Chains are good but you can still grind the lock. There are some locks that are harder to grind now, pragmasis could advise.

Best bet is to keep it out of sight and hidden away.

Nice ride!

Doyouevenlift.gif

Also I used to have an app, I cant remeber the name, that turned a spare phone into CCTV, with the same app on my phone. When the CCTV registered motion it would send my phone mad with alerts. So that would be useful for you, so you can be woken if someones looking at it.

Belated message but loving the new ride. I've saved this to my watch later list should it be of interest. I definitely haven't been looking for trail bikes on eBay since seeing yours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEB3n0WSX24

CCTV would be great for peace of mind. Advrider e-rag had a feature on a £150 motion/sim-card bike tracker that seems to have a lot of features that may work while out and about - especially if I’m ‘touring’ by next year.

At the moment the bikes are locked individually inside a (messy) locked shed in the back garden behind two locked gates, with handlebars wider than the door, that are a right pain to get out or down the side of the house. A thief would need to rip out a fence and fight a rose bush, or else navigate a crazy-narrow route.

Currently I lose all the convenience of jump on and go, but it’s better than the horror stories of losing it from out front any day or night.

We’re thinking about replacing the plastic bike shed out front on the other side of the house with a permanent secure mini-garage type shed thing, for greater convenience. At least then one bike can be quickly unlocked from a ground anchor, pushed off the gravel and go. But then, that means a thief only needs to cut from a ground anchor, push off the gravel, and go.

Thanks! Great yea, watched that vid and will watch that series - may be useful.

Beware with all these dual sports, prices seem to be rising for clean examples. Trail bikes and pure scramblers are insane prices, way too fashionable for a low-down knobbly-tyred affair. You’ll end up browsing hours a day, and save about 5 different search terms on ebay with daily updates. Then the bike you want will be on facebook instead!

Cannot wait to be off the 125. Went out yesterday in the rain for an errand, and again today, both only short rides of 10 miles across known busy roads. Trying to regain confidence in general after a few weeks off the bike. After a couple months of blistering sunshine and bone dry quiet roads, it was imperative to get more experience in inclement weather conditions on busy roads again. Yesterday’s flooded roads were way more fun than the merely wet and diesel-slicked hell of today. Car users have totally forgotten how to drive.

Saw a very expensive looking sport-tourer parked up beside a notorious potholed roundabout, with two police vehicles flashing and a car mounted on the pavement. Rider in his leathers was sat down, helmet off, looking pissed.

Shortly after, I had a granny try cut me up. I’d already slowed down to 20 on the roundabout and straightened right up in anticipation so if she hadn’t stopped the T-Bone would have been pretty minor if the stopping distance wasn’t enough. Certainly felt closer than it might have been.

On the way back the bike was still parked up but there was a transit van with the doors opened nearby, so I think that rider’s getting a payout.

This is gonna be great lockdown viewing - cheers!

I’m nearly ready to call my new weekend toy a success. After rebuilding forks a second time (doh) and fitting the manual camchain tensioner this week, it’s quiet and leak free. Had a spin around the canyons in Malibu yesterday and it is a pleasure to ride - by far the nicest of the 3 K5s I’ve owned. The suspension and set up is fab!

Kerbside pics or it never happened

Managed 5 minutes on the DR350 around the empty pub car park next to home, a few days ago. It was mostly figure of 8’s and making a learner driver misjudge their bay parking practice. In 5 minutes nothing fell off and nothing sounded back, but trying to get any higher than second gear at such low revs really drilled home why they call these things thumpers! Agonising that I can’t go out-out on it.

All the same it was good to have 5 minutes feeling it out. Felt super high (in a good way), nimble, and easy to flick into tight turns. Compared to the GN’s rear drum and small from disc, the DR’s discs felt crazy strong - as soon as I applied pressure the bike halted. Had to put it back in the shed before the temptation to tear it down the road became too strong.

In the mean time put a few more miles on the GN125. It’s performing relatively consistently and sits at 60mph no stress. On a long flat road without incredibly aggressive shifting it was creeping past 65mph, but the vibrations were pretty strong.

In real terms riding was much more enjoyable at 40mph on narrow potholed country roads, than 50-60 on main roads.

In the UK country roads are the best for bikes. IMHO :)

Certainly feels like it! Some of the twisty quieter routes near Swindon are incredibly unkept, in dire need of roadworks. But that does mean they are quieter than the main roads.

The little GN125 limps on, though with all the green lanes not sure for how much longer!

Went over the Fosse Way, and then a day later the two open sections of the Ridgeway followed by Broad Hinton-Yatesbury-Avebury. It makes light work of dry mud and gravel, but I decided not to submerge it through the ford. Was too busy enjoying it to take better photos.

Had a little bit of a breakthrough, when going on a bit of a narrow bumpy rutted downhill I had no choice but to gas it and get it over with as quick as possible or risk falling off. Heart was in my throat to say the least.

That extra confidence came in handy yesterday when I tried a different track and found myself in foot-deep ruts on the climb up to Windmill Hill. Had to turn back when I saw the gnarly descent on the other side, but still had a time of it descending what I’d just climbed.

Main issue is this -

When cold, bit of choke, instant start and idles okay. There can be a hesitation between idle and 3-4k. I hold the throttle wide open and it takes a moment for the engine to wake up.

When riding it’s not always happening, but I notice when stopped at lights, the same thing open throttle and the lag before the engine kicks in again.

When warm, hold throttle open or closed makes no difference - press the button and the starter turns a few second before a bit of a slow putputputput and maybe the engine comes back to life.

Afaik carb is clean, jets shouldn’t be blocked.
What else can it be? IN valve clearance too tight?

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Mixture? Float bowl height can affect it. When you have an engine that's happier on the choke it's sign that it could be running a bit lean. If you have a mixture screw try that and see if you get better tune. Of course air filter condition (flow rate) and a few other factors contribute as you already mentioned valve height is important.

I had similar issues with the BMW for a while. Checking and adjusting the timing / float bowl height / mixture for 3 months sorted it, there's a big difference between hot and cold and no electronics to compensate so it takes a bit longer + mines a twin and carb synchronisation comes into it.

Sometimes (when it was running) my bike did that lazy throttle response thing and I think it was due to the breather pipe on the tank being kinked and causing a vacuum. I also replaced all the rubbers recently but before I could tell if that helped, I had another problem and can't run the bike.

Hesitation off idle sounds like a lean condition. If it starts well, and responds eventually to full throttle, I'd say you've got dirty needle jets. I've found these are the most consistently difficult to clean with all the shite that builds up from modern fuels. Usually easier to bung in a new one. You can try raising the needle too if you still have the issue once they're clean. Lower the circlip one notch to start - richens the mixture on part throttle.

Suzuki looks great!

Late to the party, congrats on the DR. Think that fitting it with gs5 wheels will make it a supermoto!

@Airhead hmmmm. Thanks will consider that. Spark plug core has been the lighter shade of brown but looked as close to ideal as possible. Possible float height, hadn’t thought of that.

I’d put the main jet needle clip back to the centre as I think it was set one step closer to lean before, but that didn’t change anything - besides it’s an issue before that jet comes into the equation. When set two steps richer it was sputtery and shit. Maybe it has a leak somewhere.

It may indeed help adjusting the timing screw vs idle screw. Some months ago I had to leave the idle at a steady 2k because lower than that it used to hunt and until recently I couldn’t trust it not to stall anyway. Will look for my little idle screwdriver, see if I can adjust it and get it running lower consistent idle without immediately stalling on throttle.

@jackbepablo I’ll check the fuel cap but the noise of air/vapour escaping in the heat leads me to believe there’s no vacuum there. I have an inline fuel filter that seems to show nice steady fuel flow. Will check for kinks elsewhere.

@Jung this is probably the next step. No amount of high quality Shell fuel through an extra inline filter can save me from a clogged jet.

@sacredhart thanks!
@lynx thanks! Yea I’m keen to get some supermoto wheels if I can source the least difficult setup. May have to lace new road rims to a set of proper DR350 hubs to get the spacing, brake disc and speedo sorted though.

No word from my instructor and no response to my facebook, email or phone calls... tests recommence on the 13th and I’m keen to get this damn thing done and get out on the DR!

The mechanics haven’t heard from the instructor either, but they did try to get me to name a price for the DR350. At least one of their customers was desperate to buy it.

The mechanic was somehow trying to convince me to sell the DR350, and if I was so fussed then buy his DRZ400... but if the 400 is so much better the other customer should just buy that, no?

Gonna need a bigger lock.

If it won't idle under 2k and needs the throttle screw way in, then the pilot circuit is partially blocked too most likely. Messing around with the mixture screw won't help. I'd just whip the carb off and give it some love.

Arrived this afternoon

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Earlier in the year it was idling at 1200-1500 as it should, but I couldn’t trust it not to drop below 1k and stall when stopping at lights and junctions. Then after a month or so of fiddling it seemed to be happier at 2k.

When I last cleaned out the carb and replaced some parts a couple months ago, the idle screw was set to.... 3 1/2 turns? It was set to spec, then I set the throttle screw to keep it open and idle at 2k for above reasons.

Bear in mind that back in November the carb was ‘cleaned’ by a well-recommended mechanics, and since then was only the £££ Shell fuel, plus Redex for months. Then by March I’d stripped and used carb cleaner fluid twice myself to try get past the stalling-on-idle issue and stopped with the Redex.

Suppose it’ll be a full strip down of the carb yet again then. Woohoo.

Looks like a Decepticon