Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

There's a piaggio place on Wandsworth Bridge Road if that's nearer to you. Can't vouch for the work as I've always done my own but they've been there for many years.

Riding around dealers with my old man today as he is looking for a new bike.

Got to the first one and I decided that instead of putting my bike on the side stand, I'd just chuck it on the floor!

Snapped the rear brake pedal but luckily the KTM garage was our next stop.

Felt like an utter fanny dropping my bike while my dad looked on but the owner of the big touring Beemer that was parked about 5 foot from where I dropped mine came running out and gushed over what he thought was a scratch that I'd put in his pannier but actually turned out to just be dirt that he'd put on his own bike actually was an unter fanny so that kinda helped.

What an unter fanny.

Some moron in a car just offered to fight me on the way into work. I filtered into his (stationary) lane outside Lewisham Police Station and he tried to keep me out of the lane by nudging into me.

I told him he was being silly.

a) he nudged into me
b) he was currently parked outside Europe's biggest police station
c) i was wearing fully motorbike armour and fighting me was going to be one sided

He still tried to nudge me off again but ended up booping my handguard and scratching his mirror before giving up.

^ Some people are unbelievable... I need to work on being that calm towards drivers. Not sure motorcycling in London regularly would be very good for me, but I do get a kick out of the filtering.

I had a very zen ride from Norwich to West Sussex yesterday. Backroads almost all the way, 5hr satnav route translated to just under 4hrs, plus a couple of stops. Beautiful weather, no bad drivers (that bothered me or I remembered anyway), lovely corners and no mechanical complaints. Nice olives too.

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My 2009 CBF125 has decided it no longer likes having indicators, so has stopped blinking.
I have no idea why.
Headlights work fine, idiot lights work fine (but the indicator one doesnt come on when the indicator it turned on, with the lights not working, makes me think the issue is with the indicator switch)
Unsure on brake lights as I forgot to check (will have a look tonight)

I bought it off ebay, from a guy who runs a motorbike garage in Southend.
Is it unreasonable for me to take it back and ask him to fix it (i bought it 2 weeks ago and have ridden ~80 miles on it)?
Also, he stuck a fresh MOT on it the day before i bought it, but the dash light does not work (for speedo) so might see if he will fix that too.
I don't mind paying if it is just bad luck, but im a bit peeved that its developed a fault so soon after buying.

Has one of the little connectors shaken itself loose from the bars? Have you checked the fuses?

Fuse would deffo be the first place to look, pop the seat. Most vehicles I've bought on eBay come with a piece of paper that said Sold As Seen in bold letters, worth a call though if the guy was reasonable. Speedo light should be easy enough too, get the relevant Haynes manual for your bike, it's good bedtime reading.

So fugly but congrats on the new bike!

Right, defo not the fuse.
Brake lights are fine, horn works, dips and beams all good, just the flashers that are narked.
Must be a dodgy connection somewhere. Will have a mini stripdown the weekend.

I've just picked my scooter up after taking it back to Central Scooters to get sorted. They hadn't fixed the grips, which spin on the bars when you twist hard, or put the two missing bolts into the headset.

They had stopped the weird resistance on the from brake lever - apparently the wrong lever had been installed before. They'd also had a stab at fixing the gears, which worked OK at first, but after 7/8 miles home I could shift into third or fourth anymore.

I'm miffed. I suppose I actually have to take it back for a second time and ask them to look at it again.

Incidentally, the first few miles where it was all working OK and the sun was out, and I was cruising through London, were lovely. Great fun.

:)

Took my bike for its second - and last - service today. Been getting the dealer stealer to service it in order to keep the warranty valid but £93.60 in labour to do oil and filter and change an air filter?

It would have taken me around half an hour.

It'll be out of warranty before the next service is due thankfully.

On the plus side, I got to borrow a 690 Duke while mine was getting seen to and I kicked the arse out of it.

And an even bigger plus, riding through to Perth on the A9 with it's recently installed average speed cameras was such a ball ache* that I came back the scenic route and was the only vehicle on this,

*The cameras themselves don't fuss me on the bike but the effect on the rest of the traffic has been horrendous, cars taking miles (literally) to pass each other, outside lane hogs, etc

switched from dry lube to wet lube yet my chain is still rusting - FFS

My indicator issues were a b0rked relay.
£5.50 and half an hour fettling, all fixed!.
Quite pleased i managed to do it all myself with minimal bleeding and swearing.

annual service for the Striple today - re-mapped and throttle cable slack taken up - cured the throttle snatch, like a totally different bike now!

.

I hope this is bollocks... http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news--general-news/1250-london-motorcycle-toll-approved/26457.html

Nope.

It's an air quality thing. Not a bad idea.

RIP Bar Italia SC

It's a money thing as I see it. There just aren't that many motorbikes and scooters causing a problem through that area, they certainly don't sit in a jam burning fuel. I think the '000s of buses crawling around Piccadilly & Oxford street are a far far greater issue.

The emissions of the older bikes ( pre euro 3 standard ) is really poor, way behind modern car engines. The industry has done a lot to catch up lately, but even though the numbers of vehicles are low the actual emissions are quite high, and by the time the charge comes into effect the actual emissions of a lot of 13 year old motorbikes will be even worse than it was when they were manufactured.
Sad but true, we are polluting our air, and I am all for anything to help improve it.
(goes off and rides his 1200 cc motorbike into the sunset as it will be new enough to get in for free)

I'm all for it, even if it means I can't ride my scooter after five years are up. Not that it works anyway...

Embedded like a baawwwssss