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ReBorne

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Everything posted by ReBorne

  1. ReBorne

    fzr 400

    You could try dropping in to customfighters.com, I remember seeing a thread in there about forks - like, a big list of bikes listed by fork size. Might be an easy way to locate a yoke that'll fit that way.
  2. ReBorne

    scumbags

    I remember reading in Performance Bikes ooooh, about 8-10 years ago about a group that would 'leave' a bike in a prominent place at night then park close by in a transit.... when a scroat would try to nick the bike they'd dive out all masked up, take him in the van and advise him nicely on how he really should change his ways. Doesn't sound so bad an idea to me.
  3. oh, I sympathise. Seriously, I do. Quite a few years back I gave my beloved Mini to a friend and was doing some welding underneath... sliding out the welding rod hit the underside about 4" from my face. Woke up the next morning and even the light coming through the blinds was too bright to let me open my eyes. A week before the patches came off and I could see again. Not fun. Do I learn? Not completely. Years later, cutting the roof off another Mini with a grinder without goggles. Yup, bits in the eye - trip to hospital to have eye flushed and the bits picked out with a needle. A few months later, sitting at work I blink and feel a scratch... another trip to hospital, sent straight to a specialist. Have the wonderful news that a bit had been left in and the thin skin/membrane of my eye had grown over it. Head clamped into a medieval torture device and a (very cute female) doctor took what was suspiciously like a hobby drill with a flat bit to break through and 'flick' it out. Kept telling me to look forward when she was sitting there in a very nice tight jumper and impressive breasts. :-S Still, I always wear goggles now. Mostly :-S
  4. ReBorne

    Bike Names

    I have to admit I do stroke mine and say things like "Come on, girl....." But I always have with cars or bikes.... doesn't feel right treating it like a lump of metal when you spend blood,sweat.... and yes, sometimes tears on them. (The wind gets in my eyes, ok?) oh, and I admit I'm weird. I said 'Thank You' to a vending machine not long ago :-0
  5. ReBorne

    Bike Names

    ah, didn't take long for it to degenerate. lol
  6. Welcomes!!!!! Am I the only sad-sack here wondering how you got a nickname like Cardboard?!? :-D
  7. ReBorne

    Bike Names

    I've been a good boy and done a quick search to see if I'd missed a thread on this and from my quick glance it would appear not :-) ok, I've had a few cars over the years and they've all had names. Mitzy, Betsy, The Bitch etc etc. But despite having the bike for a while it has remained simply 'The Bike'. Until recently, when I called her Ebony - due to the fact she's gonna eventually be gloss and matt black. So, What do you call yours? Or am I just one of those crazies? :-D
  8. I could never give up on my little baby *wipes tear*
  9. ReBorne

    ye old bikers nod

    Ok, so I'm only recently back on 2 wheels, but over the last week had the pleasure(?) of three vehicles - a 125 scooter (taking home for a friend) which got laughed at by bikers but nods from another scooter (understandable), a BMW Tourer which got ignored by everyone and my own dear FZ400 which has got nods EVERY time over the last few days. 'Course I always recipric.... recipra... reciprie... nod back. And when I nod, I seem to get plenty back too...... I put it down to being on something a bit different :-)
  10. My FZ400 import. On the road after..... well, too long being in the garage :-D
  11. Ah, Drewpy, cornflake packet gaskets..... damn, that brings back memories. Used to do the same myself, but I was posh and had Frosties :-p
  12. I find the prices to be extortionate so avoid garages coz I'm tight. lol. When I was at school I was 'geek' who was a little bit of a petrolhead. So, at 16 I bought a brand new moped which was promptly stolen, smashed up and dumped in a river. £300 excess compared to £310 to replace the parts meant I decided to keep my no claims bonus, buy a Haynes and learn fast. Since then the only jobs garages have done on my cars or bikes have been where it's too big and needs equipment I don't have (car suspension) or where I've tried before and knackered something (bike suspension oil seals). Even then, it's never main dealers, it's my local (overworked) bike shop, who I really can't fault and though he takes the p!$$ outta my bike in a good-natured way, I really do trust - to me the most important bit. In short, get the manual, learn. Get friends involved in little bits and some of them will start getting the bug too. Before long you'll have some great stories to tell your grandkids :-) (yes, the day the back wheel fell off the Mini..... ah, now that was funny......true story). :-D
  13. I *SO* know where you're coming from :-| Ok, with me it wasn't bikes, but I used to have the same problem with Mini's - being the only driver in the house at one point I had 3 on the drive plus a runaround :-s Thankfully I haven't started with bikes, but have a friend with 5 if she counts lol. :-)
  14. Hi OldGit - I don't think the tap has on off. Truth be told, I don't know 100% what the tap positions are. Yamaha in their infinite wisdom put this information on the side panel next to the tap. Which has had a respray :-S. I'm pretty sure I know reserve which is what it is on at the moment, and ON is the opposite (or so I believe). Don't know what the centre one is yet :-S Brian, thanks for that one - but I've ruled out anything getting into the fuel system now in any way shape or form. Stripping down the carbs and using red-ex in my airbrush to get into EVERY tiny cranny, and the compressor blasting air through all the pipes etc. Good news overall though. She passed her MOT yesterday and I get tax today, so she's road legal. Bringing her home, of course, she cut out - less than a km from there. Pushed her home and put the battery on charge - flattened it trying to start her. I took her around the streets a little last night, let her run, took her around again, let her run, and again, let her run.....and run... and run. She overheated kicking water out of the reserve water tank at the side. Ok, so most people wouldn't be happy at their bike overheating, but I was well chuffed. It means she ran LONG ENOUGH to overheat!!! lol. So, it's now showing itself to be an intermittent problem. The 3km twice was probably co-incidence. That, to me, rules out lots of things - but means that something quite random is happening. One thing I've noticed in the past is the amount of excessive wiring underneath the tank. I'm gonna bag that all off and tie it up out of the way. (Never done it before now as I've been going under there so much). I've ruled out fuel, mechanical and ignition so there isn't much left. (And thinking on, I DID move them out of the way a little to get at the breather pipe underneath the tank before she did the long run). Thanks to everyone so far for the suggestions. God, I hope this sorts out soon. I just wanna get out on her now - well, for a couple of months till I strip her down and make her look good ;-)
  15. Thanks again for the response guys. Coils? Checked. Still gets a spark ok on all 4. Battery? Checked. Along with wiring for loose connections and possible chafing. Fuel tank seems to be letting fuel through in general whenever I check it - including when I had the tank off and to one side (but still attached at the fuel lines) when I was setting her idle speed. But it's hard to check when both fuel pipes are on, hence my thinking it may be the vacuum tap. Whenever I disconnect the fuel line a splash of fuel comes out. oh, and I've flushed the tank out completely already. There was crap in there from her standing which us what she was pulling through to make the carbs so messy before I cleaned them. Tonight I took the tap off the tank and opened it up - didn't look too brilliant inside to be frank - rubbers a little worse for wear. I'm bypassing the vacuum part of it simply by taking the spring out from behind the valve thingy and moving it in front - so instead of it holding the valve closed it holds it open to eliminate that as an option. (After reading some of the work other people have done to get the same effect I'm quite surprised no-one mentioned doing it this way. The spring fits in the other side nicely.) I realise I'll have to remember to turn the tap off when she's standing, but small price to pay. Now the fuel has a straight run through when the tap is open. Will be re-fitting tomorrow or Thursday morning. As the bike is currently sitting at a friends about 2/3 of the way to the bike shop, it should at least get it's MOT. Fingers Crossed this works :-S
  16. Thanks guys. Have tried both of these previously, no go. Since that post I've had the carbs off and stripped right down, then cleaned them out using redex in my airbrush to make sure it gets right in to every part. FLushed the tank and all pipes too. Admittedly, carbs were dirty as hell, especially inside the pots. After that she went for almost exactly 3km then died. Started after 5 mins, almost passed her MOT, then going home exactly the same again. 3km then dead. I'm thinking,loogically here - that 3km must be the amount of petrol held in the pots on the carbs. GOOD NEWS though. After all the standing and the absolutly stupid amount of time it's taken for me to get the thing back on the road, she failed her MOT on just 3 things - fork seal leaking, chain too tight and rear swing arm not allowing her to rebound properly. Work is all done and she is heading in for retest. However, driving her back there - same thing has happened again!!! Cut out! The last thing I can think of is the tap. I'm thinking it's not letting fuel flow when it should be. Gonna try this over the next night or so by disabling the vacuum function like I've found on some sites. Will let you know what happens. If there's a report of a bike in the river before then, you know the score :-s
  17. Ok, I'm really at the end of my tether with my damn FZ400. Starts ok. Runs ok, ticks over ok. Rides ok. After about 3/4 mile - cuts out, won't re-start. Leave it a couple of hours - restarts ok, runs once again and then does it again. Checked the petrol, not a problem, getting through fine. Checked the carbs as much as I can, seem ok. Someone suggested the coils - just ran it around a little while until it cut out, checked for a spark - yup, no problem there, spark to all 4 plugs. Had it idling in the garage for a while before it cut out today - not long before it happened she started sounding as though she was missing a cylinder, but just every now and then. Anyone got any ideas? Seriously, this is doing my head in bigtime, I'll consider checking anything else now.... Cheers!
  18. I'm the ultimate skinflint (both through choice and necessity...), so I recommend trying FREECYCLE. If you haven't heard of it, it's local groups where people post stuff that is still good enough to use but just unwanted - rather than throwing it away. The point being they aren't allowed to charge for it. Google for your local group. Once you've given away something yourself, you can post a wanted.... and trust me, whatever it is you need, someone somewhere often seems to have one squirrelled away that they're eager to let you have. Ok, unlike buying there's no guarantee you're going to get it, but you'd be surprised ;-) If you've got old stuff lying around just taking up space, I'd honestly recommend it too. I've been grateful a few times for picking up decent items. Cheers!
  19. ReBorne

    Exhaust advice

    Cheers for the link Fahren - lol, I'd spent a bit of time looking on ebay without luck, and you just walk in and find something.... lol. Ok, I've since found that as long as I'm up for *making* them fit, one from another type of 400 will be ok, and I should get away with a 600 one without any negative consequences. Looking at some of the prices (and the fact I am so skint you wouldn't believe it) that's probably an option I'm gonna go for...... Cheers again!
  20. ReBorne

    Exhaust advice

    Hi guys. Just need a bit of advice..... got an FZ400 with a knackered exhaust. Obviously a replacement isn't easy to get hold of..... would I be able to fit a can from an FZ600? What problems would I come up against trying to fit one from say, a CBR400? (Apart from the obvious thing of the brackets being in a different place...) While I know quite a bit about cars, and have done a lot of the mechanical side of the bike, I really don't know about this type of thing and boy do I feel stupid lol. Cheers for any advice :-D
  21. Nice........ damn I still wanna be riding when I catch up to ya..... only 30 years to go Good on yer mate, keep on rocking ;-)
  22. Woot!!! Well done!!! Yep, sure is a feeling that's hard to beat....... :-D I was lucky, I took mine 2 days before xmas, last tests of the year...... I was sure I'd failed what with doing 30 in a 20 zone, mis-hearing his command and doing something completely different etc...... turns out NO-ONE from our riding school failed that day even though we all thought we had..... guess the examiner had his mind on getting off work and celebrating!!! And good luck with yours Mikey ;-) (",)
  23. ReBorne

    Mot Pass

    YAY!!! Well done - now go and enjoy it before winter sets in! lol. I wish I could say the same, but cash being what it is mine isn't back on the road in a hurry, so yes! I'm jealous as hell!!!! ;-) (",)
  24. ReBorne

    new to biking

    Dammit Drewpy, that's too close to my comment to post it now!!!!! he he he
  25. In an age when we're becoming overloaded with images of people doing amazing things, that still made me sit up and wonder if anyone would have the balls to try to do a remake..... bloody amazing! Any volunteers?!? lol
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