ulster exile

Cheers for the input Kennyb - didn't see this although I couldn't find the thread when I was looking for it a few days ago. Anyways, still interested in this bike, but my main reservations about it remain - I probably will be going on motorway/dual carriageways and an=m wondering more and more about lack of a fairing. Plus, 2nd hand price of these seems to be high in comparison to the cheaper alternatives - admittedly I'm comparing apples with oranges, but at the end of the day all I'm after is a good "first big bike". PS if the weather hadn't been so poo, I may have been having a happier discussion about this - missed one day's DAS training and my test thanks to it, so I was hoping to be posting from a "woo-hoo, passed my test, which big bike" kind of view point

Congrats on the new arrival!

Stunning looking bike - congrats! Hope you've many happy rides together. BTW - what does Goff stand for? Saw a seller on fleabay called Black Goff selling an old Fazer a few days ago which made me wonder the significance of the name (ie name of a rock star or something!)

Apart from looking after hubby who is apparently "dying" of his sore throat (man-flu alert ), so far today I've done the weekly shop, taken the dog to the vets, been to the pharmacy twice and done a nearly 3 hour round trip to buy 10 young fish. Life is exciting Tomorrow's looking up, though - I may just have housework to do!

Males and females are extremely aggressive towards each other and really should only be kept together when they've been conditioned for spawning and added under close supervision (then removed once the dirty deed is done . Some people reckon in a big enough tank you can keep males and females together, but most experienced breeders wouldn't. Males tend to be kept in small (ie 5gallons +) tanks on their own or with some well chosen tankmates (mine was with ember tetras which are way too fast to be a target) and females are usually kept in "sororities" of say 5 and more. The females are usually kept in larger numbers for the same reasons as say tiger barbs are - they're known to be aggressive and larger numbers spread out the aggression. Only problem with buying females from a shop is that sometimes you get a cambodian or young male in there!!! This was my last boyo, just a mongrel Veil tail, who also had cherry shrimp for company (another companion open to debate as some go for them, but this one didn't bother as you can see!) What else do you keep it with? And is there strong flow in the tank as they hate that. I certainly agree that most shop bought betta's seem to be of weaker stock nowadays - we've been through a few in the past 3 years and the slighest thing does seem to get them. However, well bred and kept betta's can live to 4 years (I know of one person who had a betta for 5 years!)

Please tell me you don't have him in with a female normally?

What exactly is th problem with your betta? Seems like we've missed the start of the thread, or was it started in an unconnected topic? Save yourself some £££ and don't run the carbon filter pad unless you're trying to strip some meds from the water.

Hi, in order to do this for you, I tried to access my profile page again by clicking on my user name and after 4-5 attempts I got onto it and the links all worked. However, those 4-5 unsuccessful attempts simply showed the usual IE error page, which says the error could be caused by not being connected to the internet for example.

Tried clicking on my profile (looking for a post of mine) and kept getting a "IE cannot display the webpage" about half a second after the profile page flashed on screen. Eventually I did get something like a profile page, but a lot of the links didn't work on in.

Excellant - I see that Mr Branson actually called the guy and thanked him! That's one way to get noticed

Hmm, well I think I may have to eat humble pie over this one. I've had the bike out twice since I started this post and both rides have been weekend ride outs around the less built up and country-ish areas around Brum instead of my usual commute. I really haven't had much of an issue at all and am wondering if my use of the bike has an impact on the gears - weather permitting, I use the bike for commuting, but only live about 3-4 miles away from work and it's traffic all the way. I know (now) that short journeys are bad for bikes, but could this be a possible problem? I also feel loads more confident on the bike in general and feel the gears more so it's entirely possible (given that hubby couldn't see anything wrong with gear lever) that the fault is actually all mine

What's the point of having insurance from Scotland? Surely the first accident you have, your details are checked and any irregularities may make it invalid anyway? I'm not an expert, just what I would have assumed also, previous bike owner would have told DVLA he hasn't got it wouldn't he?

Don't know mate, but will have a look later when he's due a wash.

Jim, sorry for the delay in my response. Yes, it is a random fault, yes only between 2&3 following the adjustment to the gear selector lever (problem was 1&2 then and occurred a lot more often).

Another excellant review, thanks! I joined the MTOC forum a few months ago and have been reading up on this some more (and drooling some more). Although the MT03 has been top of my list (especially after the NEC show), the poor performance on the motorways concerns me. OH informs me that he plans for us to do some longer trips to get away from the city so I'd need something with was happier on a motorway. No2 on the realistic list was an ER6-N (unrealistic list had the 2009 FS650 for just how comfortable it felt), but looks like I may even have to consider the ER6-F for the fairing, but it just doesn't fit in with what floats my boat (as you'd imagine since I love the looks of the MT-03 *sigh* )

Wow Jim, thanks for the reply - detailed as usual and very much appreciated as usual! Thank you for your very kind offer. Having looked at your website, I see you're about 1.5 hours away by bike since I can't get on the motorway. It's a fair dander on a 125 but do-able with a bit of planning - in all seriousness and without trying to offend you...what would you charge?

I know YBR's are known for their gear issues, but this is stressing me out to be honest. Had my YBR since August, it's an 08 reg but I'm the 3rd owner. It's done 4000 miles (most of those with the first owner who I didn't know) but appears to have been treated well by the second owner (serviced and new rear tyre). It does the usual thing where it won't go into 1st sometimes without me semi-releasing the clutch, pulling it back in and trying again. I've no real issues with that - it appears to be a known 'characteristic' of the bike. Main problem was that it started jumping out of 2nd into neutral (mainly when I was trying to make a entrance onto a busy roundabout or the like - you know, when you've got tons of traffic careering towards you ) then after this it wouldn't go into 2nd without me dropping back to 1st and trying again. As I ride mainly in city traffic, this is a problem which concerned me greatly - I could never rely on the bike when I needed to go! I took it to my nearest Yam delaer (J&S) who had a mechnic look at it, test ride it and was told it was purely rider error - as a girl and a learner, who am I to argue? They showed hubby how to adjust the gear shift pedal and after a play I no longer have the 1st to second problem. However, I now occasionally have a 2nd to 3rd problem, where it won't go into 2nd unless I change down and back up again. Sometimes it still jumps out of 2nd (or even 3rd) into neutral. Now I'm still a learner, but I've ridden hubby's bike (baby Varadero) and spent a couple of hours on a ER5 with absolutely no gear problems. i realise they're different bikes, but does that not indicate that it's not my problem? I'm too scared to take it back because I had a pile of fellas looking down their nose and smirking at me when I brought it in last time, or so it felt like. Is it me, or is it the bike and how do I figure it out?

Jesus, what a shit thing to happen. Hope you get better soon.

Welcome! Love the bike by the way

We haven't booked it yet, but hoping for January sometime. Need to practise the U turn first!

Congratulations on the pass! Bet you're well chuffed I've been quoted about £380 for two days training and the test on the 3rd day. But, they recommended that we did a 2 hour (was nearly 3 in the end) assessment on 500cc for £50 to see what training we would need (did that on Sat past). Instructor reckoned we could get away with 1 day training if we could practise and master the U turn in our own time. Think we'll practise but still do 2 day training to be sure although it's nice to know that our post CBT riding isn't too far off the necessary standards. I'm glad we didn't do the CBT/DAS all together because I'd be on a big bike without the experience of being restricted on a 125 for a while beforehand.

Congrats on passing your test and also on getting the bike - I'm muchos jealous

Thanks for your opinion Willenium, much appreciated I'm loving this thread, not just for the great opinions people are giving me but also for that gorgeous pic posted by oldgitonabike! Cheers all

Excellant review slippery and thank you for taking the time to write all of that! You're right, the bike has what I want. Little bit disapointed with what you've got to say about the motorway - although 95% of my riding is likely to be in traffic, I'm sure there will be a few longer trips on the cards (say 150 miles) occasionally depending on how often the oh feels he *has* to see his family lol. We'll have to have a think about that. Thank you very much

RAF Dress blues please!!! I married a soldier and then he went and signed off so he really only has his hat now. Technically, the hat is enough for me though And since he's started wearing leathers, well...