weimieman

Hi Dean To be honest don't waste your time on line as you'll fill everything in and then when you tick the criminal conviction box, the majority of decent top end insurers will say "unable to quote for this risk" or "refer". Doesn't mean they don't want you, just means that the system is unable to seperate the mass murderers from the paper criminals. To put forward a couple of examples, when I was in insurance, I was lucky enough to be in a small community where nobody wanted to use the internet, they wanted the same face day in and day out in an office that wasn't going to disappear all night. Well, ha, I got a foreign holiday in after seven years so I escaped you for a fortnight!!! Anyway, this bought me a reputation as a human being in insurance. Someone who knew who you were by the sound of your voice. None of this confirm your name, poscode, date of birth, shoe size, blood group. I appreciate that I only had about a 1000 clients but I knew 'em, each and every one. (Don't get me started about remembering their registrations, that just got sad) One day I had a call from a distressed young woman who was at her wits end about insuring her car as her husband had just come out of prison for a paper crime. Abuse of credit cards in his parents name. Her premiums back in the late 90's were around £700 comp. It was a nice new car (paid for by card, who knew ) but common sense said that this wasn't the sort of case that should be loaded with a high premium. A few calls later and I'd more than halved her premium after explaning to a few of my contacts about her situation. Like you, made a mistake, served their time and was getting on with their lives. The last thing they needed was to be reminded of their past every time they needed frickin insurance. Another example was one of the most harsh convictions I'd seen on a driving license. Causing death by reckless driving. This was a chap in his late forties, fell asleep at the wheel and served five years in prison FOR WIPING OUT A COACH FULL OF PEOPLE. He'd served his time but I can't say I felt the same compassion for him as I did the credit card case but at least he had the chance to talk to a human being about his case rather than a computer. Needless to say I did find him an good deal for his old moto guzzi and over the years his premium plummeted but without that initial call about what had happened, he may not have got back on the road legally.

To be honest, in this day of governing bodies, the majority of insurance companies would not wriggle out of a claim for the sake of 100 miles. Those clauses and the like are there again to prevent the pi55 takers from abusing the system. 100 miles over? Who cares but 1000 miles, c'mon. One is a slight mishap when you might have kept going becuase it's a nice day and you kept on riding whereas the other is clearly tick every box that will give you a discount and takes your chances. Same with the garaging discount. 99% of companies appreciate that the fact that our bikes are not garaged 24 hours a day (apart from NEVs restored DTR, that thing's just too nice to leave the house ) so rather than simply saying tough titty, you're not covered, they simply place a higher fire and theft excess on your policy should an incident occur during the hours of such and such. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sticking up for the parasites that we know as insurers. It was their treatment of the general public that got me out of the game but I know from experience, the reliable ones won't stick it to you "that" bad.

Ah the trusty Norwich Union Rider Policy. R.I.P. How she will be missed. I remember this used to run along side the Norwich Union Specified Bike policy. Can you guess which one sold the best? You can thank the police for the removal of the rider policy due to the abuse of the ner do wells. Kind of like the gypos ruining the driving other commercial vehicles extension on the van insurances. As always, the few ruin it for the many.

Another update following a bout of very cacky weather. I've not had much chance to get out and do much but what I have managed to do is finally get around to applying the decals to the left and right hand side panels and applying a few coats of laquer. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us As I mentioned earlier, I gave up on the idea of tracing around the original stripe on the right hand side panel and going in favour of the earlier MX decal to try and add something different to the bike. I'm currently toying with idea of a digital speedo so it's nice to have something from each era either side of the 80's on the bike. (Plus it saved me a few quid on buying the correct stripe decal ) I'm not 100% happy with the laquering on the tank yet so I dare say it will be seeing a few more rubs of 1200 with a few more coats before the tank get screwed back down. One job I was really happy with at the weekend was the tail tidy. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to track down an LC under mudguard to tidy up the rear end as sadly a lot of LCs became field bikes and either an over zealous wheelie or simply being removed saw an end to that part. Fed up of this defeat I decided to take a gamble and get a rear off a 92 DTR which, whilst it clearly would not fit, didn't look a million miles away. A little bit of drilling to match up the existing holes for the mudguard to the frame, a dremel attack to the sides to make it look a bit more aesthetically pleasing and I was pretty much there. Oh, disaster. When screwing the two pieces together the original mudguard was pulled in to the DTR part as the gap between the two was huge. No amount of dremeling was going to cure this. I hunted high and low for some copper pipe-esque tubing to cut into spacers but not a single scrap was found anywhere. I got desperate and started thinking about the tops off toothpaste tubes but common sense prevailed and I thought about my actions. All this money and you're putting toothpaste tubes on your bike???? After a fair while of stomping around the house and garage (and a few choice words and strops), I stumbled across what I thought was quite a good idea. I found an old fashioned biro with a metal barrel. None of this modern day plastic nonsense. A bit of a trim later, rub down and repsray and you can't tell the difference. Uploaded with ImageShack.us You can't tell can you??? The more eagle eyed amongst you will spot a nice shimmering of plastic covering on the white mudguard. That is good old traditional shrink wrap. No matter how clean and tidy my garage is (along with how careful I am) my freshly sprayed parts seem to be getting mucked up all the time and I seem to be knocking them!!!! How????? I've seen all this fancy blue tape they use on Biker Build Off and the like and I scoffed and thought I don't need that! Anyway, it does the job great. Everything is wrapped up nicely in the garage now. Well with the weather holding out I managed to swap the left hand switch gear and get rid of that Godawful engine stop/horn but now comes the dreaded electrics. It's about 1230 in the afternoon now and I thought I'd have a quick dabble to see how shot the indicators are. Fantastic. First two colours I need to find in the loom are dark brown and dark green. Oh well, only six hours until my wife comes home to show me The next dilemma is that I need to get the tank finished to get the petcock back on so I can start the bike up again as I was kindly advised at the weekend that you need the bike running to power the headlight and possibly the indicators so it's no good looking for a live wire with just the key turned on. I tried making a header tank out of an old cider bottle and running it straight to the carb whilst it was wedged onto my handlebars. Needless to say that it didn't work and no, I won't be uploading a picture of that

That makes sense actually . I'll have another play tomorrow weather permitting. Thanks for the answer.

Thanks for the reply. Would the indicator light on the speedo flash even if there wasn't a complete circuit with indicators attached?

Cheers buddy

Anybody who has read my project will know that my bike is an ex field bike and it was chucked together quite shoddily to get through the MOT, including the electrics. What I need to know is when you turn the ignition on, will your headlights and indicators work without the engne running as mine will only work the brake light and horn so I'm wondering if this is normal and you have to have the engine running to power the big stuff. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am rewiring all the indicators as they have been hacked off so knowing that they shouldn't work without with the engine on will cut out a lot of frustration!!!! PS My battery doesn't have a great charge in it as it has been sat for a month now while I've been tinkering.

Do you know that if this forum was "The Matrix" then OG would truly be the Oracle

Lane splitting (as our trans atlantic cousins call it) is something I rarely do anymore. reasons? 1 I now ride an armchair on wheels, 2 I'm a bit of a coward and assume that everyone on the road is anti-bike. I'm all for sneaking down the outside of traffic on a red light to try and get a few spaces ahead in traffic, usually when I am late for work but in my very few ties I have gone down the centre, I have alway met with an a55hole who is jealous that his has to stick in traffic. Every bike I see splitting in my mirror I pull over a little just to give them that bit more room, not because I'm a biker but because I'm an decent human being and appreciate that they don't have to sit in traffic. Likewise if someone is travelling along at the speed limit and I would like to nip round them, within reasonable tolerances of the limit of course, if they tend to pull in a little I never ever forget to give them a little thumbs up to acknowledge their courtesy and also to let them know we're not all a55holes.

Problem solved as my nice brand-new-old-stock arrived from Granby motors yesterday at a cost of £4.79 plus P&P which I thought was quite reasonable. Apparantly the last one they had in stock and judging by the label, it really was old stock! I didn't have chnace to fit it properly last night due to the piggin' weather but a quick duck under the bikes protective cover and I can see how it's going to fit over the spline and hook up to a couple of areas to provide it's tension. Please, please can we just have a couple of hours dry spell, far too much to do

Get the new can on it and set off some car alarms! I used to love that going through the centre of Kendal!!! Shouldn't have the damn things set on such a sensitive level

I've been doing a bit more digging as it's a quiet day in the office today (managers are on holiday tee hee) and I've found this http://www.yamahamotorcyclespares.co.uk/spares/epc2.asp?ModelID=9078&pageID=32&uid=0 Looking at the spring, it looks like it sits on the pedal spline and springs back from being crushed together whereas the two springs I've been sent are ordinary long springs which I'm assuming are for DTR's and not early LC's. Back to the drawing board I guess .....

Ah bless, my bike looks like your bike's baby brother

Yep it's absolutely bouncing up here as well, plus the wind isn't helping at all. Mind you, I don't have my dog with me for the next two days so it'll be waterproofs at dawn and a full tank of fuel in the bike to help with the sidewinds going down the prom

Starter relay? Find out where it's located and put your hand on it when you press start. If it gives a good click and vibrate you've probably seized up. If it is free then you could be looking at a very tired starter motor.

Well it's coming up to that time of year again where I have to drop my pants and take it like a man so I thought I'd make an early start before the yearly insult drops through my letterbox like an unwanted cow pat. After many years of jiggling between Carole Nash and various other low lives (can't knock CN though, not the cheapest but by far the best service I've had especially afetr being knocked off by a woman changing lanes late for work. Oooh I didn't see you love was her reply as I crawled over to my pride and joy. Bright red Goldwing, headlights on with lower driving lamps and she didn't see me!!! [Enter your own Stevie Wonder/Ray Charles joke here] Anyways, after the advice of a friend yesterday, he said check out ebikeinsurance.com. Well I did and not only are they over £30 cheaper than last year, I can insure the DT on a classic policy for £99 and they send me a voucher with a code to get that for free. It's a limited time offer but worth jumping in there if the timings right for you. The policy may be cack but as I'm an ex-insurance broker I still have my contacts and a damned good solicitor who is a biker as well so that helps. You might not have seen me coming love, but I saw your premium go up with a fault accident on your record

This is probably a such a simple fix I'm almost too embarrassed to ask but here goes. After several bits of advice from various members, I finally tracked down all the missing parts I need to tart up the old girl so hopefully I'm only a couple of weeks away from actually getting to have a ride. Anyone who has read my earlier blah blahs and waffle would know that several parts were missing from my bike as it was previously a field bike that was slap dashily put back on the road. One of the parts that was missing was the spring from the rear brake pedal. All I have attached to the pedal is the long spring to trigger the rear brake light. All my missing bits arrived yesterday and amongst them were two springs, I was only expecting one but never mind. Anyway, I can't for the life of me figure out where on earth to attach the spring(s) to for them to actually do their job. Haynes is no use whatsoever as their advice goes as far as remove the spring from the pedal and installation is the reverse of removal. Bless em. I think the problem could be that several lugs and mounting points are actually missing from my bike as I found out when trying to fit new plastics hence why everything was held on with tie wraps. The gap in the rear of the pedal that the brake light fits into appears to be big enough for both the brake light and pedal spring but much head scratching later, I can't see where the other end should go. Yammie gods, I await your assistance ...

Now that would be telling, but it did involve .......

Following up on what I said last Friday 5/8/11 about how bikes are the best therapy, I just had to come back here and put a nice end to the story. After a good relaxing ride in and a fairly pleasant day at work were nobody moaned too much about how badly done to they were (despite having a roof over their heads and a full time job) etc, I was really looking forward to the ride home. Not far, only about 14 miles door to door but still, it's a nice ride. The temp is in the late teens and I have to go down Morecambe promenade which at this time of the year is flipping heaving and every set of lights gets you along with every pedestrian crossing stuffed full of blue rinsed Grandparents allowing their grandchildren every indulgence under the sun. Oh yes, Morecambe is heaven to the soon-to-be-obese child with it's ice cream and hot dog stands. I digress once more. For the first time in my life, 22 years on the road on bikes, I GOT A BLOODY PUNCTURE!!!! How very dare you life after all I said previously about bikes. Guess what, I couldn't give a damn. I was about halfway home so a quick call home to bring the compressor down and I sat on the beach wall stuffing my fat face with a hot dog. No I was never a chubby kid but by god I'm approaching it an as adult. Also, my tea would have been ready in half and hour but I'm 38, you can't tell me what to do! Anyway the point of the story is that I've had many punctures in my cars over the years but never one on my bike and truthfully, it didn't bother me. I dare say if it had have been winter and it was pishing down then the story might have been different but it wasn't a bad day to have to kill half an hour on the prom Bikes really are the best therapy (and possibly hot dogs)

Afternoon Harry and welcome to the forum. I only joined about three weeks ago and it's a great place to hang out and exchange ideas so you should have fun. It sounds like you've researched your bike really well so I wouldn't really worry about the top end too much. You've got as bulletproof engine and a damned comfy bike (from what I've been told)so I'd be more than happy with 60 at the top end. I know what you mean about wanting to open it up a little but on your commute back and forth you'll be more than happy with that speed when you get out there having fun. My 125 at 17 had a top end of 45 - 50mph depending on the tail wind and I travelled 1000's on miles on it (probably a couple of 1000 but it felt like more) and I was more than happy at that speed. Mind you a lot of that was due to the fact that my previous bike, my MBX 50, was flat out at 33mph so at 45mph I felt like a tarmac god ripping up the roads!!!! Have fun and enjoy riding round the road cones on your CBT and don't forget to smile when they give you that yellow bib to wear on your lessons!!! Scott PS I too enjoy a good essay and a waffle

Cheers Andy, I'll check out that thread you mentioned.

Happy belated birthday! I remember my 18th as I had to get out of the house while everyone got stuff ready for the party. I picked up my DT keys and buggered off for a few hours. Ahh, memories ......

Thanks for the link, it's now winging it's way to me as I type I was looking forward to recovering my seat at the weekend but the weather stopped everything. Well I could have done this indoors but being a typical bloke I threw all my toys out of the pram and folded my arms saying that if I can't spray, I'm not doing anything. I don't know what you think but I was considering leaving the original seat cover on under the new one (subject to it fitting) just to add another layer of comfort and gain that all important five mill on the ride height? I suppose that's my only grievance about the trusty LC's, they just don't sit as high as the later models