Afternoon!

I've just won a Yamaha YZF R125 on ebay

Having just passed my CBT I thought I might as well buy something sporty seeing as I come from an MR2 Turbo, Celica GT and Celica GT4 background!

The bike's got 5000 miles on the clock, I won it for the princely sum of £2251

I'm wondering if there's anything major coming up service wise at that mileage? I think the sprockets and chain where changed at the last service (sometime late last year)

Any other info on performance improving upgrades and so on would be sweet. Also, what're bar none the best tyres available in the recommended sizes for the stock wheels? Money isn't really an object (within reason obviously!) It's going to be my daily vehicle to get me to and from work (around 30 miles round trip a day)

Thanks for any info

John

Welcome john"o , you"l find running the bike is cheaper than the cars you"ve had,, tyres " theres plenty of choice, ,,, get a manual , for simple fixes and service..

to the forum John.

when you said Won, I though it was a raffle or summat!

Haha, I wish! Nah it cost me a shade over £2200, but for a one owner, 5000 mileage example I was happy to pay that.

Here's some pics before I cleaned it and after...don't think it's ever seen water other than rain tbh!

Not too bad from a distance

But up close....eeeesh

And after using some nice warm water, Meguiars gold class shampoo, followed by a clay bar over the majority of the bike, dried with a micro fibre towel or two and some autoglym super resin polish...she shined up a lot

Love riding it, very reactive and quite a bit nippier than I expected. I'm coming at all this from a totally newbie perspective...so I'm dead happy at the moment

• very nice john but i couldnt help noticing
  

have you got a fly tipping problem?

haha, someone else on another forum said that!  I'm in a house going through some renovations...so either we have uber lazy neighbours who just stick their shit out there (shared space you see) or it's the builders just dumping stuff there.  Does need clearing out!  I'm gonna ask them to stick an anchor into the concrete so the bike's more secure, I've bought a mahoosive thick chain for it in the mean time.

get it alarmed too john, you'd be surprised at how the pikeys can cut through chains

I think I will, any particular make and model you'd recommend?

never had one myself fella, mines tucked away...not outside

looking good John, get a thatcham approved chain then tell the insurance, it will reduce the premium, but you'll have to lock it every time or they'll not pay out!

what's this clay bar?

looking good John, get a thatcham approved chain then tell the insurance, it will reduce the premium, but you'll have to lock it every time or they'll not pay out!

what's this clay bar?

Clay bar is a bit of detailing kit, it's basically what it says....a clay bar, you lube up the paint with a spray and then rub the clay bar over it (this all sounds very homo erotic I know!) it removes all contaminants that get left on paint from rain, mud, tar, car fumes and so on...makes the paint silky smooth. Then it's much easier to polish the paint. Once polished it's always worth waxing the paint and then using a sealant. All that combined means you should get away with just running warm water with cleaning product in it and a good sponge over it and all the shit will come off really easy. Usually last about 6 months before you need to redo it. Take my last Celica for example:

Day I picked her up...dull lifeless paint...

With shit loads of contaminants all over the paint

Using a clay bar, good car wash, microfibre towels and then a rotary polisher with a cutting compound....she came up like this:

ta-daaaa!

Hi John welcome to the club,

I too an am ex MR2 owner, (Mk 2 REV 1 GT N/A) sadly sold it as had to get a family car! BY any chance are you a member of a forum call NE Japs? http://nejaps.phpbbhosts.co.uk/index.php its a free forum and very friendly just tell them i sent you if you sign up

Nice bike (not my thing) but non the less a cracking example!

Cheers buddy, I'm not a member there.  I'm already a member on about 5 car forums so joining another would send me over the edge haha!  Is that your bike in the avatar? GORGEOUS! I like my sporty looking Jap bikes but I also love those low slung cruisers, too. I got this one because it served a few purposes for me:

mega mpg

looks sweet

sounds decent

goes well

is easy to ride (being a novice!) so skitting in and out of traffic is a doddle, think I'd struggle on a beasty like yours haha

Very happy so far, just wish I had lots of spare cash for thermals, my thighs and balls are icicles most of the time now!

Yer im on three forum so I know where ur coming from, my bike is the bobber in the projects part of this site. (xvs 650 dragstar)

Yer its no fun in cold weather this biking milarky

Right, this is going to sound ridiculously noobish, but I'm ridiculously new to riding. What's the big red switch for on the right handle bar? Has a circular icon below it....

Answers in a postcard related post please

Just a guess...is it the engine kill switch?

It does in fact kill the engine, was wondering if it served any other purpose though. Also noticed that the engine cuts out when I've got the clutch depressed and put the side stand down, those clever Japanese eh!

If you have the bike in gear and put the side stand down it will kill the engine, its so that you dont ride off with the stand still down, as its not gunna help you when you go round a left hand corner with the stand still down lol.