chrisw

It is high but don't let that put you off to much it'll still have plenty of life in it. You just get to by it at a bargain price. If you do get it though it would be wise to give it a good going over, a few things to consider on such milage bikes are to check wheel bearing, fork oil may need replacing, rear shock could be worn, so you could end up replacing these. Saying all that I've got a 2004 R6 and it's got over 30k miles on it, the motors still as strong as ever (it should be) and the suspension is still ok, worn slightly I'm sure but not enough to warrent replacing.

Quite normal for sports bikes not to have centre stands. Always carry a stand puck with you so that if the surface is soft you can put the puck under the stand to spread the weight. As for being careful when on hills etc ... this is part of biking not much you can do when theres only 2 wheels and a side stand. I very much doubt that you'll be able to get a aftermarket fixed centre stand as the bike won't have been designed for it and there could well be clearance problems when cornering even if there was a way of actually fitting it to the cradle frame.

What kind of stand .... original Side stand, or paddock stand ? If side stand try ebay, or a bike breakers.

A Thundercat would make an excellent first bike and have for many people. They are fast yet easy going in traffic, comfy but not too soft. As for the insurance, if you plan on running a car and a bike then your existing no claims can only be used for one of those. So if you use it on your car your bike insurance will start at zero no claims even if you have full on the car. Seems a bit unfair that if you've had an accident in your car they use it against you when calculating your bike premium but if you've had no accidents then they don't take it into account and you're still starting from zilch !

Sounds like the usual ticking noise that Injection R6's make fromthe upper right hand side of the engine. Nothing to worry about.

I think whether it will be MOT legal depends on the dealer. I've heard mixed things about them. For the rear indicators my dealer would be accept them as legal. Snippet from the Official MOT website: The precise position and angle of visibility of direction indicators are not part of this inspection, but they must be on each side of the longitudinal axis of a solo machine. As there is a visual difference in the left and right part of the rear light it cannot be argued that they aren't even separately on each side of the longitudal axis. I havent checked about the front indicators yet, but again fromthe MOT Website it states: A motor bicycle (with or without a side car) fitted with a headlamp need not have a front position lamp (but must have one on the side car, if a side car is fitted).

Screw driver Rear Shock adjuster wrench (useful) a few allen keys A couple of spanners I never carry mine with me, it's what the RAC is for. Not much room under the seat anyway so I want that for my Sarnies

I've got one of the rear lights fitted with built in indicators and it really does make the back end look less fussy with the indicators removed. As for indicators have you considered fitting them into where the side lights ar in the headlight, I've not done it myself yet but think I will at some point, failing that the flush fit LED indicators are nice although a little pricey.

I assume it's an Injection model R6 being a 2003, could just be a later carbed version though. I've got a 2004 R6 and stuck a Scorpion can on without any remapping and it works spot on. I'm now going to see if Scorpion do stubby cans for that R6 as my mate has just bought one for his 03 Blade and it sounds absolutely awesome.

Well a new battery could be duff but assuming it isn't, the problem could be a couple of things, get the Alternator checked to see if it's charging .. but could be Regulator/Rectifier that's gone.

Went up to Loch Lomond this summer, as my Girlfirned had bought me a Sea Plane Trip up there. As we were going over the bumps I saw one road that looked pretty fantastic and thought I'd have to come back up on my bike. When I got home I had a look on the map to see if I could identify the road, and sure enough there it was the B828 and what was the place named at the end of it ..... "Rest and be Thankful", say's it all I think hopefully it'll be as good on the gorund as it looks from the air as I'm back up ther next year with the bike.

Don't think we need to worry about this one. There was an article about it not so long ago in MCN Goverement testers, test rode the prototype a few months ago and it looks like it's bits firmly placed in the bin. The control wasn't simply a full restriction, it vibrated you seat and your helmet first before reducing the bike speed. The tester claimed it was dangerous because of the loss of control when the system kicked in in corners.

Put the key into the hemet holder and turn the key, one way opens the holder the other way pops the seat.

Sounds like Carb icing to me as well, I use to have a Thundercat and commuted on it every day what ever the whether, when it was a good cold day I could guarentee the journey to work was going to be a difficult one with the bike as I knew the carbs would struggle, it was Ok when I first started the bike but when I got onto the open roads then it would start icing up because of the lack of throttle movement and also the constant flow of cold air, once in town againand the bike had chace to stand around at traffic lights allowing the engine temp to get the carbs and melt any forming ice it was all OK. Although I've got to admit it can be quite a dangerous thing as the lack of throttle responce can be deadly if it's needed.

What else can we expect from Steroid junkie types though ! We don't know who is in the car or how they will react. So if we do give them some verbal we sometime need to make sure our gettway is clear.

Talking to someone recently who is an Internationally rated body builder and rather on the large size. Well the story is that a few weeks ago he was driving down the road and had to use his wash/wipers to clear some sludge of his windscreen .. completely genuine reason. Unfortunately the bike behind him got the spray as well, so further up the road at some lights the biker along with his friends filtered past him, but the biker decided to call him a f'ing wk'er and gestured through the window before continued to the front og trhe queue, now red rag to a bull, the body builder got out of the car walked up to the biker and decked him one knocking straight off the bike. Bike and biker off floor, he was trying to rip the helmet off the bikers head. The body builder feels bad that the bike may have been scratched as he meant no harm to that but did think the biker got his just desserts. Moral is just cos we're on a bike doesn't mean they won't catch us.

Can't fault you, like I say I know the issues but I still have one, I was just stating facts not giving advice not to get one. .. you'll love it and will swear it's produced more ponies, which it does when brand new.

Where abouts in the Midlands. There's a company called FBI (Fast Bikes Incorporated) not far from myself that is located at Sutton in Ashfield (north Notts). They do a first class job and are used by Dealers around the area. I've not had need to use them myself but if I need any work doing I know I'll be going there after having seen their work.

Do you not have insurance to cover the damage !!!! If not well ... then ignoring all the moral comments I could make, I'd rebuild the bike. using a new frame. But please tell us more about how you wrecked it !!! Hopefully your not at all damaged ... I'm guessing not as you've not said anything.

Unfortunately their are thousands upon thousands of people who believe exactly what you have just stated, because they've read the back of the box. Well the marketing people aren't exactly going to admit on the packaging that their product doesn't filter as good as a standard filter are they !!! If products like that provided better filteration and gave better for the performance then Bike/Car manufacturers would be putting using them as OE but they don't. I'm saying this and I actually run a F&N filter, I'm aware it's not filtering as good, but I prefer the noise and seems I swap my bike regular I don't worry too much. So I'm not against them at all. Like anything that's on the market much of it is all hype ... it's the same with a lot of fuel additives that claim to clean your system, very very few actually do much at all .. only 2 products actually have the correct ingriedients in to make a proper difference one being STP (Must be the Silver bottle) the formula used on some of their other products doesn't do that much. Castrol also produced a statement regarding Fiction eliminator products, they'd spent time testing the products and claimed that they did absolutely nothing for an engine in good condition, and if I beleive correctly could actually stop the oil from doing it's job. So if the oil manufacturers won't use it as in ingrediant in their oil it's not good news when we add it in yourself. The exception to this is if you cause serious damage such as smash an engine casing an loose the oil, the coating that has built up on the metal surfaces may get you home without much damage, but would you really want to ride a bike like that oil pouring out of the crankcase still all over your back tyre. Crike I'm going on and on aren't I. All I'm trying to say is don't beleive the packaging all of the time it's not completely accurate for day to day living, marketing people are clever with figures and bend the truth to suit. They've got more people who believe it than don't so they don't care.

When I use to have mine, it was always serviced by the dealer and they always used Mobil1 for bikes, I travelled at least 1000 miles a month on it and would last between services. Remember you cannot use normal car oil i.e normal Mobil1 in a motorbike because of the wet clutch design, so make sure you get a bike specific oil.

Although they can give a better sound from the airbox and you will think that your getting better performance in the short term, long term you will be reducing performance. Fitting such filters aren't good for the longevity of a bike/car. The only way they can let more air in for the same size filter is if they don't filter as good which means bigger dust particles can get through the filter increasing engine wear. If you don't use the bike that much then you might not be too worried about that though.

It is annoying but I would imagine that the reason is because they are built to different specifications for different parts of the globe. So if it's not been designed for the country your using it in if something goes wrong why should they cover it by a warranty. But then the fact is that 95% of the bike will mechanically the same anyway so why should it matter.

Could just be the tyre's don't suit the bike. But first, check to make sure the rear wheel is aligned correctly. and that the wheel bearings are OK. If you want to try changing the tyre then get something that does suit. Often manufactures make various models of what is effectively the same tyre but is model specific. For example my mates GSXR 750 comes with Bridgestone BT014's, he had them changed recently and they are not the same profile as the originals, so riding in the dry is not as confidence inspiring as the original fitments. Also set all suspension settings back to standard and take it from there

They aren't popular but they are around, I don't think many get replaced as the ones for the Cat tend to replace the whole Battery box so you have to take battery out any everything to replace. I know I've seen some with Busters before, might be worth having a look at their website.