Cynic

I saw one of those. When they ripped up a really tidy honda for that rebuild i lost interest. No real bike fan would trash a complete bike like that for parts.

Take a sick bag for the boat. Forecast for fri sat is big wind and water and the Irish sea loves a blow. Rest of the week looking good though. In cornwall myself so keeping a weather eye. Have fun.

Its horrible. Only a couple of services too. For hgv on taco rules the stops and starts of the m25 can completely stuff your day. Heathrow and Dartford esp. I remember coming up from Brighton, heading back on a Friday and the traffic was choked from Heathrow (M4) TO Dartford ffs. Had to have friday night away and just had the hours to get home or i would have been out for the weekend. The m25 is the outer circle of hell.

Er.. Tortoise and hare time. The 2 bonus points for you will be comfort and range. The TDR250 even stock unless ridden at speeds you xs is capable of will struggle to better 35 to 40mpg. Same for the tzr. Both have stingy tanks too. The tdr seat is cruel and gets hot too. Not to mention that bike is a pain to work on. You will have double the tank range no 2stroke to find/carry and much better reliability. Probably the better overall choice if not as sexy.

Is the battery ok. If the regulators gone it will be fizzing like mad. Otherwise the rectifier would be possible but i think the first job is checking the bulbs then cleaning the light switch.

Sure. No park position. Does the taillight come on.

You have to ride a TDR to know. I nearly bought one. Motor i great. All single like low torque with a decent top whack. The seat and bodywork looks odd but day long comfy. Only neg is nomatter what the year they are bastards to work on. 2pot = slang for 2cyl.

Athena are a quality brand. If your unsure ask them.

I was looking at something similar on my TDR. By all accounts with no other mods. Changing the pv timing can give you 6hp (granted im starting with nearly 50). It also makes the bike a lot livelier. Obviously a little low power is lost and it will be more brutal to ride. Not a bad thing. I will dig out the link to the blog.

Green laning needs torque. Clean low rpm manners that allow you to pick your puddle. Then give you a clean progression to solid power when you need it. You will rarely do more than 15 20 mph. A peaky derestricted bike would be a pain in the arse.

Blue light showing is a no no. Could be seen as impersonating plod. Its a technicality but a plod who hasn't got laid in a while would jump on it. Then you would be refitting the std lights and getting a re mot as well as any other penalties they can find, small number plate? noisy pipe?

Nope. Not standing at all. My TDR will need prime even after a couple of days or you will be kicking for ever till the bike starts. A 3 count on prime. Pull choke and she's away.

I would have thought the last thing you want to do to a dt you want to green lane is de restrict it.

I spend more time on the roads than most folk and I can say that every single person on the roads me included does something stupid every so often. That I can forgive its the 'I'm more important than you are' idiots that annoy me, women with kids in the car driving dangerously. Saw an accident this very morning, merc and a van, if one or the other had actually slowed up and let the other through it wouldn't have happened. But they were both trying to get in front of the other and ran out of road.

It is. I have ridden it a few times. Feels like a 100cc bike weight wise but with some usefull go. Tops out at about 80 maybe 85 with a tailwind. Has a lovely bark when used hard and the front drum is surprisingly good if used appropriately and properly adjusted. Apparently the old guard (brit pilots) were not impressed as these embarrased quite a few 'proper bikes'. Back in the day.

Not a bike dealer but we had brake trouble (brake squeal) with our car, took it back as it was weeks old. (didn't clean the wheels) gave the car a good wash. We picked it up, 'yes sir we have fully stripped the brakes out and checked everything, found nothing so afraid you will need to pay for the inspection'. They said, holding a metaphorical hand out. 'hmmm, so how did you get the wheels off?' says I, wiping a line in the brake dust. You could of heard a pin drop, we suddenly got a lot of love from Nissan, mats, servicing, letter of apology. Spent the vouchers took the goodies and the car never saw a dealer again, just me, its soon to clock 150000miles and 16 years old.

Hope to, I think 4-500 quid should get something about right. It will get dropped, it will suffer some neglect, primarily from lack of rider skill crashing gears and such and it will suffer shitty weather. But then that's what 50's are built for. Average is the word, average money for average, condition with average mileage. Then she wont be scared to scratch it, or park it somewhere. But old enough that it will have loosened up some so will have a bit more zip with some oldskool tweaks.

Ok, despite Andy's best efforts at not going I'm thinking of this years route up. Something to make things interesting and avoiding anything motorway/A1 style unless unavoidable. Also, we will need a destination from Seaways too, last years run to Scarborough was really good, need something like that too.

Nice plan, did 70 miles today with the daughter on the back. She now has proper experience of bum death. TDR seat not up to FJ levels. Not by a LOOOOOOOOONG way. Its conveniently heated by the exhausts too.

Just starting the ball rolling, the daughter will be 16 middle of next year and seeing as she has the bug we have agreed to a bike of her own. I'm not entertaining one of those crappy scooter rev and go things, esp as I fully intend for her to move up to the DT. I have the 125 top end ready to fit (when I fix the crank). Anyhow, I know we all have stuff hidden and friends who know friends etc so.......... If anybody has some ideas on DT 50's or RD's out there for sensible needs work prices I would be interested. Within sensible distance from Northampton unless its really good buy. I'm asking way ahead of her 16th to allow me time to do any work, find parts etc that it would need. Dt preferred tbh, I know them inside out and she is tall too, maybe an abandoned project 3/5ths completed would be good. Thanks

Search speedshop on the forum. Its a company that repairs/remanufactures all kinds of motorcycle electronics.

Not if you have ever experienced the IAM courses. I got half way through one too. Self important premadonna's Apparently I was supposed to follow the bike in front directly behind him, within 10feet, in line, (raining at the time). I wanted to ride staggered, as told to do so by a police motorcyclist on an observed ride, gives better visibility and an escape route. Apparently I was very wrong and as I was riding dangerously in their eyes was told to toe the line or pull out. So I left.

Sorry, just a sore spot. I spend every day driving defensively to prevent the op happening to me. I freely admit I have uttered the words 'fk me that was close' often enough.

Totally and utterly agree. I have ridden and driven my entire life working on the logic of what if....? It has without doubt saved my life at least two occasions I'm certain of. Ironically I find it a better way to ride as you get your braking done early go into the corner properly then when you can see clearly you can drive out. If you like their thinking take one of the police ride outs, they are usually at large bike events, they take people out and show em how they ride. I did one at the MCN butlins event, those police riders are proper no bulshit fast, on effectively fully loaded tourers. Minimum risk too, its an education watching them ride it really is.

Maybe temper the prudence part. I ride old bikes because I like old bikes, I like carbs, I like the variation. I don't like electronics. When I was falling in love with bikes you could tell a bike by its sound often enough, certainly little more than a glance was needed to tell different manufacturers models. They all had a certain market appeal and you had Yamaha people as much as any other marque. Modern bikes are far more fragile, hard to DIY (the latest engines from Ford, bikes are close, are glued together, something fails you scrap the lot), far more focused into their particular niche. You need to read the name on the tank to tell them apart and within their respective elements. Be it sports or custom etc they are near identical in performance. You have also said that Japanese bike engines are bullet proof, not in my experience its too general. Some are, the gsx engines in Suzuki's, the Honda VFR's. There are plenty of bad ones too, Z250 anybody or maybe one of the cb's or vf's with their chocolate cams. For me your talking about 10-15 years old, but realistically if you want economy to need to run economy, I could hardly bitch about fuel prices when we had a 4.6l v8. Same here, if your not buying with the heart, primarily your wallet your looking at the Mondeo's of the bike world. CB500's, GS's etc. My TDR250 as example costs more for me to use for work than my 2007 Mondeo. Once you add in tyre life, fuel consumption, the cost of the kit you wear on it, etc the car wins comfortably. I can see what your aiming at but its missing its mark a little.