Ttaskmaster

Put the battery in. Then put a multimeter across your terminals and see what the voltage is. Should be around 13v. Then do the same with the bike running and the throttle open a bit, around lower-mid rev range. The voltage should go up. My first thought is that it isn't charging, which probably means your regulator-rectifier is duff, or there's a bad connection somewhere. Possibly even a bad earth....

Do you have a pic? I doubt it, but the 1100 Custom model mudguard might fit the Classic you have... Failing that, a decent workshop can always trim the existing one.

No need to feel silly if you can learn from other peoples' mistakes, rather than your own, eh!! I have actually seen this happen, as well... One of our Riding Group, known as Dangerous Brian because he wore a two-piece silver (yes, shiny tinfoil-like) racing suit!! We all left wherever it was that we'd ridden out to and gunned off down the road on our respective bikes. Cruisers, Sporties, Tourers, all kinds. Brian was on an old bike, something with a fair bit of grunt. Rev, rev, rev, clutch out - Hoping to impress the passers-by. Instead he hits the forgotten disclock, bursts his caliper to bits, vaults over the bars and causes a roar of laughter from those of us still around to see!!! Not badly hurt, but needed a new lid and a lot of front end replacements.... and a new disclock!!

Ooooh, fancy..... But then, I never ran out of petrol, so...

That's what I was getting at... Those small 6mm holes on the outer ring are just for venting during braking. The next ring in is a single line of large holes. The bolt goes through one of those. Just REMEMBER to put the lock right up against the back of your brake caliper. That way, even if you forget to take it off, when you try and ride away you will only travel 6" and then stop..... rather than 6 yards, stop, go over the handlebars, wreck your caliper and trash the bike!!

UK billion, or American billion?

Wherever those three aren't, ie the empty space. If those are at 9, 12 and 3 o'clock, then OFF would be at the 6. I don't recall there being an OFF either, but I did have the tank off my 125 once so there must be one.

Mine's done over 46,000 and not a peep. I jest, I jest.....

Ah-ha-ha, crosposted with Roy Well, there's Roy's explanation below: Your bike is set up to work with a balanced X amount of fuel and Y amount of air. If you alter the pipes, it changes how much air goes into the system and the bike won't run so well. If it's too much either way, the bike won't run at all and you could break it. If you change the pipes, you have to change the jets to keep that balance. As an example, my other half has straight-through pipes and she has not re-jetted. The first half of her pipes have gone a burned blue colour.

Silkolene is a good enough brand. 10-W-40 is pretty much what you want for this climate. They do a 10-W-50 for V-Twins, too. As for the sparkies... get whatever high performance stuff you want - It's still a 125. IMO, you don't want high-performance sparkies, so much as ones that will just last. NGK have a great rep and I don't know any Drag rider who uses anything else. I also hear good things about Champion.

All three??!! Blimey, sounds like a serious bit of shitty luck there, mate.... My ex had big end problems with hers. She bought it off a girl who'd ragged it to feck, done her own mods, pissed about with it and generally mistreated the thing. It'd had several paint changes, each one atop the other. She ditched that and went with a Blade instead. I never did find out the actual cause, but probably lack of regular maintenance and general abuse. It's not a common problem that I know of. Mine is absolutely fine, as is my other half's, as are all the others in my town, as are all the others I know the owners of. I'm not suggesting abuse on your part, but if they were secondhand buys then perhaps the owners didn't look after them? So why do they call you Dragstar Dave, then?

Ooh... an interesting question!!! Most want FECKING LOUD pipes on their Cruisers... You and I are about the only ones who care about our neighbours, including my darling other half and her 'Spitfire Fly-By' pipes. OK, errrrrrmmmmmm........ Option 1 is indeed to drill a few holes in the back of your stock exhaust. Right at the back, put 4-6 holes (but no more) in the disc holding the end of the exhaust pipe central. Sounds obvious, but start with just a couple, then start the bike and see how it sounds. You can always put more in, but you can't easily undo them. Option 2 is to browse the internet and see what's out there. Any straight-through pipes will be FECKING LOUD. Ideally you want one where you can remove however many of the baffles you need to achieve the sound you like. Highway Hawk and Vance & Hines are popular brands, I believe. People will tell you not to bother re-jetting, usually because they never did and their bike is fine. Every mechanic I know has cited not re-jetting as the main cause of problems on custom-piped bikes. Who ya gonna believe?

Plugs - NGK. Oil - Silkolene 10-W-40. Semi-synth, I think... I can't recall off the top of my head. Why, what does your manual say?

NO....... wanna go Scammer Hunting!!!

Check the carb manifolds - The stumpy black tubes going from carb to the cylinders. These do perish and crack open after a while. I'd personally just get it a comprehensive service and check-over. DIY or get 'a man who knows' to do it.

Rather than that, just hire me and my band of seasoned mercenaries to go Scammer-Hunting. I'm sure there are some who have prices on their heads that will more than reimburse you for our costs and expenses.

Woah, woah, woah.... ARMOUR in a waterproof suit??!! I've never heard of waterproofs that have armour, simply because it's just a plastic oversuit and your jacket/trousers that it goes over should have armour in them. Two sets of armour is silly and overly bulky. You can have waterproof textiles with armour in them... This is not an oversuit though, but normal kit. Do not confuse armoured textiles with waterproof oversuits - It confoozes the Newbies!!

Would that not cause handling difficulties? Are you certain the bolt cannot come loose and that the moving parts all firmly lock in place?

As for selecting Neutral while stationary - This can be done and is an official manoeuvre on the test.... Emergency stop - You focus on stopping, from about 30mph. This means you stop in 3rd gear. Often, when you go to move off again from where you've stopped, you'll try clicking down to 1st, but it won't engage. All you do is slowly let the clutch out until it goes CLUNK, sweep the clutch back in and repeat as many times until you are definitely in 1st. Do your checks again and then move off. Same applies anywhere else you have to stop in a higher gear. As time goes on, you'll find you never come to a stop in anything higher that 1st

How long has it been standing? Have you given it a good clean-out, oil/air-filter change and all? Blackened plugs = Could be your mixture is too rich, or your air filter is fouled. Here's a nice chart:

6mm??!! That is about the diameter of a ballpoint pen!! Seriously - This: ]XXX[ is just over 6mm (assuming you have the same screen resolution as me, it's about 6.35mm). You sure you have the right holes?

As stated above. Keep track of which bolts go where as they're different lengths. Also, run a search for the links to workshop manuals. Get one for your 650 Drag and follow that - Instructions make a world of difference!!

No idea... My 125 Drag always, always, always started first go... any weather, any time, any condition.

What? When? Seriously though, I really do have no idea when that was... IF England do win the WC, there'll be hordes of Hoolies "givin' it laarrrrrrge" out on the streets and getting boozed up. The more gentle folk here at work will bore me to tears while they rabbit on about it. Every fan will still criticise every detail of the England team's performance... every pass, every throw-in, every tackle, every goal. Half will claim they could have done better. A further quarter will claim they could have done better, were it not for BLAH sporting injury that ended their career prematurely ("You don' understand. I coulda had class. I coulda bin a contender. I coulda bin somebody, instead of a bum"). Best of luck to 'em....

Short trips: Dry - Yes. Warm - Very, since they stop a lot of wind-chill. Long trips: Warm - As above. Bloody brilliant things!! Dry - After a few rides, my 1-piece suits always go, usually in the crotch. Being on a Cruiser, I then get a puddle of COLD rainwater forming around my 'guy-bits' that slowly seeps in through the stitching gaps. I had a great (but expensive) Lewis Leathers all-in-one suit. The salesman could unpack it and put it on, all zipped up in just over one minute. Same time for taking it off, folding it up and packing it back in it's carry system. I beat his record (under 1 minute) and got it half-price. That suit was fantastic... except the bastard main zip busted when I stopped in the middle of nowhere to don it, since it had started to pee down... I usually keep an eye out for the Lidl sales of cheap bike kit and then pick up two of their rainsuits for about a tenner each. Even if they only last one year, they're good enough value and work well enough. However, donning a 1-piece is a bit hassle-some and I'm thinking of switching to a 2-piece suit.