Ttaskmaster

No offense, but I didn't think you had the necessary girly bits...? But you're welcome to try it, nonetheless! As in Venus Dimples. It's one of them Ann Summers "massager" things, but curiously shaped like a saddle... as well as being an actual lock type. I iz clever that way. I'd have offered the use of my ram-rod, crack-splitter, wedge, jiggler, reamer, cylinder, body and other such as well, but the Ttaskmistress does occasionally read this!!

Glad you got that part sorted, fella. There's always something to do, but at least you're now getting there!!

If you're passing Reading, you can come play with my Dimple tool

No-one's mentioned taking the reservoir cap off... This usually makes it far easier to get pistons back in.

If you can prove that you own the lock being picked, or have written permission from the owner, then what you're doing is perfectly legal. Carrying picks, NDE and bypass tools, without good reason, WILL get you arrested for 'going equipped'. Stay safe - Practice your hobby inside your own house.

As mentioned, going from quite a nippy 600 to a small engined Cruiser will be torture! I personally found the 650 took a bit of getting used to before you could sling it around in tight traffic and even then still has the occasional width issues. But both the 535 and 650 will do nicely, as will most of the mid-sized Cruisers. The 750 Shadow and Yamaha's other 950s will be equally good. Suzuki's 800s are likely about the same.

As a Locksporter myself and owner of numerous Non-Destructive Entry tools, I can confirm that many locks are piss-easy to pick open or otherwise completely bypass, often in mere seconds. It's also worrying how much How To information is easily available!! Personally, I'd have advised Southord over the cheap-ass Goso kit, although you seem to have gotten their more fancy high-end set there.

It's more like a larger version of a modern Fazer than an FJ, though... I want something big, powerful, very faired and blindingly easy to maintain... preferably still with some 80s charm!

No space-age version of the FJ??!! Just some racing bloke who looks like a chimp and some kind of scooter... Not even a fancy new Cruiser along the lines of the DN-01 or G-Strider. Looks like I'll be riding vintage for a while longer yet...

Good stuff. Usually they fret over the swingarm bearings, because there's always a touch of play in 'em.

Have you reported this to the Snowdrops? I always understood the Forces took quite a dim and violent view toward theft...

UP-loads? Nah, fuck that - This is 0.5Mbps DOWN-load speed, mate. My upload speed starts with a '0.0'!! Fastest known download speed in Reading is 74Mbps off the FTTP connection that a friend of mine has.

Listen, Lotus... your fans, right, your loyal, die-hard fans, your very lifeblood, if you will, expect to see certain things. You give them what they want. You don't deviate because one disappointed fan can turn into two,to four, to eight, till the next thing you know you're selling to an empty car dealership and your lost sheep are off enjoying the 'rock' stylings of, say, Renault. So while I understand your impulse to do your little 'motorcycle' thing... and I admire it in some small way... if you want to stay in business as Lotus, then you have to reconcile yourself to doing the 'Lotus' thing. All right? And the Lotus thing is that you make cars and we drive the cars that you make. Am I clear?

0.5Mbps here. Should be up for 300Mbps, but BT cannot get their heads out their arses enough.

Oooh - Get a Raider, get a Raider, get a Raider, get a Raider, get a Raider, get a Raider!!!!!!!!!! That looks great - Low and looooooong! The T'Bird Storm looks alright, until a rider sits on it. Then it just looks all short and squished up.

I'm on emergency call-out, at least for the moment. I have five crews out on track possessions this weekend, with all manner of things that might go wrong. I'm trying to pass the buck and swap with a colleague, but negotiations and Mars Bar bribes are not meeting with success...

Of the three, I'd choose one of the Victories myself. If they'd made the 1900 in a Custom design, I'd have gone for that but as mentioned - It's ug-leeeee!!!

Or get some graphite grease spray and utterly flood the thing out. Flush it several times, alternating between the grease and some compressed air. Work the lock mechanism a few times as well. Just have some paper towels to hand, as the graphite will drive the crap out and it will get kinda messy...

My poor Battle-Bitch has already hit the ground more times than I care for, so I still wouldn't want to try it myself - But that's more about me than the bike. She's in finer fettle than me!!

And that's why I take the mick. I'm only doing it to troll you after your initial outburst. You tried the rebuttal back in November when I posted a live review of the 1250S. I didn't like it then and I don't like it still, but it was adequate for a hire bike that I didn't have to actually care about (even though it was returned in better condition than it was issued). Then do accept it, stop being a nob and trying to tell me how much better you think yours is. If it were better, I'd have one, wouldn't I!! Or just hop off and drag it back out as I did when I was learning that lesson. TBH, if I'm in that bad a position that no other solution works, chances are I won't have the space to spin it either. I possibly could as well, but it's not something I'd want to try for lack of hand-holds and the sheer weight on my knees. I'd rather be more attentive toward how I park in the first place. Rocket III? Goldwing? Be an interesting challenge... and more productive than the Ice Bucket thing. Head start on what? Is every ride a race for you, or something? Do your races begin facing the wrong way? Sorry, we were talking about sidestands and you randomly launched off on a whole tirade about how you think it makes your bike better... I simply rode you like a mechanical bull!

That is how it is, though. I don't criticise anyone for their choice of bike. I may criticise the bike itself, but that is just personal preference (unless it's a Harley, in which case they are asking for it! ) and whether or not it does what I want. Or in this case, it seems only about whether you can spin it on a sidestand as an indicator of performance...

I never use supermarket fuels for this same reason - My bikes never liked it.

Hey, I'm not the one who suddenly started waving my cock around for no apparent reason...!! Words like Icon, Most Wanted and whatever else you can find appear in many bike reviews. FJR1300 for 13000 Euros, eh? That's nice, but what's that got to do with the FJ12? I have no interest in the FJR... especially if it's priced in Euros!! Actually, the fact that I don't like it DOES make it a piece of shit in my world and that is all that matters. If it were any other way, we'd all be riding R1s, Fireblades and Hayabusas anyway. You just can't handle the fact that I don't like your bike and that it fails to meet my needs. Deal with it.

Which is fine if that's what you're after. I want a really big bike to actually *feel* like one, though, not like something half its size. How would you feel if your 600 felt like an itty-bitty 125? Been thinking about this 'spinning on the sidestand' thing too - I figure if you actually need to do this, you've not chosen a good parking spot in the first place!!

Woo hoo, you can adjust the valves. Big deal. I can do most things with the supplied tool kit and without having to half-strip the bike down to component parts. Tires - I have plenty of choice, mainly crossply but more than enough radials and even my favourite manufacturer does radials specifically designed to fit the crossply FJ. It's mainly certain members of the older generation that have fixations with crossply. You can actually do the shims without the special tool, but since most manufacturers build 'special' things in that can "only be done by an approved dealer", that's nothing new. Then how come you don't get the 130BHP models that we all have? I also note a couple of US reviews spec the bike at 105HP, despite saying it has over 125 in the review itself... I didn't know that particular bike even had FI. So what? The fact that I've never owned an FI bike has nothing to do with whether I like it or not. I've ridden a few bikes with FI that I did like. I was talking about the ride itself - The position, the saggy response, the crappy 'fairing', the lagging and ugly digital speedo, the cheap production quality, etc etc... My bike doesn't have ABS either, so I don't know what your point there is... But even if I didn't like FI, it's not something I can yank out so easily, is it!! You mean you simply haven't learned how to do those on an FJ... You most definitely can pop it on the back wheel, you can pop it on the front and you could make it drift. It may not be designed for it and you may require skill to achieve it, but it can be achieved. "Sure there are lots of bike's that are faster than the B but none that do everything as well" Strange... That's precisely what most reviews seem to say about the FJ. It's an all-rounder. See, I don't want my big-ass bike to feel like a poxy little 600. Beyond seeing what amazing things my racier friends can manage on theirs, I don't care what it can do on a track. I do care about the load and distance, but I chose the FJ because it does that in spades... as well as being fucking fast, powerful and wicked fun. This crap about spending ages messing with it is also crap, because the FJ is so bullet-proof. And this is what it comes down to - You don't like the fact that your Bandit is NOT a good choice for my needs. It'd be like me telling you a Dragstar kicks your bike's ass because yours isn't shiny and growly... As is, even if I wanted a Hoolie bike I'd take a Hornet over a Bandit.