Ttaskmaster

One of the reasons it's so 'expensive' these days (mine is something like a whole Eight pounds for 4 annual updates) is that people kept ripping them off.

I'd personally advise the Workshop Manual. Pics and diagrams are usually clearer, advice is better and more comprehensive, most can be found for free download and because I'm an arrogant snob!

Whatever fits and works for the look/function you're after. Not aware of any particular brands to avoid.

Pretty much how I understand it, yeah. Good news is, so long as you noted the km before you added the converter, you just divide that value by 1.6 and add to the remaining miles. I like easy maths!

I may be wrong on this, but there are usually three basic types of manual for bikes: 1/. Owners Manual - You usually get this with the bike when it's new. Tells you how to work it and how to maintain it, change oil, plugs, fuses, etc. Good for the basics 2/. Haynes Manual - DIY guide to servicing the bike and doing a fair bit, up to some pretty major repairs. Occasionally flawed, though and often things like the wiring diagrams are not quite accurate. Photos are usually black & white and everything has been done not only with a brand ne perfectly clean bike from the factory, but things like the engine have usually been removed for the purposes of showing you stuff. The reality can sometimes be much more awkward than just following what the book says. In the US they have the Clymer Manual. Same thing and sometimes found for cheaper than Haynes. 3/. Workshop or Service Manual - This is what your local mechanic uses. Can be found, but can also be expensive. Usually far more accurate and has line diagrams instad of photos, making things much clearer. Usually includes the torque settings for every single bolt and technical gubbins on everything you use, from tools to lube to rubber gloves. Now... I don't believe there's an actual Haynes/Clymer for the 125 Drag, but I know there's a Workshop Manual. We used to keep a sticky of where to get them, but they are around online - FREE downloadable PDF documents. Plus, there's always the Owners Manual to start with, which is usually easier to find... and, of course, there's us lot here! Just don't ask me too much as it's been years since I had my 125 Drag and I forget shit, heh heh!

Tested mine this morning at various speeds compared to ShatNav - roughly 86% accurate, depending on speed. But no-one said anything about how fast you bike goes when you factor in general speedometer inaccuracy, inclines, false readings, weather, humidity, tyre choice, or any of the other thousand different variables that exist either on a single bike or between different bikes that might make enough of a very minor difference for people to get pedantic and argue about, we were just asked how fast our bikes go and since most of us rely on just the one piece of instrumentation, I suppose 'technically' the question should be how fast does your speedometer *say* you can go, but I really cannot be arsed with such bollocks. Now answer the bloody question, Bollinger Knickers!

As above - V-Star is the exact same thing. You might find a lot of parts for the more common 125 Dragstar fit the 250. I *believe* they use the same frame and everything, with the only difference being engine size.

Who's a knotty boy, then? I dunno what it's called, but that slidey one that you use to keep tent lines taught - Round turn and 2 half hitches, is it? Thread through tie-down ring, bring it back, loop it round and through the first line, but then pass it through a 2nd time behind the first pass, then loop it over and past this, to another loop and pass-through. Pull taught and you have a knot that looks a bit like a 3-turn noose and will just slide tight, but hold in place nicely. Watch out for them there Dutch folk, mate - They're nuts!!

1999 XVS650 Custom 107mph On the road 6-7 seconds

I'm just up the road in Reading. Dragstars are wicked - Welcome to proper biking, heh heh!!

Well, no obviously - Even on a 650, the V-Twin vibrations are more than enough to make a girl come several times an hour. Some larger Cruisers can even do it just by riding past, such are the atmospheric disruptions caused by the exhaust notes. Important to note: Harleys don't vibrate fast enough - Their sensation brings some pleasure, but it's nowhere near climax. 125cc Cruisers may bring a slight smile, but the womenfolk of those riding the 125s are rarely old enough to even know what an orgasm is, so they pretty much don't count. So no, undersized undercarriages are not a concern for us Cruiser riders. We just don't give a shit. Our womenfolk get what the're given and they'll like it. Also important to note: Having spoken with some gay Cruiser riders, it seems that the world of homosexuality is once again completely opposite to that of us Breeders - Gay Cruiser riders are typically FAR more well-endowed than almost every other kind of biker and most are considered quite a catch, but especially if they can pull off the white t-shirt look you only ever see in clothing & accessories catalogues... Although, the wearing of leather chaps is still considered poncey and fucking queer, even in Queer circles. How 'bout that!

Until you put the stand up... OK, that'll be your sidestand switch. See where the sidestand attaches - there's a little thing that pushes in and out when you move the stand? That is your sidestand switch. It's dangerous to ride with the stand down, so that switch stops the engine if you're in gear with sidestand down. Clean that out and then see how you go. A little flickering in Neutral when you rev the engine is normal. It means the battery is charging. You may also notice your headlight get brighter. If you mean flickers on and off completely, only then do you have problems.

Not fitting is always a risk with aftermarket parts. Even very expensive accessories. Yes, I'm sure they're cheaper and Yammie ones cost a bomb, but... In the long run OEM is often far better, too.

Got some mates out there right now. They're taking a typical soldierly attitude... pissing around and dreaming about ice-cream and Nandos! Apparently they still do the grenade trick, heh heh!

"Rideout in Moab, Utah" "Rideout to Accra, Ghana" "Rideout from Pluto to Io" That's all people have to do. Make it clear in the thread title and there's no need for separate forums - Just a single Rideout one.

Check your tuning and make sure the rear cylinder is running a bit leaner than the front. Helps with the cooling, as you're air cooled and the front one spoils the airflow a bit.

It's got, what... 60HP? The sort of people who pull stunts do so on machines with up to 190HP... That's more than THREE TIMES what you have and they usually have about half to a third of the weight. All you usually have to do to wheelie is whazz the throttle wide open and dump the clutch in 1st, 2nd or 3rd gear, no training required - the power-weight ratio just does it for you! This is also why many of them kill themselves, including some twat here in Reading the other year! Again, I'm not saying it's impossible... just highly unlikely. Also... a Drag bike? Maybe against other similar types of bike, but 60HP isn't very much to be drag-racing with. Perhaps he meant he felt like it was dragging itself along compared to the rest of the traffic? Start by beefing up your front brake. Use double-double-quadruple sintered pads and bed them in over a good 500 miles. Then bleed the brakes and build the pressure up so much that braking feels solid as concrete under even the slightest pressure. Then, get riding and go really, really, REALLY fast, as fast as it will go... I mean a whole 90mph at least! If you can make 108mph, then you've broken my speed record! Once at this speed, make sure you're perfectly upright and level, then STAB on the front brake. Drag the lever back so far you're crushing it into the handgrip and do it so fast that you almost (but not quite) snap the lever off. If you're very lucky, the bike will stand up. Be ready for the up-stand, because the instant it raises above 60º, you need to start slackening off on the front brake, else you'll head-plant the road in an Undertaker piledriver fashion. Don't slacken off so much that you start coming back down, though. This part will need lots of practice. You want to be able to hold the stoppie until the bike has almost stopped moving. Now, while you're up there, pull the clutch in and click all the way down into 1st gear. You'll need this later. Just before the bike comes to a stop and falls back down, you need to kinda sorta twist your lower body around and thus flip the bike within the 'rolling' plane. Kinda hard to explain, but anyone who's ever owned a BMX should be able to explain it for you. This basically is your 180º twist at the end, so as you come down you should be in 1st and can gun the throttle just before you touch down. The end result should be a nice quick wheelspin with some 1970s cop show tyre-squeal, before you take off and speed away looking like the coolest thing since Steve McQueen... but alive, as well. For best results, perform liberally in front of your local Rozzers and finish with a backward two-finger salute as you blaze off, while having a friend video the whole thing and posting it on YouTube with your name and address. Next week on "Tasky's Cunning Stunts": The impossible under-truck slide from the opening sequence of the film Hooper, starring Bert Reynolds and Jan-Michael Vincent!

That said, I think we might have to re-name that one, make it a MASSIVELY BIG sticky topic and/or create one called 'New Members - Introduce Yourselves Here'... something blindingly obvious. Either way, welcome to the forum! For the Neutral light, try stripping the Speedo unit off (the manual should detail that) and checking all the wiring to make sure there are no loose or corroded connections. Most things can be cleaned with a range of different sized brushes - I have several bottle-brush style ones for all the hard-to-reach places, like switches!

Always check everything and check the most obvious things first, however silly they might seem. The number of times people have taken hours to realise they'd just tripped the kill switch... Always replace the cheapest parts first!

There's some very useful information in my signature. Check it out...

That term refers specifically to those whose one and only post is something like, "My bike is broken. Any ideas?". If your total life with the forum is posting an intro, a couple of chit-chat threads and then a final plea for help, before buggering off and never returning even to say thanks, then so be it. You've taken the time and had the chance to see the forum as a whole community and not wasted our time/bandwidth/forum space with "I can't be arsed to Google, how fast does my bike go?". Like I said, posting rights in the forums/threads/sections outside the Intro/Newbies section should be restricted to those with more than 5 posts. I can't stress how many other forums do this and how bloody effective it actually is!

Read my signature...

You'd need to be going pretty fast, clutch in, stab the front brake and as it recoils back, dump the clutch and pop it up on the back wheel. Quite easy with something like a Rocket III, near impossible on a 320kg bike with, at most, only 60HP. I'm sure it's been done, but their bike would likely be fucked afterward. Besides, the only reason other bikes pull wheelies is to show off. The only reason they show off is because their bikes are otherwise generic pieces of ugly crap. Nothing looks good when all you see is a blur and hear a HOOOOOONNNnnnnnnn as it goes past. People just say, "What was that? Oh, just a bike". No idea what it was and not a care. That's why cruisers go slow - So people can actually SEE how awesome they are and get a good long look at it. I've been parked up and had random girls come up ask for their photo with me and my bike!

You don't even have to be able to help - Just contribute to the community and general chit-chat. That's really all it takes to be a useful member of the forum, yet some people have difficulty with even that!

Make certain profile information compulsory, like town, county & country. Make the country flags much bigger. That way, everyone knows where the OP is and to which country their threads might pertain, where it matters. Where it doesn't matter is where a bike is still a bike and problems get fixed the same way whatever land you're in. Job done. TBH, I'd rather see Intro posts made compulsory, perhaps limit Newbies to read-only on everything, but only allow posting rights outside of the Intro thread after a minimum number of posts - Many other forums (including the ones I run) already do this, mainly to stop one-post wonders from spamming up their Sale forums, but the same principle works everywhere.