Ttaskmaster

Depending on your riding style and individual bike, of course...

Another one, if your bike is second hand - Many previous owners mis-route wires around the headstock and the wires get caught in the steering stops.

Depends on the circumstances... Mounting from the left: If my foot has to go above my waist - I'll lift the leg up with a bent knee leading, twist my hips leftward, then throw the foot over and down, taking my bodyweight over the bike and settling down onto the seat as my foot touches the floor. This is how I mount the FJ and it looks like a karate kick. If the foot does not have to go so high - I twist into it first and then swing a straight leg over, lifting the bike upright as I settle down, all in one smooth move. This is how I mounted the much lower Dragstar. Mounting from the right is pretty similar, but without lifting the bike upright. Mounting as a pillion, on a high bike with luggage - Kick the foot up with a bent knee, rest foot on pillion pad, hop a few inches closer to the bike until you can get your leg over, finish mounting, pretend you fully intended to look like a pillock.

Nice one - Congratulations to your whole family!!!

You're sometimes around Reading way, aren't you? I'm always happy to help, particularly now that I have an industrial socket set and a 100L compressor!! And if, for some reason, it ends up being beyond us both (not likely for something like a set of pre-approved bar risers), I can call on a good friend and professional motorcycle mechanic, otherwise known as the Plum Patrol!!

Especially since these days there are more options than just the 1100 to which one might upgrade...

I scream at the Ttaskmistress when she does this, clutching in and coasting round things... My CBT onwards, we were always taught to drive the bike round the corner. This means slowing down and gaining optimum position before you even start the turn. Shoulder check, then add a touch more throttle as you lean it in and drive cleanly around, building throttle as you straighten up and pull away...

This sort of stuff was all taught to me on CBT, along with things like how to know blind spots on other vehicles (and thus stay out of them as much as possible).

>My own gear changes have always been dependant on what I'm doing Exactly! This becomes much clearer on bigger bikes, where you can break the speed limit in any gear. >She said his reasoning was for being able to get up to 40mph quickly after a speed limit change. Depends entirely on the bike. >And there's no legal requirement on how quickly you get up to speed... The general instruction I got was to get up to speed as quickly as possible... And if you fail to get up to speed quick enough, you can fail the test either for Failing To Make Progress, or for actually presenting a hazard to other road users. >Accelerating out of situations is actually an advanced technique [at least in a car], and one that's a reaction to special circumstances. That's nice... My FJ will do that quite readily. But how does this apply to a piddly little 125 which does not have massive acceleration? My 125 did 0-60 in something like 13 seconds, IIRC. Good luck accelerating anywhere like that. You had to change up gears at least twice before you even breached 30mph! This concept will work fine most of the time, but if ever you then get on a bike with much lower acceleration and/or find yourself in a situation where you cannot accelerate quickly, you are fucked. >I'd advocate better to learn to anticipate what the traffic could do, and have your speed and position ready to need the least action. Pretty much... My instructor hated the word 'anticipate', on the basis that you will never actually know and often would never have guessed what some dumbfuck cager is going to try. Instead, he taught to simply leave enough room for any kind of error and always be looking for the escape route. That has saved me on many an occasion and even my near misses have not been as near as they could have been!

Lower revs = less fuel used = greener bike. High gear with low revs means you have LOADS left to go... unless he means burbling in 5th at 20mph, he's talking absolute bollocks. I would like to think there's been a miscommunication. Yes, your bike can accelerate faster if you need to... but it still won't be very fast on a 125 and you should NEVER rely on power to get you out of a situation. That's just piss-poor forward observation and planning skills. I look at my revs sometimes, but that's because my bike will do 75mph in 1st gear. I have such a wide power band, it's almost unlimited. But I still rely more on the sound and feel of the bike to find an appropriate gear. Feathering - Yeah, it generally means a light touch. Same for the brakes when you feather them a bit, with one finger or something, to just trim your speed a little before sitting into that long slow bend... Pulsing the brakes... if you need to do that often, get ABS fitted!

'Slipping the clutch' - So called because the clutch plates are slipping against each other while still working. It's also called 'feathering the clutch' sometimes. Basically, letting the clutch out only part-way, just to the point where you feel the bike start to move forward. You can then apply a touch of extra throttle and the bike will move off. You should (ideally) be able to hold the clutch at this slip-point and move the bike along - But no mater how much you rev it up, the bike should continue at a consistent pace. The difference being that with the clutch fully engaged, the bike will surge forward as you whack the revs on. My instructor used to demonstrate this during slow-control manoeuvres, since that's when you'd use it most... he was very good at it! As for rev range - This takes a bit of experience until you recognise what to look and feel for. Many 125s (and even larger bikes) don't even have a rev counter, so learning it "by feel" is always best. Basically, you need to ride along at various rev ranges and see/feel how the noise relates to the bike's performance. To start with, as you let the clutch lever out your revs will burble - Increase revs and you'll get moving. As you slowly increase throttle, the revs will get louder and you'll go faster. As you come to the top of the rev range the bike will accelerate less and you'll ge getting louder without getting any faster. Change up a gear and the whole thing starts over. The idea is to change up before the bike starts sounding annoyingly loud. I normally ride along with perhaps only a quarter throttle, so will go up the gears until I find the one that lets me do that and keeps the engine fairly quiet. Now... You also have a power band on most bikes. This is a smaller range *within* the rev range and it's basically the points at which the bike responds best. It's the same idea as the rev range, but you'll find you hit the top of your power band a bit before you hit max revs. The idea is that you rev up almost toward the top of the power band, but change up a gear before you hit it. You get better performance out of your bike that way. An example would be riding along, when you come up behind a slower vehicle and decide you want to overtake - This needs to be done fairly fast, but on your 125 you're already in 3rd gear and the engine is getting louder. Before it gets too loud, you change up to 4th gear - This means you now have a whole new gear's worth of extra power with which to quickly execute the overtake. Of course, there are many other factors in this manoeuvre, but this is just the gearing part. A lot of riding bikes is about managing your power - You match the gear (and thus the power) to what you want to do, rather than picking a gear to match your speed.

When you go to log in, there's a 'Remember Me' checkbox. Try unticking it next time. Failing that, try going into your browser settings and removing your login details from there. I keep mine permanently logged in, to save time.

Good on ya Noisy!! Keep your mind focussed and get this under your belt - You are the future of our biking brethren, so as long as you are top class they will follow!

No, but I'll happily tattoo someone else's for them...

Halfrauds actually do "Camouflage Paint", now... I was disappointed to learn that it's just a can of green or brown spray matte paint though and you still need to buy both! Spotted it when I picked up the engine enamel.

I meant smacking it out of the way with a fist as it tries desperately to fly faster!

But smacking a pigeon out of the air as it flies alongside your bike at head-height is quite rewarding!!

I've just used gloss black engine enamel, sanded the edges and then coated with clear varnish.

Good on ya, both for getting a Draggie and for reading about the Intro thing!! I reckon you'll be a keeper! Welcome to the forum!

However, since there is no rev counter, you'll just have to do it by noise and feel... which means more riding!!!

Yeah, but an autobiography is supposed to the story of your life, not just the first episode with sequels to follow... Gary Numan, of whom I am a massive fan, wrote his autobiography when he was in his 40s and released at least one 'new and updated' version... That was taking the piss a little bit. I just like to think Guy will be around to do mor crazy stuff for much longer!

It ended up pissing down that day - It was already spitting before you arrived, so we bumped it to the next day. Good thing too, as the wind would have covered me in ash and flame... once the bloody thing started, anyway. I need to get one of them chef torches, instead of poxy matches!! Don't worry, you'll be informed when the next one is on!

I assume it's new, in which case the bike is just starting to break in... or if it's second-hand then possibly the vibes have always been there and you're just noticing as you become more familiar with the bike. Either way, it's perfectly normal. It's a V-Twin, which is a bit vibey anyways. Might be you're hitting the top (or maybe idling at the bottom) of the power band. I'm trying to remember how I managed my own 650's gears... I don't think I clicked up to 4th until at least 60mph (96km/h), in which case that'd be low rev idle causing the vibes - You're hitting 4th gear around 37mph!! Try adding more revs and learn at what speed the bike starts to struggle for each gear, then change up 5-10mph earlier. On a bike like this, you generally want to ride comfortably within each gear's power band.

I'm sure it's fascinating stuff, but... he's only 33!!! It's like One Direction releasing a Greatest Hits album - They've hardly started! What on Earth could constitute a full life story when he's barely out of nappies... or is he doing this in case he dies next TT, perhaps?

I assume that's 40º Farenheit?