KirriePete

As it's both of the fronts that are not playing, my first reaction would be to check the common earth connection, check in the headlamp shell where both indicators should have a wire going into one connector. Simplest check is to run a spare bit of wire direct from there to battery -ve, bypassing any dodgy earth mounts - if that works you just need to trace from the connector to it's earth mounting point, or just run a wire past it to a fresh earth point.

Just pop over to ebay and grab a stainless banjo pressure switch - Click Here for a list - they're truly 'fit & forget' items and well worth a tenner or so.

Both the passenger on a bike and the seat they are sat on - 'Murcans have it as 'riding bitch' on the 'bitch seat/pad'.

Want anything translated? I'm a Cockney, lived in East Anglia for a few years, moved to Scotland (Teuchter country), married a lass from the Wirral who had parents from Dundee and Banff, so I've got most of it covered. Also fluent in Civil Service speak, got an aunt from Southern Ireland, had long conversations with various gentlemen from Norn Iron, went to a school populated mostly by pupils of a Yiddish background and my first job was at a petrol station run by Islamic persons. Multi-culturalism, I am your natural end product! (This post fuelled by OVD rum)

If his luck is holding true to form, he'll have broken the internet ....... Come on El Groucho, the site needs more of your adventures!

Sit still, watch the lights on the opposing junctions to get an early warning that your lights are going to change, no blipping throttles, no acknowledging the tosser in the Audi who thinks you want to race. Opposing lights change, final check you're in first, lights go Red/Amber start moving clutch out and raise revs so as soon as they're green you're gone ........ watch Audi become small dot in mirrors.

My boy's been brought up proper, he got his old man a ticket for Knockhill today, so we had to suffer this sort of thing: Then I get home and find a bottle of rum on my desk - such hardship ...... !

Or could it be one for El Groucho? Ebay Clicky Link It could be awesome .... if it ever runs ......

Have a look at the rear shock, should be a threaded ring around it at one end or the other, tightening (turning clockwise) should stiffen up the shock. I believe the XT also has a couple of mounting points for the bottom of the rear shock so you can adjust the height - might be worth a look if you want to avoid this sort of incident in future .......

If he was on a 250 with L plates and legal, it must have been over 30 years ago as the 125 law came in back in '83. If all you have is a CBT, then you are limited to a 125, no exceptions, no restricted big bikes, nada. The only time you can be on a bigger bike with L's is when being trained for DAS and you are accompanied by your instructor. As of January 19th this year, if you pass your test on a 125 you are still stuck on a 125, no L's and you can carry pillions, but still only 125. To go any bigger you need to take the test on a bigger bike - it all goes by age (17, 19, 21 with previous test passes, 24 for Direct Access) and bike size: 125 up to 14bhp or so, over 395cc between 33 & 47 bhp, or over 600 and over 47 bhp. It's all a bit complicated, so here's the official Govt flowchart you can follow - Click here for a PDF file Simply put, to ride your XT550, you're gonna have to pass at least the middleweight test - over 19, over 395cc, between 33 and 47 bhp. If you're over 24 just go and do Direct Access, it's the only sensible option .....

Nah, he just broke it a little bit ..... My handle? Name's Pete, I live in Kirriemuir, took about 5 seconds to think up the name and now I'm stuck with it all over the web!

James, any reasonable quality modern bike oil will do a far better job than the stuff that was around when your bike was built, so just get what suits your pocket. I've been putting Hellfraud's own brand semi-skimmed in all my bikes for ages without any problems, it's API spec SL and the Radian was originally specc'ed for SE, so the new stuff is at least 6 stages better than Yamaha needed when they built your bike .....

Any time I'm looking for cheap parts, first stop is good ol' ebay: FZR600 Brake discs on t'bay - and there is a pair of pre-loved discs there for £100, plus a load of Chinese knock-off stuff which may well be up to spec.

Boots - both my Daytona Alkon (Hein Gericke stuff) and my Alt-berg Hoggs have proved to be 100% waterproof, lesser boots may need Sealskinz socks to give them an edge. Gloves - Hein Gericke again, Shelltex does work. Visor - Pinlock, that is all! 8 hours plus on the bike in pissing down wet stuff will eventually lead to it finding the cracks, but using the best gear you can afford (and looking after that gear properly) will give you the best chance of staying on the 'slightly damp' side of "where's me wetsuit?".

Most engines are noisier when cold than once they've warmed up, coz: 1. The tappets are at maximum gap with cold metal, once the top end warms up the metal expands and gap closes, hence why you set valve clearances with a stone cold engine. 2. Cam chains and tensioners are also cold and need to warm up to operating temps. 3. The oil is all at the bottom of the sump and needs to get round the rest. If you're really worried, check your valve clearances, also give the carbs a balance as that can cause a bit of rattling as the pistons fight each other, giving the camchain a bit of jerking. (If you want to hear a proper noisy engine on startup, try a Nissan X-Trail 2.2dCi, like kicking a bag of spanners down a fire escape, but once it's warm all is peaceful ....)

Basic instructions I give to any pillion biatch: 1. Don't get on until I tell you, I need to be ready b. When you're on, keep your feet up on the pegs at all times iii. Get comfy before we move off, fidgeting will upset the bike d. Hold onto my waist (gently, no death grips) or the grab rail 5. Try to keep your body in line with mine, don't anticipate the bends, just go with the flow z. RELAX For the rider, just try to be as smooth as possible, early gearchanges with a gentle clutch hand to reduce the chance of that fore'n'aft jerk, early smooth braking, taking into account the extra weight (you did remember to up the preload on the rear shock, didn't you?) and no Rossi-like knee down bollocks, you want them to enjoy the ride, not end up with brown stains all over the seat!

XS750 at around 4500rpm = damp patches on the pillion seat (the wife really misses that bike!)

Looking back over the last 3 MOTs I've been pretty steady on 4500 a year .... on this bike, plus another load on the training school ER-5 I use to follow my trainees, plus the car, plus the wife's car...... No wonder I'm always skint with the amount of fuel tax I'm paying!

Tennis elbow? Yep, got that but the physioterrorists are working on me, the standard NHS flexing exercises and that's about it, so ...... Bit of research and I came across the Tyler Twist. £12 or so for a rubber bar from Amazon and it seems to be working. If all else fails, the missus can use it for more 'entertaining' purposes .....

Recognise it from this link? Click me

"If you have to ask the question, you won't understand the answer"

It's not exactly free resits, but if you don't complete CBT in one day you can come back for a second day to finish off. This can happen for various reasons: the weather turns too shite to ride (high wind, serious rain, white shite, or just too dark) the trainee gets brain fade and can't take in any more info the instructor sees the trainee is not making progress on a particular aspect and needs time to absorb the lesson(s) ... and many more. Generally they come back on the second day (could be a while later) and everything just clicks, job done. Every now and then you come across someone who needs even longer, in which case it's usually time to negotiate a price with the school because, let's face it they've already had 2 full days (16 hours) of training for £120 or so, ain't no profit in that!

If the stud's stripped, just replace it, if the thread's gone in the casing you'll need to helicoil it, or possibly tap it to a larger stud size if there's enough metal. Either way, it should be a simple fix.

That's the spirit Grouchy! For the record, my H*n*a NTV is over 16 years old, has had 9 previous owners, cost me (much) less than a grand and has just passed it's 3rd MOT since I've owned it with a clean sheet - all I've ever done to it was fork seals, a rear brake caliper and standard servicing: oil, filters, plugs, pads & tyres. Age & number of users ain't the problem mate, it's just learning about your bike and it's likely weak spots, then figuring out how to overcome/work around them.

As previously said: 1. Intro's are a good thing b. Test your charging voltage on the bike - should go up to about 14.5v when revved, if it does then the bike's doing it's thing properly so ... iii. Get another battery on it. From the symptoms it does sound like the battery is a goner, but .... x. If the charging voltage is not around 14.5v then it's a good bet the reg/rec has gone bye-bye (or worse, the alternator's gubbed, but that's very rare).