KirriePete

They say a picture paints a thousand words: Made this with TinyCAD. You're welcome

Jennifer, I think you're narrowing your potential market too much by focussing on trackdays - I don't do them, but I do like getting footage of various runs, and I know a lot of bikers round my way who do the same. Currently I use a Veho Muvi mini camera as it was cheap, lightweight and came with a lot of fixing options. What do I want from a camera? Good quality video, maybe not full HD but watchable on a standard telly, light weight, good battery life and recording time, variety of mounting options (all those you mention and more - the tank f'rinstance), vibration damping, good sound filtering (ever heard the wind rush at even 60mph?) and controls that can be used by someone wearing bike gloves. How hard can it be? Here's some footage shot with the Muvi strapped to my offside mirror - this has vibration dampeners, the mirror is clear but look at the video quality, and listen to the windrush..... That should give you something to think about for now ...

You're on a Yam forum talking about a Krapasaki? For shame! An absolutely brilliant way to spend your 2 years at 33bhp would be on a Yam SRX400: Cracking wee bike that can embarrass many a larger machine round the twisties - 2 years on one of these and you'll know all there is to know about cornering! Problem is finding one for sale .....

Cable fubar'ed? BTW - they like you to give a wee intro before picking brains - just pop over here and scribble a few lines (name, age, height, weight, shoe size, gender orientation, favourite colour, that sort of thing) - Clicky Linky Thingy You're welcome

Duct tape is silver .... just sayin' ....

Why? Can't you count up to .... 6?

Wot you on abaht? I see no Hardly-Ablesons there! OP - sweet bike, hope she enjoys every minute on board - of course, being a caring parent you'll have to take it for a series of test rides, won't you?

Many moons ago, when I was younger, slimmer and had hair, I took a run from Marykirk down to Caister-on-Sea - 500 miles in one shot on this: Why? Would you be surprised if I mentioned the distaff side? The things a young man will do to get his leg over for love .... The seating on the MZ was definitely not as plush as that on a Viagra, but I only started to get numb bum after about 150 miles, when it was time to stop for fuel anyway. Basic rule of thumb is to break up the ride into 2 hour chunks at most, you'll start to feel tired before that if you're riding (and concentrating) properly, so it's unlikely your butt cheeks will feel like you've been in a jail cell with Hairy Shirley, the Barlinnie Buggerer .... Mind you, until your joints and muscles re-acclimatise themselves you'll probably be walking like a chimp with piles anyway when you first get off after a 2 hour stint! Relax and enjoy the ride (funny enough, that's what Hairy Shirley says as well!).

German mobile Christmas Tree display team show off their glittery balls .....

Cost me a week's wages back then, but proved well worth it: Battered and rusty lid But shiny and lovely within: In the bottom right corner you can see the Hellfrauds 3/8 set I use more often these days, wonder if that will still be going strong in 30 years time?

Oh scheisse! Zere is a photographer over zere, who vants to bet ve'll be on some dumbkopf caption competition soon?

OK - toolkits for beginners: General note, always buy the best you can afford, but don't turn your nose up at some of the cheaper stuff in Aldi/Lidl - this list is in no way comprehensive, it's just a guide to what's out there. Essentials: Basic socket set Screwdrivers - Flat, Phillips and Pozi-drive (there is a difference, they're not just cross-heads) Allen keys (and Torx drivers more frequently these days) Combination spanners (open and ring end) Pliers/wire cutters Stanley knife Soft faced mallet (rubber/copper/lead face) Torque wrench(es) Additional sockets as needed for sizes not covered by main set Useful additions (in no particular order): Better quality ratchet than the one in your starter kit Cheap digital camera (take photos before you disassemble it, so you can see how it goes back together) Plastic chinese takeaway/ice cream boxes (for keeping bits safe, maybe in oil) Strap wrench (for oil filters and the like) Mole grips (Vise Grip in the colonies) Bench vice Soldering iron Dremel multi-tool (own-brand versions are available) Breaker bar(s) - length of old scaffold pipe will do G-clamps - various sizes Hacksaw - various sizes Multimeter Angle grinder Flywheel puller Bench grinder Power drill (rechargeables are OK, but you can't beat a good mains one) Tyre levers (if you fancy doing your own) and bead-breakers Blowtorch Vernier caliper (the cheap Lidl digital ones are great) Getting serious now: Carb balance gauges (for a twin you can get away with a home-made manometer) Compression tester Welder Air compressor with tools/spray gun etc. Parts washer Ultrasonic cleaner Bike lift (so you can work at a comfortable height, not on your knees) .... and on and on and on ....... Are you sure you want to start down this path? I got hooked by a Kamasa ½" socket set 30 years ago (still got it) and still find myself coming out of Hellfrauds with some new shiny stuff when I only went in there for a bulb ...... I think that the phrase "You can't need any more tools" (as uttered by SWMBO every now and then) is like dividing by zero - the space-time continuum would collapse if it could actually happen.

Blimey! I've just the destructions on this kit - Ebay clicky link - it looks like you fit the spacer in the shock itself between the spring and the top mounting eye. Result is a jacked-up back end but the spring still travels the same length (although they say to chop an inch off the bump stop bumper, so that would gain a bit), no change in spring rate so no improvement to your problem. I would go down the stiffer spring route.

I knew that, it's called being a grumpy old bastard

As far as I can see, the jack-up kits just basically slap a big spacer in between the shock and it's mounting point. That would lift the bike, but I reckon the travel would stay the same as would the spring rate. If you can't stiffen things up enough (ooer!) by twiddling the preload, then I'd say you'd be better off talking to the bods over at Hagon about uprated springs. Just my £0.02 worth.

SPOILER ALERT! Basic maths: You're effectively adding 1 and multiplying by 9, when you add the digits of any multiple of 9 (below 99, which is why you can only pick 1-9 in the first instance) you get 9. NEXT!

Please tell me that's a pisstake and you're not seriously considering attacking your bike with a set of Argos monkey-metal tools? Mein dew, as it's only got a ¼" drive on the sockets, it'd probably snap off before any serious rounding of bolt heads could take place, but still .....

Those 2 should cover the majority of nuts'n'bolts on your bike - anything that needs more than 80Nm I generally tighten up to 'Ooof!' and leave it at that. Judging by the second part, I'm going to guess that you don't have a decent socket set .... ? If that's the case, pop down to Hellfrauds and give them £20 for something like this: Clicky linky thing - this is a good basic set that covers most of what you'll need. That's the basics covered, then you can add sockets and screwdriver bits as you go when jobs require them, easy! HTH

Just a thought - the float bowl drain screw is done up properly, isn't it?

Errr ..... single front disk & L plates say not! Here's 54 of them on the Devil's own auction site - Evilbay Link You're welcome

Bugger! Thanks to the sheer amount of Global Warming that has dropped on the area over the last week, this run has had to be cancelled. However, any pressies or donations to the charity can still be dropped off at Scotriders on Saturday morning - to make it a bit interesting, starting at 10am there will be a mass yard clearance/Dundee Bikers Snowball fight. Bring a fiver, a pressie, a shovel and a good throwing arm!

Crap in the carb? [blonde Mode On] So how often do I have to do that? [blonde Mode Off]

Amen to that - snow is for scenery only.

When I parked the car in the drive yesterday evening, both motors (mine & Mrs KP) were clear of the white stuff. Opened the front door this morning to this: Cock! Another ½ hour with the shovel - getting like Groundhog Day here! Oh yeah, for the first time in 4 days the plough came past my drive this afternoon, so when I got back from work (knocked off early, natch!) ..... more shovel work on the icy Himalayas he left behind ..... ba$tard!

What, something like this? Clicky Linky Wossname