Toutsuite

Replace the boards with pegs. More ground clearance, less scraping (and it'll look cooler too!). Keep the boards for loooong motorway journeys. Looking forward to reading your review.

Do oatmeal and raisin cookies count? Nice and chewy, mmmmmm!

I listen to the music of my vance&hines cruzers exhaust!

Well I'm still on good ol' fashioned carbs, but don't you need to have the O2 sensor connected for the injector to work properly?

Just happens I was behind a XVS 950 in traffic on the way home from work last night, and it had the Cobra muffler fitted. Fairly decidedly loud, but not excessively so; and the guy was keeping the revs low. I loved the way it sounded! And nice to see the fairly bulky 950 filtering with the best of them in New Cross Gate! When I fitted vance&hines cruzers to my 650 I thought they were way too loud, so I went for the smartpartz quiet baffles too (cost me about the same to import as you). I think they cut between 8-10dB from idle (which is now perhaps a bit too quiet!), and about 8dB from higher revs, making it more comfortable with cruising. But apart from everything else I think that beyond a certain displacement, say 800-900cc, the exhaust note becomes deep enough to get away with it being quite loud. My 650, bless it, sounds lovely the way it's set up now, but doesn't have quite a deep enough rumble to justify too much loudness! Oh and you will have probably noticed the quiet baffle killed some of the raspiness to that exhaust note, did it not?

My new laptop has Windows 8. Yes, it's fast, yes it's stable, but Metro is a pain in the ass without a touchscreen. And no start button. FFS. Also, Windows 8 is not as pretty as 7. You know, with the transparent windows and that? Gone in 8.

Thanks for the info guys, very useful! Looks like I might have to go through a garage though (for them to remove the wheels, take them apart, send the rims off to be powdercoated, put them back together again and refit them on the bike).

Hey amigos, thinking about powdercoating the rims of my wheels (gloss black natch), as the rust is beginning to eat through the chrome in the odd spot or two on the front wheel. So thought I'd catch the rot early. Thing is I don't know if a normal metalworks will do it, even ones that advertise powdercoating bike wheels, as mine will almost certainly have to be disassembled and rebuilt (I don't want to coat the spokes, just leave them as they are...) Your thoughts? Anybody know of a place that has a good rep for powdercoating and rebuilding wheels around London / Home counties?

the issue is not that the oil is semi synth, but that it's NOT for bikes, or anything else with a wet clutch. So you've answered your own question there really. Good thing you checked first! Check out Opie Oils for something more suitable. Motorbike-specific semi synth will be just fine.

Just as well?? Hmmmm... Any engine, no matter how basic, benefits from good lubrication; the better the lube, the easier time the engine has, and the longer it lives. Just ask anyone who reconditions engines after 100,000 miles, they can tell which ones have been using synth and which ones haven't. Just physics mate. As for the placebo effect, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. The differences before and after are just too damn pronounced and noticeable. And I use a fully synth oil specially formulated for V twins (Silkolene). The chief advantage of synthetic oil on a basic engine as you call it, is it's lower pour point, i.e. it doesn't have to reach a certain temperature before it's lubricating the engine optimally, it does so from the moment the engine is turned, massively reducing wear and increasing longevity. This is what you pay a bit extra for and not a placebo. Try it sometime, I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised. And it's not as if synthetic oil is massively more expensive anyway...

Oh, an ol' v-twin will thank you for giving it some premium oil, like some fully-synth. I know mine did!

Rode to work today and back. Pinlock works great at preventing the visor fogging up, but my glasses still do! So still can't ride with the lid shut. Which is a bit uncomfortable at 1C. Freezing fog was fun (not) on the way back. Thankfully it's only a 5 mile commute each way.

Also, how CANNED is that laughter track?

Wow, DirtyDT, you work with hazardous materials? Ooooh, do tell! Or is it classified?

Hmm, comedy music set to torturing animals; I'm no veggie, but I like my meat (fish, poultry, whatever) properly dead? To paraphrase South Park: "Dude, what the fuck is wrong with Japanese people?"

loud pipes = loud popping. You could try quiet baffles, or enriching your mixture (re-jetting).

Noise, you paid way too much for that bike (about £700 too much), and waaaayyy waaaay too much for that paddle you call a seat! I know it's not your thang, but a plush mustang seat (including pillion) only costs about £400 ferchrissakes!

Only teasing with the name there Tasky! :-) Your missus sounds like a great find! Well done sir! Re power loss over time, well yes, but at 32K ish miles when she was dynoed the loss of hp would not be that much. you can lose up to 15% of power at the crank through the transmition to the wheel (more for cars). I reckon with the Dragstar it's somewhere like 10-11%.

Extra weight, extra current drain, extra pointless. If you want more light, get one of the new xenon bulbs.

And if you ever dyno the draggie you'll find the 40HP quoted figure is at the crank. 35HP at the wheel. (Am I to understand that both Mr Taskmeister's ex and current female companions are dragstar girls? Is there some club where you find such women?)

I haven't but a previous owner of my dragstar had it restricted, so it's certainly doable. It was then de-restricted prior to being sold to me.

I would have just run the little ratfuck over. Several times. Just to make sure.

Fowlers of Bristol is your friend. They do mail order.

T-junction, Bromley, an hour ago. I've stopped and waiting for a gap in the cars coming from my right, so I can turn left. Utter fuckhead in Focus behind me tries to squeeze past thinking he's seen a gap in traffic (he hasn't - there's just a car with his lights off), doesn't see my panniers, nearly nudges me off the bike. He stops, I try to right the bike, his bumber is preventing me. "BACK UP!" I scream at him. "Really sorry mate, didn't see that bit of your bike...". No damage, except to my nerves. "Even if the panniers weren' there, you were too fucking close in any case mate, be more careful or you're gonna kill someone". Utter, utter wankerfatsarflondontwat!