iandouglas

I'm absolutely fed up with plastic covers - anybody know where i can get an old school large green canvas one please? from 2nd hand ads (which is a route I don't want to go down) there are two firms that do them protectorl and calibre but I can't trace them thanks

agree - made me cringe to watch it, strangely fascinating that he didn't come to grief - I think he goes through a red light at one point.

thanks mucker 1983

http://youtu.be/tOFIwosnzVc can't suss how to paste in video but hope that this link will work, makes incredible viewing although the quality is poor, takes place in geneva around 2006, the 25 yr old rider was arested after he was traced back from posting the video.

yep - think that went through my mind at the time so that's why I didn't go for it

of course the worse thing is when you have your helmet open a tad and one gets in, aggh - how did people ever manage without helmets though, hit a big insect at 60 or so and it makes quite a bang.

well Mike we are roughly the same age except I haven't done anything more exciting than sit in an office desk, hope to meet you one day especially as we both have XJ600 models (wrong section but - whisper - what do you do with your time in retirement, mine's coming up in a couple of years)

got no imagination me - suppose that I should have gone with 'Bender'

I'm going to give window wipes and spectacle cleaning cloths a try - thanks

window wipes? doesn't ring an imediate bell, something you can buy in a supermarket, any brand name please?

Advice please went through a lot of woodland today and into swarms of horrible bugs having heard mention of baby wipes on here I stopped to see if I could buy some at a village shop but they only had facial wipes which leave a smeary mark on my visor/headlight afterwards so I bought a household cleaning cloth off the shop and got it wet from a neighbouring filling station and used that what do you do about the dreaded insects?

mine clunk, think it's a yam trait.

no not really, if it were a four stroke I'd say either check or get the valves checked every now and then as they can go tight but you don't need to worry with a two stroke. it's after wet weather that the chain most needs lube or oil as the rain has the effect of removing lubrication, seems to stay on a lot better in the dry.

that's a healthy looking silencer on the bike in the picture above - main thing I worry about in damp conditions is stopping distances, being able to see and the dreaded diesel. thought my boots were ok until on a trip to the coast got them wet in the sea and ended up with soggy feet, stupidly over confident that they were totally waterproof - no fool like an old fool. come to think that was quite a funny day as I had a reflective jacket on, like Council workers ones, just to make me more visiblite on the bike with a leather jacket under - anyway a woman asks me wherther her dog was Ok on the beach, forgetting the jacket I was wearing, I was taken aback wondering why she thought I should know until the penny dropped.

that sort of crossed my mind, the buildings look grubby because of sulphur in the air - acts of parliament controlled that eventually and most buildings have been cleaned since but the video gives what seems like a good sense of what things were like.

always good to check the tyres even though it's a tedious thing to do.

don't really understand the question but I'd like to get some serious mileage in before I sieze up, being on the older side i know a few fellow bikers who have limited their travels due to various real and I think in one case, maybe imagined, ailments that have affected their ability to ride or their confidence. trouble is, it keeps raining....

that was good - thanks

the main issue is that inexperienced passengers try and keep upright - ie: they don't naturally lean with you into a corner, once they do keep their top half in line with what you are doing no real probs except you may find you get a bit squashed into the fuel tank and your helmets bang together a few times.

ha ha you must have looked guilty

talking about that feeling that the end is nigh - couple of months ago has some dodgy fish and chips, stomach ache for a month after, eventuallty the gripes have disappeared. really thought it was something serious until a mate said he had eaten a McDonalds that had a similar effect. - in a bikers cafe y/day and ordered a cheese roll with salad amongst all the fry ups and I thought someone was going to comment but they didn't

haha reminds me of a bloke I met in a bike club who said, 'oh that, i've had it for ages' when his partner noticed a second motorbike in his garage when I raised an eyebrow as it were he said, well that's what she says to me when i notice new dresses or shoes - guess his partner took the hint

good plan - used to smoke myself, terrible when you get a whiff of somebody elses you will have more money though

I've got two bikes and now a third is greeping into my greedy vision, another old dog needing a home. but, tbh I don't need it and I can't really afford the running costs..it's that acquisitive must have thing like in the TV programme Porridge where Fulton Mackay says that the prisoners steal things and then think whether they need it afterwards

yes I can't recall introducing myself, sorry if i didn't - the little tab on the left helps with what bike the person rides and where they live to some degree, male or femail although I suppose all that shouldn't make any difference, guess we like to have some idea of who we are 'speaking to'