Snakebite68

Yup, Wakefield...

Oh, I've done a LOT of miles on my Ace... Not only did I ride year round in all weathers just for shits & giggles, it was my daily driver for commuting too! I can't be far away from another gapping! lol But this time, I think I might give it a go myself. I'm trying to work out if I can afford a new garage / man cave, if so, I'm going to strip it down completely and do a full refurb. Aaah, I have a stainless exhaust system, exups aren't a worry for me! lol.

The really big cost I had with my Ace was having my valves gapped... 5 bucket type valves per cylinder, the price mounts. But it was well worth it performance wise. And I was spending an upsetting amount on chains & sprockets (three chains in the first two years! (I like my acceleration! lol)) But I solved that one by uprating my chain to a bigger size and haven't changed it in the last four years now. I've spent a mild amount of money putting things back to how they should be from strange upgrades from past owners. Right now, my concern is my radiator, it's rotting in the bottom corner and I've got reduced cooling. Finding a decent 2nd hand one is proving to be difficult currently, and a custom replacement is NOT going to be cheap. I'm looking around to see if anyone can re-core mine, but not everyone does curved radiators... P.S. Front tyres! For some reason, I go through front tyres more than back tyres..? I put it down to not doing burnouts & such, but taking every opportunity to get my knee down (not really, I'm a little creaky for that but getting it well leant over). My front often vaguely resembles the old V shaped racing tyres by the time I've finished with them! lol

Speaking as a 1998 Thunderace owner, meh, sometimes you pays the money... But that's probably going to be the most money you spend on it for the next several years! On the other hand, I see nothing against getting another bike!

Yeah, not too bad... I suddenly had the stupid idea of fitting them on the ends of your swingarm, but I'm not sure if there's laws about having rear lights that low lol.

I'm starting to sound like doom & gloom guy here... lol There's no way those red lights are going to be visible from behind past your legs! There's a possibility that they'll become visible as you turn, but that could cause other problems. There was a 'thing' years ago about the question of whether two bike headlamps close together looked like car headlamps further away. If you see what I mean. Gotta admit though, I quite like the spots!

Don't forget, you've got no weight on that frame, your suspension is happily sitting at full height! I suspect as you put more bits on, it will get better...

Are you sure that little 250 can carry you and all that Petrol? On the other hand, you could probably drive around the country with all that fuel! lol

What do you mean 'welcome back'? I never left! I check the site every day lol. After my version of your output shaft panic, a Yamaha dealer (I'll drop his name: Clive Padgett (ex racer)) told me that output shafts are pretty strong, and it's actually pretty hard to bend one. It's more likely to explode, which you'd be much more certain about! lol.

Told you it wouldn't be the output shaft!

No worries

This is what I've found so far... As it says, the first one is primarily to do with vehicles over 6 meters long... Side running lights should be amber unless they are at the rear of the vehicle, in which case they should be red. This rule primarily applies to vehicles over 6 meters long, such as trucks and trailers, to help other drivers judge the vehicle's length and width. Whilst this second one is specific to motorbikes, it doesn't really account for lights that aren't up by the headlight or down by the tail light... So I'd still go with amber... Motorcycle side running lights should be white or amber at the front and red at the rear to comply with most regulations. Front lights can be white or amber, while rear lights must be red. Blue lights are generally not road-legal for running lights as they are reserved for emergency vehicles.

Yes, ok, but... Why are they RED??? They should be amber, same colour as your indicators.

Well... The first question is: Why do you have red lights on the side of your bike??? And as for the 'pulling out on you' bit, meh, there's idiots everywhere lol My suggestion would be: Get uprated (but legal) headlight bulbs.

I have ABSOLUTELY no knowledge on these things and got confused quickly, but all I got is: it all depends on what year it was manufactured (and possibly other criteria)...