Nightmare! Hope you and the the bike (and your missus!!) are sorted and back riding by the time Summer proper kicks in!

Oh sh*t mate. Really sorry to hear that.

RIP Smudge.

CountZero – Member
Got a Rolling Stones tee from their '82 gig at Ashton Gate in Bristol

I remember that gig! I couldn't afford a ticket so I sat outside and listened to it!!

Probably 20-25, 4 or 5 I wear regularly. Many of them cycling or motorbike based 🙂

My wife works 2 days a week in the office, 3 days at home. She's very consientious and does a very good job.

I, however, would struggle bigtime with homeworking: so many distractions – tv, internet, snacks, beer, the garden, going for a ride, power w*nk, magazines, cuppa tea….. No, couldn't do it.

My first ever Oakleys were a paid of blue iridium sub zeros. Great glasses, ridiculously light. When they started to look a bit dated I used them under my motorbike helmet as they fitted well. Snapped them in two in my pocket a couple of years back – I was gutted.

judderman – really sorry to hear that.

I'm 45 this year. When I was in my early 20's all I really did was get p*ssed and ride bikes (engine and pedal-powered).

Now I'm in my mid-40's I'm happily married, got two lovely daughters, plenty of good mates, nice house, car, motorbike, cellar full of expensive bicycles, good job, enough cash to be comfortable – all good.

But ultimately I still like to get p*ssed and ride bikes (not simultaneously!).

Some things never change, and I have no intention of changing anything. If I want to do something I will, thinking if it's appropriate for my age never enters the equation. (Though I won't wear Converse All Stars any more, or drainpipe jeans, as I suspect I might look a tad desperate).

An ex-girlfriend of mine bought and started wearing this f*cking adult-sized romper suit type thing to bed. Ok, the flat we lived was damn cold in the winter, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was the beginning of the end.

I'm no fan of the Catholic church to put it mildly, but the some of comments made against barnsleymith are f*cking disgraceful IMO and it is to his credit that he has dealt with them with dignity, and (I suspect) revealed more about his personal life that he may have truely wished.

This is a great forum, but the incessant "my brain is bigger than your brain, unless you can defend your position with absolute unadulterated fact you are clearly inferior to me" mentality really f*cks me off and saddens me.

andydicko – I'm in Bristol

Ok, looks like remapping is the better option. Anyone know if these guys are any good?

http://www.ecu-remapping-service.com/remapping-explained/

We had a carpenter build build us a bespoke kitchen in our last house, including a wood worktop (hard wood but don't recall which wood). Yes it took some looking after but any scratches I sanded out and re-oiled. You do need to be careful around the sink area, as has been said.

I wouuldn't hesitate to go for a wood worktop again if I was having a new kitchen built.

Badger

Ca plan pour moi

simonfbarnes – Member

I suspect turning sport into competition puts off more than it encourages.

I think SFB has a point here, I know a fair few people (male and femle) who starting to get into biking but were put off by the testosterone-fuelled "I'm better / faster / stronger than you" vibe on rides.

Not in any way saying competition is bad (quite the opposite) but it can and does put off new-comers.

Cracking bikes, just wish they weren't so ugly (though I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder).

Fowlers in Bristol have an original '86 model in their s/h dept. If I had a couple of grand spare I could be very tempted as a second bike, remember lusting after those like crazy when they came out.

Thought about the estate rather than the hatchback? Now they are huuge… (though not as HUUUUUGE as my Galaxy 😉 )

And another vote for Strada.

Watched it last night, good tv (and it's not often you can say that!)

A Pace fleece that I bought in '94, still going strong for riding, plus walking and general mooching about. Colour scheme is a tad retro (grey fleece with turquoise / blue highlighting) but it works so well I'll never get rid of it.

Got a pair of '92 Nike Poohbah shoes (saw a pic of Tomac wearing them in MBUK and HAD to have some..) still in one piece. Only wear them occasionally for old time's sake.

Also have a pair of '95 Oakley M frames, frames have been replaced once about 10 years ago, and have a small crack in them now, but still work well.

Quite lot of my road kit dates back to the '90s.

I'll normally get 3-4 years out of a pair of jeans, they always go on the knees or front of thighs eventually.

I must have unfeasibly small gonads.

miaowing cat – totally agree with you, proper boils my p!ss it does.

I only eat steak about one a year on average, but when I do rare every time, or if I figure it'll be a really good piece of meat I'll go for bleu. Mopping up the blood from a good steak with your chips – one of life's pleaseures 🙂

Missus has steak well done – grim, looks (and probably tastes) like a piece of leather.

clubber – Member

"I'm no Apple fanboi either. I'm fact I detest the whole Apple worship thing and wouldn't dream of owning any other mac product but the iPhone really is better than the competition though you do pay for it and unfortunately have to put up with lame looks of approval from proper fanbois when they see your mobile."

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much…. 😉

I've only been out on my ZX6R twice since last November. Was down in Weymouth today and there were stacks of bikes down on the front; I was starting to get the itch. Won't be long now….. 🙂

Only had mine 3 months but still think it rocks. Battery life is poor (though as others have said this is partly because you tend to use it all the time), and the camera is weak, but other than that it's a cracking piece of kit that I can't imagine getting bored of – it just does what it does so well.

Be totally open about it and show photos. It's what you'd want (I assume) as a buyer.

I love the sound of bikes with loud pipes (four strokes anyway, small two strokes with spannys do my head in, even though I spent many years razzing around on RD250s and 350LCs with Microns or Allspeeds on), whereas cars with dinner plate exhausts p*ss me off greatly. Therefore I can understand why non-bikers get equally p*ssed off with loud bikes.

As many have said already, it's not riding like a twonk that's important, and showing respect to other people in built up areas. Most bikes even with really loud systems aren't too bad at tickover and low revs (some bikes excepted – I knew a guy with a TL1000R with open cans and that thing was ridiculous, made your ears bleed at tickover), therefore don't rev the nuts off it outside your house early or late in the day / night, and keep the revs down in town. Out of town and on national limit roads anything goes (within reason) IMO, I certainly like to try and use the performance I've paid for when I'm riding over in Wales. I do take the point about the climbers' perspective though.

I've got a carbon Scorpion can on my 08 ZX6R. It's a nice compromise as it looks a lot better than the standard can, weighs hugely less (more important as it's an under-seat can), and altough far nicer sounding than the original isn't stupidly loud. Howls like a banshee over 10,000rpm though 🙂 I suspect the cat must restrict a fair bit of noise.

I've got a Jesusphone, but the missus recently got a W995 and it's a nice piece of kit, good camera too.

Opening up a bike with a race can on is immensely pleasurable.

As I'm knocking on a bit and vaguely responsible these days I rarely do it in built-up areas.

iainc – that's exactly what I've ended up deciding to do, seller is happy with this.

Hora – £16k for a Ford? 8 month old Galaxy 2.0TDCI Zetec*. Full list price new: £27k. £11k saving – I'm happy with that! (Sellers will have paid about £18-9k through their son which makes the deal stack up).

*I have a motorbike for when I want speed and handling. I judge cars on their ability to lug kids, bikes, beer, mates, camping kit etc etc around the place in comfort.

They have a son who works for Ford so they get 30% discount on new cars and change every 9 months with minimal cost each time.

Hora – yes my thoughts too, but having spent time with them I'm 99% sure it's all kosher (I'd rather it was 100% but that's life).

HPI all clear, everyting I can check all looks ok.

No.1 on head, chest, and sack. Job's a good'un 🙂

Next time he behaves like a small child just look himn in the eye and say very firmly, though not agressively, "I an NOT prepared to be spoken to in that way". If he gets the message, great, if not escalate it through his manager and stick with it until the problem is resolved. Life is too short to put up with that kind of behaviour.

Shouldn't say this as I work for one of their competitors, but First Direct really are excellent, been with them since they first started in the early 90's (had an old Midland Bank a/c that I moved across)and can honestly say in all that time I've not had the slightest reason to grumble about them. Highly recommended.

The way we worked it was my wife went back to work three months after having each of our daughters, but working three, sometime four, evenings a week for the same company as me, 5.30 – 10.00pm evenings. It meant during the week we hardly saw each other and was frankly f*cking hard work, but it meant the kids were always with one of us, we had no childcare costs, and a reasonable income. They both went to (free, council-run, and very good) nursery half a day each day from the age of 3, but that was for their benefit, not out of necessity.

Personally, I couldn't / wouldn't have put my two in all-day care from a young age, but everyone's cirumstances vary, and it's a personal choice.

Having the snip (or "slash 'n' burn) a week Friday. Reading some of these posts I'm getting nervous as f*ck…… 🙁

Lmao!

Looks like Fords might be outnumbering vans in (y)our street soon…… 😉