Juan. i live in Inverness. i have never driven to elgin (before today)or beyond in all that time ive had it. ive also never driven south on the A9 to perth (or beyond).it bores me. I rode around the cairngorms a few sundays ago. that was about 195 miles with no stops.amazing ride.had to go into reserve near the end.
I sometimes ride to Ullapool over the west coast after work. or do a loop over to gairloch.. then back up through Kintail. sometimes it might be out to loch maree then past torridon etc.all tight twisty stuff around gairloch thrown in with some amazing open roads at achnasheen. a bit of everything.

I rarely commute on a bike.After the first few years i dropped a huge amount in the miles i had done.cleaning the bike through winter and going long journeys in near zero temps was something i did after i passed my test.. but the notion wore off a bit.with all the snow up here last year i think the bike sat for about 3 months unused.there was far too much snow so it just didnt happen.

twisty – http://photos-by-martin.digimig.co.uk/p54706359.html

straight – http://photos-by-martin.digimig.co.uk/p54706362.html

Northwind, ive been riding around on my own bike and 2 different 1999/1998 R1s this afternoon.Its the first time ive ridden them and although easier to corner they dont feel that much different to the zx9 power wise. they werent great examples and the suspension and brakes werent as good as my own bike.i did enjoy the slightly smaller cockpit and the feel of floating through corners,though. i want a fresh one!

Jeremy. you talk like its impossible to ever learn how to ride on a motorcycle with 900cc.if i told you i bought a 600 2 years ago it would have been a different story.a 2007 zx6r would have been fairly acceptable in your eyes but the 2001 zx9r never was. compare the two on paper and get back to me on that one.not much in it.

but what exactly IS the correct way to ride a bike? who knows.you probably know more folk with amazing skills that have fallen off,dont you? well so far,i havent.Its not that i am a good rider. maybe i have been lucky. maybe i have been careful. we just dont know. does it matter? why did you go calculating my mileage over 2 years and go out of your way to come back and tell me im inexperienced?
As i started off with.. yet again,you were on a forum for hours on end posting/replying about something that i was actually out doing this afternoon. riding 2 R1s and the zx9,enjoying myself.not overshooting left handers or tank slapping down country roads.

If i fell off tomorrow and got out of it with no injury,jeremy.. id be happy that i got this amount of miles in before my first fall.
One guy that used to pop into the shop where i worked once said “you will fall at one point.dont know when but you will fall,but it happens to everyone” I thought this attitude was so wrong. do you have this attitude too? do you have it when riding the mountain bike?

without your helmet on? ;o)

If i could start again (go back a few years to when i passed my test) i wouldnt buy something with under 70bhp or thereabouts.

I was told not to buy something with 140bhp and have never EVER regretted doing so. ive done over 16 thousand miles now and never ran wide on the cbr125 or the zx9r. I dont drive like a maniac and i believe that you can choose a big powered bike thats known to be easy to ride / stable at speed without killing yourself on it. considering how quick and how fast an sv 650 could go,you can still fly into a corner over 100mph on one of those just as easy as a big 900.Its still going to be the same head on the riders shoulders.. they just have to take it easy and know the limits no matter what bike they choose.

something else id like to say.. so many people mentioned a bandit 600.i recon i would have come off one of those long before the zx9. its the most horrible feeling and heavy bike ive ever been on.

theres so many ifs and buts though. you could buy a powerful bike with good handling and fresh suspension and quality tyresa and be safe on it. you could also buy a low powered bike from the 90s that will have you in a hedge because of the way it rides due to the way it bucks around on our U.K roads with the oil in the forks/shock reaching the ripe old age of 20! Its not always going to be a powerful bike on a left hander that kills riders.

what next? dont get a 29er for a first bike because the speed it picks up will be a bit too much for yer capabilities? lol

its diesel. so not as scary lol.

its a people carrier with over 3/4 tank left in it. to scrap it and get £100 with 50 quid of fuel in it seems a pain.

will try a longer hose tomorrow and then the on and off idea with the ignition.The worry is chopping,cutting,bursting,not having enough containers for something that might end up over 40 litres… in my dads clean workyard.He would go a bit nuts if i lost control of the wangled attempt and couldnt plug 40 litres!

If you dont tell the insurance about everything they will use everything and anything to get out of paying up. sort of like driving around with no insurance at all.. only by having it in the first place,it will keep the police off yer back when using the car on the road. but thats where it stops.. if you cause an accident or get involved,then its all been a waste of your money and time ringing them up for cover in the first place.

lol piston

took the motorbike to work and a snowy looking cloud lurked ahead of tore roundabout. when i approached the roundabout a wee flurry fell there but it was so tame that i was looking around to see what the hell it was.i just didnt think it was snow.

thanks for the reality check,folks. i was considering phoning up and asking to see it properly and maybe test ride it. i know its not spotless and right now it could do with a good clean. i have a feeling theres not much history but the owner said the previous owner traded it in and had it serviced at the shop over the past 3 years or so. i doubt i will see any paperwork to go along with that. who knows. i can only ask.

theres a few nice examples for sale right now elsewhere. one has around 4000 miles costing about £4500.. and theres also a brand new unregistered one for sale that i found earlier. i think its a 99 model and its about 6k.its been in demon tweeks showroom for the past 10 years.

go on… you know you wanttt ittttt ;O)

Snow on Cairngorm last week. wait til you see it tomorrow morning on the tops. im guessing it will be down to around 3800ft.. maybe 3750 ;O)

ahh,onzadogs wheels sound like they might be spot on!

i cringe at folk that boast about how fast they can build wheels. I hear theres a rep that can do one in 20 mins. what an amazing geezer he is.

delete the thread if you plan on taking this further (or at least shave yer chest if he comes looking for you!) why not go for an interview at realcycles? ;O)

If a king headset hasnt been checked for years then its quite common to find the o-ring worn.. even on short travel bikes.doesnt have to be over 150mm. the worst ones have big worn down flats on the o-rings.
removing the 0-ring and flipping it over if you can get it to stay in that position is a free fix that doesnt take too long.not the answer to it but worth doing if you have to refit that thrashed o-ring.

french by name.. probably built down south!

pisstony!

the shamen

Over the past months.. I know more about where you work, when your going to work.. what you do at work.. than i do about my own work!

all that glistens is not gold,then.

we steal anycarrrrrr. com.

the song/people in the advert scare me.i would be worried about them coming to collect the car and finding them hammering on the door with a weegie accent holding a drill.

aye, get checked. nothing worse than sexual asphalt and never knowing what lurks.

Standing over bike at Bathgate bmx track and someone said "have you seen that on the tv.. planes flying into the towers?"

Didnt know much else about it for the next couple of hours then it was all there to be seen on tv when i arrived home.

how can you knacker a knee sponging? ;O)

or dick dragging for that matter..

dont worry,i am not Squirl from MSW! honest.<evil laugh>

many screens for many eyes. fly guy that barnes.

why do all threads go tits up at some point? lol

rkk01 how can you honestly say a 309 gti french tin can was the best car you ever had?

only kidding ;O)

Most of us are too fat thighed these days to ride a torker lol.

My pair wore through,pads worn quickly and the braking was awful. Correct brake pads or standard,nothing would work.Then it started chipping off undamaged points of the rim.I think they cost £110 each.

With how rough (in such a short time) ive seen ceramic bearings it just reminded me of ceramic mavics with their silly cost compared to the standard version.

the noise was your wrench reaching the torque! well we can only wish!

be honest and tell the shop/distributor what has happened. you might be lucky and get the option of buying another at a crash replacement/trade price.

example:

"you need a chain,freewheel,both wheels trued and brake/gear cables.. parts will cost £60 and its £35 labour… our new bikes start at £250 with a warranty/free service.. or you could buy similar to what you already have for approx 40 quid more than the repair bill from tesco/halfords.. also consider that the rest of the parts are the same age/condition as what has just worn out/failed so be wary of what could go wrong next… to be honest i wouldnt want to try fixing the bike for those reasons as i wouldnt be able to sleep at night having charged you £95 for a repair on a bike that could be replaced for an extra £30 quid so …yep, to cut a long story short i would rather not repair it!"

"ok,thanks for yer honesty.. it does seem crazy to spend that amount"

At that point you have got the message across without telling them how crap their bike is.you convince them that it makes sense and they choose to buy a new bike or go for another catalogue bike. Some shop workers/owners dont have the time or patience and might walk outside the shop to take one look at the bike,turn their nose up and say "nah sorry mate we dont touch catalogue bikes" end of.. but its nice to give the customer options.

Everyone has diffrent views on this though and would slate me for dumping a bike that was in nearly perfectly good working order.

Well take it to some recyclebicycle outlet!

I quite often stand in the garden and wait around for a "sattelite" to pass by. over the past 15 years or so ive been seeing them but never really bothered to find out about them.

Is this space station a lot brighter?

pikes around 130mm feel good on it.

gt85 to gary wilmot? lol.

anyone sold wd40 to derek griffiths?

I recon Rossi will adapt to whatever he gets. I liked the pass someone made on him yesterday and within a few corners he got back in front again.To pass pretty much whenever he puts his mind to it is just amazing.Reminds me a bit of ayrton senna.If someone passes him its like he can feel the humiliation and just hangs off and rides around them again.when this happens,the rage in his head with the coolness to control it in his body is some combo.

I watch both but enjoy watching the motogp since passing my bike test.anyone can go around corners in a car without the worry of what happens if you make the slightest mistake. i just dont have the respect for the drivers as much as the riders. watching them hanging onto something with over 220bhp and knowing when to loosen up and/or hold on over some of those rough sections was good to watch. The fear of losing it in a corner in the car would mean a spin but for those guys.. its sliding on the deck or pinging off in a highside.

The point where i turned off the f1 on sunday was when the guys distracted lewis to talk about his tyres while he was approaching a dropping right hander. He sounded a bit lost before the corner,then was completely lost with the job at hand and lost it. poor sod. a perfect example of why talking on the phone has been proved to be worse than drink driving! I wonder if they even considered this as possibly the main reason why he went off at that point?

Get a nice dry cotton cloth and clean the rim spotless and also rub off all the excess crap from the contact points of the tyre bead from new.I wipe down the valve too so that its not got any of the white powdery stuff in there.It all helps with a good seal. choose whatever fluid to rub inside the hook of the rim/tyre bead and put the tyre on. *dont go over the max pressure in hope of having a better chance of seating the bead. i went a bit over the max once when i was having trouble with one. not long after, the bead blew off and i thought i lost my fingers. It also deformed the tyre and i had to bin it.hand was sore for hours and ear drums were thrashed!

R.I.P

I dont think it looks sped up at all.some filming can make races (bmx) look a lot faster than other recordings.im not sure if its a case of 720 seeming faster than 1080 but watching some bmx races down south from diff cameras it definately shows.

nise 1 fella. kep up the gud wrk bud

Take it to someone who knows how to diagnose fiats with the correct tooling/knowledge before you end up doing what a lot of folk do on forums (even forums dedicated to the specific car model)

They waste their time and money. I had a running problem with my pug and so & so said to try this and that. some of them are well known tuners down south.. but i decided to take it to a well known pug garage and once checked, an injector was the problem. A 2nd hand one fitted from a recent break up of a similar model saw me leave the place a few hours later with £80-ish labour and 35 quid for parts. No buying half a dozen sensors from ebay/gsf etc.. just someone who can look at the car in the flesh and find out whats wrong first time round.save the ball ache and dont fall into that nasty money pit of hoping and gambling. Some folk will sound so convincing that this or that is the problem but it could be 1 of 20 problems.

The fitness that you have,the will to go on and on until the end,the energy/fats stored to be able to do this for hours compared to the whippets that passed you over the first 6 hours,the extra body weight to let your weight get you up/over and around these courses and a near hassle free gearing system all totals up to place you exactly where you described in the races.

Nothing startling.

wet last night i heard.
should dry up though, sun will come out. then a bit of snow. can i get a job with the bbc? theres too many preggers weather forecasters on at the moment anyways.

It would be nice to find somewhere that could sell her a single speed rear wheel to get around on until she finds someone to help her out.oh well.

while we sit at home wondering why folk do these things with no knowledge on fixing these problems.. we are the ones with the bikes that work perfectly yet we go out for a couple of hour rides on average.a ride that we could walk home from if anything went pear shaped.It seems to be the case that the fastest,fittest riders out there ride hunks of shit. funny old world isnt it?