I cant drive with them at the highest level setting. i get flashed!

i just looked out the bulbs that were removed and the coating was crackling off them a bit. i will take them down with me tomorrow for the retest and hopefully wont have to change them. If i do, then i might just go elsewhere.

a pace rc200 f6. x2

The house was very small.. with woodchip on the wall.He soon got very bored.. so placed it on the road..
sheee didntt noticeee meee at allll.

sorry,not a caption or anything. just heard that song earlier and put it with the picture.

the sweetcorn relish i bought from tescos earlier has a longer shelf life than that carbon disc fork ;O)

If yer laying in bed at 4am i wouldnt be going through to get a hot choc then maybe reading a book. i would be thinking "phek this.. if my job has brought this on then right now is the turning point"

Id then go for a ride up the hill behind the house and take everything in.The view.. the cold air.

you arent here for a bad time. make the change if its likely to never satisfy you. or do you think it can all change?

just a reminder.. Mr Scruff will be playing:
Glasgow/arches – 3rd Dec.
Edinburgh/potterow – 4th Dec.
Aberdeen/warehouse – 5th Dec.

same here,nico. mine stayed the same and he said "thankyou for being so honest.. and as a good will gesture we will give you free breakdown cover"

that was MOREthan.

sv,
silkolene rg2 is nice stuff but its for those moments when you cant find the bullshot anywhere!

peter..

when you talk about slipping a cone spanner onto each cone and backing them off to loosen them off bit by bit,or putting the lock nut spanners onto the locknuts to tighten down bit by bit..

do you know what this can do?

Its a big no no.

go buy yerself an alloy axle vice clamp first then i`ll explain.

rodney mullen V daewon song 1,2 & 3.

check this out. especially at 3 mins 4 seconds. i just find that simple looking flip one of the best tricks out there.the slow mo should help folk see what he actually does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nZ-R1HYPQ&feature=related

some are easier than others.some of them might have a big housing around them that you replace all at the same time.the ibiza rear bearings are about £80 for original seat brand.the pug 106 bearing was around £48 the last time i bought one.if you go and start buying tools then it could fairly add up.removing a nut thats been torqued to 260nm wont be done with yer neighbours socket set either so maybe just save some money and take it to a mechanic thats not going to hammer you for labour.you could order the bearing from a local motor factor first and tell the mechanic that you had planned on fitting it but after looking in the haynes manual..you found out that you didnt have the tools.

some cars are nice and easy to fix. i just fitted an exhaust discs and pads on the rear of the 106 this afternoon.discs were 12quid each and thats not even a trade price. cheaper than the bike by far! search around and you will get the bearing dead cheap.

water can get in with careless cleaning as well.i know a few folk that go a bit crazy with the garden hose when it comes cleaning time and although their bikes come in nice and sparkly on the outside.. they have blasted water in and managed to fill the bb up.could do with a pair of wellies on in some cases.stinks too.

save a bit of money for xmas and get a kirk revolution.igmc

I dont like the look of my shoei raid 2. it was a half decent helmet a year ago and it was 200 quid. its now gone up to around 270rrp but god knows what its worth if i was thinking of selling it.The fit was better for me over most of the arais around 200-400 but one thing i found out was to buy the helmet you have tried on. dont go and buy the same brand,model and size elsewhere. i did, and i asked if i could try it on just to be safe.jeez,it was completely diffrent to the exact same thing i tried on elsewhere.the one i tried on in Edinburgh was snug and a good fit but the one i tried on in aberdeen pulled on like it was a size too big.so i ended up going down a size.

does anyone know if that fin on the top of some helmets makes any diffrence at higher speeds? does it stabilize the head at all?

is that thurso east? the way its breaking rings a bell.. but the background doesnt click. thurso east is regarded as one of the best, if not the best wave in europe.i used to think newquay was the only place in the uk to surf back in the late 80`s. lol. after going there in 89 and 90 i soon found out that it was crowded and the waves werent as good as i expected.then i saw what thurso does with a 22ft swell.
if you lived in Golspie you could ride one of the quietest and best trails in the country. then nip up to Thurso if the weathers too wet to ride within an hour and a half.

or you could live in Inverness and be within a lot of good places within 1.5 hours ;O) its the place to be based in the highlands when it comes to getting to diffrent places with ease.i love it.

looks good. i like that sort of riding. i had to scrub a bike for 2 hours and hang around for a potential buyer.. that never made it from Fraserburgh. Grr.i only managed a short ride. first one in weeks. i stayed off the bike to get rid of that chesty tickle/cold thing that everyone seemed to catch last month.
feel spot on now after staying off bike for ages.

aye,the myth is true. hairy armpits.

and remember yer new wetsuit ;O)

I had a gul 5,4,3mm without a hood that is fine on the north east coast in the summer but once the warm water (ok, cold water) changed to very cold water i splashed out on an Xcel infinity 6,5,4mm. ive been in the water around melvich,thurso etc for over 2 hours at a time with 3mm boots and 3mm gloves on and lay there wondering what all the fuss is/was about. (read so much about it being so cold in mags over the years)

the thing is,wetsuits are very good these days and the infinity winter suits are unreal.the gul i had wasnt as good a fit as the xcel the north east coast waves hammering yer head in feb is enough to put you off for life! the front entry on the xcels are good. my one is a snug fit all round and takes a bit of time getting out of but its worth it. all you get is a cold face.

epicyclo, check out xcels sizing chart.large-short might suit you.. or something similar? lots of measurements are shown.

but is it as WET as cumberfekinauld? lol

"But Crack The Skye by Mastodon is my album of the year so far. Properly epic"

when i read that, i thought i would search on youtube. it sounded like it would be worth looking into. wrong! wrong for me,but you love it.. and thats fine. not that its bad.. it just shows that these threads are useless as theres a huge variety in music tastes. some folk mentioned stuff that i will enjoy but theres also stuff that makes me cringe.stuff like la roux,daniel merriweather and michael flippin buble?

we need to put a genre after whatever we type to keep things simple and worthwhile!

nope, i`ll think you will find that bits dont tend to fall off them.. well,thats going by the seat owners on stw. my ibiza is 196k now and its only had a maf sensor and 2 abs sensors.
stuff like discs,pads,exhaust,cat,tyres and filters arent even going to be mentioned here.only three parts have failed that i can think of, the other stuff has rusted or corroded.failed in a way,but i dont class it as a failure that makes me want to put the car brand down.its expected on any car after that mileage.

how long did you wait for that site to let you in, stuartie? i sent an email weeks ago but nothing yet.

the hair drying one the other day.

around 2004 i saw kid koala,j.more(coldcut),darren knox(DK),blockhead and skalpel with lucky cat and juxta doing the vj stuff to top it off.never seen all the dj with vj stuff before so all these guys in one night was something else.an aerial view of the decks showing kid koala doing stuff like drunk trumpet really showed folk how on earth he did it,and without seeing it you wouldnt think anything of it.
pity the zen tour didnt happen every year :O(

dj food is strictly kev.you will find him on solid steels going back over the years on most weekly shows.

z trip and kentaro.

nothing in the past 2 weeks.it was about 65p a day min.

"The greatest mountain bike ever built – orange 5"

deffo time for bed lol.

I cant believe he has designed/made it and not thought about tyre buzz on the downtube under braking.how stupid can you get to make and ride something so dangerous? If anyone knows him,let him know my thoughts.
oh dear ive just seen the next pic. Guy with no helmet,covering the brake pulling a wheelie in traffic.it probably ended moments later lol.

such a shame to do all that nice work then get one bit wrong.

Thanks Jeremy.

I had a cbr 125 to begin with and of course,that got used throughout the rev range! not a good example though.they really are dead but nice and light.cornered not that bad at all.I enjoyed using it leading up to the test for a few months.at night on the Loch ness road when it was quiet it was good to get a feel of cornering and looking back i probably learnt more on it than i was aware of.Infact,when i look back i remember freezing up on a few corners and struggling to get around a few so good job it wasnt the 900 at the time. In the time ive had the big bike i havent crossed lanes by mistake or gone off into the ditch but feel its a bit big reach-wise to help me progress quicker.Its known over the years to be a bit sluggish in corners and thats something ive got used to.I think this might be partly to do with how stable the bike is as well.

Like i said before,if you venture up to Aviemore,take helmet etc and pop by as yer welcome to a shot of it to see what you make of it..

Just dont piss in the oil out of town for spite ;O)

Thanks for all that info,Northwind.I did start getting used to the engine braking after 20 mins or so.bit of a shock to begin with.
I found the weight here: http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/vehicles/road/bikes/Suzuki_DL650_V-Strom.html I got the 5 kilos or so heavier than my own bike from that link.
The suspension did feel wallowy but i forgot to add that he said the bike had done something like 15k-ish. they will be due a service and cant really be put down as being bad. Im also probably a bit heavy for them as standard :O) I guessed both bikes would be similar so hopefully one day ill get a shot of the sv650 that a customer has recently bought just to see how they compare.

Anyhows.. yesterday afternoon while you were mocking me for not riding my bike properly, Jeremy.. i was actually out riding it! not sitting at a desk talking about riding :OP 215 miles since my last post. That road from Fort William to Mallaig is smooth and so nice to ride on. anyone riding up the FW area, you need to detour off to Mallaig as its really worth it.

Jeremy, the way i describe the way i ride probably makes it sound like i ride around in 6th all day long.when i got the bike i mentioned being happy touring over the west and leaving it in 6th on those big fast open roads when im out for hours on end. fuel economy is something that has to be taken into consideration as on a sunday over the west,fuel stops can go tits up quite easily.

The bike redlines at 12k. I would estimate if i went out for a brisk ride (lets say Inverness to Fort William to give you an idea of the kind of road im thinking of) i would be in 2nd and 3rd from around 3k up to 9k at a push on certain bits of the road then for 4th gear i would guess between 5k to 8k and after that i would say 5th and 6th would be fine for cruising along on the open roads with long endless straights.

I have a dyno printout on my lap right now. The peak power after the service was 133bhp at just under 11k.Ive been there once or twice but its not what i enjoy doing to be honest. Now the figure im looking at is the figure that matches the revs ive just been talking about – 9k is showing bang on 120bhp, 8k is showing 105bhp,7k is showing 88bhp, 6k is showing 70bhp.

At this point you might be gagging to jump up and type "yeah,and look what bhp you are using at 6k"
correct. but lets turn it around and see what bhp a 60bhp bike is using at 6k on its way up to the magical max bhp it supposedly has. 33bhp at 50%? 38?. See what i`m getting at? I use the bike around the limits i talked about and the printout shows whats been used throughout the revs.

So.. if i am half way through MY rev range,i might be using around 60-70bhp. while on a bike with 60 bhp you might be using 30bhp at the half way point to your peak power point in the revs. Your argument might be "yes, but we will be reaching that point more often and keeping the revs up there" but in reality, even once reached.. you are still only strangling the 60bhp max out of the damn thing once you DO get there (hoping you didn't lose it all by thwapping the rev limiter on the way through each gear ;O)

going back to the o.p. what first springs to mind between the two bikes is trying to drive a citroen 2cv over the west coast of scotland compared to a 2 litre diesel.you would rather a 6 hour trip to be a bit more relaxing and enjoy the power and torque of the diesel. come on,who owns a diesel on here and frequently gets lazy with gear changes? all of us. do bike raggers occasionally hit their diesel cars off the limiter in each gear to get the most out of it?
Yesterday i was really enjoying briskly riding in 2nd,3rd,4th and into 5th.. (and cruising along in 6th too, as thats whats its for i believe ;O)) along the twisty stuff over there. controlling the speed without brakes and flowing along at the speed limit is nice. shoot me! ragging it out of corners is a good feeling but i cant afford to do it all the time. the rear BT021 is kind of feathered on the edges from a few silly moments i had one night and its too expensive to be doing 300+ miles a week driving like that.Its not clever and its definitely not relaxing.

lol, just had a thought.. martinxyz – riding along for 6 hours in one gear – never riding the bike properly but really enjoying it – getting out on the bike none the less.

tandemjeremy – sat on ass in house posting on STW over a period of 9 hours yesterday afternoon and into the evening,putting me down yet again by telling me that i havent learnt to ride a bike properly without even seeing me ride! aye, spot on.

another thing,you mentioned being in front of a group of 100+ riders and not having a hope in hell of passing a certain bike.with 115 riders behind you,what kind of a risk is that? what level,and how far out of the comfort zone were you riding at with all those riders behind? was it coincedence that you were at the front of the group before the ride set off? did you see yourself as one of the better riders? also kinda lureing one rider along..only for him to crash! You might view my riding style as wrong.. and i could view your group riding as dangerous.

but i wont.because i dont know you or know how you ride in reality.

You told us after noticing the danger behind you that the guy following fell off.To be honest, i wouldnt put his riding ability completely at fault. the whole group thing sucked him in.

The diffrence between you and me when it comes to bikes is that i will never ride in a group and get caught up in those situations like you have.I ride for myself,by myself. If someone comes up behind me on a bike i wave with my left hand and watch them pass. i dont race them or up the pace.To be honest i still feel bad that you have said twice since i got the bike a year ago that i am not riding it properly. Im not the first person you have peeved on on STW and yep, i certainly wont be the last!

mike,is there a bit about the clydebank bmx racing up here in scotland in the latest issue?

remember to only get one hose if you do.. use the rear for the front.

youd be limp wristed too..beating hell out of folk every other day with a tube of scaffolding.

I know someone with a dl 650 and its about 60bhp.i have something with 140bhp and when we swap bikes you notice that you have to be using all the gears and using them well just to keep up even on slow stuff.I struggled with it. he just cruised off on my bike in one ride and effortlessly continued the ride as i huffed and puffed thru most of the gears (around the speed limit over the slow twisty roads around Gairloch)trying to keep the speed i was previously going.admittedly,it was good to be using the gears a bit more but not something i would like to be dealing with on each ride.on another ride we swapped bikes on the A82 at Glengarry.again,he went ahead and i just vanished behind hitting off the limiter as i went through the gears.not trying to catch him up, just going about a normal ride. going back down the gears and the engine braking in the dl feels a bit diffrent.something i wasnt liking.i would be scared of it in the winter months coming up to be honest.the zx9r feels like once you have made the gear change, it copes with it well and it safely goes into another gear with a blip of the throttle and seems to melt the transition of one gear into the other so nicely.unlike the v twin of the suzuki.
getting to the point.. im so happy i didnt go for something with around 60bhp.to have the power and torque around quarter to half throttle in any gear and have more than enough power to never be anywhere near the redline (not hammering it to death each ride) is nice to know and when you want a bit of fun with it,stay in the likes of 3rd and 4th and get upto around 8 or 9k revs to get that nice flightly feeling from it when you feel like it. even on the open roads when no cars are about its good to have masses of power that you can use.. yet still have a bit extra that you cant use because you run out of road (and skill) Its also very driveable at town speeds.To finish a ride and know the bike has lots more power lurking is a nice feeling,something that intrigues you. to return home and know you have been through each gear to its max is not what i want from a bike. Maybe you arent after that though.
before i got the bike, a 2001 zx9r,the chap with the dl650 was one of the folk that said it would be too much and something that would never get used 100% (who uses a bike to within 80% on each ride anyway?)but having now ridden it, i recon he could now see the benefits of it.. along with seeing how uncrazy it really is once you get behind it.its so easy to drive and go up through the gears without having any hairy moments. very much like driving a fast car. you feel safe and its never flinched when getting up to speed in the 10k ive done on it.
some folk on here like to kick off about big powerful bikes.some have fast cars that will rarely get used to their max but the power that can be had in these cars around 2-5k revs is enough to keep them happy (and safe) in day to day driving and if they want to rag it,its there to be had.

why get a powerful motorbike? and why get a powerful car?

the same reason: the power thats available from the off is great to have, you dont need to thrash the engine up to the redline on every drive or ride you go on,the engine is as good as or better on fuel than a slower car getting hammered (or bike) and its safer as far as overtaking goes.

so, if the SV650 has similar BHP and torque as the dl650 i would guess the ride to be similar.
the suspension on the DL650 i rode was like old elastomers too,he agreed and talked about new shocks front and rear.it is so bad that its enough to give you a few dodgy moments on the state of some of the roads up here.

The fuel used in one west coast loop for around 140 miles was a diffrence of around 1.5 litres between the zx9r and the DL650.both riders of similar weight and bikes within 5kg`s of each other.

The new street triple 675 would be a laugh.they say the revs match the torque very well throughout.it will also be far more comfortable than a sportsbike but i would guess the power of just under 100bhp to be a bit less dull,and safer,than something around 60bhp.the bike i learnt on was around 60bhp and to get up to speed in troubled times when riding busy dual carriageways, i would far rather a bit more grunt when the sleepy drivers start to get dangerous.

just my thoughts.

rob,how old is yer street triple? i quite fancy one. the lack of fairing for the cold winter scares me though! i would expect it to have more than enough power.need to demo need to demo need ..

belt driven,wicked looks,fashionable wide flat bars.. and HID light conversion.its everything you have looked at in mtb,but on a rocket.
you wont even break a chilly sweat riding it in the crisp winter months.
http://pistonheads.com/sales/1188966.htm

you have enough mountain bikes,now go buy a value for money motorbike! :-)

its 4995 though.

I`m not that long home from a late night road ride.went out at 10pm and done 62 miles lol.hardly any traffic.. more deer at the roadsides than people.
Fitted heated grips last week so it was a good night to test them out.its chilly out there and the grips are hot enough even at 70mph to keep the fingers from stiffening up.

Have you got this months RIDE magazine,rick? Theres a bit on the zzr1400 in it. 197bhp and "limited to 186mph with a gear to spare".

6 lamps up front might just be enough to make dozy drivers wonder whats approaching as well.

I fancy something lighter though, been asking about triumph daytona 675s.

buy a whole hub if other bits are on the way out and fit everything into the old shell. all you will have left thats old is the non driveside bearing surface.. that might be fine anyway.