Elbow Grease – £1 in Semi Chem – good for oil stains on clothes too.

I haven’t waded through 4 pages of this but surely if a photo of the rider on the bike is proof of ownership then it’s going nowhere – every scally has a cameraphone.

Yes, a good bit exercise after too long off the bike. Thanks again for the use of the lights Ronan.

I might even recognise some of you if we meet in daylight!

Yes indeed, and thanks again for the use of the lights Ronan.

I might even regodnise somo of you if we meet again in daylight!

I intend to go down but it makes sense to share where possible. I am on west side of Edinburgh and can take 2 or accept a lift from someone if that suits.

I don’t follow Druidh’s logic. Motorcycle plates carry the same number of characters as car plates so you could fit your letters and numbers on but you would be contravening the regs regarding minimum sizing of the characters for a car.

There is also the small matter of having to have the plate illuminated – as your car has a full MoT as opposed to a daylight one then I assume the full illuminations for the vehicle are required at all times, whether they are actually in use or not.

I would also question whether an approved plate maker would produce an illegal plate for you (you have to show the registration doc to get one made up).

I only once had a shot on a 315R and thought that, as a trials bike, it would have made a great enduro bike, but then I ride in the traditional style.

A 200 Beta makes an excellent machine to start on (or for anyone come to that) as it has the power of an “old fashioned” 250 making it easy to ride but still fast across the moors for those real trials. Can’t say I have found mine to be fragile over seven years of use.

If you are going to park it as you suggest then just save the effort and leave the £1500 in a poly bag on your garden gate, there will be about as much chance of it still being there in the morning such is the way of things nowadays. Clever use of polythene sheet should allow “safe” passage to the rear of the house if you have a back door.

I can’t see it having any effect on “problems”. If there’s one consideration that enters the minds of the guys getting pished and causing trouble on the streets then I suspect it certainly is not the cost of the drink.

It’s the usual thing, bring in a law that only penalises the “innocent”.

Galloway was at the weekend.

Actually the duty on diesel was reduced many years ago to make it 2p cheaper than petrol as it was deemed to be less polluting and therefore to be encouraged. I don’t recall this particular action being specifically reversed so the difference is even greater than it appears.

Shockboard works OK if you put something round the plastic bung to increase the friction coefficient (3 years no problem) but the sliding fit wears slightly so it does move about a wee bit.

My original intention had been to cut down a front guard from a trials motorcycle (the radius seems near enough) and make up a stay to fit it to the sliders but couldn’t be bothered after finding the ‘board. No doubt I’ll get round to it eventually.

Further to my initial post I can say I scoffed at them when they were first reviewed (£££ for pipecleaners?). I can’t remember why I got some but they are much bigger diameter than pipecleaners and much stronger. The “prickly” grade really does a job on removing dirt. Use the soft ones on painted areas.

Did it on my double ring audax bike many years ago and was first to the top solely due to having to go faster than my pals due to gearing. I’m older now so would need lower gears.

Funnily enough I came across the photos in an envelope last weekend. Weather forecast had been horrendous but not bad as we rode from Shieldaig though the mist was blowing about at the top so no views. Just after starting the descent we came out the cloud and the rest of the run back was in sun as per stevious’ photo, as was Skye the next day – so much for weather forecasts.

Excellent stuff – can be cleaned and reused. Makes the awkward bits dead easy to clean. Get some of each grade.

“My neighbour bought his son a Dunlop full-suspension mountain bike from them last Christmas. It was utter crap, even at the supposedly discounted price.”

Hard to believe given Dunlop’s long-standing reputation for bicycle manufacture???????????????

Didn’t know you could still wash dishes if you’d forgotten your wallet 😀

Shake in a container of diesel – cleans and lubricates in one go without the fire risk of petrol (though I have used a mix of petrol and oil when pushed).

Thanks Luminous but I don’t want to be a timewaster and, at this stage, I am not ready to spend in to the hundreds on a light (though I appreciate what goes in to these) so there’s no point in trying one just yet. I’ll need to see if I get on with night riding first – I’m not brilliant in the car these days in real dark.

Or you could try Worcestershire Sauce.

Multipla has the advantage of three seats in the front and the new Berlingo, though longer than the old one, may be a bit less useful as there is a console up front – the ability to allow things to protrude between the seats in the old one increases versatility.

I can get two people, a tandem and two solos in the old version, or three people and three bikes. It also has enough height to allow two motorcycles to fit in without folding the bars down.

Has anyone ever had a reply to a letter written to the Council? Ten day response time notwithstanding.

How did a vegetarian manage to get past border control in France?

It certainly seems to be taking up much less room now it’s in that bag. What a nonsense.

Haven’t seen the article and not overly familiar with that particular road but a more suitable motorcycle (ie a fraction of the power but better chuckability) could easily take 28 seconds off the R1 time I should think.

Mouth of the Esk used to be the place for flounder but I never see anyone there when I pass nowadays.

There was a similar thread recently and someone suggested make-up pouches but I haven’t been able to find any in the chemists yet.

One can’t be longer than the other for they are both verbs not nouns.

Fine if you really want a D lock pushed through your hip bone I suppose.

Creaking knees can be a bit frustrating.

“but why isn’t Holyrood Park a trail centre?”

Probably because HM the Queen does not want her garden carved up.

Are you sure the pump is correctly synchronised to provide the correct amount of oil? It’s usually a case of adjusting a cable to line up two marks – dead easy.

As it’s a 50 we can take it for granted that it’s at full chat most of the time so should keep itself clear.

The route marking at Keilder is pretty poor – even getting the right way out the car park challenged some people.

I was with a group of people who, professionally, are trained map readers and we still got off the way for a while up the hill using the official routemap.

Just watched the video – might there be some benefit in having the beams on the Spider pointing at different angles in the vertical plane to elongate the bright patch?

I say this with no real experience of riding in the dark on the mountain bike but I’ve always had to slow down a good bit in the dark on the motorcycle – and this is getting worse with age (funny that).

They used to hold a week’s worth round the TT circuit on the IoM – plenty climbing on that.

The magnetic sheet sounds like a good idea. The throw in a drawer would appeal but makes it hard to carry them to events.
Thanks.

Ponchos/capey type thing available at Decathlon for not a lot. http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/waterproof-and-wind-protect-clothes-10206669/

I was disappointed with how hard and uncomfortable the Uvex was when I tried it (I obviously have the wrong head for it).

I bought a KED (another German brand) at the Semaine Federale and it’s the only helmet I have tried that sits properly down on the head as opposed to most which sit far too high on the head to have a reasonable chance of protecting properly.

A rectangle with rounded sides was known as quartic when BL brilliantly fitted it as a steering wheel to the Allaggro in ’73.

But don’t use anything that will cause the seals to swell (assuming you leave them in).

Food, drink etc at Permanence and at the road food stops are all paid for by tickets with a varying Euro face value. You buy them in sheets at the Permanence or at the stops. It seems to me like an excellent method of not having to worry about piles of money accumulating for the organisers and speeds things up for the participants as you are not queuing while people fart about counting out small change one way or the other.

They did run out of beer at the Permanence last year right enough.