Off Topic Thread

the drifter

ugh...should have brought the bike today...

positron

I did, and M1 was like a huge washing machine set on turbo mode. On the plus side, bike is much cleaner now.

arybvtcw0eolkf

positron wrote: »

I did, and M1 was like a huge washing machine set on turbo mode. On the plus side, bike is much cleaner now.

So is mine, I just washed it!.

The neighbours must have thought I'd lost it but it was full of salt and grime, plus I'm in work tonight so gotta have the bike shiny

kaimera

ugh, sticky front brakes last two mornings I went to bring the bike out. Garaged and all; no cover this time, I forgot.

Her bike is having issues; new battery a few months ago; not used too much but it wouldnt start for her after work yday.

Jump/push start got her going and trickle charger last night.

Battery gone? Alternator gone? lose wiring?

Any ideas on a cost to replace an alternator?

Richard tea

Quite alot of bikes out today in such dense fog. Fair play to yiz. There is a shop in Blanchardstown shopping centre, I think its called Dealz, anyway they have bike cleaner for 1.50. It says it cleans chains, sprockets, bodywork and so on. It might be ****e but I wont know till I try it on the bike. Just thought I would post up a possible bargain.

cantdecide

kaimera wrote: »

ugh, sticky front brakes last two mornings I went to bring the bike out. Garaged and all; no cover this time, I forgot.

Her bike is having issues; new battery a few months ago; not used too much but it wouldnt start for her after work yday.

Jump/push start got her going and trickle charger last night.

Battery gone? Alternator gone? lose wiring?

Any ideas on a cost to replace an alternator?

Gammy rectifier eating the batteries? Do you have the same one on your bike? The alternator should be serviceable but I haven't heard of too many needing an overhaul on bikes. You can get 100,000+ miles out of a care alternator before needing a rebuild.

As for your brakes; time for a caliper rebuild. Fun fun fun

kaimera

aww gawd; no i rebuilt the calipers a few months ago. not doing it again!

rectifier maybe, i just need ideas like. bike needs a service anyway so two birds one stone like.

positron

Dry patches starting to appear on road surface here and there. Very little traffic on roads this morning. It was not too cold. No wind. No fog. No rain. Brilliant ride into work this morning (except for the restrictitis..).

There for, Christmas is the best time to bike in Ireland !!

Pipz

http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/peta-crashes-biker-gathering-not-to-be-missed/27275

This made me laugh

Hotblack Desiato

Sad this...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/1221/breaking13.html

The estranged wife of paralysed motorbike stunt rider Eddie Kidd has been charged with assaulting him, police said.

Samantha Kidd (44), is due to appear in court next month accused of assaulting Mr Kidd (53), six times in four months.

positron

Another great mornings ride in to work - roads were mostly dry approaching Dublin, and traffic sparse. Lovely.

Minor niggle is that with the empty roads, cages and vans are doing 140+ on M1 making my restrictitis feel really severe and it hurts now and again.

cantdecide

Went on a classic car and bike run today and it was great fun but nearly binned it.

I saw my mate and my brother take an unexpected left turn at a roundabout ahead and wondered where they were going. I decided they were about to figure out they'd taken a wrong turn and do a U-turn but looked up past them to make sure they knew something I didn't. As expected, they were in the process of turning around so I stopped crooning left and when I looked ahead again, I was about to slap straight into the kerbing at the exit of the roundabout. Bricked it! I managed to somehow get almost back out of danger but the bike bucked as I clipped the underneath of the left hand side of the bellypan.

I only scratched the bellypan which was already in need of repainting anyway so no real harm done. The scratch itself is only visible when you get down on your hands and knees.

NEVER NEVER NEVER let yourself be distracted away from the road ahead of you. I was lucky I didn't mangle my precious GSX not to mention what would have happened if I'd landed on my shoulder again...

/shudder

Hotblack Desiato

If not sure of your exit at a roundabout (bad signage, etc.) just plan on doing a 360 to have a look and then take the correct exit second time around. It might look a bit daft but it's safer than the sort of thing that happened to you. Glad you kept it upright.

cantdecide

ninja900 wrote: »

If not sure of your exit at a roundabout (bad signage, etc.) just plan on doing a 360 to have a look and then take the correct exit second time around. It might look a bit daft but it's safer than the sort of thing that happened to you. Glad you kept it upright.

I agree. I see so many tools lunging at their exit rather than going round again.

In my case, the problem is that this was a tiny urban roundabout so my path straight through was more like a chicane. We were supposed to take the second exit, straight through. My brother and my mate went left through the 1st and I carried on to the second as we all should have. As I looked left to see the other two, I didn't veer to the right far enough to make the exit and hit the kerb on my LHS. Boner of a move...

It was all my own bad observation.

cantdecide

Brother turns around to me in the car today and says ‎"Did you ever notice that people who drive Honda 50s always look miserable?". Lol'd

BlackWizard

Is there a thread like this one for the bike section?

The "Today I did something to my car" thread

Alkers

Haven't seen one but to get things started;
Today I topped up my rear brake fluid which had been low for a while and adjusted my clutch cable. The latter ended up being a bit of a job as the adjustment at the bar was fully used up so I had to remove the front sprocket cover (adjusting the gear selector so I could do this), clean up a load of crud from the chain, fiddle with the other end of the cable which had been installed incorrectly and set it all up again. Eventually got the lever how I like it but the adjustment is all the way at the crankcase and nearly all the way at the lever. It's less than 6 months old, but it was installed incorrectly then (only discovered this today), perhaps the wrong cable was used - is it possible to shorten them?

kaimera

Weather was freezing this morning. real feel of -3 the phone said when I got to work.

I really need better gloves

positron

Yep, put the tank bag on the bike this morning and it promptly fell off - the tank was completely frozen over, so was the seat, mirrors and even the handle bars. Then I found my finger tips freezing and I realized I hadn't turned on the heated gloves - switched it on at 100% power, and it was just... aaaaah... pure bliss...

BlackWizard

Yesterday I washed my bike. Properly this time with a cloth and two buckets of water.

Day before that I installed a luggage system that I bought off ebay.

I'll have to be careful filtering when using these!

Please Kill Me

That's some serious luggage chief! Nice one!

bladespin

kaimera wrote: »

Weather was freezing this morning. real feel of -3 the phone said when I got to work.

I really need better gloves

Maplins in Blanch had heated gloves on special offer, not motorcycle gloves though but they looked nice and warm

Zascar

I need to wash my bike badly - but not just wash it, give it a seriously proper clean. All around the gearing and the hard to reach inside bits covered in oil and grease and road grime. Thing is I'm way to lazy to be taking my bike to bits and scrubbing with a toothbrush etc. Any easier way? I was thinking of going to one of those steam clean guys...

bladespin

Zascar wrote: »

Any easier way? I was thinking of going to one of those steam clean guys...

Steam will clean the grease out of bearings etc, be careful.

Zascar

That's what I was afraid of. I'm wondering if there are any guys that can do a proper safe job?

Hornswoggle

It was a cold start this morning alright, taking the cover off the bike this morning it was completely frozen over! I dreamt about what it would be like to have heated grips on the way in to work

bladespin

Zascar wrote: »

That's what I was afraid of. I'm wondering if there are any guys that can do a proper safe job?

I'd ask if they'd done bikes before, once they know what to avoid they should be grand, super clean finish too.

Wossack

Zascar wrote: »

That's what I was afraid of. I'm wondering if there are any guys that can do a proper safe job?

hah, you're a proper Ducati owner now!

Check out bikecare.ie, spotted it on biker.ie a few months back and thought it would be a nice treat (guy doing it goes by the username Oakers on there)

Ive no experience mind!

kaimera

Hornswoggle wrote: »

It was a cold start this morning alright, taking the cover off the bike this morning it was completely frozen over! I dreamt about what it would be like to have heated grips on the way in to work

freezing.

Like my fingers were nearly blue when I got to work. didn't even feel the hot water in the showers

Quebec Delta Mike

Used the GS this morning to go in to town at 10oc, Maynooth,M4 etc. OAT was -1c at Maynooth, +1 at Liffey Valley, +6 by Heuston Station, and almost the same in reverse an hour later. Even with heated grips on full, and hand guards, the tips of my fingers were numb all the way.:mad: Full RST suit kept everything else snuggly...:P

QDM.