General chat thread... Links, pictures, banter etc

Cienciano

Don't go too fast over speedbumps:

Robbknoll

Lads Im heading to England for a year or two working come september, problem is i wont be biking over there but I dont want to forgo my no claims bonus for this year as my insurance is only finished in a couple of months. Im selling my bike here so my insurance will have to be cancelled. Theres nothing cheap enough in my area to buy to throw the insurance over onto either. Was thinking if any breakers would have the log books of their bikes, that i could buy one off them to migrate the insurance for the couple of months? Has anyone done this or something similar?

lennymc

Your ncb is valid for 2 yrs after the end of a policy afaik. You should check with your insurer. I had a break of about 3 or 4 years, rang my old insurer who gave me 3 yrs ncb (iirc, I had >5 yrs ncb previously).

blade1

Is no claims not valid for 2 years these days?

Edit: Lenny beat me to it!

Alkers

Robbknoll wrote: »

Lads Im heading to England for a year or two working come september, problem is i wont be biking over there but I dont want to forgo my no claims bonus for this year as my insurance is only finished in a couple of months. Im selling my bike here so my insurance will have to be cancelled. Theres nothing cheap enough in my area to buy to throw the insurance over onto either. Was thinking if any breakers would have the log books of their bikes, that i could buy one off them to migrate the insurance for the couple of months? Has anyone done this or something similar?

You can buy any 50cc moped for a couple of hundred euro and transfer your existing insurance over.

lennymc

blade1 wrote: »

Is no claims not valid for 2 years these days?

Edit: Lenny beat me to it!

That's cos I ride a suzuki and they are the fastest.

blade1

lennymc wrote: »

That's cos I ride a suzuki and they are the fastest.

Baaaaaaaa!!! Funny man!!:P

Robbknoll

Ya the no claims is valid for 2 years, what i was saying is that i wanted to build up the no claims bonus, this will be the 2 time in 3 years i would have had to cancel the insurance premature by only a couple of months, so in 3 years my no claims has basically stayed the same.

@Simona1986, that was the initial plan but the cheapest bike about is about 250e and thats a bit too much for something i need for only a couple of months, plus id lose money paying that much when getting insurance came about again. I didnt think about the moped though thanks.

blade1

Was kinda wondering what was wrong with this guy but wasn't too surprised to see the prick with his head down texting away.
Veering over to the other side of the road,I'd actually laugh if he ploughed straight into a wall.
Better him taking himself out before he kills someone else.

Wonda-Boy

Went out for a quick spin today with a few noobs off here :pac: at 6 bells for a quick blast.....only back in the door now.

Absolutely beautiful night for a spin, very little traffic and dry as a bone....really nice. Have not done that in about a year a nice midnight spin!

Hotblack Desiato

No Seat Leons? :eek:

Wonda-Boy

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

No Seat Leons? :eek:

Actually the closer I got to Hollywood everyone in a Seat Leon and there was a few was getting fierce durty looks and the odd cuss word...lol.

batman_oh

blade1 wrote: »

Was kinda wondering what was wrong with this guy but wasn't too surprised to see the prick with his head down texting away.
Veering over to the other side of the road,I'd actually laugh if he ploughed straight into a wall.
Better him taking himself out before he kills someone else.

Is this really post it on Youtube worthy? It's annoying but if you went around getting highly aggro and posting videos of every single thing like that you would literally having thousands of videos in no time. Vigilante cams are all the rage these days. Plus the same guy has a video of his mate doing a wheelie on a Fireblade down a slip road :P

Jimmy Bottlehead

Did a dry run of the trip into town last night, got lost a few times but got my way around city centre without killing myself.

And did my first ever bike commute to work today Great success!

blade1

batman_oh wrote: »

Is this really post it on Youtube worthy? It's annoying but if you went around getting highly aggro and posting videos of every single thing like that you would literally having thousands of videos in no time. Vigilante cams are all the rage these days. Plus the same guy has a video of his mate doing a wheelie on a Fireblade down a slip road :P

Who got highly aggro?,who posted every single thing like that and that wasn't my mate on the Fireblade!

Cienciano

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Went out for a quick spin today with a few noobs off here :pac: at 6 bells for a quick blast.....only back in the door now.

Absolutely beautiful night for a spin, very little traffic and dry as a bone....really nice. Have not done that in about a year a nice midnight spin!

Yeah, was out last night at about 11pm, savage night for it. Full moon, clear sky, dry roads.

Cienciano

I'm normally not really interested in scooters, but:



Build here

Hotblack Desiato

Oddly enough the 4-cyl 500 2T road bikes have gone down as classics down to rarity, not performance. Even in detuned form a 4-cyl stroker is a maintenance nightmare... RS250 by the end of its life was getting kicked by 4T 600s. 350 YPVS was probably the best road-going stroker but by the time I was old enough to get a >125 licence there were none left. I do remember looking at the odd RGV250 as a 'like to have, but out of reach' bike, but that would be very close to 20 years ago now :eek:

CJhaughey

The thing is, since the dawn of racing bikes were categorised by displacement.
Even to this day the classes are displacement based and only since 2000 or so did the manufacturers (Honda) push for two strokes to be classed separately and handicapped.
The reason 2t racers came about was that enterprising engineers figured that the two stroke could make more power than the equivalent 4t for a given displacement by virtue of the 2 power strokes per revolution against the 4t suck, squeeze, bang, blow.
If you stuck to the displacement class they would still be racing, I think the Japanese 400/4t and 250/2t was a reasonable solution but a 250 against a 600 is more than 2x its capacity.
When GP racing was thinking about an equivalent 4t displacement there was a study done and the 4t equivalent was something like 830cc or so.
Nonetheless to bury the 2t MotoGP was launched as a 990cc/4T vs 500/2T race which of course ended up as we know now as an unfair contest.
2T racing improved the breed in no small way though, Tyres, frames and suspension all made big strides in that golden window.

Mesrine65

Cienciano wrote: »

I'm normally not really interested in scooters, but:



Build here

That is one seriously cool scoot :cool:

CJhaughey

Cienciano wrote: »

I'm normally not really interested in scooters, but:



Build here

Belfast reg, have to be a mad nordie for sure, they love their strokers.

Cienciano

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Oddly enough the 4-cyl 500 2T road bikes have gone down as classics down to rarity, not performance. Even in detuned form a 4-cyl stroker is a maintenance nightmare... RS250 by the end of its life was getting kicked by 4T 600s. 350 YPVS was probably the best road-going stroker but by the time I was old enough to get a >125 licence there were none left. I do remember looking at the odd RGV250 as a 'like to have, but out of reach' bike, but that would be very close to 20 years ago now :eek:

Yeah, but the point isn't to make it as fast as possible, it's to make it cool. And a 500cc two stroke is cool!

Hotblack Desiato

CJhaughey wrote: »

If you stuck to the displacement class they would still be racing, I think the Japanese 400/4t and 250/2t was a reasonable solution but a 250 against a 600 is more than 2x its capacity.

Ah yeah I know, I was talking only about road bikes though (and as you say, which technology is the one which wins races depends on how the rules are written)

Time was a YPVS/RGV/RS250 was the thing for a light, good handling sports bike, a lot of people aspired to one even if they never did get one

Then in the mid 90s or so 4T 600s started getting a lot lighter and more powerful than they used to be, and were always much easier to live with than a highly strung 2T. Writing was on the wall long before emissions laws finally killed them off. Still, a bit sad as the sound (and smell) of a 2T is unique, my first bike was no ball of fire but it was a 2-stroke!

Actually last week I saw (and heard!) a geared 2T bike (Lambrettas don't count) for the first time in a few years, was a small Suzuki, looked like an RG80 with no fairing on it, Dublin city centre.

Skill Magill

Went up to Portrush and back down the Antrim Coast, that coast road is worth the trip, you don't know whether to be looking at the cliffs or the mountains as your driving through. Spent about 10 hrs in the saddle and I'm beginning to seize!
Bought a tent, sleepin bag, and other accouterments but I got lashed on heavy about 5 times and there was no way I was pitching a tent in soggy ground, so I just came back.
One thing I noticed in the petrol stations, they have a 97 oct fuel instead of 95 (I think) for about 10p extra a litre. Filled up with the expensive gear and noticed the engine "crackling" when I throttled down hard, makes sense I suppose, unburnt higher octane fuel probably ignites in the exhaust - hence the crackling. (Thats guess work, there's probably another reason for it.
Anyway here :

Wonda-Boy

Good stuff, shame you didnt get to tent the night away. Its a beautiful part of the country was up there for the NW200 but didnt get to do the coast road. 4 of us are heading to the Ring of Kerry next week so should be good craic!

Skill Magill

Next on the list wonda, You'd need three or four days to do it though, its a bit of a drive down from Dublin.
How are you doing it? Plans etc

Cienciano

I've done that drive a few times now, best scenic road in the country.

Skill Magill

Which one C? The ring or the Antrim coast?, If I could have done the Antrim coast another way, I would have gone to Larne first instead of using the motorways to get straight to portrush, then up the coast to portrush and back down again, same route, different perspective.

Cienciano

Skill Magill wrote: »

Which one C? The ring or the Antrim coast?, If I could have done the Antrim coast another way, I would have gone to Larne first instead of using the motorways to get straight to portrush, then up the coast to portrush and back down again, same route, different perspective.

Yeah, 3 times I did it, motorway to Larne and went that way. If you stop at giants causeway and the rope bridge, and a couple of stops along the way for a photo, making it all the way to Derry is a long enough drive.
Also there's the Torr Head section off the A2 which adds about an hour. Worth it if you have the time.
Portrush and back is a long old drive!

If the weather is good and you want a good food stop, Mortons fish and chips at Ballycastle harbour is fúcking amazing.

Wonda-Boy

Cienciano wrote: »

Yeah, 3 times I did it, motorway to Larne and went that way. If you stop at giants causeway and the rope bridge, and a couple of stops along the way for a photo, making it all the way to Derry is a long enough drive.
Also there's the Torr Head section off the A2 which adds about an hour. Worth it if you have the time.
Portrush and back is a long old drive!

If the weather is good and you want a good food stop, Mortons fish and chips at Ballycastle harbour is fúcking amazing.

Yeah, now imagine doing it (portrush) at 5 in the morning pissing rain non stop for the whole trip....this year was the only year that it was dry going the road races up there. Miserable is not the word.