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

6 month mandatory wait + 18 month pandemic (so far) = 2 years

Farcical that bike tests were suspended in the first place as they were zero risk. Then only available for "essential workers" and still, afaik, with very limited availability and long waiting times.

Some got an IBT extension while others didn't and it appears to be entirely arbitrary.

What's so different about an IBT that it expires after 2 years when a test pass lasts for life?

Incorrect - all of the test centres have no availability when you try to book and your only option is to join the waiting list which I did months ago. I have seen one lad on this forum who was waiting over a year to be called because the amount of tests being done is way below the backlog of people looking for them. Fortunately he passed and is out of this roundabout of expiration dates.

In "normal" times I'd agree, I should have sorted it within the 2 years you must have noticed from your ivory tower that things have not been normal for over 18 months now. For the record, I had been riding regularly up to the point I could legally do so when my permit expired in August so I don't believe my skills such as they are disappeared overnight when the IBT expired shortly after that in September. Still waiting on the renewed permit so have been stuck at home since.

I am am struggling to understand how you believe 2 years is enough for me (Sept 19 IBT) in the current circumstances but are fine with someone who did IBT in June 19 having it valid for 3 years to June 22. Like I said arbitrary extensions that are unfair.

I booked my Test as soon as I finished the IBT too, managed to get one of the tests mid pandemic thankfully, but I had to swap my original test centre to one I knew was operating the tests as I was asking around.

I'd have travelled across the country to get the test done tbh as the full license meant I'm able to drive bikes I don't own (mainly my Dad's) plus use the motorway and travel outside of the country.

Is there still the massive backlog of tests at the moment or have they started gradually getting through it

Thats **** shite, how are they doing it btw? Might be as well to ask about other test locations too, not just the county your in.

When I was waiting on mmine, they only had Tallaght down, so I rang and asked about a different station on the otherside of Dublin and got a date within a week of doing that

Best notification all day xD

Post edited by horse7 at 9:47AM

Been waiting since August for renewed permit - 8 unanswered emails and an hour wasted on the phone over last 3 months was getting nowhere so filed a complaint with RSA (https://www.rsa.ie/help-support/make-a-complaint) as NDLS site doesn't have any information on where to complain. I asked and the answer was send it to the same info@ndls.ie address that wasn't getting any hop to begin with.

24 hours later and I get an email from NDLS that magically my application is now approved and are proceeding to issue permit. Could be a coincidence but I doubt it. It's so sh1t that nothing seems to get done without a complaint. Might have it by Christmas... 😏

UPDATE - A lovely lady from the RSA rang me to say she had rang the NDLS and the permit would be issued in the next few days so that confirms that it does in fact take complaining to the RSA to get the NDLS to do their job. Jokeshop.

The answer always is get another bike! 😁

I’ve a 14 yr old Deauville. About 19k miles when I bought her 18 months ago. We went through 25 last week.

Not sure about this tbh, don't think the young lads concerned are going to be interested in IBT type stuff or just riding safely in general - the illegality and danger is much of the thrill surely

Aww, ickle baby torque wrench...

You're certainly not the only one to find out the hard way that using a torque wrench near the bottom end of its range is risky - brake calipers in my case 🙄

I won't be buying anything. I already spent a silly amount of money on a Suzuki special tool to complete my fork rebuild (basically a length of steel pipe with a machined end) - I used the usual bodge to successfully disassemble and reassemble without the tool - yay 😀 but because I reassembled by the book*, torqued it all up correctly and used thread lock as they specified, I couldn't undo it all again without the proper tool 🙄

⭐️the reason I had to disassemble the forks again was because while the disassembly instructions mentioned a thing called an "oil lock piece", the official workshop manual didn't mention reinserting that piece at all, even though it can be inserted in more than one orientation 🙄😠 for the record - it goes onto the end of the cartridge like a bucket, open end up, "fluted" or whatever you call it end down 👍️ what I did first time around was forget to put them in at all 😫

But the front end feels great now even on 15 year old stock springs which most of the US owners on t'internet dismiss as useless. Liqui Moly 5w fork oil, take the air gap down from 165 to 150mm, preload 6, damping settings stock and bob's your uncle as far as I'm concerned. (Yiz won't care about all that detail but maybe sometime in the future some poor sod searching will - if they can wade through the crap! 😛 )

There is a lot to be said for buying a motorcycle which is not popular in America where it seems that most of the motorcycle culture is dickheads/squids/or the ladies in waiting of garage queens. I didn't have trouble finding reliable information on the internet when I owned a Triumph, from people who actually rode them in real life.

Feck me, that post took a funny turn 😁

Aye what bike is. It I've taken my forks apart probably four times at this point on the DL. No special tools needed. My biggest issue was putting the seals in the wrong way twice. Geniusly.

Ah ok! I googled the tool quickly, unfortunatly not the same as the DR650 one, thats the DR's one, literally a nut on the end of a stick, probally why jamming a broom handle in works.

I took both BMW forks apart recently, but thankfully didn't need any special tools for that.

Haha tbf I only own adventure bikes with alot of DIY guys on the forums who like repairing the damn things and then im in airhead groups who mostly talk about restorations or half the time reminisce over the old magazine pics of the bike as it was just coming out. (a decade before i was born)

Have bike prices increased the way car prices have in the last 18months or so.

Realistically, I'll not have to commute again any time soon and I've used my bike maybe four times since the first lockdown.

It's garaged and on an omptimate but I'm going to have to do something with it at some stage, would kill me to sell it but it's wasted sitting there too