Dave_Q

Nice, I did run one of these but only for about 6 months, I sold it when the clutch started slipping as it just wasn't worth doing at the time, it was never big enough for 3 kids in the back really. Think the major bork point would be the diesel pump, those 2.5v6s are a bit known for it and they ain't cheap. And the never ending cycle of replacing front suspension arms but those are at least cheap. Mine was about £700 with deflaty suspension, I replaced 2 airbags with eBay specials for £50 a corner and rebuilt the pump with a £15 seal kit. If it goes to all 4 heights and doesn't drop overnight then you've nothing to worry about on that front. I liked it, I think these are from a time when this was still a proper premium product that someone went out and paid £40k or whatever for in 03 rather than opting for a £500 vs £400 a month car borrow arrangement like they are now. Does it have the low range gearbox? Mine didn't, it was only available on manuals and then as an option, will be handy if you need to tow your actual house anywhere.

Having just been for a blezz on my Grom to pick up my van, thought I would come and add here that a Honda Grom/Monkey/Dax is a good shout. Yes it's technically not a scooter, or old, or a 2 stroke, but if you are not wanting greasy fingers or to pay the university fees of your mechanics kids then a simple, proven evolution of the C90 engine paired to fuel injection and Legendary Honda Quality adds up to a zero fuss bike. I didn't even need to charge the battery on the Grom after leaving it over winter, just pressed the starter and we're away. You get the same low speed thrills as a ped, retro looks on the monkey and dax and still look like a bellend riding it so the result is about the same. They are incredibly expensive though for something that Honda knock out in Thailand based on a more or less 70 year old design. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175659594339 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195786915190 Best part of FOUR FAAAHSAND PAHNDS new but they do do them on PCP for £49 a month which TBF is about my current custard cream bill. https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/range/125cc/dax125/dax-125-offers.html https://www.honda.co.uk/motorcycles/range/125cc/monkey/monkey-offers.html

I guess not for things that might explode or go on fire

The answers in the question, it's so obvious now you pointed it out

They are recalling those Takata airbags all over the shop, my van (2010 Vito) is in for it next week. It's a cause of consternation for some owners as there is also an outstanding recall for a dieselgate software fix for most of them, which the lads with remaps and no EGR/DPF etc obviously don't want.

Apparently quite a bit of ^that^ can be due to the reed valve inlet + mega carb combo on the big power ones, the fuel starts to pool in the inlet on idle. Mine is still on the case inlet and a sports 125 kit with ported cases, probably only around 10hp but still plenty to get well off the 50mph speedo. This popped up, looks pretty good if you don't mind jigsaw format: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/203213639262342/

I was assuming that BI would be less bothered about newer stuff, but for a starter 2 stroke 50 a Vespa ET2 or the ubiquitous Piaggio Zip can be had as marketplace bargains. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2435241076643374/ https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/4777442149047031/ For a fun fact, I believe at one point around 2001 the Zip was the biggest selling bike in the UK. Either should do a strong 30 and even 40-45mph derestricted (which 99% already will be)

£4360, reserve still not met

Worth clarifying the licence situation as there have been changes over the years. Passed car test before 1 Feb 2001 - have a full AM/moped/50cc licence already - do not need to do CBT (but it's advisable), no L plates and can carry a pillion Passed after 1 Feb 2001 - need to do CBT to ride a 50cc but only once - then get full 50cc licence as above (no L plates & can carry pillion) 125cc - everyone needs a CBT to ride on L plates, and need to retake CBT every 2 years Full licence - needs CBT + motorbike theory + 2 part practical. Get A1 (125) A2(47hp/500ish cc) or full A licence depending what bike you do the tests on.

No offence taken mate, different strokes for different folks. One problem with any sort of 2-stroke bike from the era Bornite is probably interested in that they are mega coin now due to the spotty yoof of the time being the monied midlife crisisers of today. Stuff that is still vaguely budget in the scooter world would be the more uncool early Jap bikes like this little Vision 80: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115801598563 Honda Helix/Fusion/Spacy 250 pretty cool if doing a full or A2 licence, can be picked up relatively cheap: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155558816622 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/256082174395 One of the last remaining "classic" Vespas that can still be fairly cheap is the PK, the "scene" doesn't rate these as highly as the earlier smallframes yet: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195780170771 If you do like the look of the metal bodied scooter then LMLs are alright, but make sure it's a 2 stroke as there are 4 stroke versions out there. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325523168246

My only relevant experience was also on a VFR actually, that would randomly cut out / lose electrics. I managed to identify the area of the loom where the problem was by semi-methodically wiggling bits of it, then peeled back the tape on the problem area and managed to find a join where the wires had turned to dust.

The fact that Rocket88 was the first to like this seems appropriate

Was chatting to my neighbour about his DeLorean the other day and he mentioned the agreed value on his insurance is £55,000! My reference of the value of them is the wheeler dealers episode where they buy one from the US for about £10k and sold it here for £20k but I guess that was probably 10+ years ago.

Could easily have been damaged at copart, they move them around with a system of forklifts and giant cannonballs

Fuelly is quite good for browsing real mpg figures. 2010 Q5 diesel, only 2 of them tracked but over quite a lot of miles. Looks like 30ish, over 30 on longer trips and probably sub 30mpg on low speed local stuff.

Sorry to hear that mate. Police rarely lift a finger to look for them, was probably just a coincidence that someone from that car park reported it dumped. You need a tracker so at least you can get it back. They'll crop chains as happened to me a few weeks ago. I'm sure mine must have been taken away in a van as they wouldn't have been able to start it and it was found a few miles away, a small amount of proactive night policing would disrupt the thieves but seems like far too much to ask nowadays.

Yes possibly, I guess without some test rides she won't know. This looks very cool but apparently still weighs 191kg? Again though, probably worth a test ride.

My wife is doing her full bike test, she's practiced for mod1 on a direct access bike but isn't happy with the weight of the bikes for the pushing it around bit so may just do A2 instead. Can anyone suggest a good A2 bike we could look at for her? From a quick search she likes the look of this Honda Rebel, which is available as a 300 in some markets but only as a 500 in the UK which is A2 power but not really any lighter than an SV650 or whatever they've been practicing on. Can anyone suggest something else that looks a bit like this but has a 250-400 sort of engine size?

I'm not normally one for negative reviews but felt it worth mentioning on here to avoid Carole Fucking Nash like the plague. Been with them a couple of years and no problems because never had to claim or ring them. Upon selling my TMax I did have to ring them, and the times were bad. I've spoken to about 5 different people and had 2 that were borderline competent but very slow and 3 that made me want to smash the phone. Including a guy who seemingly couldn't remember what he was meant to be doing 30 seconds later. The problems arose because the original underwriter wouldn't cover my Gilera and it had to go for cancel and requote. The call to get the requote took just over an hour. None of that was being on hold. I did call back again to take up the quote as cancelling with them and taking out cover elsewhere was gonna cost me about £60 more. However when I called to take up the new quote and cancel the old policy the bloke seemed to be taking out the new policy without cancelling the old one. When I mentioned this the third time, he said he'd have to put me on hold to get some advice from his manager. At this point I hung up and rang back to customer services and just cancelled. By contrast Hagerty were spot on, on the phone less than 10min in total to discuss 2 bikes and a list of modifications and cover the Vespa, I will go with Hagerty for the Gilera when it's finished in 2027. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but every person I spoke to at Carole Nash's had a very thick Nigerian/West African accent. Obviously this in itself is no problem at all but I do wonder if they have outsourced their call centre there? Anyway, avoid to fuck.

Not done loads, I picked up another Piaggio engine casing to try to salvage the brake parts from and started trying to drill out the cut off pivot thing on these casings, leading to snapping off a drill bit in it fairly quickly. I did fit a reversing camera and a gearshift bush to the van but that's quite boring. I seem to have a bad habit of buying parts then never getting round to doing the related bit of fixing. Currently in the "goods in" area is: Van Audi TT front seats with single bases and swivels. These are taking up quite a lot of my limited storage space so should really get round to doing something with them Grom Just some oil actually as it could do with a change, but I'm loathe to touch it in case something goes bad and the one on the road bike ends up off the road. Oh and half a set of new plastics but again it's not being touched until something else is on the road. Audi Some roof cleaner/sealant stuff. I really need to get some screen glue and attack the back window soon as it'll be pissing down every day again before we know it Vespa Just opened a fuel tank for it that has been sat there for probably a year. And a pack of cables. It's nearly ready to hit the road again after I got the rebuilt engine back for it sometime around xmas. In preparation for such things I went to the PO to try and tax it. As I've decided it was built in Jan 1983, it's MOT exempt but still needs 1 more year of tax. The PO got their wires crossed I think and tried to put it into Historic tax class, and computer said no (not eligible until 1/4/24). This lead to a great call with DVLA where the man couldn't really tell me when they think it was manufactured. Him: "Well it says on here, the date of manufacture is 31/12/1983. I think as the date within 1983 is unknown then they put the latest date possible" Me: "That's funny, as you've given it a Y suffix plate which is for vehicles from before 1st August 1983. Do they assume the earliest possible date for the plate and the latest possible for other reasons?" Him: "Erm well yeah, there may have been decisions made when it was registered, I can't see those notes" Anyway he assured me that a V112 is down to me to declare and nothing on the system should stop the PO taxing it with a V112. Went back and explained what I wanted, £24 (!!!) later I am taxed.

ULEZ free in only 7 years, this is a better solution than you think it is. Now buy the 1984 eBay one as well and borrow it's number plates.

Glad someone else got the first "we told you so" in as my keyboard fingers were a'twitchin

I think this is allowing semi/artics to be the same length as a drawbar rigid, roughly. According to this the current limit for artics is 16.5m and rigid/drawbar combo can be 18.75m, the article mentions 18.55m as a 2.05m increase so its talking about artic trailers.

It's been on fire? And it's been vandalized? And it's just £1600? Where do I sign? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/975558953831755/

Yep sounds good to me, to be fair I don't think anyone was especially noisy at night anyway but if there is some sort of vague plan of most noise at one end and least at the other then I'm sure we'll be able to work it all out.