tom13

Great write up. Looked a great time. I have said it before but I love your dedication to this bus. What was the rough price of your ferry? Thinking about just a return trip, any tips for getting the best deal? Did you do Santander or Bilbao?

Interested to hear your thoughts on these. I never really liked mine and the quality was pretty poor on it.

The swift sport before I had was 1000 times better.

3 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

Good mate has one , and it's in my care at the moment. It needs a new battery ... He's gonna owe me a few pints cos it looks like a whole mornings work!

As in a whole morning to do a battery?

1 hour ago, Bren said:

I called at J&S in Nortwich today to buy vouchers for a gift.

While I was there I looked at the helmets and boots - my helmet is fifteen years  old and my boots even older. I have promised myself new boots and an arai / shoei helmet - my stuff is bargain basement/ used/ hand me downs.

Sadly they are really expensive and won't happen this year. I remarked to my wife that the price of kit is probably contributing to the shrinking numbers of motorcyclists.

I think kit is cheaper than ever. I have a full Oxford textile suit. It was around £100 for the full suit. As @twosmoke300 said as well. I had an Arai for years and have then just gone to a HJC IS17 and it's 5 star rated, super comfy with loads of features and sub £100 as well.

I have 2 sets of gloves some short cuff alpinestars which were around £40 but I have a more traditional cold weather pair which were £15.

Boots are going to be sub 100 as well.

If you shop around you can get a full kit for under £250 and it not be utter rubbish. 

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

Nice to see one of these, I had a couple of TRX850's in the day, make sure you follow the correct procedure for checking the oil level (check whilst warm with the bike upright after being knocked off for 10 seconds iirc)

God those TRXs were cool. I will check that thanks, I think its only recently had an oil change as well.

47 minutes ago, andyberg said:

Never had one but always liked them. I never understood why they were never popular. Sound great with the 270° crank too. Well bought.

Such a good noise even with the baffles in. I'm going to have to take them out for a bit though.

Recently acquired TDM850.

Nice feeling bike. Excited to get out on it. Sounds lovely with the aftermarket exhaust.

I just love how you keep this thing going. Serious hats off to you.

Love these. Seem a great buy still for the money.

On 26/12/2023 at 21:10, JJ0063 said:

Oh totally agree, I’ve always found 5 series equivalents much more sensible on the pricing!

It’s only an idea to be honest. I always knew I’d want to get back in an M57 but I also like the T5 an awful lot more than I expected. 

Mrs JJ’s little 1.4 diesel fiesta has racked up about 17k in the last year, it’s on nearly 150k so I’m expecting it to start causing me issues soon so it feels like a good excuse for me to retain BMW ownership whilst getting her in something better. She also really likes the BM’s and is a secret speed demon and loved driving the 335D. 
 

I might look further into getting something like a 3k loan, plus say £1500 for the Fiesta and putting her in an LCI E91 for ~5k or something. I’d even consider a cheap LCI N47 and having the chain done myself tbh.

Why so set on an LCI?

Santa hand delivered mine today while I was out. How about that for service. Have a great Christmas all. 

You are doing an excellent job here. Hats off to you.

I do love a lightly modified one of these though.

Pull the plastic up and check those steps and sill asap.

On 01/12/2023 at 12:45, MrBig said:

I'm just trying to find it, was it on fb marketplace? Bideford is a bit of a trek from the midlands but if the price is right and I can scrounge trailer its a nice time of year for a day at the beach right? 😁

Just seen this sorry.

It's not on there anymore but I have the guys details if you need them at all. It was actually listed as a Djebel so I'm sure it wasn't as easily searched for. The price was £1450 for it as well but it looked clean.

If not too late can I put my name in the hat please.

3 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Anyone in the North East looking for a winter project or two.

Boldon Auction Galleries have these gems on offer next week.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

First up is a Grandad Commuter Special, the Honda CD175. Estimate is a very low £50-£80 (yes that's fifty to eighty). Plenty of room in the top box for the cheese and tomato sarnies and a thermos of over brewed PG. Might need some muffler tape road the silencers to keep the neighbours happy.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

Next up is this motorised bicycle. No mention of bike or engine manufacturer, but it's got to be worth more than the £250-£300 estimate.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

Next is a Puch 60K with V5. Again sounds cheap at £300-£500. It celebrates it's 50th birthday one the day of the sale.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

For liker of something a bit bigger there's a Honda wet dream. Estimate is £400-£500 on this one. It's most likely to end up as some sort of hipster cafe racer. V5 is present.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

Finally a bit of a courier special. At the end of the 20th century if your old Kwaka GT550 had finally died then you might have progressed on to one of these. Has V5 and again is estimated at a low £400-£600.

Boldon Auction Galleries (boldonauctions.co.uk)

Cd175 has @Cavcraft name all over it. 

20 hours ago, MrBig said:

I've never heard of a DF before. Good looking bike though, I'm on the hunt for a crosser/enduro type project at the moment, so that's another saved search to set up 😆

Like I say the one in Bideford looks good and is just tax and MOT exempt.

106 Rallye

Got this the start of last week.

Ended up selling the Himalayan, I'm sure I will regret it as it was a great bike but hopefully with the new model prices on the original will crash and I can buy a cheap one and do a full off road spec one.

It's a DF200. Basically a DR200 made for more agricultural tasks, hence the racks, extended guards, plus kickstart. There was a DR200 in Devon I really wanted but the guy was messing about whether he was selling or not and then this popped up. Super happy to have this spec as it's rare over here and I wanted the racks and Kickstart. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only one in the UK.

I just wanted a reliable lightweight trail bike. This is 20bhp and around 100kg.

Could have gone DR350 but would have had to spend a bit more and a lot of them looked very rough, plus the extra weight.

Plan is lower and push pegs back, new bars and maybe a bit of suspension work and that's it. This even had USD added as a bonus.

K11. Prices will continue to rise and they are cheap and reliable to run and repair.

107, C1, Aygo. They are mega cheap to run and spares are cheap plus you will always get back what you pay.

MK4 escort, mk2/mk3 golf, E36s can be a good reliable appreciating classic but they need a bit of love to keep rust at bay.

Anything bigger or premium has the trouble of one big bill causing you to lose money on it.

If anyone is breaking or has some spares for a 2002 CB500 let me know. After quite a few bits, radiator is a top priority though. 

3 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

If you can get options go for a DR350 rather than an XT350, i found them much more capable on green lanes, an early KLX250 even more so

Why is that? You hear so many rave reviews of the DR350.

I would actually rather have the 200 but they are nowhere near as common. 

Anyone have a small trail bike for sale sub £1500? Or an adventure/touring bike?

I ended up selling the Himalayan which for anyone wondering is a fantastic bike. I would 100% recommend one. I only sold it as I now want a slightly smaller bike for Laning.

I want something like a DR200 DR350, XT350 etc etc. Would maybe consider a 650.

Would also maybe consider a cheap translp or something as well. 

I have a 2002 cb500 I could throw in a a cheap PX. 

14 minutes ago, RichardK said:

I think so - apparently it's a popular destination, I was on my own and didn't trust the potentially wet conditions so didn't do the full lane right after floods as I'm not sure how waterproof some of the wiring is (though I know this car has done some serious off roading in its current form, it's been with other people around - though I'm told apart from the lack of submersible ability it is more likely to be recovering others than getting stuck!).

So many lanes aroudn there. We only really did the south peaks and there was a lot of mainly easier tracks. Was due to go up and do around Buxton last weekend but called off due to the flood obviously.

On 22/10/2023 at 14:19, RichardK said:

Years ago my friend gave me some Ram Mount parts.

Also years ago I got a Garmin Overlander which is, frankly, too big for any vehicles windscreen.

Let's see where we can go...

BOATS needed. This one not made for fording though so I didn't go far - the BOAT goes down to the valley (I saw a very messy Disco go there) and the road over, while clearly used by vehicles once, had a sign saying walkers only. Don't think it meant crisps.

Not that most people there seem to give a shit about anyone else...

This the lane next to the side of chastworth house? Did that a couple of weekends ago for the first time if so.

Are you fixing or have you already fixed these? I can't remember but do these feed into the inside of the sill? If so they will be rotting your sill from the inside out as it will be filling it with water. At the bare minimum shove some cavity wax in there and grind and fiberglass over these.