The Bikeshite Thread

[Dave_Q]

Moar stupider n00b question: What's a sensible budget for gear (helmet and clothing)? Assuming you're riding regularly, year-round on the road. One bike forum reckoned about a grand minimum, but I'm hoping they were just posers...  I'm figuring that a DAS and a battered old 600 together might come in at £1.5k, any more ahead of the decimal point and I'll sack the whole idea off.

 

I bought a new helmet, a non-famous brand plain white flip front from a local bike shop for £70.

 

I got a frank thomas textile jacket and trousers second hand for I think £50 for both.

 

Gloves were new, they were £25 or so I think.

 

Boots second hand, about £50.

 

You can spend as much as you like but I would have thought £250 would be plenty if you don't **have** to have named brand stuff like Dainese or whatever.

[MrDuke]

OK, that sounds more like it    I'm more than happy to wear 2nd-hand stuff (below the neck obv).

[UltraWomble]

I got some decent boots from the Clarks factory shop, gloves are the only thing I seem to spend a metric shitload on - I have some Held winter gloves that cost the GDP of Burkina Faso but are very good at keeping my hands warm at speed.

[PiperCub]

I'd buy a decent lid new but as for the rest of the kit on a budget - look in the Free-Ads (Loot) type rags, local papers and on Gumtree (yes, yes, I know) and you may be surprised as to what's available long as you aren't in a hurry, suitable stuff in your size will turn up. Also, put the word around you're looking and you may get a workmate, neighbour etc who has some or knows someone who has some they want rid of. 

 

Agree with UW - good gloves are a must, cold &/or wet hands - not just uncomfortable but distracting and dangerous. 

[Guest Hooli]

I spent £140 on a two piece gortex set when I started riding 10 years ago, still got it now. As I started riding in jan & it got warmer after a while I got 2nd hand akito leathers for £70 & still got them now as well. Since then I've got leather jeans as more comfy for about £40.

 

Boots, about £120 & worn a few pairs out.

 

Lids, anything from £40 to £250. The last price was my open face daviva which I use all the time now. Oh & I got given a shoei XR1000 with no damage so that's my really bad winter weather lid if I'm not using the car for some reason.

 

Gloves I think I pay about £25 a pair, I fitted heated grips & bark busters so I can ride all year in summer gloves as i like the extra feel they offer.

[jonathan_dyane]

I've just bought a new helmet, it's an MT Revenge which has a 5 star SHARP rating yet manages to be modestly priced and comes with a pinlock thing included. I'm impressed.

[Jerzy Woking]

I had an sv for 5 years from new . Many mods on suspension and brakes and it was a awesome bike . Did 5/6 track days on it , toured , commuted the lot and it was perfect .

Bigger isn't always beautiful.

 

 

Totally agree with this - which is why I'm buying it back - I realised it was a good bike when I had it, but since I sold it I realised how really good it is. 

 

A local dealer had a late model TL for sale at a great price and I was just about to buy it when he said I should give it a ride. I was so disappointed - it was nothing like I expected. I had a well sorted V-Strom 1000 at the time, and the TL-S felt tame by comparison.

 

One word of caution when it comes to armour in jackets and trousers - CE markings mean many things, and in some garments (and not only cheap stuff) the armour is only rated against impact from stone chippings, not the impact between a body and road surface. The good news is that you can buy good armour that can be retro fitted, but then good stuff costs. 

[Guest Hooli]

I had new tyres fitted to my 14 this morning, so it rained all the way to work when I wanted to scrub them in. That was a nice slow ride...

 

Oh & it ticked past 111,111miles too. Which made for a quick photo stop.

 

[MrDuke]

Cool, cheers for the advice chaps. 

[DodgeRover]

Knox clothing used to be excellent I saw a customers jacket and jeans after he had slid down the road at speed and they were only scuffed.

[groovylee]

believe it or not, the aldi jackets and jeans are really good value.  in many cases, they are higher rated than the expensive stuff.  if i didn't already have textiles, i'd be buying them.  if i spot the 'good' ones again, i'll post them up here.

[LostnotFound]

I've seen threads on bike forums about spending a grand minimum, it's almost as if they want to put people off taking up riding. Despite some bikers attempts to turn riding a motorcycle into a fashion show, no amount of top label stuff will change the fact, that middle aged bikers standing by a chip shop freezing their bollox off whilst their leathers struggle to hold their beer gut in, will never get the girls swooning as they drive past in their boyfriends warm car. 

 

Most places that do DAS will lend you a jacket and gloves at minimum, so no need to spend out before you've got your licence anyway so more time to look for bargains. If you want to buy new all the online shops always have sales on, I quite like the couple of JTS items I've got in a good value if slightly agricultural product sort of way, my jacket has survived a low speed test as well....

[michael1703]

Engine out yet again, dropped it off at a reputable engine tuner and said I wasn't fussed about power output just get it running, he sounds keen he said he'd have it stripped by the weekend

[strangeangel]

Day off work = opportunity for moped fiddling...

 

I pulled all the bodywork off to have a look at the state of the frame, under all that good North Yorkshire mud it's actually OK:

 

 

If you've been reading this thread, you'll know it refused to start the other day. I stuck a better battery on it and got the multi-meter out. First off there was a big fat 0V at the ignition switch, but that was because the frame earth had rusted away. One new earth later (you can see where I bolted it through the cross member in the next photo) I was getting about 11V at the switch...

 

 

The main frame tube, crudely scraped clean. That'll all clean up OK

 

 

Working backwards with the meter shows that the voltage drop occurs on the far side of this poxy fusebox affair:

 

 

I'm going to bin it, replace it with a couple of in-line fuse holders and see what happens!

 

[Dave_Q]

2 fuses sir? 

 

Rather extravagant for a 'ped, I thought most just had one.

[strangeangel]

2 fuses sir? 

 

Rather extravagant for a 'ped, I thought most just had one.

 

Indeed! The only wiring diagram I can find is for the earlier, squarer, model (City Express) and that only has one.

[DodgeRover]

To be fair those shitty expresses would stand an awful lot of abuse before falling apart.

[Arthur Foxhake]

Sold my KXF250 today.

Never really gelled with it and didn't use it enough.

I'll stick with my old two stroke I think, can mend it with spanners and hammers.

[strangeangel]

I bought a new helmet, a non-famous brand plain white flip front from a local bike shop for £70.

 

I got a frank thomas textile jacket and trousers second hand for I think £50 for both.

 

Gloves were new, they were £25 or so I think.

 

Boots second hand, about £50.

 

You can spend as much as you like but I would have thought £250 would be plenty if you don't **have** to have named brand stuff like Dainese or whatever.

 

Indeed, the 'thou shalt spend two grand on gear' brigade are the same people who tell you you won't get a viable 125 for less than £1500.

 

That said, I don't like cheap boots cos they leak, my favourite pair are IXS ones that cost me £150. I have some other, cheaper ones that are OK for local trips, and would be fine if you were just starting out.

 

My current favourite jacket is an RST leather, purchased from groovylee of this parish for just £40. I also have an IXS dayglo one that was £120 new, and a secondhand (was like new) Weise textile one that I got for £30.

 

Gloves piss me off; they all seem to leak, irrespective of how much you spend. Nowadays I get whatever leather ones are on offer for about £25, and when the weather turns to shit on longer trips, I put a pair of ex-army Goretex mittens on over them. These things are brilliant; you can still operate the switchgear fine, yet they keep out the wind and rain effortlessly. All the online A&N outlets have them, usually for around £10 a pair.

 

I have several pairs of Hood Kevlar jeans & combats, they were about £150 each including armour and have worn well, although I (happily) couldn't tell you how well they crash. I also have some of the £30 supermarket ones; less Kevlar, but not as hot in summer. Probably not quite as good if you go up the road on your arse, but better than tracky bottoms for sure.

 

My last two helmets have been Caberg Trips; flip front jobs with a built in sun visor. £90 a pop.

 

I have one of those one piece rain suits (can't remember what make, sorry) that works pretty well, but is a ballache to get in and out of, or if you need a slash etc. To be perfectly honest, if the weather warrants the use of such a suit I take one of the cars instead.

 

And for cold days, the thermals on offer in Aldi/Lidl (the Merino wool ones are especially good value) are great, as are the snood things at a fiver or so. The ski socks Aldi/Lidl do on their themed weeks are cheap and very good too.

[DodgeRover]

Neoprene gloves and bar muffs work for me

[Guest Hooli]

Good call on the lidl thermals, they are great. Plus being lycra they don't wrinkle up behind your knees etc.

[andy18s]

Off to take a look at this later

One of the first Super Motos to catch my attention

Seems decent enough but Google translate isn't the best at asking about engine compression,bearings ect

[brandersnatch]

 

This has been parked/abandoned at the London City Airport bike bay for at least three years.

 

 

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[LostnotFound]

Only 5k on the clocks at it's last MOT which expired in Dec 14. Someone must had won the lottery whilst out doing the knowledge and ridden straight to the airport to fly off to their new life abandoning it.

 

That or it's a poor bugger that has gone on holiday and not made it back for whatever reason, it would have been worth over a grand when it was left there so I can't imagine a planned abandonment and presumably it would flag up as stolen if it had been lifted from someone?

[brandersnatch]

I see it often and I've wondered what the story is. There's a Honda step through under a tatty cover near it that's been there at least a year too. Gives a lie to the sign saying vehicles left longer than three months will be removed.

 

 

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[panhard65]

This years Le Mans trip wasn't so sucessful finding bikes to bring back, resulting in just one old Peugeot Bima moped. It did prove worthwhile though as it is being picked up tonight sold for £200. Not bad considering it was 100 euro and all I have done to it is find out why it was seized and put it on ebay. All it really needs to get it running is a piston ring and tyres, but the guy buying it just wants it for a shop display. I could do with a few more but they are getting harder and harder to find now at sensible money.

[fiatdaft]

I'd quite like something like that at that kinda price to tinker with.

 

 

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[Steve79]

IMG_2171.JPG

This has been parked/abandoned at the London City Airport bike bay for at least three years.

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Just checked and it shows at dvla as being on SORN

[SiC]

Looks to be a courier type bike. Maybe someone came over here wanting a better life/more money. Earnt SFA as a courier on a bike around London doing long hours, made enough for a flight home and then drove the company/rented/leased/etc bike to the airport to catch it.

[Jazoli]

looks like a bike a black cab driver has used to do the knowledge on.