The Bikeshite Thread

[strangeangel]

37 minutes ago, Sir Chocolate Teapot said:

So today's plan.

And i must stick to it.

Go to see this non running aprilia,if cycle parts are in order, siphon old petrol out snd stick some fresh in. If it starts see how it feels, if no start WALK AWAY!

Walk away, walk away.

 

 

The Leonardo was quite popular back in the day on a couple of the scooter forums I used to frequent... I knew four or five people who owned them, and when they were going they were good, but they suffered from all sorts of electrical problems, and getting spares from Aprilia was always hit and miss (I had an SR50 for a while). If it fires straight up with clean fuel I would make a very low offer indeed, if it doesn't... as you say, walk away!

 

[Dave_Q]

56 minutes ago, strangeangel said:

 

The Leonardo was quite popular back in the day on a couple of the scooter forums I used to frequent... I knew four or five people who owned them, and when they were going they were good, but they suffered from all sorts of electrical problems, and getting spares from Aprilia was always hit and miss (I had an SR50 for a while). If it fires straight up with clean fuel I would make a very low offer indeed, if it doesn't... as you say, walk away!

 

Yeah I had a mate who had the 125 version, it did good service but needed a headgasket at least once and was parked up for months waiting for parts from Aprilia.

This was in about 2007 when they were semi-recent so can't imagine it's got better since then.

[Six-cylinder]

I love my Aprilia and I haven't even ridden it.

[hairnet]

thats a long time waiting for yer handbag to arrive :P

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

Yeah I had a mate who had the 125 version, it did good service but needed a headgasket at least once and was parked up for months waiting for parts from Aprilia.

This was in about 2007 when they were semi-recent so can't imagine it's got better since then.

 

Yep, the SR50 I mention was out of action for three months for the want of a carb inlet rubber. There wasn't one in the UK and the factory had gone home for the summer, apparently...

 

[strangeangel]

39 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I love my Aprilia and I haven't even ridden it.

 

All change on the driveway since that shot was taken! Have you still not got your CBT, Chris??

 

[strangeangel]

2 hours ago, Fabergé Greggs said:

Those Suzuki’s are definitely in the right ballpark..
 

I’ve heard nothing but good things about CBR600’s and there seems to be loads about on high mileages but 310,000! Jeez

@andyberg nailed it, the one I’d been imagining in my minds eye is these Benetton ones.. this is perfection! 

 

This was always my favourite colour scheme for a CBR:

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

1 minute ago, strangeangel said:

All change on the driveway since that shot was taken! Have you still not got your CBT, Chris??

I will have had it 3 year in Oct and I still have not done my CBT. Keep nagging!

Thing is while in my eyes the Habana scooter is a real looker and I am happy just to own it, but I do want to ride it as well.

After all your work here it sits, the picture of shame taken just now as it is only 20ft away from me.

 

[hairnet]

?

[martc]

15 hours ago, strangeangel said:

Bikeshiters: help me out. I'm fancying this Minsk, the asking on which is 900 notes.

 

 

It's tax and MOT exempt and runs well, UK regd and comes with some spares. Madly out of the park for Soviet crap, or should I snatch his hand off?

 

My first proper bike was a Minsk. It was the 'Neval' version, that one looks like an earlier 'Cossack'. Mine had a red mph sticker over the lens of the km/h speedo. But people didn't see it and used to ask how fast it went - 'I often see over 100 on it' I said without lying, it impressed the girlies.

Two interesting features -

1      the front brake is absolutely crap, on purpose, to prevent offs in the ice and snow of the USSR. It used to struggle through MOT's even when done by an authorised Neval dealer (in my case Two Wheels in Hull) who knew about the problem. Perhaps fitting a longer arm at the brake end would give more leverage.

2     the engine would sometimes start up backwards which came as a surprise I can tell you. This happened often enough for me to be careful each time it started.

Mine lost it's cap off the carbs tickler and I found the little yellow cap off a fairy liquid bottle fitted it perfectly. No battery but electronic ignition! It had some sort of resistor that stopped it blowing bulbs when revs and hence electrical output increased. The problem was the headlight never got any brighter than the faint flicker it showed at idling. It was surprisingly reliable. I loved it.

Historically the Minsk 125 was one of the many bikes derived directly from the DKW RT125 due to war reparations. Others include, but this list isn't exhaustive, the BSA Bantam, CZ125, Yamaha YA1, Hardly Dangerous Hummer and of course the MZ TS125. Although the MZ was made in the old DKW factory so is actually the 'original' rather than a copy.

Minsk still exist (as M1nsk, sigh) - https://minsk-moto.by/

 

[castros_bro]

16 hours ago, strangeangel said:

Bikeshiters: help me out. I'm fancying this Minsk, the asking on which is 900 notes.

 

 

It's tax and MOT exempt and runs well, UK regd and comes with some spares. Madly out of the park for Soviet crap, or should I snatch his hand off?

 

I think the factory is still going and seem to remember the electrics on those are AC, 

I'd just buy it and run it to see if you like it, if not then you'd easily move it on to someone else as there's quite a following for ex-soviet 2 strokes.

[83C]

Yer Maun

20 years ago today. 

RIP.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

A colleague and myself had to lift some bits from work earlier, good excuse to take the bikes and grab a coffee



Long route home was enjoyed muchly

Sent from my SM-A202F using Tapatalk

[Jerzy Woking]

This was my first CBR600 which was one of the early Aero models. Although it rode well it was a right heap, held together with about two dozen zip ties. When I took it for the MOT, they laughed at the state of it, but then couldn't find anything to fail it on.

Today I rode my Guzzi over to my brothers, as he will be "looking after" it and my Ducati 900SS because  I'm moving this weekend.

I cannot face selling the Guzzi so he will do it for me. I am secretly hoping he will like riding it so much he will offer to buy it, as it is a lovely thing to ride. And if he buys it, then when I come back for the odd visit, I can still ride it.

Looks weird seeing my garage with no bikes in it (had 13 in there for a while) for the first time in 31 years. A sad day.

[strangeangel]

14 minutes ago, Jerzy Woking said:

Looks weird seeing my garage with no bikes in it (had 13 in there for a while) for the first time in 31 years. A sad day.

 

 

How are you for space at the new place in Spain? I bet there's loads of interesting old shite knocking around over there,

 

[tul66]

If it's late 80's/early 90's garish colour scheme's you're after, look no further.

 

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

2 hours ago, Jerzy Woking said:

This was my first CBR600 which was one of the early Aero models. Although it rode well it was a right heap, held together with about two dozen zip ties. When I took it for the MOT, they laughed at the state of it, but then couldn't find anything to fail it on.

Today I rode my Guzzi over to my brothers, as he will be "looking after" it and my Ducati 900SS because  I'm moving this weekend.

I cannot face selling the Guzzi so he will do it for me. I am secretly hoping he will like riding it so much he will offer to buy it, as it is a lovely thing to ride. And if he buys it, then when I come back for the odd visit, I can still ride it.

Looks weird seeing my garage with no bikes in it (had 13 in there for a while) for the first time in 31 years. A sad day.

You have it worse than me, i  had the last 30 years with 2 /3 bikes in garage and now down to 1, i am suffering and supposed ti be saving and searching for s fiat panda but i keep looking at cheap 2 wheels . It is a disease .

Good luck with move to spain. 

[hairnet]

4 hours ago, They_all_do_that_sir said:

A colleague and myself had to lift some bits from work earlier, good excuse to take the bikes and grab a coffee



Long route home was enjoyed muchly

Sent from my SM-A202F using Tapatalk
 

HIPSTURRRR ALURRRT BAI!!

[Jerzy Woking]

10 hours ago, strangeangel said:

How are you for space at the new place in Spain? I bet there's loads of interesting old shite knocking around over there,

I have 1.2 acres of land. A small workshop.

There are also two big chicken cages made from heavy gauge aluminium that I can moved and convert into sheds, big enough for at least a dozen bikes.

I have two bikes over there, so plenty of room for some Spanish two wheeled shite!

[strangeangel]

1 hour ago, Jerzy Woking said:

1.2 acres of land

workshop.

sheds, big enough for at least a dozen bikes.

 

 

Living the dream!

 

[twosmoke300]

Bought a Sanglas yet ?

[hairnet]

knackered c15 or a seat terra more like :D

[Bradders59]

On 7/2/2020 at 2:12 PM, 83C said:

Yer Maun

20 years ago today. 

RIP.

Still remember reeling in shock at the news as though it were yesterday. An incredible rider and an even more incredible human being.

RIP joey.

[Stinkwheel]

Yer Maun

20 years ago today. 
RIP.

Shit 20 years.

Yer maun was the best of the best. No one will ever be like him again.

[yellowperil]

On 11/5/2015 at 5:45 PM, warren t claim said:

 

 

On 7/3/2020 at 11:22 PM, Stinkwheel said:

Shit 20 years.

Yer maun was the best of the best. No one will ever be like him again.

I remember it well, it actually made the mainstream news, I had split up from my first wife and was back living with my Mum.

I was upstairs watching tv and she shouted up the stairs to turn the news on, I was absolutely bloody shocked, I don't know, I just assumed the man was immortal.

What a man he was, twenty years on and I have never read a bad word about him, absolute legend and there aren't many of those in a lifetime.

I bought the video of his life from a motorcycle dealers not long after and the bloke on the counter said I wouldn't be able to keep a dry eye when I watched it.

He was correct...

Edited July 6, 2020 by yellowperil
Quoted wrong post somehow.

[AlsoMike]

On 6/24/2020 at 11:57 AM, AlsoMike said:

Still not had a new date for my Mod 2 test through so I got an MoT on the shonky 125, nice to have a run out on the back lanes yesterday evening, even if it did leak petrol everywhere.

Well it looks like i'll be doing my Mod 2 next week! Woop!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

These arrived today, courtesy of Amazon. The originals were quite badly bent, hard to see from the picture but the throttle side was a good inch or two higher than the clutch side



I re-used the grips that were on the bike but they are quite short, only around 100mm. This was a problem as the throttle cables wouldn't allow the right hand grip to go all the way to the edge of the bar, there is around 19mm sticking out which isn't ideal.



I could chop the bars but these grips are on the bike to match the shorty levers which I'm replacing with standard length....which will then be longer than the cut down bars.

Simplest solution is to fit standard length (120mm) grips, which I wanted to do anyway, I'm a big fan of the medium compound renthal road race grips and they arent terribly expensive.

Overall I'm pleased with the new bars, they are a good bit wider than standard and a touch lower, and feel a lot nicer. I'll need to take it a blast to properly test it but that's no hardship

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[Flashband]

Didn't take long for this to disgrace itself

Cut out with fuel starvation symptoms, recovered home in the back my mates van.  Investigations found aluminium fuel feed from tank furred up with Ali corrosion, fuel filter was fine which made me chance not stripping the carbs

Yes you guessed it ran like a bag of shit. Might as well do the emulsions while I'm in there so have ordered from the local bike shop. I can't wait* to begin the joyous* task

 

Sigh

[Sir Chocolate Teapot]

Some ramblings about 2 wheels and a test ride.

To put things in context. I am 52, have always played around with since 10 years old,  always had min of 2 bikes in shed  , 1 if which had normally been a small cheap scooter. Down to 1 now ,2004 triumph bonneville. I love it but in summer it is too hot to ride ( i live in italy),  the heat from engine os very uncomfortable and i end up with sweaty bits and pieces. Winter is nowadays too cold for me and my knees complain.

I have been looking at cheap, broken bigger scooters. To day i test drove a brand new yamaha xmax 300.

I am very surprised and impressed.

300 cc, 28 hp, but it moves well , happy to cruise at 80mph (130kmh). Top speed 140 kmh.

Remarkably smooth engine and transmission 

Brakes amazing, handling and suspension impressive, this scooter does have front forks held in bike like triple clamps.

If computer read out to be believed, very good fuel consumption ( at 100kmh, 62 mph  41 km / litre.)

No sweaty bits and a very comfy seat and space to stretch legs.

Under seat storage good, plus put a top box on and shopping trips sorted.

I reckon would cover all my biking needs, short trips and long rides, shopping and fun 

I would love 1 BUT 

I am 5foot 11 , the screen was totally wrong for me, the buffeting around my head was bad, it would need some experimenting to find a correct hight screen.

THE PRICE NEW, € 6250 on the road . Not cheap ! For 300 ccs

I hate to think how much a crash would cost fixing plastics .

Back to the second hand search in broken scooters for me. ( for now)

Shame in uk bigger scooters have not been accepted soo well, they are great transport and fun.

Go try one.

I also looked at the massive 500 / 600 cc scooters, they are stupidly huge and the costs are crazy.

[hairnet]

always been the way here cos you need full licence to ride one (and it now costs millions to get one) and cos ££ new (better second hand)

most people just buy a bike -  scooters still seen as commuter tool and oh you have scooter you cant afford a bike unlike the rest of the world where status dont matter