The Bikeshite Thread

[MiniMinorMk3]

Random picture of the day

[Stinkwheel]

59 minutes ago, andyberg said:

I had a quick Google and a brand new bullet in India is the equivalent of £1500 !!!

This is amazing news, do you feel a buy new in India and ride back caper coming on?

[andyberg]

38 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

This is amazing news, do you feel a buy new in India and ride back caper coming on?

Ah, there is a slight* catch. Bikes made in India need to go through type approval and emissions tests to be registered here.  Apparently they are not built to the same 'high' standard as foreign market bikes. But I don't see how that doubles the price for us mind????

[Stinkwheel]

24 minutes ago, andyberg said:

Ah, there is a slight* catch. Bikes made in India need to go through type approval and emissions tests to be registered here.  Apparently they are not built to the same 'high' standard as foreign market bikes. But I don't see how that doubles the price for us mind????

Dammit, always a catch. Not sure how that works with 'private secondhand' imports. 

[Sham]

The engines won't be that different, neither will the frames and mounting points - presumably you'd just need the UK exhaust system with the emissions control gubbins in to get it approved.

 

[castros_bro]

55 minutes ago, andyberg said:

Ah, there is a slight* catch. Bikes made in India need to go through type approval and emissions tests to be registered here.  Apparently they are not built to the same 'high' standard as foreign market bikes. But I don't see how that doubles the price for us mind????

Try asking the importers of the older 350, they got them in and the ones I drove "over there" were the same as the one I owned  over here, not to mention ten year old ones don't need cert of conform just MOT standard tests for MOT. I've imported loads of used smoll bikes and cars and whilst being a pain in the bottom the paperwork just need to be done.

[Jerzy Woking]

Think there maybe other issues on personally exporting an Enfield from India.

When Guy Martin bought one in India for his TV show, he planned to ride in back to the UK sometimr in the future. I am led to believe it is still parled up in a shed in India, due to thier weird registration laws.

[Jerzy Woking]

On 8/26/2023 at 2:32 PM, Cavcraft said:

Remember Thursday and  'The bloke's gaff was absolutely rammed with shite, old Discoverys, Range Rovers, farming stuff, knackered and decent motorbikes and pretty much everything else in between.'?

 

Well, one of the other rammed in shite things caught my eye. Probably should have paid more attention and just bought that instead, but here we are two days later, with something certainly shitter and maybe a bit quicker from the same vendor. Test ride duly taken, fuel from the can we bought with us added (he was miles miles from anywhere), some minor tick-over tweaks, and off to go. PO rode it like an absolute demon up his farm track (which is over a mile long) which I didn't fancy. The front tyre is older than God and has more cracks than Anne Robinson smiling without wearing make-up, and another interesting* feature revealed itself on the ride home.

Here it is, in all it's 42 year old Kawasaki glory...

 

A 'proper' (chain) Kawasaki big 4 seems to be stupid money these days, so this was considerably cheaper than one of those would have fetched. Only took it to 60mph due to the aforementioned front tyre, plus the newly found feature of it deciding to piss petrol out of the bottom of the carbs somewhere with the engine running. Discovering this at a busy set of (red, obvs) lights coming home wasn't exactly inspiring, but CBA stopping to investigate and luckily made it home without needing to stop for more than about a minute at most at other signals. Love the seat, despise the handlebars. Other than that, it sounds fantastic, even if it looks horrible.

Not a fan of the colour, it either needs to go Kawasaki Green with Eddie Lawson replica type decals, or possibly an all black job with a bikini fairing. Perhaps a sort  of half-arsed 'Mad Max' type thing.   

Do not paint! Fix up the leaking carb issue, fit new tyres and then ride it to every bike meet you can. Will attract more attention than any restored bike.

Keep it real!

[Dave_Q]

58 minutes ago, Sham said:

The engines won't be that different, neither will the frames and mounting points - presumably you'd just need the UK exhaust system with the emissions control gubbins in to get it approved.

 

You'd have to do an IVA/MSVA unless it was over 10 years old.

I guess to manage the export bit you just ride over the border and tell them you are coming back?

Even if you ended up in the UK with no paperwork at all, you'd still be able to get it registered.

[Jerzy Woking]

Foreigners cannot buy a new bike from a dealer in India. It has to be purchased in the name  name of a resident. This fact can complicate things at border crossings. See Itchy Boots on YouTube on her ride from India to Netherlands.

Nothing stopping you buying a second hand bike out there though.

[MiniMinorMk3]

Random Pic of the Day

[Stinkwheel]

Anyone know the name 'British' Bob Adkin? or remember his really quite quick alcohol powered british bikes based sprint machines at santa pod in the 70's/80's? 

The posts above remind me of his bikes 

[doug]

Guzzi selt. Bringing on first reserve XT600 that I got off @castros_bro over 3 years ago. Mot today no problem. Road tax tomorrow and back on the road.

 

[castros_bro]

1 hour ago, doug said:

Guzzi selt. Bringing on first reserve XT600 that I got off @castros_bro over 3 years ago. Mot today no problem. Road tax tomorrow and back on the road.

 

Bloke I got that from and myself would both be interested if you wish to part with it. 

[doug]

 

4 minutes ago, castros_bro said:

Bloke I got that from and myself would both be interested if you wish to part with it. 

No plans to sell it just now but when I do I will keep you in mind.

 

[Jerzy Woking]

Been watching the videos of La Bresse (France) hillclimb last week. Nutters.

Honda CR1000 2 stroke anyone?

[Dave_Q]

On 8/30/2023 at 3:17 PM, Jerzy Woking said:

Foreigners cannot buy a new bike from a dealer in India. It has to be purchased in the name  name of a resident. This fact can complicate things at border crossings. See Itchy Boots on YouTube on her ride from India to Netherlands.

Nothing stopping you buying a second hand bike out there though.

Kinell that's reminded me of when I went there for work, trying to buy a pay as you go SIM card. 

You needed ID and proof of address to activate it so I brought my passport and messed about getting a letter from the hotel we were staying at, and they still wouldn't accept it as it wasn't on the list. 

Ended up getting a colleague to do it for me with their ID. They do love a bit of bureaucracy there.

[Snake Charmer]

On 8/20/2023 at 9:08 PM, Fat_Pirate said:

Couple of pics from Sammy Miller's museum today, an AJS/Matchless meeting was going on. 

I've got a hankering for an old 50s/60s oily-rag bike I can tinker with and slowly improve, thinking about maybe a Bantam as parts are easy to find?

There you go, ready to ride and oily rags aplenty. 🙂

Available in Woking, belongs to a friend who built it.

[scdan4]

On 8/31/2023 at 11:12 AM, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Random Pic of the Day

That chop's pretty much perfect. Gorgeous looking thing.

[twosmoke300]

The odd couple out on the lanes . 
Few dodgy moments in the mud on the original tyres and the bash plate got its first bashing but overall the 500 is quite enjoyable on the dirt. 
 

[twosmoke300]

Took the other half’s z400 out to take it for its 600 mile service at the local Kwak dealer . All very pleasant until I got back to work with it and realised the chain was bar tight . 
Went back to them and the tech applied far too much force to the chain then said - it’s within the 25-30mm . I replied that if he got a pry bar on it I expect he could get 50mm movement .

Then he tried saying it was because of the new front sprockets with the rubber dampers on . So I said “ oh yeh like Honda have used for about 40 years ? “

Why do people have to bullshit ? Just accept they over adjusted it and apologise .

So they adjusted it again - I was in a hurry to get away to go to a funeral . 
Just noticed the alignment marks are about half a mark out on the adjusters so I guess he just slackened off one side . Jesus wept 

[Sham]

How will they sell you a new chain in a couple of thousand miles if they do the job properly?

I always inspect work these days, especially from main dealers. Too many times bitten to worry about what they think.

It takes a proven record of doing things right for me to trust any garage, but dealers are by far the worst.

[Jerzy Woking]

23 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

The odd couple out on the lanes . 
Few dodgy moments in the mud on the original tyres and the bash plate got its first bashing but overall the 500 is quite enjoyable on the dirt. 
 

Is the 500 fitted with Dunlop Trailmax D609's? 

They may be fine on dry dirt and gravel tracks, but if the D609's on my NC750X are anything to go by, they rubbish in anything resembling mud.

[twosmoke300]

Yeh got a bit slippy in places 😂

[bezzabsa]

VERY nice, but my back is aching just looking at those bars!!!! 😮

[Fat_Pirate]

Saw this at Netley autojumble (which was pretty poorly attended), this morning:

Fantic Koala, the novelty factor was STRONG.  Apparently only 50cc but it's much bigger than the photo suggests.  I didn't ask about the price in case I did something stupid.

[83C]

On 9/1/2023 at 2:32 PM, twosmoke300 said:

Took the other half’s z400 out to take it for its 600 mile service at the local Kwak dealer . All very pleasant until I got back to work with it and realised the chain was bar tight . 
Went back to them and the tech applied far too much force to the chain then said - it’s within the 25-30mm . I replied that if he got a pry bar on it I expect he could get 50mm movement .

Then he tried saying it was because of the new front sprockets with the rubber dampers on . So I said “ oh yeh like Honda have used for about 40 years ? “

Why do people have to bullshit ? Just accept they over adjusted it and apologise .

So they adjusted it again - I was in a hurry to get away to go to a funeral . 
Just noticed the alignment marks are about half a mark out on the adjusters so I guess he just slackened off one side . Jesus wept 

That the place in Lanner?

[andyberg]

15 minutes ago, Fat_Pirate said:

Saw this at Netley autojumble (which was pretty poorly attended), this morning:

Fantic Koala, the novelty factor was STRONG.  Apparently only 50cc but it's much bigger than the photo suggests.  I didn't ask about the price in case I did something stupid.

I was going to go. I hear it's not as good as it used to be?

[Fat_Pirate]

2 hours ago, andyberg said:

I was going to go. I hear it's not as good as it used to be?

First time I've been, and it was disappointing - relatively few traders, fewer still punters.  Beaulieu is also on though, maybe it's all gone there.

[Rustybullethole]

On 9/1/2023 at 2:50 PM, Sham said:

How will they sell you a new chain in a couple of thousand miles if they do the job properly?

I always inspect work these days, especially from main dealers. Too many times bitten to worry about what they think.

It takes a proven record of doing things right for me to trust any garage, but dealers are by far the worst.

This is pretty much why i DIY. Never had anything that was main dealer service record reliant to be fair though i like to know exactly what has been done to my (especially motorcycle) as i can guess which lash up has failed better.