The Bikeshite Thread

[Cavcraft]

Trying to book a test ride on an R.E Himalayan 411.

[Cavcraft]

5 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Seems to be in an ideal location for a plugging 

Hairnet or the tyre? Actually, don't answer that.

[Stinkwheel]

Question, where have all the middle 'old' bikes gone?

All the many many ZZR's, CBR's, GSXR's, ZX's GPZ's etc etc gone?

Living in a fairly touristy area in welsh Wales i see a lot of bikes about. Most of them are 2 or 3 years old. Sometimes you see stuff 5 or 6 years old and then you see bona fide classics. But all the middle stuff, wheres that gone?

[Jazoli]

6 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Question, where have all the middle 'old' bikes gone?

All the many many ZZR's, CBR's, GSXR's, ZX's GPZ's etc etc gone?

Living in a fairly touristy area in welsh Wales i see a lot of bikes about. Most of them are 2 or 3 years old. Sometimes you see stuff 5 or 6 years old and then you see bona fide classics. But all the middle stuff, wheres that gone?

They are still out there but modern bikes are cheap, you can have a new middleweight bike for £89/month on a pcp so that is what most people do as they want ABS and stuff which older bikes lack (and reliability, warranty etc), all the ZZR's CBR's etc have been replaced by more upright bikes such as Triumph Tigers, MT07, MT09, Hornets etc.

[UltraWomble]

12 minutes ago, Cavcraft said:

Trying to book a test ride on an R.E Himalayan 411.

Preston Motorcycles (Waterloo Rd) do test rides and supposed to have at least one in stock.
Ive done an Enfield Meteor that they have - rather liked it, however "things" mean that until I have received either a FPN or court date Im not going forward with a buy just yet as I may be looking at 9 points and a ban.

[Stinkwheel]

6 minutes ago, Jazoli said:

They are still out there but modern bikes are cheap, you can have a new middleweight bike for £89/month on a pcp so that is what most people do as they want ABS and stuff which older bikes lack (and reliability, warranty etc), all the ZZR's CBR's etc have been replaced by more upright bikes such as Triumph Tigers, MT07, MT09, Hornets etc.

I think you are right all round, I just wonder where they all physically are, they cant all have been scrapped/broken. Must be thousands of bikes up and down the country stuck in garages

[Dave_Q]

They're worth so little, £89 a month is a low figure but you can pick up a CBR or ZZR for £500-1000 in some sort of usable condition, even adding in tyres and chain and sprockets etc you're at way less than 3 years payments + deposit.

Having said that people don't fix their own shit anymore and not many people think they're cool so I can see why new stuff is popular.

[hairnet]

2 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Trying to book a test ride on an R.E Himalayan 411.

try a 450

if you want one theres a barely used 23 plate on ukgser that he only wants 2500 for

[Dave_Q]

An adventure bike, pictured here next to a couple of Italians on some sort of half ton monstrosities 

[hairnet]

tyre fixed thank fuck

found out about kenda tyres today

new one on me

if theyre anything like maxxis they wont be bad (kenda is taiwanese)

[Jazoli]

3 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

An adventure bike, pictured here next to a couple of Italians on some sort of half ton monstrosities 

That's not an adventure bike and you know it!

It's a naked that you happen to go on trips on, an adv bike as you know is a class of bike with a 19/21" front wheel and long travel suspension, an FZ600 has neither of these. 

Also the bikes pictured only weigh a quarter of a ton 😀 

[Dave_Q]

Easy now, was intended as a light-hearted post pointing out you don't need a specialised bike starting from an RRP of just* £16,360 to go on an adventure.

You're right on all points or course and I do note the GS is available on tick for £159 a month which is less than I would have expected.

[Cavcraft]

@hairnet

I've just watched the video where a lad gets one stuck in a swamp 🤣🤣

[Dave_Q]

Dieppe.

[straightSix]

4 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Easy now, was intended as a light-hearted post pointing out you don't need a specialised bike starting from an RRP of just* £16,360 to go on an adventure.

You're right on all points or course and I do note the GS is available on tick for £159 a month which is less than I would have expected.

From what I gather, a new GS would probably cost £159 a month to insure as well!

[hairnet]

8 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Hairnet or the tyre? Actually, don't answer that.

least he didnt mention pegging

[Dave_Q]

Ferry terminal 

[Dave_Q]

Back home and after an afternoon catching up on sleep I had a look at the exhaust on the bike which started blowing from the head/header outside Dieppe.

Not great. The nuts had rusted away to almost nothing and the previous owner had clearly been attempting to fix the situation with wob or quicksteel or something like that. Which has then been painted in silver hammerite for a factory* finish.

I've got the exhaust off now, made fairly short work of the remaining bits of nut with a hammer and chisel. I now have 8 incredibly rusty studs to try and remove.

Any tips? Thinking of trying heat and a stud extractor. None of them broke but only one or 2 look like they might have a saveable thread, so they all need replacing.

[Iamgroot]

FFS, that's lovely!, looks a lot like the kind of "repairs" I have been dealing with on one of my bikes.

I'd go with welding a nut on a stud and the heat of the weld should help loosen it up

[andy18s]

Is there anyway of shoving the headers back in enough to run the bike?

Engine heat,penetrating fluid on the hot studs a few times should help.

[bangernomics]

That’s a right shitehawk trick bodging it up like that.

That aside it’s the usual extractor, heat and prayer approach.what’s the head made of?

[Jazoli]

28 minutes ago, bangernomics said:

That’s a right shitehawk trick bodging it up like that.

That aside it’s the usual extractor, heat and prayer approach.what’s the head made of?

I had a Fazer 600 with similar issues many years ago, I found it easier to drop the engine and drill them all out after trying to get them out in situ, didn’t want to pay for new gaskets removing the head.

Poor form by the previous owner not mentioning if they a ‘trusted shiter’ even though it was very cheap.

[Dave_Q]

I didn't buy it from a shiter, but I am selling it to a shiter, hence fixing it properly first. 

I think the head is alloy so thermal expansion is on my side at least.

Access seems OK so I am going to try it in situ, I need more gas for my blow torch and a decent stud extractor for the first attempt.

[Jazoli]

Ah right I thought you’d bought it off here 🙂

it’s not a fun job but doable, heat, considered force and patience are the key, the middle ones were very awkward to get to due to the frame being in the way on mine, not sure if your frame is different being the newer model.

[hairnet]

so going to boston next week

the place in staying is one side of the airport about 3 miles 

central boston where the thing is about 3 miles the other way

so i decided i didnt need to rent anything and use public transport

but been looking at the map and from the house if you walk 1/4 mile south you hit a nature reserve and then splash  youd be floating to miami

but its 1,5 miles back into the town and the bus from the house out towards the nearest tram station are every 40 mins

so even going for breakfast would be a chore 

looked at bicycle rental (they do a belfast/boris bike thing which was $10 a day but you can only use it two hours at a time before plugging it in somewhere then carry on - cycling into town would take an hour - then how fucked would i be if i then couldnt plug it in at $0.25 a minute over the two hours

you can get the ferry from airport across into boston (bit like auckland/oslo)

but you cannot take the bikes on any public transport

so i rented a shitta - got all day sunday before the thing and all day monday till the flight home (5.30)

hope its not a spark like last time

oh the motorcycle thing?

theres a thing in certain countries - where you can rent a bike

found one that was east cambridge - 20 mins from the airport he said

Fz6R

but it was more than the rental car due to tax and their service fee (like booking.com)

plus id be interrogated to fuck with lid in hand and bike gear in airport in height of summer

 

 

[straightSix]

11 hours ago, Iamgroot said:

FFS, that's lovely!, looks a lot like the kind of "repairs" I have been dealing with on one of my bikes.

I'd go with welding a nut on a stud and the heat of the weld should help loosen it up

This is what I did with my CB500. Worked a treat

[Jerzy Woking]

On 13/08/2024 at 14:04, Cavcraft said:

Trying to book a test ride on an R.E Himalayan 411.

If you can, test ride the both the 411 and the 452 back to back. Having owned a 411 for five years, and the 452 for a few months, both have advantages and disadvantages, depending on what you want to use it for.

The 411 was a great introduction to riding off road, the 452 is better with a bit of experience under your belt.

Horses for courses....

[Stinkwheel]

I got snapped last weekend by bikerpics.com, 30 years of riding and I’ve never seen myself on a motorcycle until today

 

 

[Iamgroot]

Just now, Stinkwheel said:

I got snapped last weekend by bikerpics.com, 30 years of riding and I’ve never seen myself on a motorcycle until today

 

 

Good pics, Are they still doing the Honda team up where you get the photos free if you are on a Honda?...

[Stinkwheel]

7 minutes ago, Iamgroot said:

Good pics, Are they still doing the Honda team up where you get the photos free if you are on a Honda?...

Unfortunately not, and I confess I did pay up the 12.50 each for full scale digital download