Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, I remember when the SRX600 came out; it was my dream bike for ages, absolutely loved it. I didn't have a cat in hell's chance of affording one at the time though, sadly.

1986... such a long time ago now. Eeh, them's were the days my friends.

http://www.skully.com/

Now I need a bike just so I can have one of them.

Very nice.
My Vespa hasn't had much use over winter, and when I looked at it recently I noticed the exhaust was sprouting a fine bit of rust (a very common problem on the GTS) and the centre stand had almost seized up. I took advantage of the decent weather to sort the exhaust today, and the centre stand has freed up after a bit of use but really needs to come off and be greased properly.

I had a nice ride on it afterwards and though I fancy a change, I don't know what to....

Honda Superdream. That's cool now. Actually they are pretty awesome.

125 or 250 mate? (Or even a 400N, which was the full biffta bored and stroked 250 of course).

Superdreams were always a bit too nice for me, though I did have a metallic red 125 when I was a lad, a lovely little handler, good as gold, very reliable and could crack 80mph.... Then I discovered 2 strokes!

Talking of wild old strokers, I dare say controversial to the yoghurt weaving Eco contingent but I know you'll find this excerpt from my Back Street Heroes amusing Wookie, as regards the truly terrifying 750 Kwak triple:

The original Kawazaki H2 was a maniac of a motorcycle straight from the bigger is better school of thought. If the 500 H1 was a Tyrannosaurus Rex then the 750 was fucking Godzilla, a motorcycle about as safe as taking a double hit of amyl nitrate and falling down the stairs with scissors in your pocket.

Sadly for the H2 and all other high performing noisy and evil smelling two strokes of the period, the world was soon to be dictated to by reduced fat, low salt, sugar free, non smoking, seaweed sorbet eating, whale saving tree huggers and by the mid 80s the epoch of the screaming stroker was over and the world a much safer place for nut munching arseholes.

Hey Cavey. How's life?

Cavey!

A little better thanks bud, it's been fairly hideous but hey. Thanks for concern

Look what just turned up! They are back! Probably better do something with them now.

Awesome, get em on the road!
Had a nice run out last weekend, nothing like a gentle blast on a bike, on a summers morning as against a nice backdrop, to put troubles into perspective. I love bikes.

Totally agree. The Erfive needs a new battery, even my optimate will not cure this. I suspect it needs a new rear tyre (5k I get out if them, 5k!), new oil and fuel filters and new oil and fuel.

The red one I'll leave until the first is done but I suspect pretty much the same.

It's the last day of racing for this year's TT today (bank holiday too, yay!).

We had one day of spectacularly bad weather at the start of practice week (proper gales, torrential rain), but apart from that it's been fine and this week in particular has been gorgeous.

Not a great year for deaths though. One rider, two visitors, and one helicopter pilot. (Plus another couple of people in what I believe are 'precarious' situations in hospital, and plenty of RTCs.)

The population of the island increases by some 25% at its peak, with around 25-30,000 visitors on an island with a static population of around 100,000. As you can imagine, there are LOTS of motorbikes around (usually around 10,000 or so) (I've seen a fair few awesome Harleys, which doubtless Cavey would like )

I managed to get a few good blasts over the mountain in the Type-R (which they make one way for the fortnight), although was rather disappointed that it pretty much topped out at 130mph before I ran out of road at the end of the mountain mile. (The Scooby managed 152mph on the same stretch of road.) At 130mph it's at 8000rpm in 5th and the limiter is at 8200rpm, but change up to 6th and it basically stops accelerating. Tsk.

As for the races, check out this on-bike footage as the dude hits 206mph (!) down the Sulby straight. As you can see, there isn't much in the way of run-offs and gravel traps, but there are trees and brick walls.....

Mind blowing video, what an awesome place to live, man. Love it !

Just asked the bloke over the road (hayabusa owner) where the best MOT place is. He told me and gave me a set of boots and leathers. .

Huh. Erfive insurance is half the cost of the Ka. £94 fully comp.

Top geezer!

It was very generpus. Frank Thomas boots and a Belstaff jacket for MrsA.

Yes, what a nice thing to do.
I thought Belstaffs and that type of stuff were fetching decent dosh these days on Ebay, so you could press COLLECT here

https://sites.google.com/site/eddysmoto/current-stock

This shop is near me. I love looking in the window.

Yay! Motorbikes!

Lovely classic selection their Mali; I'm a sucker for Americana as you know, but many of those are fab.
In particular (and despite criticising Italian stuff in the car thread), that Laverda looks lovely... that paint job reminds me of the time when a Jota starting up scared me to death when I was a passing schoolboy, before I got to thinking "I'm gonna have one of those one day".

The smell, the noise, the drama (and yes, the danger).... love these brutal old bikes.

That CBR1100 is lovely.

I saw this dealer had some interesting stock too. http://www.autotrader.co.uk/bikes/motor ... 371?page=2

The ZX-7R looks great

If I had to pick a sports bike I'd go with a 'zaki Z1000 in orange. Not only do they look the shit, but they're a good size for a gent of fuller figure

Gotta love those 1983 gold "Comstar" wheels!
I remember drooling over the Honda brochure... this bike was advertised as for "experienced riders only".

Love the look of the ZX-7R but if memory serves (and not that I've ridden one), but the reviews weren't that great as a road bike?

@Grim...

Yeah that's awesome, love these nakeds. I should deffo have bought something like this, or perhaps the CB1000R, as over the piece of shit Speed Triple that I did get instead. I think I was feeling patriotic at the time.

Yeah, I was reading reviews of it last night, and it wasn't class leading and didn't seem all that durable.
Not the most sensible of choices, but that's how some people pick their motorbikes.

Heh! Amen to that bruv, yours truly very much included. Bikes are usually entirely emotive things, which is one of the key reasons I love 'em so much. Heart very much in ascendancy over head, which is like a breath of fresh air in mine, and no doubt many others' lives.

I still can't quite overrule the sensible "must make the right decision" part of my brain, but I've looked at the empty spot in the garage a couple of times and realized I need to sort that out sooner rather than later. Hopefully it will warm up a bit this weekend and I can go for some test rides.

Someone with more time than me and possibly much smaller hands might be interested that the Yamaha website has downloads for origami models of some of their bikes. Be warned, they're not for the faint hearted or shaky handed!

http://global.yamaha-motor.com/yamahast ... r1m/#intro

https://www.facebook.com/motoparadiso/v ... 189971433/

Oh how things have changed

Oh man the last 20 seconds are hilariously non-PC and just a *tad* sexist!
Thanks for that, man.

That's awesome, do you reckon anyone has the patience though!

I've got the patience, not sure my mitts are small enough to do something that fiddly though.

And the commentator seemed to ignore the fact that Tom had his L plate covering the headlight.

I think this is my next bike guys; I love the 'Rod but I just don't think I can resist the charms of this (very rare) 1800cc Harley Breakout CVO any longer and am trying to close the deal...

Pure art for me. Man, I'll break my heart if I drop her.

Paid the deposit on this bike today, will be getting delivery mid April in time for BBQ, if happening/I'm invited

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_GB/Mo ... y-features

Man, I've finally got a CVO Harley.... only came out today and I had to beat off two others and wave pound notes. I just cant.wait.

That is lovely.

Thanks mate.

Can't wait to sample that 1800cc Screamin' Eagle mill (Stage 1 fitted and de-catted of course, before I even take delivery).
Stomp it has.

I might (if I get the bathroom done, retoof the garage, other stuff) get the ER6 back and running in time for the bbq. 2019.

Although I saw the newer Ducati Monster the other day and it was lovely. I have gone off the Triumph Scrambler since Clara had one in Doctor Whowatchesthisanymore

Oooh, now that Harley is a *very* nice bit of kit.

In motorbike related news I couldn't make my mind up what I really wanted so I'm picking this up tomorrow.
It was very reasonably priced for a bike that's only done 4000 miles and has had lots spent on it so I won't lose any money on it when I do eventually come to a proper decision, and in the mean time I've got something to ride again.

Thanks Dr Z

That Versys looks lovely and clean, a very nice bike! My guess is you'll love it and stick with it, as it'll do everything. These are great, got chatting to one guy who had one last summer. It's all good mate.

It was only £3700 which seemed more than reasonable for a three and a half year old bike with the panniers, scottoiler, new tyres and chain, heated grips, taller screen, 12v power point and a full service history.

It may well end up being a keeper, but if not I know I've not wasted my money.

£3700 seems very reasonable indeed, and it has a massive spec as well!
Excellent stuff. Keep an eye out for me on the road; I'll be the old dude with none of the aforementioned sensible kit but trying to look cool, probably piss wet through and cold (and deaf).

It begins.
Spain Road Trip II being planned tomorrow at the Fox & Barrel. Got to run her in, right guys?

Nice one Cavey, thats a Thing of beauty! Really happy for you, hope you have loads of good times in between all the damp, deafening, vibrating and terrifying times.

Good shopping, Cavey. What are you doing with the current one?

Heh! Cheers Wookie, sounds about right.

Cheers bud.
£9k trade in mate, so a mere £11k to swap....

If you have it for 3 years that's only a tenner a day. Or that pack of fags you aren't smoking anymore!

Very true, I love man-maths.
Still off the fags, 5 months tomorrow - £1500 saved already, which is just crazy.

It's amazing just how much money you save when you stop smoking. Both Mrs JC and I stopped smoking at the same time. Whilst we both smoked a lot we had really bad habits. Like, we both had pouches of tobacco but Mrs JC simply could not roll her own as she became shit at pretty much everything after her stroke, so I would have to roll two at once which was annoying.

Cue the bad habit - off to the co op for 20 Superking black @ £8.70 a pack. And then we would both start chain smoking, so before we knew it it was off to the co op or garage again for 20 more. They would all be gone by the next morning, we would be nearly £18 worse off.

And that was daily. Absolutely crazy.

Though neither of us has dropped the nicotine (we swapped smoking for vaping) vaping right now is just so cheap. I pay £4 for a 30ml bottle of eliquid and that lasts me two weeks. The only other expense is the coils, those cost around £1.20 each and I change them out anywhere between once every five days or two weeks, depending on the coil itself.

Either way at the very most I now spend about £4.50 per week as opposed to god knows how much on cigarettes. That's probably why we now have a 65" TV, £3000 cinema sound system and god knows what else we have bought since we packed it in.

I strongly doubt I will ever be able to ditch nicotine completely due to my mood swings, but most recently I did drop from 24mg liquid to 18mg so hey, never say never

Congrats on the bike it looks stunning. Sadly bikes (and most notably Harleys) make JC sad. Given that you have bought two Harleys now I will assume that at some point you have spoken to/met Robert (AKA Rob) Warr? He is one of my brother's best friends. He owns/runs/works at HD in Chelsea. Well a few years back Rob's brother died on his bike. It was one of the saddest things ever. Rob and Adrian (his best mate) still ride their Harleys (Ade is my cousin) and they still do their Europe trips but ever since Rob's brother died it hasn't been the same. My brother sold his and stopped riding completely (though I'm not sure if that was down to my brother himself or his wife...)

Be safe dude.