Leaderboard

I swear that bloke was whispering that to me as I walked around Portmeirion a couple of weeks ago..........

my mate has a Bulimic lives in the flat above him ... making a bit of a noise last night, had to bang on the ceiling and shouted " for fuck sake, keep it down up there " !!

There’s a lot of crap on here.

And some more fun from yesterday dinner time, post front wheel bearing revelation. To be fair, the front wheel bearings were the only ones I left alone when I rebuilt the thing a few years ago, everything else got swapped - but I had replaced the rear stub needle bearings with a cheaper, but not quite the same, alternative to Honda-san's. I remembered that I'd promised myself that I would definitely take it apart after a year (or 4) to check to see if there was any grease left on the needles. The Honda bearing had an inner rubber seal to keep grease in, whereas my cheaper one only had the usual metal lip. Looks fine enough. Yep, all seems greasy. Slop some more in though for good feelings. Learning my Ray Mears string bending techniques is paying off already. 3 turnbuckles and a quarter granny knot kept the rear brake on to torque the stub nut to almost 200Nm, most handy. Again, sorry, but I can't help get the dog in shot.

Few days to go now. Front tyre fitted at the old place, tenner all in. I remember now why I used to go there. He said it used to be 8 quid though. There was a fair bit of tread left, but I'm glad I got the wheel out because I noticed at least one bearing was notchy. Tyre man he say it fine, tyre man say he had tiger wheel come in so notchy it wouldn't rotate on the balancer and that was fine too. Off to the bearing shop afterwards for a couple of 6004's and then it was a 10min job with the hammer and special punch, lovely jubly. About 7 quid for two SKF Explorer bearings. Silky smooth and all is right again, nothing finer.

How sad , my condolences to you Fred and his family .

It would take for ever to get here..

Absolutely gutted Fred, for you and especially for Dawn and their son. He was a proper good laugh and a good rider as well, I have a few great memories but you must have loads. Please pass on my thoughts to Dawn

mod you say, well hello....

Thinks he would have done it betterer.

We used to banger race and paint the cars as Jam sarnies. Also had ACAB on the sides in big black letters, plot wasn't happy and would often pull us over on the way to the track.

Yes will do; I still get free data roaming on the continent. An actual call or text though to back home and I might as well be calling some village deep in the rainforest. So that's at least one picture of the bikes on the tarmac slab at Folkstone, one of a pint in front of a mountain, and one of the vfr on the back of an ADAC low loader.

I'm amazed how many posts i see where people ask how much play is acceptable on a wheel bearing the answer is none it may last a while but your on borrowed time and will most likely fail when your on a trip miles from anywhere. you're doing it right 7 quid and a bit of time in the comfort of your home V a 2 hour wait for recovery on the road side and a ruined trip

I find it hard not to lust after anything Bimota but this looks like a banana on the rag.

My bike is back home after a short visit at the ktm gooroo...for a coolant leak.

Yes... Had my 950 dyno about 10 years ago and it push in the high 80 at the wheel...i think this 1 is close to 140 at the wheel... But the power comes on smooth and its manageable... I've only open it up one time.. First 3 gear and in third it lifted the front wheel.. Didn't check the odo.. But I was way pass 100kph with the front wheel in the air..

Vaguely remember him, sorry you lost your buddy.

No... Didn't take any pics.. Was to busy with my radiator shield that I order... And it doesn't frigen fit the bike..

Sad news... Rip ogri.

That's tragic news......I can hardly believe it. Pass on our sympathies to Dawn and the family!

Obviously I never met him but I remember him from DSUK or MaximumBikes, I liked how he and his wife went on immensely long road rides on their bandits or fazers, and used to make fun of all the squids that could neither keep up or ride fast enough. Very sad news, his wife will be going through a difficult time. May he rest in peace.

No porn channels sorry, mum does like Ed from Matts Towing videos from Moab, however she doesnt trust any of the others becuse their eyeballs never follow the same point of interest so to speak, mormons, wink wink, dont wink, that wasnt a wink thats a mormon blink..

Back to the music

I hope Six made it out alive.

All I see is a fuckin Renault, room for more bullet holes.

That's fine but we're waiting for you to ask us some pertinent questions

Slow news day! Talk amongst yourselves!

Are you taking English lessons from Marcel?

Doubtful, there's a lot of crap out there.

But, seeing as though I'm not there yet and I'm just waiting and letting the excitement bubble, I'll post some more faffage. At the weekend I remembered that when everything is lashed on to the back seat it sort of pushes forwards and you get a backrest, but doesn't leave you much room to move around and stretch. No way round it due to the location of the lashing points at the back, the crap always wants to be in the center of the lashing points, so you end up stuck with no way to pull it rearwards. Unless! You get some scrap flat bar and make a go faster spoiler. I always use pension update letters to catch the swarf when drilling, it's printed on the highest quality of paper. Here it is in mock up stage still, but you can clearly see* I'll get another couple of inches back behind me when the tent, table and chairs, sleeping bag, mattress, bed, fluffy pillow, etc is all strapped on. It definitely adds 6 bhp. It's the little things. * maybe not.

The Van Van is too low, I could kneel over it, I could understand if I was missing a limb for example…

Aint cheap head thats for sure.

Do they do a “mange head”?

It’s a very German thing to try to copy Harley.

No, the witch put a hex on it that invoked a curse if it was ever ridden by a ginger headed twat.

because a witch put a hex on it? No wonder it is fucked.

Haven’t seen anyone milking a leaky oil seal into three threads before, that bike, being OIL cooled, is going to make for interesting ownership!

I had never heard it before a few days ago despite it having a date of 1972. We were packing up at about midnight after a celebration on Friday night in a friends back garden and it just came on the sound system. Everyone was humming to it as we went back and forth carrying plates, glasses and uneaten food, it's now a memory song that will always remind me of that event. It can go along 'Battleship Chains' which makes me think of drinking whisky on a hot summers night and shining my torch at urinating Hells Angels before the torch was snatched off me by my mates to stop me getting a kicking.

I love that!

Mine are Rizoma, fitted great and great looking quality. Arrived in a box worthy of a Rolex.

Shit, set you up the that one.

The last few years of that motor, with the four valves per cylinder and 105/110hp were the best engine BMW put into a GS. Apparently they changed to water for higher power and emissions, but the hipster bikes still have an oil cooled engine and that is great, still legal too! I looked into buying a nice one of those, but wanted proper cruise control and couldn’t find a nice one of the later years. The dry clutch and “car” gearbox make sense to me.

As you know I had a couple of days to go see the daughter. Best start with an apology as there's not much in the way of content, you know I don't stop unless I have to as it was a boring blat down to the ferry and back. But once or the other side I dumped the bike and gear and off to the pub we go. Samantha says Hi. As you can see lovely weather although the wind was a bit keen. These are from the south west coast. We travelled along part of the route which will be the IOW TT. Riders won't have time to enjoy the views though. Samantha and Matt said hi. Stop off for dinner in the hot sun and than onto Gods hill, doesn't get much more picturesque than this. Stopped for petrol where you have to tell the "attendant" how much you put In as there's no screen to tell her in the shop, but they did have this old gem in there. Sorry, could hardly see the window reflection on the phone. We then stopped off at the "shop" where Matt got his Bandit. He'd told me of this place before with bikes and part over 2 floors of this unit and he now spilling out into the surrounding area. As always with me the basted decides to have a holiday, back June the 3rd. Gutted. We had a quick stop at Robin Hill, where Matt works and then back to their house. Don't think I've mentioned that they live on a street which it more akin to something Bob and Fred would have fun on. I've been up and down it many times but this time I picked the wrong line and had Samantha on the back. I'd switched off the engine and we were rolling down to her house when we went over a large rock, this was the result. Basted rock Engine oil contents The fix was a trip the the local Halfords, fresh oil, some 80 grit, carb cleaner to get rid of the oil and some metal putty. This was the result that got me home, well happy. Got to decide on a new sump or get it off and weld. Bloody thing stunk of oil all the way home which kept me checking. Don't think I'll leave it as a repair but def got me out of trouble. It'll now be something I carry in the top box along with the tyre seal.

Posted some pics of this place before as well, but Debbie had never been here so we went. The Athens Insane Asylum - old loonie bin in Ohio

We made it to Indy though. And went out to dinner and beers at the local heavy metal and burgers bar with my bud Clint. Food was perfect, beers were cold and the music was great. A really nice night....