Jump to content

greg_in_london

Supporting Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    714

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by greg_in_london

  1. greg_in_london
    Different country, but same idea - several years ago, around census time, I was visited by one of the statisticians who wanted more info from a 'random selection' - wanted to know about the difference between what I spent on bills then and several years before and no end of other stuff. Must have been at my flat for an hour. It made me wonder just how many people hold onto that much old financial information ??
  2. greg_in_london
    Amazing - if a bear can't get a manicure, it will be too slow to get out of the way of moving vehicles..
  3. greg_in_london
    For British bikers there are two Winter Rallies to speak of. (Well there are others, but none so decidely and deliberately intrepid.) These are the Elephant Rally, which very few will get to - not least because of the additional cost and distance of getting across the Channel - and the Dragon Rally, which is in Wales and tends to get enough snow to make it challenging. There is a website about the rally at http://www.dragonrally.org.uk/ which has features and/or for most years back to 1962. The most amazing thing about this rally is that there is so little laid on and is only for the Saturday night - most people travelling up early on Saturday, playing a few silly games, having a chat and a beer around a fire and then heading back on the Sunday after a few hours sleep. Everyone agrees that the cameraderie is great, but I must confess to never having been. I have travelled to a rally in Bavaria (Landshut) and to a rally in the snow (Furry Teeth) but neither would have been as challenging as these. Work commitments mean I'm not likely to go now and, to be honest, I like to be able to stay for longer than one night if I'm going to make that much effort.
  4. greg_in_london
    I've put down for one set - hopefully postage won't be too bad. BTW - this thread is a 'sticky' now, so there's no point 'bumping' it.
  5. greg_in_london
    On mine they had hardened and taken a set from the position they were locked in - effectively triangular in cross section. I didn't have a rebuild kit and only had thicker o-rings, so I had to stretch a smaller diameter o-ring (so it was therefore thinner) to make it the right size. Technically it should be fine, but if I can get the right bit I'm expecting to change it before my next long trip in the Summer. So far, though, nothing I've done seems to have made a difference.
  6. greg_in_london
    Right - this could get confusing with two similar threads running at once. Looking at the German Keyster website www.keyster.de retail price for diaphragms only I said the price for other models is Euro 11.90 ($15?) each, so I'd hope a bulk but would bring this price lower. Unfortunately I was looking at the wrong part (sorry - I have a little German, but can make mistakes...) The price is Euro 34.90 ($40?) I know they changed the notional bore of the carbs in the mid 1980s - late 1200s and all 1300s, but it seems that the slides stayed the same. On a separate note - there are suppliers for these replacements, but reviews for them vary. It is hard to know if a poor report is from a ham-fisted mechanic, or if a company with mixed reviews has some 'good kits' and some 'bad kits' resulting from the individual bikes that they did their tests on. If there is one supplier that we all trust, then it is easier to compare notes and troubleshoot later, if necessary.
  7. greg_in_london
    I switched to an odyssey three years ago. I had been using lead acid batteries and found they struggled with starting - when warm or when they'd been in a wet field at a festival. Withe the Odyssey it has been much, much better. Mine was lent to me by a friend who was not using it. I expected to have to return it, but his Laverda is still off the road. He's coming for dinner in a couple of weeks and I hope he's not going to ask for it back !
  8. greg_in_london
    Squeeze mentioned that I had been to the Keyster site. The URL is www.keyster.de and the link to the page about first gens is http://www.motorradbay.de/main/honda.php?kat=yamaha&best_nr=&modell=xvz1200 This includes the slider, so I assume the price is for one (about $60?). For other models the diaphragm only price is Euro 11.90. When I contacted them about bits last year they didn't seem helpful about anything not specifically listed on their inventory. Unfortunately when I was nearby (relatively speaking) last August I didn't manage to drop by. Sorry I can't be more helpful. My diaphragms have some small holes I've repaired with liquid plastic, so I'd be interested in good cheap replacements too.
  9. greg_in_london
    Sounds like a reasonable thing to try. One other possibility. Has anyone tried checking the spring free length? If it is too short, the spring will be weaker and the slide will open too aggressively. I was thinking of stretching it, but can't see a figure in the manual for the standard length. [edit - forgot to mention - another possibility which can damage your mpg is that the o-ring around the needle nozzle has perished allowing excess fuel to escape into the carb. Unless you can see extra fuel running down the bore, I do't know how you can check this, though.]
  10. greg_in_london
    Sorry - I agree with Squeeze - the standard Venture MK1 brakes are awful. Please remember, though, that we are both European (as is our Parisian friend [will you be going to LeMans ?]) and from what I can tell from various posters and magazine write-ups (as I've never crossed the Atlantic, although it looks pretty stark from the West Coast of Ireland) there is quite a difference in terms of expectations in braking. Apparently, for example, Harleys are considered to have brakes in the states whereas many here consider them laughable. Or at least, that you need to change your riding style to allow for them - which would not be considered acceptable on anything else. There are other threads on rider training in the states recommending that people learn to use their brakes better. This is incorporated into basic rider training in all European countries. The proportioning valve and metering valve both reduce the braking available. This makes your brakes less effective, but means any fool can do it without falling off (to paraphrase Yamaha). To my mind it means you can reduce speed slowly, but not brake heavily in a short distance when you need to. If you feel your brakes are adequate for your use, stick with them. If you find them dangerous and are more used to conventional brakes, then unlinking them, replacing the front master cylinder, removing the valve on the back brake and SS hoses will give a massive improvement at limited cost. Changing forks and callipers etc may be better, but will cost more. I absolutely HAD to upgrade mine because of the extra weight I carry, but I started the process (SS hoses) while the bike was still solo. I was riding in and around London, though, so probably needed better brakes than someone riding Route 66.
  11. greg_in_london
    Tired of the snow - you must be joking - no work Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday in school without any kids and just catching up, Thursday and Friday no school buses so only a few kids made it in and I didn't have to teach anyone. If the forecasts are right we'll have Monday off too. Snow - bring it on...
  12. greg_in_london
    Yeah I'll do a better one tomorrow. I was trying to decide what instrument it should be playing or what other prop to use. I went out tonight (used the car - a golf diesel) and had no problems whatsoever on the roads - which were completely empty. Off the estates, there are very few roads with even compacted snow left. Maybe there'll be more snow tonight, otherwise the wet roads will freeze solid and that will be much more of a hazard than the snow we've had today - except lots of new drivers won't even see it until they're sliding.
  13. greg_in_london
    Well apparently it's the worst snow for 18 years - which means there's a generation of drivers who have never learnt to cope with it and a lot more who should know better. Either way school was closed so I didn't have to go in - and won't have to tomorrow either. So - my first snowman in donkeys years. And then someone knocked it over. Maybe another tomorrow ?
  14. greg_in_london
    Oops - missed a couple of pages there - musta been dozing again.
  15. greg_in_london
    No - not at all - as I said I had a funny dream and thought I'd share it with you all. Love the sidecar. Shame that person stops you seeing it all clearly.
  16. greg_in_london
    Unless it's been very heavily used (your trike's not that heavy is it ?) I would have said that 34K is fairly low mileage. Having an engine torn down means another period of bedding in and the possibility that something will go wrong. If you expect the engine to do, for example, 200K with maintenance, then what benefit would you get from inspecting the bottom end - unless you suspected that whatever caused the scrapes on the piston (below the rings - therefore came from the engine, not the inlet) may have either caused damage or come from below. If you're actually worried about the bottom end, have them check. If not, leave it alone. If you're thinking about resale and I was the buyer, I would rather hear that there had been work done on the top end and it had been fixed, than that the whole engine has just been rebuilt. I would value that the same as a VERY high mileage machine ~ 100-150K. Have another word with the mechanic, perhaps, and see if he has any misgivings and what he might look for while the engine is apart - is he looking for wear and tear or does he think something could be broken ?
  17. greg_in_london
    Hmmm ... I was just thinking about what the calendar might look like and sort of dozed off a bit and had a funny dream and thought about these pictures: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj59/ferrazino/glam-gorilla1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.worth1000.com/cache/contest/contestcache.asp%3Fcontest_id%3D19102&usg=__GBHcbMOEpph4_SJYWbB8fTa-J8c=&h=765&w=709&sz=199&hl=en&start=83&tbnid=b6ezEnDzKDSFcM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgorilla%2Bbra%26start%3D63%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN What do you think ?
  18. greg_in_london
    My insurance is in case I hit someone else. It's a different mindset, I don't buy new and for many years I've been able to afford to lose any bike that I've got (though I don't want to !). To be honest, it would be difficult to argue that my bikes are worth a fortune and that means that thieves round here pay them little attention. Oh and I value my twenty years' no-claims bonus. Even though I get a good deal on bike insurance, I've still paid plenty over those years. I think I'm with a good company (Carole Nash) anyway, even though they're very competitive.
  19. greg_in_london
    Unfortunately it's a long thread because no-one's managed to achieve it yet (at least not without converting he back end to a 15" wheel or building a new rim). Here's to more success in 2009...
  20. greg_in_london
    I didn't get anywhere with finding a place that would do it. I didn't try all that hard as there aren't suitable places locally (that I found, anyway), but I think you would need to know someone there to do it as a favour - someone who was sure that you are sensible, would use it in a reasonable way and would not come back at them if it did not work out. It would certainly be seen as 'bending the rules' and most places I would expect to not do that for someone who just came in 'off the street'.
  21. greg_in_london
    Ditto what Thom said. I have pulled trailers equally heavy over thousands of miles, but my first gen has a large sidecar attached, all those silly linked brakes removed, SS hoses and a brake on the sidecar wheel. I also have a braked trailer. I've never been sure how good an idea braked trailers are on a solo bike - probably depends on how much you are prepared to spend on a set-up to ensure the wheels pull evenly. When I had an unbraked trailer tent, touring through Germany on the autobahn, the thought processes went something like this: "Sun's out, road's clear, nice road, hey there's a car pulling onto the autobahn about a mile ahead. WHOA - start slowing down now, it might go slowly." Or to put it another way it was stopping distancely challenged. UK laws for sidecars are somewhat anachronistic (up to 254kg unladen weight), but for cars, 50% of car weight is the maximum for unbraked trailers, 75% for braked. For solo bikes the limits are much lower.
  22. greg_in_london
    I've towed bikes and sidecars behind a bike and sidecar a few times, see this thread: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29741 I've also towed my girlfriend's three wheeler Reliant Rialto before - but you probably haven't heard of those over there.
  23. greg_in_london
    and I blow my nose in your general direction I don't go back to work until Monday, but I've been out on the bike and spent a few hours outside the lock-up working on a bike. Weather is a few degrees above freezing ~ 3-4'C.
  24. greg_in_london
    A guy called Danny Defazio (Difazio?) designed and promoted these throughout the '80s and into the '90s here. They never quite took off, but had their own subculture with a reputation for absolutely amazing handling outside of towns. Very trick. They were called 'feet first' motorcycles and may have influenced the Japanese large scooters which although not fully enclosed, have the rider semi-reclining in a bubble of air formed by the fairing. They always tempted professional riders as motorway travelling should become so much easier, especially in poor weather, but I think people were concerned about stopping in heavy traffic... (Most models kept the possibility of putting a foot down, albeit awkwardly.
  25. greg_in_london
    Sounds good but I don't think my bank does that. I find it's handy because it allows me to pay from my bank account or credit card without giving out those details. I don't know if USA PayPal is different to European PayPal, but they don't get access to my bank accounts beyond being able to do a direct debit, which has certain legal safeguards. I signed up years ago, so this could be out of date, but back then you didn't actually HAVE TO verify the account, but could continue with less functionality. I have begun to bank with Egg and they need to have the same access so I can add funds, although if I was concerned I could ringfence a feeder account and go through that.
×
×
  • Create New...