greg_in_london

Well it's only been a couple of days, but those awful jokes in Christmas crackers have mercifully faded from the memory fairly quickly. One or two are still lodged in my mind though.... What game do ghosts play at parties ?............................ haunt and seek. What do ducks do before Christmas dinner ? ................... they pull quackers. What do you sing for a snowman on his birthday ?............ freeze a jolly good fellow. What did one snowman say to another ? ......................... can you smell carrots ? Two cannibals were eating a clown, one said ..................... does this smell funny to you ? There are thousands of these blooming jokes and hardly any are funny, but that's the point I suppose - so everyone groans, or pretends to find them funny when the children read them, and no-one gets to sound too clever. Do you have these too ?

Ouch :-(

Maybe they'll be caught through DNA testing.

Fingers crossed I may be okay. the computer had not been able to actually start, but with a recovery disk we could see the files on the disk. I took it to someone I have used before who has all the necessary tools and doesn't charge too much, so the plan is that he will produce a ghost copy on a new hard drive and install that and then windows should be able to restore any errors once it is on a good drive. Failing that he will do a new copy of windows 7 and put all salvageable data in a directory. I did backup the very core data, but only had limited cloudspace and windows 7 did not allow me to back-up on a network drive, which was a PITA, so there was still a lot that I did not want to lose, even if the loss would not be catastrophic. When I first had the error messages I bought an external drive and tried windows backup and winISO, but I'm not sure that either was 100% successful - I can't really know until I try to "restore" the data. I did make copies of all the libraries though, so only software that saved information elsewhere is a risk. Overall I think I've gotten off lightly, so thanks for the comments and well wishes. Fingers crossed I'll be picking up a working machine tomorrow, though some of the new (and newer) ones on sale today did look tempting...

I've asked the manufacturer, but think I may be out of luck as the key number for Windows 7 has been rubbed off the bottom

Hi All, I'm hoping someone has a simple answer to a problem about my laptop. While on holiday the hard drive on my laptop died. I had time before it failed to buy a USB drive and try the windows backup, which took forever and then reported it had not been successful, but had filled a substantial chunk of the USB drive and so presumably saved something. I then tried a third party tool - WinISO I think - though I'm not sure that was any more (or less successful) and am not yet in a position to check. Finally I just manually copied over most of the data, before the computer stopped booting up - it reaches a screen that says a problem has been detected which is before the menu about starting in safe mode. It says it can check for errors, but either does not continue or tells me to contact the manufacturer to see about whether the drive can be fixed. So - If I buy another disk can I use windows restore to get the system and software back ? Do I need Windows 7 installed already or maybe a windows restore disk (I can buy one off Ebay). I didn't get backup disks with the laptop - it was all on the disk. I could just buy another laptop and copy the files over, but anticipate that some of the software (income tax and payroll for my company) might then be lost which would make data recovery difficult). If I use windows restore on a system with windows 7 on it, would it cause conflicts - or can I only do it if there is a working system there ? I want to keep windows 7 (ie not 8.x), so I'm deciding whether to order another drive (about £50), try and get one for spares (£50-150) or just buy another (£250-300). I'm hoping there is an easy answer as I need to be sorted again within a few days.

Agree - a hole in the tread area will get a plug and I wouldn't take it off the rim to do it. If the nail/screw was still in I'd probably just leave it if the tyre wasn't going down. In the Uk you're allowed a cut that's up to 10% of the width of the tread (maximum 25mm, a whole blooming inch), so you can have a lot of damage without worrying about tyre integrity being too compromised. You might go for an inner tube rather than a simple plug (or one of those harvey Tech mushrooms etc), but if it holds air then a blow out is not likely at all.

Hope you got there. When I had similar problems 10-12 years ago it was what Squeeze said. The wires in the pick up coil were wired too tight as standard, so when it heated up the unit expanded and broke contact (eventually, it was nearly 20 years old by then). Mind you - if yours is an '89 - I'd have thought it was fixed by then. Mine was earlier, 1983.

Yes.

It's a pain when a thread gets longer and people don't read it all The other theory about why strapping the brake lever might help sometimes is that occasionally air can be squeezed past the brake seals where fluid (being thicker) is not. It's not a method I would rely on, but when I can't get a system to bleed it makes me feel better about packing up for the day and having a beer or a coffee. I do find that the narrower bores of stainless steel hosing means I feel more confident about there not being bubbles caught in flat sections. I also but syringes so I can pump fluid back and forth (if I don't just push the pistons back).

I agree with Flyinfool. You've removed the hose to the front brake, so you don't need the proportioning valve and IMHO you're much better off without it. It was a mechanical widget to supposedly reduce pressure to the back brake when you're slowing down, but it didn't really work. leaving the front left brake caliper discinnected means that you only have two discs working out of three and, even though two working properly is better than three working badly, is hardly an optimal situation. Personally I wouldn't worry about the anti-dive much, but if you connect the left caliper to the front master cylinder you will link up the anti dive again. You will need to upgrade the master cyclinder and use one with a 5/8" - 14mm piston, but other than that it is basically connecting a new brake line. Mind you, if you have the original rubber hoses you really should upgrade to stainless steel brake lines - the originals are 30 years old ! Something like this should do for the master cylinder, though you'd need to check that in your market that model had a double disc brake. (Genrally single disc brake master cylinders have 1/2" - 13mm pistons and double disc brake master cylinders 5/8" - 14mm pistons). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-XV750-XV1000-XV1100-Virago-1983-1987-Brake-Master-Cylinder-Lever-Switch-/351120516811?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts_13&hash=item51c069e6cb

Damn that was a killer joke. It certainly killed this section of the forum...

Errr.... This may be a little late and I noticed you said that you'd emptied the clutch master cylinder with a syringe, but... You don't drain a brake system and refill it, you pump fresh fluid through, otherwise you'll need to use up a lot more fluid (and time) bleeding the system afterwards than you saved in clean fluid flushing the old through.

It's not cheap for a thirty year old motorcycle. The only thing similar would be a pan-am - I don't think of gold wings the same way. Maybe one of the touring BMWs, but they would cost more.

I used to have to do that all the time when I first had the bike - I'd have everything going fine and it would cut out or I'd have to kill the engine to fill up with petrol. Then I'd have no choice but to push start it. Mind you, that was fifteen years ago and I was at least ten years younger then. Putting a sidecar on didn't make that much easier, but I could carry a car battery. Upgrading the starter and using an AGM battery is much better though (especially after we started pulling a trailer tent too...)

wom

Somebody tell me to forget it - I've seen another one and he's offering it to me for £1450. They're not as common here as in the states: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-XVZ1200-Venture-Royale-32000-Miles-MOT-super-tourer-trike-conversion-/251576129199?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item3a931b16af&autorefresh=true

What sport do you play with a wombat ?

Sometimes before posting I feel I need to check that we're all talking the same language. You DO mean that you can't move the bike because the rear wheel won't turn and not that the brakes now work and lock the rear wheel when you use them ? Good - Assuming that's the case.. Is the wheel locking solid ? If the problem is that the pistons have seized in place and you have now moved them out and they have not returned I'd expect the brakes to drag heavily, but not lock the wheel. In that case the brake would drag heavily, but I'd expect you to be able to turn it if you try hard. That would mean it will be hard to take the caliper off, but if you did, then using a g-clamp or piston compressor to repeatedly push it in and then pump it out again might get it working again - or if it's really cruddy / rusty you might need to polish or replace the pistons and generally refurb it. On the other hand, it could be that the fluid return drilling in the master cyclinder is blocked, or the piston is not able to travel the full distance (did you say you'd adjusted the pedal - does it move through the full stroke ?) so that return hole might not be getting uncovered and the brakes are not being allowed to release. In this case I would expect the same to apply to the front brake too though. If the drilling is blocked, pushing the piston back in the caliper might clean it out. To complicate things, there is also a metering valve to the front, which should not cause problems, and a proportioning valve (PITA) that can throw up random minor problems, but I don't think I've heard of it stopping the pistons from returning. So - I'd check the brake master cylinder rod has its full travel and then make sure the piston in the rear caliper moves freely.

I wouldn't upset the exhaust if I could avoid it. The silencers are a tight fit onto quite weak stubs on the collector box and the collector boxes are hard to replace if the stubs are weakened and snap off. I would expect to replace the copper rings where the rear manifold section goes into the downpipe and the fron exhaust gaskets aren't too expensive if you buy aftermarket (though these are less critical). I've never changed the ring on the gear lever shaft and wouldn't unless the leak was really quite bad.

When we were all a lot younger, some people in my circle would ride up close behind a friend, then reach over and flip the kill switch as they over took. Ahh - happy days...

I'll see if I can find some more video of us playing, but I had a hard drive die and lost a lot

It's a great way to unwind from the pressures of work etc - I call it my music therapy, though the beer helps...

I think that I might have occasionally mentioned that I play a bit of music - fiddle and bagpipes. Recently after (another) one of the long standing members (Pete Gibson) of the session died, a video was made about the group partly in memory of him. This is a short (10 minute) film by Billy Dudley. If any of you get over here to visit you might fancy dropping by. [ame] [/ame]

I've got to ask - what was that about ? And you have armed postmen ? How much do they charge you for underpaid postage over there ? Here it's £1...