Continuing - So what did you do to your bike today...?

[KiwiCol]

Did my test nearly 50 years ago, had to watch for horses & carts in those days . . .   

[Hooli]

31 mph U Turn?  Man you guys must be good up that side!   

Plonker 
It's a U-turn & then accelerate to 31mph for the stop, emergency stop or swerve. As I'm sure you know I meant.

It's 31 mph as we adopted EU rules for it a few years ago, which stated 50kmph. Any sensible country would have have said 30mph is close enough, but not us so we had to move that part of the test to an off road area so you're not asking learners to break the speed limit in town, meaning the cost of learning went up again.

[seth]

My mate Nic (who's 125 I repaired recently) has got her Mod1 test on Friday & was worried she hadn't got the hang of U-turns on big bikes properly in the lessons she's had. She's learning on Hornets the same age as mine so we've spent an hour in a big empty car park tonight By the end of it, she was fine & looked confident doing nice tight U-turns that I think were tighter than test size.
It's oddly satisfying helping someone else improve isn't it? she wasn't dragging the back brake enough or holding enough revs up to start with. Not sure it'd be explained to her in a way that clicked in her head that you control your speed with the clutch as it's more precise. She got it quickly enough tonight though and was much happier by the time we finished. We might do it again Thurs evening after a bike night, depends if she feels she wants too.

To the downunder types, the bike test here is in two parts these days. An off-road section called Mod1 that covers U-turns, stops & a swerve. The basic layout is you ride up the pad, U-turn and as you come back you do either a controlled stop, emergency stop or swerve around a cone after passing a gate. So with crap U-turns you're screwed, especially as you need to reach 31mph before each tested bit. I think there's some other bits but not sure what.
Mod2 comes later & covers all the road riding bits.

Back end of last year a young lad (26 year old) at work decided he wanted to ride a bike so arranged his cat
The company were pretty rubbish as he'd never ridden a bike before .
He got into the morning of training and was struggling with his clutch control .
Rather than take him aside and teach him clutch control they said he still go home and not bother .
He was very upset as he'd brought a 125cc bike to ride after passing .
He got the bike delivered to his house and I took him out on it (to a very big local carpark) for 2 hours a week over 4 Wednesday evenings .
Showed him clutch control gear changing and slow riding .
He booked his cbt with a different (and more reputable company) passed first time and is now loving being on the bike including riding most of the winter .
He's now just getting miles in before booking his mod1 and by the end of the summer finger crossed a full licence.
It's great passing things forward especially when so called professionals leave folk high and dry.
Well done hooli hope your friend passes .👏

[Hooli]

Cheers Seth, she's a good rider on the road so it's just these bits she needed the time to gain confidence on. Apparently there were four pupils & two instructors on the pad for her lessons, so none of them got much time on the bike to practice as there's only room for the layout to be done one at a time. £70 an hour to watch other learners seems rather steep to me.

She got her 125 new in June & it ticked over 7,200miles last night, so she's loving riding. At this rate she'll overtake Notty's mileage in a few weeks 

[Eric GSX1400K3]

She got her 125 new in June & it ticked over 7,200miles last night, so she's loving riding. At this rate she'll overtake Notty's mileage in a few weeks 

Sounds like shes chasing your 1400's mileage, cant be a bad thing i reckon. 

[Hooli]

She'll take a while to catch up though at 72mph downhill 

[Hooli]

We spent another hour n half last night as she asked to do it again. She was getting it right from the second U-turn & I'm sure she's a lot better slow speed rider than most people with licences.

Guess we'll find out tomorrow morning, but I'd be surprised if she failed now. She looked quite happy, confident & in control all the time last night.

[Kiwifruit]

She's lucky to have someone experienced to teach her. Good onya Hooli 

[Hooli]

Well that was a disappointment, she went & failed!

All the stuff we practised was perfect, but riding across the pad between test sections she clipped a cone & that's classed as a dangerous fault & automatic failure. Bar that she was perfect & had a clean sheet.

Two weeks time for the next go, she should do it next time as she's kicking herself a lot over a daft mistake like that. Rather than take the easy route she rode through a gate she didn't need to & as she was turning at the time she clipped a cone.

[Hooli]

I was off work yesterday as I only do alternate fridays so rather than let her go home & sulk I kept her out & took her down the Peak District. We have a great ride down some tiny twisty back roads down there & visited a chippy at Matlock Bath.

Highly amusing at one point, on the road past Monsal Head. She caught up with & was looking to overtake someone on a Tiger 1050 who was making really hard work of a road she made look easy. But then it was a steep uphill so she couldn't keep up and they turned stopped before she caught them again.

[Notty]

New Yuasa YTX14H-BS ordered today old battery lasted 5 years, always on CTEK  trickle charge
£78 plus p&p 

[Hooli]

Mine tend to last long & are never on chargers. I don't see the point if the bike doesn't have an alarm, just give it an hour or two before use if it's not run for months.

[Ultramagnus]

Today I cleaned and oiled the chain for the first time.

The sun was shining so after a couple of ours of bricklaying a thingy in the garden I took a break give my bike som tlc.

I've never had a chain before so it was a new experience for me, but I quite liked it.

Former owner had some white lube/grease on and I thought the chain was black, but to my surprise it was nice and shiny non colored. Unfortunately there was some small spots of rust on it, but nothing that stands out so I will keep the chain for this season and change sprockets and chain during the winter.

I tried to clean the ferrules on the front disc as well since they are all rock solid, but I couldnt make them move freely, so I will have to do some research on how to do that properly.

[KiwiCol]

I tried to clean the ferrules on the front disc as well since they are all rock solid, but I couldn't make them move freely, so I will have to do some research on how to do that properly.

Ferrules = Bobbins?  If so, here's a link to cleaning those.  https://gsx1400owners.org/forum/index.php?topic=211.0

I don't use the nut & bolt method myself, I use a nail punch inserted into a battery drill, stick the tapered portion into the hole & medium speed turn them whilst using brake cleaner to wash out the gunk.  Sometimes I'll use CRC or WD40 first & finish off with brake cleaner. Never had an issue with contaminated pads.

[Hooli]

I took my tractor around the Peak District for the day, following Nic on her 125. It still amuses me following her, if it's not uphill she's bloody quick for a tiny bike & rides well.

14 Content! I was followed by another mate on her black 14.

T'was a good day, if a little cool.