A biker near here was seriously injured a couple of days ago.

Apparently he was stopped at a junction waiting to turn right when he was rear-ended by a car, the driver of which didn't see him because there was low, blinding sunlight in their eyes.

So if you're in a similar situation or stopped at traffic lights etc, it might be worth stopping short of where you're planning to turn and keeping an eye on your mirrors for anything coming up behind, so you have an escape route or can sound your horn to warn them.

After some prat knocked my FZ6 Fazer over in a car park last weekend, the motion sensor on my alarm doesn't work.

It still responds to the key fob and if I lift the seat without disarming it, the alarm will activate, but no matter how much I shake the bike around, it won't go off.

Having done some searching, it seems to be the same as a "Spyball" alarm (just with Yamaha branding).

Does anyone know if this is a) fixable or b) I can swap out the alarm unit without replacing all the wiring too (which might be a hassle)?

  Motorway tailgaters and middle-lane hoggers are to face quick justice with on-the-spot fixed penalties under new measures announced by the government.

    From July, police will be able to issue £100 fines and three points for careless driving offences that would currently have to go to court.

    Current fixed penalties for using a phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt will also rise by £40 to £100.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22770064

I'm sure we've all seen (and experienced) instances on motorways of Lane 1 being empty whilst someone blithely cruises along in Lane 2 (ignoring the rule of "Keep left unless overtaking" or, worse, an impatient idiot who thinks that they can "bully" you out of their way by driving six feet from your rear wheel, so this is a good thing.

The question is, of course, given the limited numbers of traffic police on our roads, do people think that this is actually going to have a positive effect on people's driving (or even riding!) or is it just a cynical money-making exercise designed to rack up more fines for the Government's coffers?

What are your opinions?

As mentioned elsewhere, I'm planning on leading a rideout on Sunday which will include the A272 from Loomies (junction of A32 and A272) to Midhurst, however it seems there's a lot of tar-and-chip top dressing going on at the moment.

If anyone's been on the A272 today or yesterday, please can they let me know what state it's in so I can plan an alternative route if necessary.

Thanks.

When I heard of the opportunity to join an IAM Motorcycle Skills Day at Thruxton, I jumped at the chance and so, at 6am on a bright and clear April day I found myself waking up and heading up to the famous circuit.

After signing in and getting a voucher for a bacon butty, the first order of the day was to attend a mandatory Safety Briefing covering what to do (and what not to do, like doing a u-turn and riding around the track the wrong way!) plus details of the warning flags (as Thruxton is also a working aerodrome, if someone is waving a red flag they want you to stop immediately as an aircraft may be about to crash...)

We were divided into two main groups, then split into several sub-groups with different coloured bibs so we could identify our instructors before getting a briefing on what would be happening during the day.

Because this was an IAM day, the skills training was based on the IAM's IPSGA System (Information, Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration), so the first session was Information: On each bend there were Red, Yellow and Green cones where Red marked the Turn-in Point, yellow was where you should Apex and Green was where you should aim to exit.

We started by following one of the Instructors who would demonstrate the correct line, then, in a way similar to the Marker System in Group Rides, the second rider would drop back and the next rider move up to enable everyone to get a chance to follow the Instructor's line.

Each session was followed by a short debrief chat from the Instructors, then a full brief on what we would be doing on the next one, working through applying the IPSGA System to what we were doing, using Positive (Counter) Steering, three-stage braking and making sure we were allowing sufficient time for the bike to settle before manoeuvring etc.

In subsequent sessions, the order system changed slightly, instead of the Instructor leading, one of the riders would lead, then the Instructor, followed by the rest of use. Subsequently the lead guy would drop to the back, the second guy (behind the Instructor) would move up to Lead and the Instructor would stay in second place so we'd all get a chance to lead and have the Instructor watch us through the course.

Although there was no racing, time keeping or pace-setting etc, it was noticeable that our speeds were definitely increasing as the day went on and we got more confident about handling our bikes and discovering just what they could do if we let them!

Things started to get really fun when Overtaking was introduced and we were allowed to pass other bikes, not least because our group seemed to be making more progress than the group in front of us and we kept catching up with them, but on previous sessions we had to stay behind them instead of move past.

There were blue cones on some sections before certain bends and on the main chicane (and two "cone chicanes" that had been added to slow things down a bit in places) indicating that you should not overtake through that section, but apart from that, if you could get past someone, you were permitted to do so (and generally people would move over if they saw you coming past).

There were no serious problems although one guy did blow out his Akrapovich can and got Black Flagged for being too loud and I did get annoyed at one time when a Yellow Flag was put out, so I slowed as we had been told to do, only to be passed by half a dozen other bikes which was more than a bit naughty of them!

Unfortunately, due to the very early start, I was so tired that I had to leave before the final session, so I missed the end of day debrief, but none the less I had a most enjoyable time and certainly learned a lot more about handling my bike and knowing what was possible on it.

All in all a great day 

The Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Frank Jonas, is a keen biker and on the 21st of April he will be leading an escorted Mass Ride from the King George V playing fields (IBM North Harbour) to Portsmouth Guildhall Square, where there should be Classic and Custom Bike competitions, stalls, displays, food and the Solent Advanced Motorcyclists' Mobile Display Unit.
 
 The Ride will start at 10am and events in the Guildhall Square will wrap up around 4pm.
 
 For a flyer showing more details of the event, click here
 
 Here is a map of the car park location.

Rather than drag the "Respect" thread off topic, I thought I'd post this in a new thread.

Firstly I was surprised when I read this article from the AA which was linked to in the other thread, because that's not "off-siding" as I understand the term, but rather "Illegal riding". A traffic island with blue sign with a white "Keep Left" arrow is a mandatory, ie you *must* obey it and going the wrong side of it is bloody dangerous as much as anything else.

However the definition of "off-siding" that I'm familiar with is when you position your bike across the centre line. generally on a left hand bend, in order to give yourself a better view of the road ahead.

Here is the current IAM advice on this practice for people taking their Advanced Test:

16: Definition clarification: ‘Off-siding’ = the crossing of the centre line/hazard line, (or in the absence of such a line, the centre of the carriageway) in order to extend a view.

Off-siding – Single track road clarification: In situations where there is no possibility of passing an oncoming vehicle due to the width of the road and in order to enable your presence to be seen earlier, this is acceptable, providing it is both advantageous and gives no risk of conflict.

Off-siding (to extend view) – two-way carriageway clarification:

Experience is showing that this is causing Candidates to put themselves in danger. The IAM actively discourages this practice and it is therefore not acceptable on test.

Related to this is their advice on straight-lining or "trimming" a series of bends:

17: Set of open bends – straight-lining/trimming clarification:

Trimming or straight-lining a set of open bends whilst acceptable on test must not be carried out if there is a risk of conflict with other road users or where it will inconvenience, confuse or cause alarm or distress, to others.

If the Candidate compromises their own or any other road user’s safety they will fail the test.

So mostly the advice seems to be "Don't put yourself in danger" and "Don't do something that will cause someone else to feel they have to change speed or direction".

FIFTY SHADES OF ................

 

You appeared from nowhere and shamelessly, without any reservations, you laid on my naked body...you sensed my indifference, so you applied your hungry mouth to me without any guilt or humiliation, and you drove me near crazy while you drained me.
 
Finally, I drifted off to sleep.

Today when I awoke, you were gone, I searched for you but to no avail, only the sheets bore witness to last night's events.
My body still bears faint marks of your enthusiastic ravishing, making it all the more difficult to forget you.
 
Tonight, I will remain awake, waiting for you........

 

 

 

Bloody  mosquito!         

* * * * *

Financial panic ensues in Buckingham Palace as Leicester City Council presents the parking penalty charges incurred by the overstay of Richard III.

I've put this in here as it's more relevant to this area...

How did the power commander installation go? Did you have it dyno'd afterwards or did it work out of the box?

Ok, I bought the Power Commander second hand from expatmanxman (see a few posts down). I only got the unit but it's easy enough to download the mapping software and fitting instructions from the Dynojet site.

Fitting it turned out to be a bit of a palaver, for various reasons...

1) As I don't have a laptop I first had to find a way to install the map onto the unit from my desktop. You can do that by connecting it to the PC with a USB cable, but you also need a 9V battery and connector to power the unit. Fortunately I had both and managed to bodge a connection so I could load the map before I took the unit down to my shed where I keep the bike.

2) I was a bit puzzled at the completely different settings on the map I downloaded which said "Stock FZ6" and the one on the unit which said the same, then I re-read the previous thread and the instructions and I realised that the stock map which was on the unit when I'd bought it had been modified, but not the comments, so I put the Stock FZ6 map I'd downloaded onto it instead.

3) Fitting the unit turned out to be a major PITA! You're supposed to put it under the seat, but where they suggested it went is, on my bike, taken up with the alarm, fortunately I found that by taking everything out (tools, pliers for pulling nails out of tyre, spare headlamp bulb etc) there was just enough room to fit the unit and get everything back in place (just!!)

You also have to lift the tank (*why* don't Yamaha include a prop for it?!) fortunately I remembered that if you undo and remove the pivot bolt at the seat end of the tank and then undo the securing bolts at the front you can slide it back and then lift it without needing to remove the inner fairings too.

4) The next part, actually connecting it, is a serious fiddle!

You need to run the wires from the unit under the tank to a pair of connectors behind the throttle bodies through a narrow gap which took a lot of finessing to get all the bits through and then you need to actually identify and get *at* the connectors which are buried amongst lots of other wires in the loom.

There was about half an hour of looking, cursing, looking again, pushing things around, cursing, examining connectors, more cursing, trying to undo connectors, re-examining connectors and comparing them with the ones on the unit, finally figuring out how to get it hooked up and then *more* cursing as you try to get everything back in place!!

Incidentally I found it was easier if I removed the left side rear fairing that covers the fuses etc as it made it easier to see what I was doing and gave better access.

5) You then need to connect a wire to the negative side of the battery, but there are already two connectors on that on mine (Optimate and Heated Gloves) so I wasn't sure if another one would stop the battery bolt from securing properly, however I then found that I couldn't even *undo* the bolt as it was done up incredibly tightly and when I put more pressure on it, the metal started to strip.

Fortunately a few minutes with a multi-meter revealed that the bolt that secures the front of the tank would also give a negative connection, so I connected the wire to that instead

6) At this point I decided it would be better to check that it would actually work before I put everything back in place, so, with fingers crossed I pressed the starter and, fortunately, it fired up!

7) There was one slight problem when I put the tank back down because I must have kinked the fuel hose as I tried running it again and it started and then died, but a quick lift back up and moving things around solved the problem.

Then, finally, it was just a matter of putting everything back in place and after a spin around the block for a final check (I didn't want it dying on me out on the M271!), I took it out for a very enjoyable ride up the A32, along the Morestead Road and back along the A272 before returning on the A32 again.

Is there a setting that stops the annoying jump off a closed throttle? 

Well, with it installed and the map mentioned above, I've certainly not noticed that which is another plus point!

What I mostly noticed was that there wasn't that awful hole in the power curve around 5-6000 RPM, after a little experimentation I could go for an overtake in fourth gear and know that the power was going to come in smoothly rather than it bog down until the revs got over 6k and *then* pull, meaning I didn't have to sit in third gear on A Roads with the revs up waiting for an overtake chance or keep flicking up and down the gears any time I wanted to pass someone.

Frankly I consider it a very nice addition to the bike, the power is much more accessible and controllable and there's a bit more of it too

Due to an increasing amount of junk valuable possessions, I need to put up some more shelves in my bedroom as an alternative to everything being filed under "F" for "Floor", so I hope the Foc-U fount of all knowledge can help.

I'm looking at getting some of the "twin slot" shelving uprights with the brackets you can simply hook into place to allow me to change the depth of the shelves according to what I'm putting on them, however what I need to know is a) what should I use for the shelves and b) will I just need a bracket at each end or one in the middle as well?

The space I have available is approximately 54" wide, so if I put two brackets 18" apart to divide this into thirds, would that work, or should I put one closer to each end and a third one in the middle to stop the shelves sagging under the load?

At least a couple of them are liable to have books on them and, at a rough weighing, 12" of books is about 3.3kg or 7.5lbs (which works out at about 5kg or 11lbs over 18").

AFAICS the brackets and uprights should be strong enough to carry the weight, I just want to avoid the shelves bending (or even breaking).

Anyone got any useful advice?

These were posted on another forum and I thought they were pretty good.

Reading the Road

Great Roads, Great Rides

Group Riding

Does anyone have a Decat pipe for an 04-06 FZ6-SA Fazer they're willing to part with?