I almost never us the clutch on upshifts, except for the 1st to 2nd change; and 6th snacks in beautifully without the clutch - so I'm thinking that the "clutch problem" is a red herring.


As for other ways of changing gear, try shifting from 5th to 6th with just a quick little roll off/roll on of the throttle as you snick the gear lever up.

Hi Noggy - you've just about hit the nail on the head.


When I was racing a Proddie 400 in the 80's, there were some places where you either came into a corner screaming the engine in one gear, or bogging it in a higher gear - neither giving you the ability to get good drive through and out of the corner (especially true for Gerrards at Mallory Park). The answer was to either change gear (up or down) in the corner, which would upset the handling/grip, or change your sprockets - usually going up two teeth on the rear (to save time and cost I only had 2 spare rear sprockets, one with 2 teeth more, one with 3 teeth more - going to 4 teeth more meant the previously higher gear ratio was now the same as the previously lower ratio) so that you get the revs matched to corner entry speed to let you gave a constant drive through the corner. Changing the front sprocket was a lot more time consuming and the change for a single tooth extra/less was proportionally bigger than a couple of teeth on the back - so I never bothered with that.


To be honest, in road riding, I've never found the need to have my revs so precisely matched to corner entry speed, as I'm never short of drive out a corner - thesedays not on the Fazer 1000, or the Aprilia RSV, and certainly not on the FJ 1200 - so that's why personally I think it's a waste of money.


But, then again, maybe I'm the old dog that can't/wont learn a new trick.

Bloody hell....... Brown corduroy trousers !

You ARE Victor Meldrew !

Quote from: Oldgit on 03 February 2015, 03:26:12 pm

must be the weather????

feck all to do with the weather, Rouen has a similar climate to the SE of England just they crack on and get the job done. Also the volume of traffic is heavy on that stretch of road. Maybe not M1 M6 M25 heavy but heavy enough. The road close by me here in Spain they did a 5km section both sides in a week. Okay all they did was fresh top and dress but they never seem to let it get to the stage of letting potholes get big enough to allow a juggernaut lorry to fall into. Lack of resources and a bunch of lazy assholes is the problem in the UK. Look at network rail for fecksake always delays when carrying out maintainence on the tracks, Christmas and new year was a disaster for commuters.

Not all a bunch of lazy assholes Lew - the problem over here is beaurocracy and Safety Legislation - which we abide by and the rest of Europe don't. Also, they do lots of their repairs in thin one coat temporary overlays. It does keep the repair time down, but the repair doesn't last very long. A proper asphalt repair in the UK will last anywhere from 10 years (poor quality work) to 30 years (the quality of work we did in the late 70's and early 80's.


The Eurppean way of doing it works well in the short term (the term that concerns politicians), but in the long, our methods/materials lasted much longer and were better value - even though the initial cost is more, you only do half, or one third, of the repairs.


Where we went wrong was adopting the European materials, with the savings at the time, and then expecting the roads to still last as long (pretty stupid in my opinion), now we're paying the price.


In a past job, I've participated in the World Roads Conference events and was always surprised at how much other people's roads cost to maintain in the longer term - but their rewards are "newer road surfaces more often, that take less time to resurface, but they also have more resurfacings (over 30 years).


I actually would prefer some of the "foreign" methods, but the cost to the UK in the long term would be a massive increase (for a short term saving).

My wife was dead set on a pre-VTEC VFR - until she had a test ride on one. Much too leaned-forward for any town, or slow traffic work. After a test ride on a Fazer 1000 that was in the shop, next to the VFR, she was a convert. Just as comfy as the VFR on the motorway, but much better at slower speed. The riding position on the Blackbird is very similar to the VFR.

With the Yamaha "high" screen (not very high at all, but effective) and a set of fairing lowers, the Fazer 1000 has been perfect for over 10 years now - being used as a tourer (around Europe a number of times), a track bike (including the Nordschleife/Nurburgring), a commuter and a work bike (when she was a bike instructor).

It's been totally reliable, runs over 200 miles per tank of fuel and has very long valve check intervals. With regular servicing I doubt anything would ever break - only wear out with old age.

Im sure the CB1000f is a great bike too, but for your budget, I'd say the Gen 1 Fazer will get you the best bike for the money (the Triumphs are also on the expensive side, for decent ones).


2 Pictures below show (Yamaha official "high" !!) screen and fairing lowers (which give surprisingly good weather protection).

Mont St Michel, just off the northern coast of France.

Bryce Canyon rock formations after millions of years of rain weathering - you can get a measure of the scale from the pine tees in the bottom left corner of the photo.

And this - from Mammoth Springs in Yellowstone - again, all Mother Nature, no filters, special lenses etc, just a wierd Sky (the storm came and went in 20 mins) - but that's not snow, it was still really hot that day (clear blue skies either side of the rainstorm.

Quote from: BIG MAC on 25 January 2015, 05:13:28 pm

If I recall Eddie Lawson managed fine without

Seem to remember he made good use of them on the YZRs 

And on his Z 1000 !


The American Superbike class race bikes in the late 70's/early 80's didn't have clip on's and iirc messers Cooley, Cooley, Spencer, Lawson, Rainey and co didn't have any problems making them go round corners quickly :-)

Trojan Cars, in Southsea, Hampshire, have a Vauxhall Vectra 1.8 petrol, with MOT, for £495, listed on Pistonheads


Don't know any more but I had one of those in the late '90's and it wasn't a bad car - dead reliable over 132,000 miles.


They also have a Rover 211 listed on their stock list - described as "beaten and bruised" but only £295 and has MOT until April.

I'm with you on the Blue Flame, we have 3 of them. My Aprilia RSV has had one for almost 10 years and it still looks like new (and sounds great). Our Fazer 1000 has had one on for 8 years -again perfect, and our Fazer 600 has had one on for just over 2 years now (our son loves the sound, even with both baffles in).

The only thing I've done is drill out the centre of the bottom "baffle" (really just a blanking plug) on my RSV can.

Here's a pic of the 600, with the Blue Flame can.

No reliability issues with the Aprilia to worry about - are you going for an early one pre '04, a post '04 model, or a V4 Touno?


I love my RSV - most of its miles have put on at the Nurburgring (nearly 20k), with no breakdowns, no failures nor anything broken (except when I fell off  ) and only standard servicing - and if we didn't already have the Fazer's and the FJ 12, I'd be very tempted by a V-twin Touno as well.

Reckon milietant and Clayt are still on the Xmas juice 

Nope - I reckon he edited the post to include the Reg No after it was pointed out  .


I'm sure I was teetotal at xmas..................... Well, I hadn't had that many Southern Comfort's