That's been extended further now:

P - Petrol
O - Oil
W - Water
D - Damage/ Drive (chain)
E - Electrics (lights)
R - Rubber (tyres)/ Reflectors (mirrors)
S - Suspension/ Stopping (Brakes)

I've also seen another version: POWDERY where the Y is "You" ie that you're wearing all the right gear.

To members who have not, I ask, would you buy an ex-demo bike.

But how different is that from buying second hand with more than one owner? Ok, the current owner may be sensible, but the previous owner might have ragged it to hell.

And, for that matter, even if you buy second hand from a dealer, how do you know that the previous test riders haven't decided to "see what it'll do" when they wind the throttle wide open or bang it down a few gears and then dump the clutch? Sure it might get some sort of service before you buy it but there could be internal damage that wouldn't show without a full strip-down.

There's no guarantees with either...

Hey Grahamm i know some of the London Foccers are coming down to Whiteways cafe and then onto Rykers on the 5th, Is there any chance of you putting it back a day? Or maybe doing the Sunday too?
I'd love to meet up as your itinery looks great  but not sure i can manage the Saturday.

Correction to my previous post.

Someone from the Southampton Group has said that Sunday would be ok, so how does 11am at Wickham Square on the Sunday sound?

I'm organising a ride-out to Ryka's Cafe (Box Hill) leaving from Wickham Square at 10am on Saturday the 4th of May, possibly along with various people from the Hampshire Bikers and South Coast Motorbike society.

 The route would be up the A32 (possibly with a quick stop at Loomies to pick up anyone who wants to start from there) then along the A272 to Midhurst, up the A29 and A24 to Ryka's.
 
 From there, we'd go up Zig-Zag Road, back down to the A24 and A29 before turning off onto the B2126 and B2127 to reach the A286, heading down to Midhurst again to take the A272 back to Loomies.
 
 The total distance would be around 130 miles and we'd finish around 3pm (allowing an hour for eating). There will be a fuel stop after Ryka's for anyone who needs it.
 
 Note that I'll be leading this in a fairly progressive way (ie getting on with it, making full use of national speed limits and taking overtakes when safe and possible), so please ensure that you're comfortable with this. (But also note that I will *not* be thrashing, blatting or hooning!)
 
 Depending on numbers, I may also be using the Marker System (Second Man Drop-off), so if anyone's not familiar with that, please say and I'll post a couple of links explaining how it works.
 
 If you're interested, post here...

Quote from: pitternator on 28 April 2013, 09:48:38 am

Its useful for the road too as you really can see just what your bike can do, then in any emergency situation your brain will tell you not to panic as it will stop/turn/lean  even though first reaction may have been  it wont

That's what I need.  My brain rewiring.

Thing is, knowing it isn't enough, you've got to have the instinctive reaction to be able to use it.

On the last session (I was getting very tired by this time) I messed up the turn into the complex (Campbell, Cobb, Seagrave) and ended up just braking and going for the run-off area.

Had I had the reaction down to the instinctive level I might have been able to carry on through the turns, but that just didn't happen

It sounded like a great day, was it through your local group that you did this or through the IAM webiste? Also how much?

This was an IAM event which was put out to the nearby clubs in the South.

I gather that it was so popular (they were limiting it to about a dozen people from each club and I think there were about 48 people there) that they may well be doing it again and following it up with other such events.

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 

I was on an IAM Skills Day at Thruxton on Monday and you could *see* the effect of the two-compound Bridgestone 023 where the central (hard) section looked normal, but the outer (soft and sticky) sections were showing clear signs of being well used

I can't share this, am trying to put it on Facebook?

Save it to your computer and then use "Add Photo or Video" to upload it to FB.

I was a little worried this might be a damp squib, but I was well impressed when over 650 bikes turned up for the Ride In and Guildhall Square was chocca!

Another moan is price of fuel at motorway services 10p a litre more that local prices here in Cornwall

If you figure you're going to need to tank up on a long ride on a motorway, find out where you're likely to need to fill up, search for "XYZ services M5" (or whatever) then put the post code into http://petrolprices.com/ and it'll find the cheapest station within a radius you specify (eg 5 miles).

Often you'll find out that it's virtually just off the motorway and it'll save you a packet!

its the st imho the gt lacks the looks 

Well that and it's a bit longer which might might it better for long distance riding, but not so great for riding the twisties

How many miles does it have on it? One concern I've got is that wheras the Fazer only needs a major service every 24,000 miles, the ST needs one done every 12,000 and which is about £500 from what I've read, so it increases the running costs noticably.

I want to take off the side stand for painting, There is two big bolts with alen key and threadlocked..
There is also one large nut in the middle, Looking at it I was thinking that the two bolts ( alen key ) had something to do with the rear subframe or something like that..Can anyone confirm that removal of the two ( alen key ) bolts are just for the side stand and not connected or needed for anything else,

I've just had a look at the Haynes Manual and they're simply to hold the sidestand in place (also I had one of them come loose at one point and nothing fell off, only the side stand wobbled!)

Haynes says: "To remove the stand leg only, first unhook the spring with the stand in the raised position, then couterhold the nut on the pivot bolt and unscrew the bolt. Support the stand leg and withdraw the bolt. Note the location of the stand switch plunger."

If you want to take the whole assembly off, you'll need to deal with the sidestand cut-out switch first which is more complicated, I'd recommend picking up a copy of the Haynes manual for this.