The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

They'd be fine with it but the hard drive wouldn't be big enough unfortunately.

I did recently buy a Kriega laptop sleeve which is ideal for protecting it but the hard drive would still be knackered in short order in a top box or on the rear seat.

I failed my first bike test because in the absolute pissing rain, I DIDN'T overtake a HGV. I just sat a sensible distance behind it at the speed limit . "Lack of progress"s or whatever it was. TBF It was a dual carriageway. So I could have, but I overthought it and decided on balance not to.

Examiner was a former courier. And when I did pass, I had him again and spent most of the time slightly speeding. No mention of that at all!

Riding Tips - Slow Speed Manoeuvring

I did my CBT a week ago, and the instructor was teaching the slow speed manoeuvring as follows:

1st gear, build revs, hold revs, slip the clutch in and out to control speed, drag the back brake to give the bike something to pull against. The theory being that dragging the back brake adds stability at low speed.

Then, I watched this YT clip which suggests NOT to drag the back brake: https://youtu.be/v-BDrAxjAFI?t=2m27s (2m 27s onwards)

Which one is correct?!

OK - my question, 'Belly Pan or no' on my Fazer:





The belly pan is currently bare carbon fibre which doesn't help, looking to get it wrapped in the correct Lava Red.

I took it off to do an oil change and quite like the old school superbike look now I've also fitted fat-bar handlebars but also feel it may look more complete once the right colour.

I spent ten years teaching various numpties to ride bikes and the set revs/slip clutch/drag brake techniques is the one that I always found works best.

Engine at a fast tickover gives decent power so it won't bog down but not enough so that your rev'ing the tits off it.
Slipping the clutch puts some but not all of the power to the back wheel.
Gentle toes on back brake (think about having an egg between your foot and the pedal and you won't go wrong) stops the bike running away from you.

Definitely works.

Thanks very much chaps . Will rock some 10W40. Would have preffered the fully synthetic but XL are offering oil and filter for £20 (all be it the current filter is rusted on and unmoveable at the moment).

https://www.xlmoto.co.uk/a9-racing-semi-synthetic-...

Not ideal regarding the radiator in that case but I only plan on keeping the bike for a year or two so it's probably not worth going all out. I don't believe the current radiator would be salvageable in all honesty. It's flaking away around the bottom and possibly around 20% of fins look OK whilst the others flake/crack when attempting to straighten up.

Noticed one of the chain plates has snapped for some reason. Barely done a few miles on it, quite disheartening really as I seem to be spending more time in the garage than on it. Time to research half decent tools, chains and sprockets on a budget...

Don't suppose anyone would know if the trip mileage can be changed to miles rather than km? There's very little online or in the manual so guessing not.

Had another thought over it and you're right, suppose it's best to have it fixed up. Saying that, I've just phoned up a couple of companies of which in the end said they didn't bother with Aluminium types and I've Emailed another one. None of which are local which would add complications. Shall see what they say but thanks anyway.

My dumb question is more of a dilemma.

Having just passed my DAS, im looking at getting a bike...

Question is, do i pay £3500 and get it from a dealer so i have piece of mind and a warranty/rights to fall back on if it goes wrong...

Or do i pay £2700/£2900 for a very similar bike but get it privately and hope there is nothing wrong with it!

I'm not mechanically minded at all...

At that price point, and if you admit you're not that savvy with the mechanics, I'd be buying from the dealer for a warranty and some level of comeback should the worst happen.

Yet another one, I swear it'll be road worthy eventually. It's only been off the road for a couple of months

A chain link previously snapped whilst testing it. Thought it was new'ish but not sure. So, I've just replaced the chain and sprockets myself. Everything seems spot on, Slack is set to 35mm (manual says 34-40mm, same symptoms at 30mm), no Rear wheel wobble, Rear wheel alignment measures good and looks good, no wobble at the front sprocket and torques set correctly. Everything seems to be spot on.

Problem is, there is a shake and judder of the chain and front sprocket which vibrates the bike and sounds a bit damaging/scary. Almost quite violently at times when you put rev on then just before it idles. The video link doesn't do the noise justice but hopefully you get the point. It seems worse the higher the gears.

Initially I thought it was the sprockets not aligned but I don't think it's that. Looking down the top of the chain it seems to jump a little. There is a noise from the front sprocket area about 3rd gear onwards. That kind of tells me it maybe the drive shaft but it's intermittently not constant. Messaged a friend and he's under the impression it maybe because it's not under tension. I rode up and down the road and it seemed OK but there may have been a slight noise but unsure. Scared to ride at speed as it maybe been what snapped the last chain.

Being a total mechanic noob I have no idea (although I'm trying not to be). Hoping it's something obvious to someone else. Any ideas?

https://youtu.be/kRlwsBPKk60

Thanks.