The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

[stang65]

A500leroy said:

50 thousand mile Ducati 900ss (2001) , Sensible buy? ( i know diddly squat about Ducatis)

You've answered yourself really, so no it's not a sensible buy. If you knew a little then there's nothing fundamentally wrong with them but knowing "diddly squat" then the higher maintenance would be a bug bear....or be neglected at a future cost.

Buy a CBR600F. Everyone loves CBR600s. There's a reason for that. For over 20 years they were the average bike for the average man - not meant as a put down, more that they do everything well enough for most people. Buy one, spend a year with it and by then you'll have worked out what you actually want.

(I can't agree with the buy a VFR800 comment above, I hated mine and it seems many do as VFR750s cost more unless the 800 is new enough to trade off age rather than condition).

[bogie]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Used to be able to buy boxes of visor wipe cloths for about 60p each, I bought a few bulk buy boxes about 5 years ago and still working my way through them. Work really well and so large you could do a few helmets/visors with them. When touring with mates we often used do all our visors with one cloth when we stopped for a break. Guess they are not environmentally friendly so not stocked in many places now.

https://www.louis-moto.co.uk/artikel/s100-visior-h...

[Speed addicted]

stang65 said:

(I can't agree with the buy a VFR800 comment above, I hated mine and it seems many do as VFR750s cost more unless the 800 is new enough to trade off age rather than condition).

Out of interest what did you hate about it?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a negative review (not that it means much, I’ve also hated bikes loved by journalists)

[TheInternet]

bogie said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Used to be able to buy boxes of visor wipe cloths for about 60p each, I bought a few bulk buy boxes about 5 years ago and still working my way through them. ...

https://www.louis-moto.co.uk/artikel/s100-visior-h...

These look of interest but any reason not to use a regular wet-wipe type?

[Speed addicted]

TheInternet said:

bogie said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Used to be able to buy boxes of visor wipe cloths for about 60p each, I bought a few bulk buy boxes about 5 years ago and still working my way through them. ...

https://www.louis-moto.co.uk/artikel/s100-visior-h...

These look of interest but any reason not to use a regular wet-wipe type?

They can leave a residue thats issue when you’re trying to look through it. Although this could also be solved with a clean micro fibre cloth

[KTMsm]

TheInternet said:

These look of interest but any reason not to use a regular wet-wipe type?

My friend swears he uses wet wipes - I had my doubts but tried one it's left a white film that wasn't easy to remove

Personally I use a damp sheet of kitchen roll

[KTMsm]

A500leroy said:

its going through an auction soon, no info on service history

I really dont anything about Ducatis or where it should be priced at, I thought at 50k miles it should be cheap though?

There's a reason why a 50k Ducati with no service history is cheap !

[HybridTheory]

Proper dumb q here

If the actual Moto GP Silverstone race is on the Sunday what goes on on the Friday and Saturday?

[Krikkit]

HybridTheory said:

Proper dumb q here

If the actual Moto GP Silverstone race is on the Sunday what goes on on the Friday and Saturday?

https://www.motogp.com/en/event/Great+Britain

You've got 3 classes that all need at least 3 practice sessions, that's Friday sorted. Saturday you've got more practice and quali.

[TheInternet]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Disgusting. Will give the V wipe thing a whirl though.

[SteveKTMer]

KTMsm said:

TheInternet said:

These look of interest but any reason not to use a regular wet-wipe type?

My friend swears he uses wet wipes - I had my doubts but tried one it's left a white film that wasn't easy to remove

Personally I use a damp sheet of kitchen roll

Some wet wipes contain small amounts of alcohol or other chemicals which can remove the coating on some visors. I had a gold tint visor a few years ago and on a Rally in Wales, we were given free packs of Silkolene branded wipes, just like wet wipes. Over the next few weeks I used a couple of packets of wipes and then noticed the gold finish on the front of the visor had been washed away and the rest of the finish was thinning, ruining the visor.

I now use water and soft tissue and a drop of washng up liquid or shower gel if necessary.

[Bl0ndie]

Thought I'd be better off adding on here rather than starting a new thread.
Planning on replacing the coolant on my 03 CBR600F4i whilst removing the radiator to sort an exhaust leak.
My Haynes manual says to use ethylene glycol based coolant with corrosion inhibitors. However, it doesn't specify what type of inhibitors are needed. Would a run of the mill OAT type coolant be a safe bet? I think I'm right in saying that silicate based coolants aren't safe for aluminium engines?
Anyone got any experience with this?

[Krikkit]

Bl0ndie said:

Thought I'd be better off adding on here rather than starting a new thread.
Planning on replacing the coolant on my 03 CBR600F4i whilst removing the radiator to sort an exhaust leak.
My Haynes manual says to use ethylene glycol based coolant with corrosion inhibitors. However, it doesn't specify what type of inhibitors are needed. Would a run of the mill OAT type coolant be a safe bet? I think I'm right in saying that silicate based coolants aren't safe for aluminium engines?
Anyone got any experience with this?

Bit of a minefield isn't it? The original spec is Pro Honda HP which is IAT-based.

HOAT is probably the best compromise these days, but I'm sure OAT will be fine as long as the system is flushed properly..

[bgunn]

Bl0ndie said:

Thought I'd be better off adding on here rather than starting a new thread.
Planning on replacing the coolant on my 03 CBR600F4i whilst removing the radiator to sort an exhaust leak.
My Haynes manual says to use ethylene glycol based coolant with corrosion inhibitors. However, it doesn't specify what type of inhibitors are needed. Would a run of the mill OAT type coolant be a safe bet? I think I'm right in saying that silicate based coolants aren't safe for aluminium engines?
Anyone got any experience with this?

Motul do a range called Inugel, one of these is ‘classic’ which is ethylene glycol based, and available ready mixed.

Seems to work well in both my late nineties Honda’s..

[RazerSauber]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Looks very much like a melamine sponge which are available ten-a-penny. Some else eluded to a Magic Eraser which are a branded version of the same thing.

[RockBurner]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Same material as a JML Magic Eraser.

BUT - the V-Sponge kit has a good quality resealable plastic bag for keeping the damp sponge in.

[stang65]

Speed addicted said:

Out of interest what did you hate about it?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a negative review (not that it means much, I’ve also hated bikes loved by journalists)

I think the main problem with it was that it had to follow a VFR750, and the 800 wasn't as good by miles. The 800 was better than the 750 for quicker steering (that you couldn't take advantage of due the the brakes) and top end power. However, it wasn't in the same league for build quality or reliability, not even close. The 800 was less comfortable, had less low/mid power, the linked brakes were awful, it was designed badly for low speed spills, the on/off fuelling was snatchy etc. This was comparing a 4 year old, 10k mile 800 which replaced an 11 year old 30k mile 750, both with FSH from the same dealer. With hindsight the 800 was one of those bikes that was fun to test ride but not in real life - if you're like me you open them up on test rides but tend not to push it into corners etc.

I would buy another 750 tomorrow if my wife would allow bike no4, but if given an 800 I'd sell it. Look at the price of similar '97 750s and '98 800s (so the age doesn't affect pricing) and you'll see that the 750 is held in higher regard.

[RizzoTheRat]

Was the 750 carb'd and the 800 injected? A lot of early FI bikes were quite snatchy at low revs which I'd guess might have been ironed out on later models. 800's were a lot more expensive for servicing than the 750 too weren't they?

[stang65]

RizzoTheRat said:

Was the 750 carb'd and the 800 injected? A lot of early FI bikes were quite snatchy at low revs which I'd guess might have been ironed out on later models. 800's were a lot more expensive for servicing than the 750 too weren't they?

That's correct. I suspect that the injection is part of the reason that the 800 lost a lot of low down and midrange power, purely because Honda couldn't make the injection smooth enough to give them the same power. Others have said that maybe my bike needed to have the throttle bodies sync'ed but who knows? The injection wasn't the only issue!

There was some blatantly stupid design on them, like making the indicator stronger than the top fairing so if you had a slow speed/stationary drop the indicator survived but punched through the top fairing (£330 in 2002!!). I found that out when I locked the front brake...I'd put a bit more rear on as the front felt vague...linked brakes aren't my favourite thing now. You'd have to be really, really good with braking to know how much front brake to let off when you add a bit of back brake when trying to do an "emergency stop", far from the safety aid they were promoted as. The levers were set at a level to be comfortable in a racing crouch (on a VFR really!!) and if you tried to adjust them apparently it shorts out the brake switch....

I just think if you want a VFR800 you'd be better off with either a VFR750 or a GSXR750...the VFR800 is too in the middle of them to be as good as either (and neither has linked brakes...the answer to a question no one actually asked).

[Prof Prolapse]

CBR600F of the same era similarly smashes the nosecone if you drop it on the indicator.

I thought the linked brakes weren't a bad idea. Loads of people under utilise rear brakes. So Honda (H-D as well?) theorised, rather than upgrading the front brakes to improve stopping, you can allow most people to make better use of the existing rear one. The problem is we all believe we know better so don't want it.

I mean "we" literally, I don't want it. I still have mixed feelings about ABS on motorcyles, but I don't think combined braking is a bad idea per se. Same for ABS.