The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

[Cbull]

Deranged Granny said:

Why bother? Just get a bigger bike. As above, 4 stroke 125s sound st with modified exhausts.

He's not long turned 17, no choice.

[Biker 1]

Cbull said:

He's not long turned 17, no choice.

Whatever his age, there is simply no excuse for those fking ultra-loud pipes. There was a kid a while back in my neck of the woods who would scream past our house at silly o'clock & wake everybody up. Either the little st has grown up or he had an off. Worthy of an ASBO & gives motorcycling a bad name. Even Screamin' Eagle pipes are better.

[RemaL]

cbmotorsport said:

Biker 1 said:

Warming up one's engine: should one fire up engine, allow to tick over for a minute or so, then proceed for the first 2 or 3 miles at half throttle/half revs until things have warmed up, or should one give it the beans as soon as the oil has had a chance to go through the oil pump?

Revving one's engine in neutral: Will this cause damage?

Start it up, ride it. Don't give it beans until it's up to temperature. This is as fussy as you need to be.

^ Pretty much what is needed for any engine. And what I do.

[Lukas239]

2 things if you will;
1) correct and thorough helmet sizing? I am firmly and consistently in 'medium' on all size charts. Went to my local clothing store and the guy was adamant a medium had too much space between the cheek pads and suggested a small. He was helpful but I'm also not one to believe anything someone says. Short of the basic head shape and measurement, what should I be doing?

2) best place to buy bulbs for bikes?

Thanks

[Krikkit]

This is a good guide for helmet info: https://sharp.dft.gov.uk/get-the-right-fit/

Aren't the bulbs just the same as car ones?

[RizzoTheRat]

How good are Trackers on bikes? A colleague's just bought a Street Triple and thinking of getting one fitted, but I can't help thinking there's not many places to hide one on a bike so they must be pretty easy to find and disable.

[BigGingerBob]

CBT holder here, wanting to do DAS...
After taking a detour to Bridge Motorcycles in Exeter today whilst running a work errand, I wondered how people bought bikes. Do you test ride as you would a car? There, of course, were almost no bikes outside an none looked like you could test them out.

[cbmotorsport]

Lukas239 said:

2 things if you will;
1) correct and thorough helmet sizing? I am firmly and consistently in 'medium' on all size charts. Went to my local clothing store and the guy was adamant a medium had too much space between the cheek pads and suggested a small. He was helpful but I'm also not one to believe anything someone says. Short of the basic head shape and measurement, what should I be doing?

2) best place to buy bulbs for bikes?

Thanks

How did it feel when you had it on? There's a fine line between it giving you a firm squeeze when new, and giving youa headache after an hour or so of riding. I'd be very surprised if you're the same size across all manufacturers.

I used to wear a large, and always thought it was about right. Finally had one fitted by an Arai approved supplier a few years ago and was a medium. Never looked back.

[gareth_r]

Lukas239 said:

...2) best place to buy bulbs for bikes? Thanks

Krikkit said:

...Aren't the bulbs just the same as car ones?

Yes, but... "Vibration-resistant" motorcycle bulbs are available.

I don't know how much difference they make, but I have used them in the past. I had to remove the fairing in order to gain access to the headlamp bulb, and, at that point, anything, even possible snake oil, that might extend the time before I had to waste another two hours looked like a really good idea.

Edited to add that I just use ordinary, cheap, BOGOF bulbs on bikes like my Speed Four because it takes two minutes to change one and the twin headlamps mean that there's always a spare.

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 19th September 14:32

[Gavia]

RizzoTheRat said:

How good are Trackers on bikes? A colleague's just bought a Street Triple and thinking of getting one fitted, but I can't help thinking there's not many places to hide one on a bike so they must be pretty easy to find and disable.

I’d agree with that, although it depends on whether they’re looking for one I suppose.

[Gavia]

Quite a lot of people are worried about rubbers perishing when a bike has stood for a few years. Why do rubbers perish more when a bikes stood still compared to being used?

[Krikkit]

gareth_r said:

Lukas239 said:

...2) best place to buy bulbs for bikes? Thanks

Krikkit said:

...Aren't the bulbs just the same as car ones?

Yes, but... "Vibration-resistant" motorcycle bulbs are available.

I don't know how much difference they make, but I have used them in the past. I had to remove the fairing in order to gain access to the headlamp bulb, and, at that point, anything, even possible snake oil, that might extend the time before I had to waste another two hours looked like a really good idea.

Edited to add that I just use ordinary, cheap, BOGOF bulbs on bikes like my Speed Four because it takes two minutes to change one and the twin headlamps mean that there's always a spare.

Ah, I didn't even know such a thing existed, makes sense if you had filament bulbs to use more support or a different filament to resist the possibly slightly harsher environment on a sporty bike.

[cbmotorsport]

RizzoTheRat said:

How good are Trackers on bikes? A colleague's just bought a Street Triple and thinking of getting one fitted, but I can't help thinking there's not many places to hide one on a bike so they must be pretty easy to find and disable.

Probably quite easy to find if you take the fairings/panels off and have a root around...however the good ones are subscription based and someone will contact you via text/phone when your bike moves without the key. That's where they come into their own. They're really designed to notify you of movement and allow you to quickly find the bike before they've had a chance to get the tracker off it....not to help you find it after 3 weeks when you notice it's missing.

[cbmotorsport]

Gavia said:

Quite a lot of people are worried about rubbers perishing when a bike has stood for a few years. Why do rubbers perish more when a bikes stood still compared to being used?

Good question.

It's like the people that say they'd rather buy a bike that's been used regularly than one that's been a garage queen with occasional use. Never got that, it's not going to deteriorate doing nothing if it's kept dry.

[Krikkit]

cbmotorsport said:

Gavia said:

Quite a lot of people are worried about rubbers perishing when a bike has stood for a few years. Why do rubbers perish more when a bikes stood still compared to being used?

Good question.

It's like the people that say they'd rather buy a bike that's been used regularly than one that's been a garage queen with occasional use. Never got that, it's not going to deteriorate doing nothing if it's kept dry.

It's a bit of a balancing act- the rubber itself deteriorates faster with heat cycles, but things like fuel lines will benefit from not having static fuel left to form interesting concentrations of oxides etc through in-gassing while standing still.

You've also got some seals which are designed to be oil-lubricated regularly, and the particular chain/particle sizes they absorb might need regular replacement with moving the oil around.

The metallic components are also an interesting case, on one hand you've got a chance of a gradual breakdown of the oil film layer over time, hence leading to accelerated wear next time it's used vs the general wear and tear of low-temperature running.

IMO if you've got a nice dry storage space then leaving a bike unused won't do it much harm.

[Lukas239]

Krikkit said:

This is a good guide for helmet info: https://sharp.dft.gov.uk/get-the-right-fit/

Aren't the bulbs just the same as car ones?

This was exactly what i was after, thank you. Will be returning my new Shark on the same day it arrived

[MrGman]

Gavia said:

Quite a lot of people are worried about rubbers perishing when a bike has stood for a few years. Why do rubbers perish more when a bikes stood still compared to being used?

Rubber needs to be used to stop the proteins in it drying out and breaking down, or something like that I think.

[pessimal]

Just bought a new helmet that has much better ventilation, which is great, however in the colder weather coming, i can see me getting a very cold bonce even with the vents closed.

any suggestions what to put on my head or in the helmet which would stop the cold air getting my head cold?

thanks

[Prof Prolapse]

MrGman said:

Rubber needs to be used to stop the proteins in it drying out and breaking down, or something like that I think.

I really don't think that's true. Proteins are biological compounds and would only come from natural rubbers, i.e. from trees to make latex, I'm fairly certain that automotive rubbers will be synthetic and petroleum based in origin (that's possibly why we shouldn't use petroleum based greases on them, "like dissolves like").

I would also speculate like in tyres, many rubbers contain oils, which escape the rubber as part of the ageining process, making it more brittle and prone to cracking and failure. It's certainly a widely held belief that engine oil slows the degradation of seals. That seems feasible, I can imagine oil makers being keen to ensure their product adds to longevity of an engine, but I could not say for certain. It would also seem possible that not running an engine might be detrimental to rubbers which would typically be exposed to oil.

Outside of rubbers exposed to oil however. U-V light is obviously fatal, but is moot as most people wouldn't store their bikes in daylight. What is true, and I think the main point, is that rubber seals such as those found in calipers and gaiters,whatever, would require periodic maintenance and replacement, and the assertion is that this would not have happened when something has been mothballed for a very long time (not a few years).

So I think when people are concerned about "rubbers", it really is more as a result of a potential lack of maintenance of an item which naturally fails. Not because they are of the belief that being stored will accelerate the failure in the first place. That said, you've also got reduced heat cycles, which presumably would increase their longevity as well, could offset the whole business.

I'm just guessing, I know fk all about rubber, I just felt I should try and contribute something if I was disagreeing with someone.

[Krikkit]

I had a bit of a further dig and found a list of hundreds of US military storage reports for rubber items listing their conditions and any effects after storage... The sensible conditions weren't detrimental, but they weren't holding fuel and oil over that time either.

I think it's an old wives tale.