The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

[TooLateForAName]

I disagree.

I've seen plenty of cases of seals failing shortly after a period of prolonged storage. OK not on motorcycles but other machinery.

[Berty3000]

Would a 3/8" torque wrench be suitable for tightening rear wheel nuts (assuming correct torque range), or would it be considered a bit small for bigger fixings? Prefer to avoid using adaptors for accuracy. Appreciate this is well trodden ground - trying to get one good wrench that covers what I need - chain adjustments, seat adjustment, oil sump, adding crash bungs, maybe brake calipers. Thanks

[Berty3000]

Great Post, thanks mate. +1

Teng do a 3/4" with 20-110nm range.

My rear axle nut would be 98nm. Most other things I need it for are above 20, albeit not much in some cases. I'd be up for getting the small one as well, just need to know if the 3/4 will be good for doing axle nut. Definitely best not to rely on 3/4" for everything?

Edited by Berty3000 on Saturday 22 September 23:38

Edited by Berty3000 on Saturday 22 September 23:50

[CaptainSlow]

Berty3000 said:

Teng do a 3/4" with 20-110nm range.

That range is too big...get two.

[anonymous-user]

pessimal said:

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

Balaclava.

I have tried a few and the forcefield one does a great job:

http://www.forcefieldbodyarmour.com/product/base-l...

If you use a balaclava it also helps keep the helmet liner clean. I use one on every ride in all temperatures.

[Krikkit]

CaptainSlow said:

Berty3000 said:

Teng do a 3/4" with 20-110nm range.

That range is too big...get two.

I disagree - I have the tend 20-110Nm Teng and it comes with a graphed calibration certificate - 20Nm and 110Nm at the extreme ends are +/- < 1% so perfectly usable.

[Berty3000]

Bloody hell, why are torque wrenches such a pain in the balls!? Stupidly expensive, fragile, high maintenance, often not trustworthy. Really!? I might as well just keep my scottoiler topped up and otherwise pay a tenner to get the chain adjusted sometimes. That's probably four years plus worth of adjustments before reaching the cost of the wrench (plus sockets etc), by which time the wrench would be useless.

I bet back in the day, DIYers just used a normal wrench and gave it a good tug (Oo-er!). Job done. Sure people do it now too. Depends how paranoid one is I suppose.

Edited by Berty3000 on Sunday 23 September 20:49

[horsemeatscandal]

Fitted some heated grips on Saturday. All working fine, took a bit of work to get them on. Sanding down the throttle slider was a pain in the arse but that’s another story.

Anyway, went out to test them yesterday and I’m not 100% happy with the position on the clutch side and want to remove then replace in preferred position. Yeah I should have tested it properly but there you go. I don’t want to start messing about with acetone and jamming screwdrivers down as it’s not a massive deal and don’t wanna damage then but have heard getting them nice and hot then giving them a good twist should work? I’ve read this on forums that are a few years old so not sure if the glue/grip material has changed since.

Plan is to get them up to 100% a couple of miles from home then use hot water/hairdryer to get them nice and hot, give them an good twist and see what happens. Anyone had any luck with this method?

Thanks.

[horsemeatscandal]

horsemeatscandal said:

Fitted some heated grips on Saturday. All working fine, took a bit of work to get them on. Sanding down the throttle slider was a pain in the arse but that’s another story.

Anyway, went out to test them yesterday and I’m not 100% happy with the position on the clutch side and want to remove then replace in preferred position. Yeah I should have tested it properly but there you go. I don’t want to start messing about with acetone and jamming screwdrivers down as it’s not a massive deal and don’t wanna damage then but have heard getting them nice and hot then giving them a good twist should work? I’ve read this on forums that are a few years old so not sure if the glue/grip material has changed since.

Plan is to get them up to 100% a couple of miles from home then use hot water/hairdryer to get them nice and hot, give them an good twist and see what happens. Anyone had any luck with this method?

Thanks.

Sit rep. It worked really quite easily.

[Krikkit]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yep, but even assuming it goes out 10x as much with a bit of use it won't be a million miles away.

[naetype]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just to add: The Halford Professional wrenches are more affordable on the smaller ones and come with a lifetime warranty (normally don't even need a receipt with their professional branded tools) but for the larger wrenches Teng are significantly cheaper. Screwfix also do Teng which comes in quite handy.

[Krikkit]

naetype said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Just to add: The Halford Professional wrenches are more affordable on the smaller ones and come with a lifetime warranty (normally don't even need a receipt with their professional branded tools) but for the larger wrenches Teng are significantly cheaper. Screwfix also do Teng which comes in quite handy.

The Teng ones can be had a bit cheaper on Amazon if you're prepared to wait as well, but Screwfix is always handy if you're pressed for time.

[pessimal]

My bike is currently on a seriously worn rear michelin pilot road 2 tyre.

is it there any harm mismatching front and rear tyres, and if thats not a problem, is the new road 5 a good choice?

[naetype]

Generally the front is designed to work in conjunction with the rear so ideally you should use the same make/model of tyres but suspect you won't explode in a ball of flames by not doing so unless you're ragging it round every corner in a monsoon hanging off like Marc Marquez...

I am not an expert.

[cbmotorsport]

pessimal said:

My bike is currently on a seriously worn rear michelin pilot road 2 tyre.

is it there any harm mismatching front and rear tyres, and if thats not a problem, is the new road 5 a good choice?

Why bother?, you can still get new Road 2's. They're a great tyre for road riding.

[Heyrick]

This is a great thread for a newbie!

Thought I'd give this a Bump as I didn't see any response:

BigGingerBob said:

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.

[pessimal]

very little chance of a test ride

they expect you to find something you like and buy.

ranted about it before in these hallowed pages, but it seems to be "just the way it is"

probably why there are so many machines on the market with less than 1000 miles

[jan8p]

Take someone with you with experience of riding bikes. Ask them to test ride it for you, there's a greater chance of that happening than a CBT holder.

[Biker 1]

Yep - even my local multi-franchise dealer doesn't have more than around 10 demo bikes. So you have to rely on bike mag reviews, talking to owners, owners' fora, swinging a leg over in the showroom & bike shows, & that's about your lot.

[Cabrony]

I want to do my CBT, the company state I need to wear "stout shoes or boots with ankle protection".
I wouldn't do any further training until March next year (desperate just try motorbiking this year) so don't want to fork out for some motorbike boots, would rather get regular boots for the time being.

Would these suffice?

https://www.timberland.co.uk/shop/en/tbl-uk/davis-...

I don't want to be turned away on the day.

Thank you from a noob.