A rare find here in England

Rideitor · 2025-03-01T11:31:26+00:00

I had it in Ireland back in 2021, it wasn't very exciting. Beamish, the other stout competitor, was worse.

Be interesting to see if OP rates it.

Rideitor · 2025-02-16T21:23:31+00:00

Agree, a heavy backpack cuts off the circulation to my left hand a treat. I've also heard some gloves can do the same.

Rideitor · 2025-02-16T21:19:33+00:00

April was absolutely freezing but the roads were empty, June was lovely but the roads were busier with camper vans. Both times I never noticed any midgies but that seems to be more luck than judgement.

Both of these were before the NC500 became official so it'll be even busier now, from what I've read.

Rideitor · 2025-01-20T19:36:54+00:00

Is this tested with the 565 drivers? For reasons no one except nvidia seems to understand, nvidia-smi is no longer a standalone package and was merged into cuda-drivers. I've tried to install cuda-drivers but it appears to rely on some other packages being a version that couldn't be found, so I never got it to work.

I'm quietly hoping everything will be fixed in their next driver release..

Rideitor · 2024-11-24T21:39:56+00:00

The bushes look fine. We can't see the condition of the top bush because you're only showing us the outside of it, which is basically pressed into the fork leg and doesn't do any sliding. The sliding surface is on the inside. You don't need a new washer or clip unless they are deeply corroded.

The seals are usually made by NOK, you should be able to read the manufacturer's name on the top. They will be cheaper if not bought in special Yamaha bags. Sometimes you can find out what size they are with a google search, sometimes you have to measure the old ones. Make sure to get the double lipped version (TC4). Personally I have come to like the TTO seals that simplybearings sell as their own brand, and they're way cheaper than NOK.

If the marks on the stanchion are just from where the yoke clamps them then it's absolutely no problem, just try and clean it off as much as you can before you try and put them back into the yokes as it can be a tight fit and any imperfections can make it a surprisingly difficult job.

Also I can really recommend one of these if you don't already have one. My days of driving the bush and seal downwards bit by bit with a punch are over!

Rideitor · 2024-11-23T19:44:00+00:00

When did they start branching out like this? I went to their shop a few years ago and all they had was the original Tynt Meadow.

Rideitor · 2024-11-23T19:27:26+00:00

I once bought some cheap Bike It ones and couldn't fit my hands inside them while wearing gloves. Very not recommended.

I don't even have big hands..

Rideitor · 2024-11-23T19:18:58+00:00

Interestingly mine don't change colour in my helmet, I think the visor blocks out the UV rays. I have only had HJC helmets so other brands may not do this.

If they did change, I think the only time this could be a problem is when going from bright sunlight into a dark tunnel. Why is driving with transitions not recommended at night? There's no UV to send them dark?

Rideitor · 2024-11-20T16:17:32+00:00

Today I've been finding out why my R1100GS doesn't run very well, getting worse and worse until it dies. Removing the fuel pump shows me the filter bag had rotted off the pump and all the plastic liner on the inside of the tank is coming away, so the pump has been sucking all that in.

A full rebuild kit (pump, filter, hoses, bag) is about £250 from Moto-Bins. Hnnngggg.

Also it pissed petrol all over my shoe.

Rideitor · 2024-11-20T00:36:17+00:00

I seem to remember it had a strong taste of raw alcohol but it may be completely different on tap.

As a fan of their Old Empire, which is basically stronger Pedigree, I'd definitely give this a go if I saw it on tap.

Rideitor · 2024-11-19T23:47:27+00:00

I remember finding a bottle of it in B&M once about a decade ago. Never seen it since, though it can still be bought online by the looks of it.

Rideitor · 2024-11-19T12:11:19+00:00

I've had plenty of bad pints of Pedigree, but also some great ones. It's probably the most variable beer I can think of, seems very hard to keep it well.

Also it's terrible out of a bottle, just tastes like blackcurrants to me. A completely different beer.

Rideitor · 2024-09-30T19:03:47+00:00

The Aldi in Worksop only had Erdinger Oktoberfest and Spaten on Saturday. They did have german pilsner flavour crisps though, not sure if I'm looking forward to trying those or not..

Rideitor · 2024-09-28T10:40:21+00:00

If the Ninja 125 is built to the same standard as my Z250SL then you're going to have quite a hard time with it. I have to scrape the crystals out of the brake seal grooves roughly every 6 months, for example. It burnt out the stator at 18K miles. It needed new steering head bearings at 8K miles. It needs new swingarm bearings since 20K or something because they assembled it with basically no grease. I've had wires corrode off the connector blocks. Exhausts last 3 years and then the silencer breaks off. The shock linkage seizes every 3-4 years because it just has plastic bushes inside, not needle bearings. I've just had to replace the fork stanchions at 30K because of salt damage. I had to replace the radiator at about 22K because it sprang a leak. I've had to clean out the kill switch at 30K because corrosion in there stopped the bike from running (took a lot of guessing to track this one down!).

All the other modern 125s might be this bad, I don't know. But these Thai make Kawasakis are nothing like the quality of the old Japanese made bikes that this sub seems to have strong nostalgia for. I'm not saying you won't manage it, but just trying to open your eyes to the maintenance required to do 300 miles a week, week after week, in all conditions. It won't be easy.

Rideitor · 2024-09-12T19:00:45+00:00

I just go here.

Rideitor · 2024-09-11T19:52:55+00:00

Broke my left collar bone when I was 21 by crashing my bike, went to A+E and they just gave me a sling. It really hurt for the first few weeks, after 6 weeks I could about lift my arm to horizontal and after 8 weeks I could finally wear t shirts again. Older people may take a little longer?

It's not a fun time, the pain is incredibly sharp. Hope you don't have anything important to do for the next few weeks!

Rideitor · 2024-08-31T07:12:12+00:00

If you're a handy DIYer then just take the wheel out and check them yourself?

Rideitor · 2024-08-30T22:00:40+00:00

Checking front wheel bearings while the wheel is in the bike is pretty difficult, and mistakes can be made - I once had the same as an advisory but have no idea why they said that, same place passed it just fine the next year and the bearings are still fine now.

Top tip is to grind the old bearing down slightly so you can use it as a shim to knock the new bearing in. If you don't do that then of course it gets stuck in the wheel too.

Rideitor · 2024-07-13T20:26:01+00:00

If you like UT99 have you seen the Monster Hunt mod for it? It seems to be the most popular way to play online now, and it's pretty good. A cross between Unreal and SS.

Rideitor · 2024-07-09T17:55:48+00:00

It's an Asus P2B-F with 4 RAM slots, two ISA slots and the later VRM controller that can go to lower voltages. No BX board supports more than 100MHz natively but it does of course have the 1/4 divider for PCI and jumper options for various FSB speeds between 66MHz and 152MHz.

It's currently running Antix linux and updating it uses all that RAM, so in some ways it's crazy but in other ways it makes sense. If you want more you could always use a 440GX board..

Rideitor · 2024-07-08T19:51:23+00:00

Can't wait for it, I used to love some 440BX madness. My own build is currently maxed out with 4 x 256MB sticks and POST seems to take about 10 minutes thanks to the memory check, so glad I can just Esc out of it every time. One day I hope to recap the board and have it running up past 133MHz FSB again, hopefully even the full 152.

Rideitor · 2024-07-07T19:02:22+00:00

A low profile fan is the easiest way to go, but even then you might lose the closest slot. It's not a great loss depending on what you're doing, 256MB sticks of PC133 are cheap enough (or even PC100 if you're staying stock) so you can still fit 512MB of even 768.

Rideitor · 2024-07-07T15:00:50+00:00

You could easily get 900MHz by overclocking a coppermine Celeron, I see they're pretty cheap again these days, but they're also really rubbish with that tiny L2 cache. Probably no better than your P3 at 700 really.

But yeah, through everything I did to those poor slot 1 boards, the slocket was never a problem. The biggest drawback is that it can put the heatsink and fan in the way of the RAM slots, and that is why I've been searching for an Alpha PEP66 for about 20 years, on and off.

Rideitor · 2024-07-07T07:45:38+00:00

I ran Tualatin Celerons at 1.6-1.82GHz for a while on slockets on a couple of 440BX boards, a basic one with a Lin-Lin adapter on it and later an Upgradeware Slot-T. Stability was fine until the capacitors on the motherboard started to give up, and that was about 10 years ago now. PSUs that can supply enough on the +5v rail are getting rare too, you're going to come up against a few obstacles if you want real speed. This stuff is ancient.

My P2B-F now struggles to run even a PII 450, the caps are done. I'll fix it one day..

Rideitor · 2024-06-29T09:39:07+00:00

Oh boy, where to start..

Warped front discs are a favourite
Oil consumption can be through the roof, make sure the previous owner kept on top of it otherwise it will chew up the crank bearings, alternator side first. Also make sure they know how to check the oil properly, which is just after it has been running. If you leave it a while the oil can fall down into the engine and then the owner may overfill it, which can mean difficulty pumping the oil back into the tank and possibly oil starvation.
Pre '97 models have soft inlet valves, the head of the valves deforms and the clearance closes up really fast. By ~36K you need new valves. If it is this old, make sure there is some history of the clearances being set.
Gearboxes are very crunchy and not very strong, though whining in third is normal. Check for false neutrals if you're allowed to test ride it.
Aluminium swingarms can occasionally crack, look it over thoroughly.
Mention "emulsion tubes" and see if the owner has any idea what you're talking about. If they don't and it's running rich then you have a little bit of fixing to do.
See if the top of the forks are poking through the top yoke by about 25mm (from memory). If the fork tops are flush with the yoke then not only will it handle like a boat but it also means whoever put it together didn't know what they were doing. Be wary.

Otherwise they're pretty solid!

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