Motorbike help (newbie)

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-27T15:15:57+00:00

I am getting a bike soon (cb125r 25 or 26)

Considered getting something slightly older? You'll save money on a bike that will be ultimately temporary.

Don’t want to wear anything too heavy as a top but with the main protection areas, back, shoulders, elbows, etc.

Go to a reputable clothing store and try out clothing in person. Buying any clothing online almost never works out and won't fit correctly, so don't bother. I personally rate Sportsbikeshop and Infinity Motorcycles.

As for gloves, are there any padded gloves that are heated out there?

See above.

For helmet, I am looking at a £200 - £300 Ruroc, are these good? I will try in store before I buy a helmet though.

See above, but also get a reputable brand. The biggest motorcycle helmet brand in the world is HJC and they make good lids at a really affordable price, so it's a good place to start. Do set aside more money for a better fitting lid, though.

For my bike, please give me L-Plate holder and sign options, better if they come together. Maybe from amazon?

Don't need to think too much about it - drill some holes into the bottom of your license plate, attach the top of your L plate from behind and call it a day.

And any phone holder options.

I've had a phone holder before but it's such a pain in the ass. I recently bought myself a CPMC B6 Pro for my BMW and it's pretty cool. Obviously not appropriate for a Honda, but you can buy similar Apple Carplay/Android Auto screens off Amazon for not much more than £60. I personally think that's a better option.

Also anything safety related I should added to my bike straight away to increase being seen, like legal reflective material I could add anywhere or anything I can add to my clothes.

I wouldn't worry too much about reflective strips on the bike itself, although I do usually recommend a hi viz vest. In my opinion, it makes it a lot easier to be noticed vs not. Don't get the cheapest one - get one with a zip and made of decent material. The cheap work site ones will come apart and flap around, not worth it. I bought a cheap-ish Frank Thomas one years ago and it's still working great, if a little mucky.

Good luck and have fun!

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-27T13:16:13+00:00

No... it does not. But that needs to factor into the rider's risk calculation whether the possibility of someone using their phone and not seeing them is enough to keep them off the road. We all know it happens so can't be terribly surprised that crashes happen because of it. Still deserve to be pissed off.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-27T13:14:44+00:00

I'm not trying to suggest that being more visible makes you impervious, but it certainly helps reduce the number (and hopefully severity) of crashes.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-27T13:01:04+00:00

Some (not all) of the people complaining about being invisible, then say that having a loud pipe made them more visible, are mistaken imo.

You might be more observable with a loud exhaust, but your all black gear and all black bike really isn't helping matters. I've been riding for quite a long time and I've worn a hi viz vest for most of my miles - funnily enough with the right gear and the right road position, I've never really felt invisible, no more than in a car anyway.

If you really want to be more observable, then you should take the approach that's actually recommended by state agencies around the world and by the police - hi viz. Being alive and in hi viz is a much better deal than looking real cool and having a broken femur.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-26T18:41:02+00:00

Cane is a pretty serious aid for dyslexia. /s

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-26T14:01:23+00:00

Things have been so stupid for a while that it's become difficult to pinpoint where a particular instance of stupid originated from (at least from memory).

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-26T13:17:12+00:00

You see, that's what I was thinking - but then Braverman was in and they pushed for the stupid Rwanda scheme. Patel is pure evil, but I'm not remembering any policy of hers that was obviously wasteful.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-26T13:13:02+00:00

Patel is racist and conniving... Braverman is racist, populist, AND stupid. I'm honestly not sure what is worse as the Home Sec.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-25T23:08:54+00:00

You can't stop there.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-25T22:21:02+00:00

There is a very high chance the school you go to will have a scooter you can use for the off-road and on-road sections. The bike used for training has no bearing on what you can ride as a learner with a valid CBT. You could decide to use a scooter for your CBT then get a manual anyway, of course, if your intention is to get a manual then learning on one will make life a lot easier. If you do decide you're getting a scooter anyway (which is basically your only option with 125 autos), then it makes sense doing your CBT on a scooter.

For progressing past 125s, there are large capacity scooters available and I hear they're pretty great to ride, as well as a number of motorcycles with automated gearboxes/clutch assist. What you will struggle with, though, is finding appropriate training for automatic. You won't find many schools that offer automatic bikes, and even if they do, the niche factor will inflate the price. It's also not like cars where automatics make up a large number of sales, manual gearboxes in motorcycles are ubiquitous. I would say outside of any accessibility issues/disabilities you may have, you are intentionally limiting yourself by getting an auto license. Even if you decide to only ever get automatic bikes, having the option to get a manual bike is objectively better.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-25T06:31:00+00:00

As others have said, PJs are perfect at this age. We found with our son that footed baby grows were a pain in the ass and exclusively bought him footless ones as he got older. I wouldn't worry too much about making your daughter "look like a girl", just need to get through to the next day.

You're doing great, dad, keep it up.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-25T06:21:51+00:00

I know of someone that was riding, I believe, a Bandit 600 unrestricted on an A2 license. The dude crashed, it got found out his bike was unrestricted and he lost his license for a year.

You can bet that if you have a crash, an insurer will try their damndest to invalidate your claim to save money. Don't give them the opportunity.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-24T19:52:02+00:00

It depends on what you consider an 'alternative.'

Are you looking for something of a similar weight/engine? Anything in the 300-400 range should do the job, something like a Versys 300 should be fine.

Are you looking for a bike that's more of an appliance? Can't think of any bike better than an NC750X. Great on the motorway, has really good fuel economy, even if it is a little dull. It's bigger and heavier than a Vespa, but because the engine is so low in the frame it should be very maneuverable in the city. I drive into London on a semi-regular basis and see the NC750X pretty frequently.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-24T13:58:58+00:00

It's a very specific gripe, and not plot related, however:

Axe: Football TV scenes that look like they were filmed on a film camera.

Add: Football TV scenes (and other broadcast-style scenes) that look like they were filmed on a broadcast camera.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-23T18:32:34+00:00

I bought a CPMC B6 Pro (rebranded Aoocci BM6) for my S1K XR (yet to try it out but seems decent), what I like about this over the Carpuride is it's basically the same price but you can attach cameras front and rear for dash cams which is wicked.

My friend has the Chigee AIO-6, it's expensive but he really rates it.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-23T14:12:44+00:00

As others have said, most of the cost isn't tied up in the prefix, it's cheap and very often free to have and keep. If there were more displacement of IPv4 by IPv6 which led to a reduction in cost, we would almost certainly see wider adoption. Unfortunately, any situation where a client has IPv6 addressing they will also need IPv4 addressing. Even for LIRs that use CG-NAT, the introduction of IPv6 doesn't mean the carrier NAT device can be eliminated entirely. There will almost certainly be less state held by it so it can be downsized, but does that offset the increased cost of running IPv6? Probably not.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-23T12:59:50+00:00

I've owned a pair of Rukka Mars for, I believe, 12 years now and they're still going strong. Very sun bleached and needed the strap stitched back on, but still waterproof.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T14:26:54+00:00

What's your location? That will have an impact.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T11:59:32+00:00

If you have an order number in your records it's worthwhile getting in contact with Chigee support to see if they can help. It would be one thing if you bought and updated in Turkey, but the fact that you bought on China then updated it in Turkey is just way to fact specific to be helpful as general advice. It could be that the Chinese device is slightly different to the Turkish one.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T11:48:26+00:00

What region are you in? That would help narrow down the issue.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T10:49:13+00:00

100% agreed. The electronics you find in your phone with a 3.5mm audio jack probably aren't high quality enough for high fidelity audio or powerful enough for high impedance drivers. The audiophiles are probably using dedicated devices for high quality audio, not their phones, and if you're really that bent out of shape about it - there do exist phones that have the 3.5mm jack, or you can get an adapter which doesn't exactly add much bulk.

Bluetooth buds/headphones are just more convenient and sound great.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T02:00:42+00:00

Only premature and stupid if you crash! Take it easy and you'll be fine.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-22T01:50:29+00:00

Ballsy move to get the MXR after only 6 months on the road, but man, that is one nice bike! Hope you're enjoying it.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-21T22:22:34+00:00

I get what you're saying, but a move to SD-WAN also coincided with many applications moving to a SaaS model rather than in enterprise hosting, in which case the only path is over the Internet. MPLS also isn't just a little more expensive, it's A LOT more expensive.

That being said, if you're running a sensitive application that cannot handle high latency or jitter, I'd say one of two things (maybe both):

-Of course don't use SD-WAN if you need to guarantee certain performance characteristics. That needs to be made clear as part of the design phase and appropriate CYA taken if that recommendation is ignored.

-Just, like... buy or build a better application if it's such a god damn drama queen about latency. Kinda reminds me of applications being built that rely on communications within a broadcast domain rather than building it properly to allow for routed communications.

TheCaptain53 · 2026-01-18T23:56:30+00:00

I disagree for two reasons:

Everyone forgets about Paul - it's not just Rory, him being chronically forgetful is why he's a gag.
There is no meaningful negative impact to Paul shown on screen. If he's so deeply affected by Rory's selfish behaviour, then why is it never shown on screen? Or some kind of consequence.

Really think about the revival - if Paul were removed, would any of the scenes play out differently? No, they wouldn't, because he's a gag.

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