audiomick

So would I. As far as I know, those protectors are always after-market accessories, so it is more or less pot luck to find a match to the set you have. Also, the ones you have will look a bit weathered, and the replacement brand new. And yes, have a really good look for hidden damage. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that there isn't any.

I second that. There is not quite enough fairing on that for a Le Mans.

There are "sports" sunglasses available that stay on (for the most part...) during that sort of funny buggers.

speaking of good carpenters, this turned up a couple of years ago on the geman forum. I don't know if it has been here yet. If not, it should have.

And now for something completely different... Someone showed me this earlier this evening. I thought it might be useful information towards solving the problem of how to play Rachmaninov if your hands are too small. It seems it is easy: all you need is a good carpenter and a capable assistant.

Thanks for the info. I've got the plate here, might get around to installing it one day, but I wouldn't have thought of those details.

Thanks for that @Joe . I wasn't aware of that concert, but it seems there is a fair bit of it in the Tube. And the sound quality is fairly good for the time.

Don't know why I thought of this just now...

Where do they occur?

Yes. Without getting into "sag" and "over 60 years old", I reckon I can get my garage "flat-mate" to help me have a look at how much the suspension on the bike sags when I sit on it.

A quick check with an armful of gear on the bathroom scales confirms that this is about right. So about 165 pounds with all the gear.

So about 86 kg in proper units. I'm around 65 kg without the gear, so maybe 75 kg all kitted up. Do you reckon I'd be right with the standard springs, assuming they are still ok? I'm inclined to think I would be. The front end felt alright the last time I rode it. I had put the pre-load back to the "default" settings from the user's manual.

Pinning it will keep you going for a while, but I reckon, looking at the photos, that the levers are just knackered and need replacing. Patch it up, and start looking for a replacement.

That's a good trick. Probably won't save you if the battery is really knackered, or if the charging system is faulty, but will protect you from you own stupidity if you're prone to forgetting to turn off the lights when you park the bike.

Me too, actually. Not the motor, I knew I'd love that. A flatmate had a Le Mans III in the late '80's, and I really liked it, and I was convinced that a more modern version of the motor must be good. It is, perhaps even more than I expected. But the styling... I still can't really come at a V11 without the Le Mans fairing. And even the Le Mans took a couple of months to grow on me. Riding it helped convince me, of course.

No. This place https://öhlins-gera.de/de which is here https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/208123602#map=18/50.880637/12.166849 Not really close to New Jersey... It's become a bit difficult here. There were two places with a good reputation. I had my rear shock done at one of them, but they have closed down. At the other place, the owner apparently has health issues and can't say when (or if...) he will be back to normal operations. I turned up Motoradtke myself, but so far haven't had any comments back in the various forums about the quality of the work. I assume, though, if he can stay as official Öhlins partner, then he probably is at least competent.

Not quite on topic, but related: mine has a blown fork seal. Not just a drip, it lost (apparently) the entire contents of the left fork leg on the ground overnight after the last time I rode it. It has, according to the speedo, about 70,000 km on the clock. I'm still tossing up about what to do. On the one hand, there is a place about 80 km away from here that is a "fork specialist", specifically Öhlins, but I gather he'll do any forks. On the other hand, the workshop that I use as needed has no doubt done forks, and can no doubt do a servicable job. I was more or less happy with the fork's performance. As far as the "too soft" springs go, I currently weigh 65 kg, so I don't need particualrly hard forks. So what should I do? Go to the effort to take the forks to the specialist, or just have them done by my "tame" mechanic? I do like to have things perfect, but on the other hand, I'm not going to be racing it or anything demanding like that. I could have a go at it myself, but I don't think I'll find the time (it's already 6 months since the seal went), and I don't have the experience to evaluate the wear on the internal parts as to whether anything needs replacing. I'd be interested in a "vote", what is the sensible thing to do, weighing cost and effort against advantages.

My brother in law, unfortunately passed away due to a heart attack, had a theory. In his opinion, everyone should have to be obliged to ride a motorcyle for a at least a year before getting a driver's license to drive a car. That way, the really stupid ones would get sorted out by natural attrition, and the roads would become a safer place for all.

Me? It was a Ford F350, ex-ambulance. Old, and probably not well looked after. The first thing was a radiator hose. The next thing was the bit where a cooling hose went into the block, or came out. Basically, the cooling system was on the edge. When the first weak point went and was repaired, the next one came right behind it.

Yes, of course. But it was a Trio, no keyboardist (thank god...), and the bass player formed the band, and was the owner of the vehicle. This is them, and the "coming just in time" in the first video is truer to life than is funny.

Have you asked your insurance? Or a towing company? One or the other should be able to give you an idea. I have a membership in the ADAC, roughly translated the "General Geman automobile club". It is similar to the RACV, the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, in which I was a member whilst I was still in Australia. They both provide emergency help, i.e. they will come out to you and try and get your vehicle going again. If it can't be repaired on the spot, they will tow to the nearest affiliated workshop. That works well, but they, the towing companys, of course earn the bucks with fixing the problem in their workshop. If you want to get the vehicle home, or to "your" workshop, that's your problem. The system works, though. I've had to use them a few times, and was very glad to have the membership. Costs about €60,- a year, I think. "Wasted" money most of the time, but when you need it, worth every cent. PS: as far as distances go: I spent a year working for a band in Australia. We were on our way from Adelaide to Sydney, and the vehicle blew a radiator hose somewhere east of Swan Hlll on the New South Wales side of the river. 65 km back to the previous town, and 70 km to the next one. The bass player hitch-hiked to the next town, and the RACV (or RACNSW) came out and towed us in. All well and good, but they only repaired the blown hose. The next weak spot blew at about 3 in the morning, somewhere near Yass, I think. The Auto Club there refused to come and get us in the middle of the night, but were there at 9 the next morning. They had to go to Goulburn to get parts, but they did the job properly, and refurbished the entire cooling system. We got back on our way at about 2 in the afternoon. I should mention, we had left Adelaide after a show at about 2 in the morning. The second breakdown was at about 3 in the morning the following night. "Back on our way" was at about 2 in the afternoon of the third consecutive day without having been in a bed. The plan had been to check in to a hotel in Sydney, sleep a bit, and then go on to Newcastle to play a show. Because of the breakdowns, we drove through to get to the show. Of course we got a flat tyre about a mile short of the venue, but we had a spare. After the show, we drove back down to Sydney to the hotel. Because I was the only one who hadn't drunk any alchohol, I drove. Newcastle to Sydney is about two hour's drive. I don't remember any of it.

It's good. Definitely. Back in the day, when I started riding, the laws in Victoria, Australia restricted lerners and probationary license holders (initially the first year, later two years, if I recall correctly...) to a motorcyle with a maximum 250cc capacity. That worked quite well for a while. When I started, it was mostly 4-stroke Japanese bikes: Z250, GSX250, CB250 or XS250. They were all pretty much a down-sized 400. The 400 was for the Japanese market, dictated by the licensing laws there, and they were "de-stroked" and "de-bored" to match the laws in Australia. And then, in the late '80s, came the two-strokes. 250 production racing produced a plethora of race-replica two-stroke 250s, the RGV 250, the KR250 and then the KR1, the RS 250, the RZ250. Very light, very fast. Which inevitaly led to absolute beginners going out on the street to learn to ride on what was effectively a race bike. Not good. Eventually, the law was changed to a "power-to-weight" regulation, which is much more sensible for beginners. I find the European regulation fairly good. There is a license that a 16-year-old can get, restricted to very small motorcycles. The A2 is, as far as I know, restricted to less than 48 ps. Adequate to learn on and gain experience, but not enough to get too silly. It's ok that way.

Hallo Jaide, welcome aboard.

Yes, I also reckon the bolt is too short. Maybe 4 or 5 mm more would be good. I read somewhere, written be someone who should know, that there should be a minimum of 1.5 to 2 turns of thread proud of the nut, at least when it is a lock nut. And the lock nut does look a bit shabby. But why the nut on the bottom? I see no reason for that. On the contrary, I expect it is a lot easier to tighten up with the nut on top.

No, they don't. I've had my V35 Imola gearbox open a couple of times. You need something to hold the input shaft to get the nut off (110 nM), and a longisch Allen key to get to a particular screw inside, but that's all. The rest is standard metric nuts and bolts.