mike wilson

Close enough. Red Dragonfly in some texts. The first ever Yamaha, a blatant steal from DKW without even the excuse of war reparations. Point that man!

Ascot Pullin. The Rolls Royce of motorcycles. Won the TT? Point me up!

No (to the power of six)

Look at the questions again. Sorry, I think we crossed posts there. Nearly right but not the name of a race.

Look at the questions again.

Was Robert the guy who won a GP in Belgium (I think - some time in the 1970's) despite one of the slightly partisan crowd whacking him in the face with a fence post as he went past? m

Much warmer. But more epoch-making than that.

It's an obvious derivative of the DKW RT125, as was the Bantam and many other designs. Bit you're also on the wrong continent.

To get back into topic, I've put a Solalarm on my V65. The authorised dealer who originally put it on made such an arse (put the main starter feed through the unit...) I redid it myself. It's really quite easy, although you may need to get the installation certified to get your Thatcham accreditation. There is a website if yoiu Google the name. mike

I've done that, too. But it was anchored to a HUGE piece of concrete. It either gets "joyridden" to extinction or some shithead will buy it. When my V50 was stolen about four years ago, it eventually turned up when the new owner tried to re-register it. He was (is) a policeman. _Really_ should have known better......... mike

That New Shit will do that to you............

You are at least a continent away.

Manufacturer, Model number and name it was sold under, please. One point if you get all three, as it's so easy.

Seriously, what other point would there be? Some of these machines were way ahead of their time. Much more visionary than the staid shit that is served up as innovation these days. Even allowing for the limits in metallurgy and other sciences that caused problems in power delivery and braking and other things, they show feats of intellect and downright commonsense that beat a lot of the present competition hands down.

Pity, in a way. T'would have been an excellent run in. m

Don't you believe it. In this country, motorcycle theft is endemic. Every roadworthy bike I've ever owned has either been stolen or had an attempt on it at some time. I've had a friend who was been kept in his home by superglued locks and taped windows whilst a gang emptied his garage. They had even cut the telephone wires for the whole street - this was before mobile technology was common. At one time, there was a thriving cottage industry in certain dealers selling spare keys to new bikes. You buy your new machine, take it home, walk in the house to get your spouse to show off the new purchase, come out to find it gone. I honestly don't know anyone who hasn't suffered from this. An alarm and multiple locks, preferably ones that anchor the machine to something immoveable, are mandatory. It's not only cheap fuel that you've got going for you.......

Bugger. I looked at Pannonia but couldn't find that model. Well done, excellent entertainment. Any more information at the URL? m

It's the Cyrillic first letter of Ural, not a swastika.....

They are very like GGM but not quite there. And I can find no reference to GGM bikes.

So the incentive for cutting corners becomes higher. I'm less than happy about that. Last week an Easyjet plane went off the runway at Torp (Oslo) because of icy conditions. The pilot had been warned that the runway was unsuitable for use but apparently decided to try it instead of diverting to another airport, which would, of course, have cost the company money. If you're really so little bothered about your safety, I've got some 30 year old Pneumants that I can let you have cheap. m

Raced a couple of 10 year olds up the bell tower of Durham Cathedral on Saturday, then spent 20 minutes try not to puke off the top. Told them it was because I was dizzy from the spiral staircases....... Took a Norwegian friend photographing in party city Newcastle on Saturday night. Only got propositioned twice 8-( Spent Sunday watching the rain come down.

From experience, if you can get the bank details, easiest and quickest will be a direct bank transfer. Takes about a day, my bank charges £10, whatever the amount, plus an agent's charge at the other end. m

Classic technique. Propose something terrifyingly draconian, then when the real thing comes in everybody breathes a sigh of relief. We've got a similar thing going on with unsurfaced roads in the UK. And we've all got it going on with "the war on terror"™ - or is that just toooo political for this thread????? m

It's very little weight but (at a density of about 2.7g/cubic centimetre) it's a hell of a lot of aluminium to cut off a component. Even allowing for piston alloy to be more dense than pure aluminium, it's about seven cubic centimetres per piston, or just under 1/4 of a cubic inch. I know these pistons are big rascals but manufacturers don't put material where it's not needed - unless they buy it in as stock and that's the nearest size. On a heavily machined component like a piston, it makes sense to do it right. If that means leaving more material on, for example to prevent skirt breakage some thousands of miles down the road, then that is generally what happens. IIRC, the pistons are not full skirt jobbies, so you will be taking mass off the parts that carry all the thrust loads. It's a good idea for small discrepancies (which I would classify as being in the order of fractions of a gramme) but not in this instance. I wouldn't do it. mike

urrghhh. Microcars are as indistinguishable as ubiquitous commuter two strokes. But easier than dirt-oriented bikes....... 8-)