Modern Vespa

billy and mav i'm sorry to hear that you're having relationship troubles. have you tried apologizing profusely even though you've no idea what or whether you've done something wrong?

oh and billy i think you may have had a moldy bagel for breakfast this morning

Ooh errr! Did he stay the night?

Just kidding! Am I still supposed to be meeting you two bright and early in the morning at the sale?

no you muppet - did you read his last post about the multi-function vibrator? that's gotta be the result of some sort of ergot poisoning

billy and i are aiming to get to J&S around 10 - see you there?

A lovely day out there, the trees are singing and the birds are swaying.

And Genie's calling me a muppet

I will be at J&S in the morning... might be worth checking that their sale is still on...

i checked, it is

Thanks for the advice Genie but saying sorry for something that I'm ignorant of isn't really me.
Sure I'll say sorry when I've let someone down or they've misunderstood something I've said or done but saying sorry believing I've done bad eventhough I havn't doesn't really wash.

On a lighter note 2 Bridgestone Hoops are coming my way on Thursday.

Rah rah rah.

Regards

Bill XX

Oh Dear I may have just taken myself way too seriously there.

Raps self on the knuckles and again.

It's been a long week.

i'm still at work. i've been in damage control mode since about 11am

i can't think any more. does somebody want to come and pick me up? i'm afraid i'm going to fall asleep on the way home

I'd love to but I'm in Dallas.

cheers for the offer. any tips on riding whilst in the early stages of a work-induced coma?

I would too but it is our May ball tonight... How exciting, a few hours of dancing

Genie, have a sing-a-long to keep the noodle ticking over!

Imagine an orange penguin sitting as a pillon passenger as you ride.

oh i like that very much. have you had a moldy bagel too?

No, its all 100 per cent recreational fags for me.

I've done that lots, well not really WORK induced, but coma anyway. If it's cool out it helps, but I found that shaking your head a little helps if you zone out. Maybe stretch some before you get on your scooter and arch your back a little (I do some yoga). Maybe you could sing some on the way home. Be careful anyway and keep those eyes moving.

Two quick swerves on the new tires should wake you right up.

Genie, busy now to make fresh pizza's in home ... if you want. No, bad idea from me

I'm pretty sure that last bit
produces quite a different mental image on this side of the Atlantic

just back from the royal free hospital.

at lunchtime today two members of my staff team were enjoying a coffee on a table outside a cafe on abbey road. a third member of my team stopped to say hello and joked that now she knows what the other two get up to a lunch time. one of my colleagues, who was seated at the table, joked that the other colleague would need eyes in the back of her head to keep an eye on her.

at that moment, without any warning or noise, a large 60 foot high london plane tree over the road fell over and landed on them!

as the tree fell a bow knocked one member of my team through the (luckily) open door of a shop and pinned the other two against the table of the cafe. a parked car, with someone sitting inside, broke the fall of the tree slightly but the tree still pinned two of my colleagues to the table. one escaped with a cut hand but the other has two fractured vertebrae and is still in hospital with a long rehab ahead. the guy in the parked car was crushed and the a&e doctor told me he is in a critical state.

what a day! amazing that so much mahem can ensue when one minute you're just sitting there enjoying a coffee in the sunshine. makes you think.

OMFG.... I thought the only risk in Belsize Park at the moment was the 22 year old who has just come back from Cancun with Influenza A HN1Na!

howleee crap kam i'd say i hoped you were on the recreational fags too but that doesn't sound like something you could make up. i hope your colleague makes a full recovery.

as a matter of fact i did sing on the way home. nina hagen, 'born in xixax' to be exact.

i am starting to enjoy these new tyres

and marc, i want to know how you know how much the valve caps weigh.

enjoying a bottle of baron de somebody's cheap rose wine. boyf has just shown me a pic of the bike he now wants. it's out of a japanese anime series and comes with a missile launcher as standard equipment

Shit... would he cope? I seem to remember his favorite position is sliding shiny side down along the road... like I am one to talk

PS I will not be at J&S in the morning but will be at home form 11am.... things to do, and no more wishlists from J&S!!!

how will i shop without you doug?

just kidding ... we'll see you shortly after 11ish, depending on how many helmets bill decides to try on. i'm betting on every single one in the shop

i am going to really splash out, and purchase some new plastic bolty things to hold my license plate on. it's hanging on by a wish and a prayer at the moment. of course depending on how the parking protests go i may wish to consider velcro

Any further info as to the cause of the tree falling??

here's the link. let's hope the poor guy is ok.

freaky that 3 members of my team were amongst the 4 people injured.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23684627-details/Cabbie+trapped+as+huge+tree+falls+into+road/article.do

btw my first reaction was to ride to the hospital...

...and my second was to phone my man to organise more recreational cigarettes.

Kam,

That is crazy stuff! I started reading your post as if it were a joke and I was waiting for a punchline. Thats one for the 'you couldn't make it up' file.

I hope the member of your team with the injuries recovers speedily.

i reckon over the last few years they cut the roots on one side when laying cable tv cables, the next side's roots got the chop when they renewed the gas mains, a couple of new kerb stones later, the poor tree had no roots left.

when it fell it didn't even disturb any of the paving slabs surrounding its base.

thanks marc.

i know as a manager i'm not supposed to have favourites, but the injured woman is by far my favourite team member.

Kam you are allowed to have favourites. For me it's usually the most attractive member of the team who makes me laugh the most.
In any group of people I usually warm to one more than the others.

Doesn't that awful event just go to show how fragile our lives all are ?

I hope the injured parties have a swift as possible recovery.

Many years ago at my old school a tree fell right on top of a portacabin killing one student. Awful.

Later this morning I'm going helmet shopping and certain members have been suggesting that I should really get a another full face helmet or at least a flip because of the safety/protection benefits and all of that advice is valid.
But having used one for years I still prefer the open face mainly because I can see and hear so much more, be it on the motorway or in town and for me that's very important especially in town when life savers are a must.
I'll admit I don't want to dwell too much the condition of my face if it ever connected with metal/tarmac/glass but for me the added sound and vision from using an open face puts this in context.
Certainly I'm not so well protected and I'll be happy to admit that I'm taking more of a risk but the benefits of being able to see and hear so much more out weigh it. Well for me anyway.

And yes I will be trying on every helmet in the shop before I leave.
It's the law.

Regards

Bill x

PS I'm gutted that Doug isn't coming shopping. How am I going to pick any fashion tips if he's not there ? Over to you Genie.

i'm with you on the advantages of an open face helmet, although i mainly wear a full face now. i fancy a roof boxer as it's the most open face-like when the chinguard is flipped all the way back.

on the subject of favourites, it's a lot about intelligence, sense of humour and looks for me as well i'm afraid. very shallow, but so much fun.

Hello only just got round to reading it Jimc... and as always of course your right, the tickover is entirely controlled by the ECU... base idle is set via the ECU programming, at the preset throttle butterfly position, the ECU can then speed up or slow down the tickover by controlling the amount of air bypassing the throttle butterfly via the stepper motor... it also uses the same control to boost rpm slightly just before the cooling fans kick in as they sap a lot of power.

So!...

Theyve probably done one of two things, and maybe even both...

1) They used the throttle bodys preset butterfly stop as a idle screw... which renders that technically useless as its resting position is know an unknown...

or...

2) Theyve reset the throttle position sensor... which is also a stupid thing to do...

As for the stalling, chances are its the issue regarding the communication errors between the ECU and a few components on the machine thats been addressed with the last ECU update which is only available on the new Navigator TXB machine...

hi guys sorry i've been a bit absent - that is, if any of you missed me!

bill - hang in there, remember what follows.. and take care

lots of hugs x

oh my God Kam is that what that was?????
I was riding all jolly back home (left at 5:30 ON THE DOT) zipping through abbey rd thinking "i'll be home in record time woohoo" then suddenly we're all to make a detour into boundary rd as there were trucks of all types. I thought it was something to do with a tree, just thought "and they couldn't decide to cut that tree on a sunday morning, no no they had to do it at rush hour!"

glad you're ok!!!
how weird!!!!!

another brilliant day of riding, scooter shop visitation, and tinkering chez doug.

billy and i went down to J&S in Greenwich this morning, looking for helmets for him and a pair of kevlar lined jeans for boyf. bill took about 7 minutes to decide that he didn't like any of the approximately 200 helmets on offer, but i left with a pair of kevlar jeans and a very nice hi-vis vest. Alex is delighted with his jeans, which are very figure-flattering.

we then proceeded on to scootech where bill got very lucky with a helmet - i will let him tell you about that.

on to doug's, where i actually managed to change the 'Loper's belt and rollers (under doug's guidance for most of it though he had to do a couple of things that i couldn't manage with my feeble girly hands ). we also changed the oil in both the GTs. I also had a brilliant pillion ride on the Mana - cheers bill - and i think bill is still grinning. we devoured fish and chips and drank lots of coffee. cheers to doug for being a wonderful host as always as well as a fantastic teacher (i now understand the orientation of all the transmission parts) and to billy for getting the fish n chips in. the scooter is very very happy as well and feels much less hesitant from a stop.

i'm now sitting happily in the kitchen with a brush and a tin of neomorph? novacaine? nitromusk? nanomerkin? .... anyway paint stripper. the 'Loper's transmission cover is going to be sprayed satin black tomorrow.

all in all a very very satisfactory day indeed.

p.s. dessa i think it is time for another tarot reading!!

I had a lovely day as well. After I tidied up, I stripped the ET completely, so now all that is left is the metal and the engine. The carb is on the table.

Can't get the exhaust to budge so penetrating spray on overnight, and I'll get tough in the morning.

i've started a 'let's do lunch next weekend' thread over in the Rallies and Events section: London/southeast UK scooterists - lunch may 10th

1 I bought an Airoh TR1 which sloves my problem because it's a full face which turns into an open race and it was discounted from £130 - £50.
2 Loved riding the Mana be it solo or pillion but sadly Doug declined my offer of a ride of a lifetime. Stunning bike with shit loads of torque.
3 Brilliant to watch Genie take instructions and pretty much strip and rebuild her clutch/variator/belt/weights solo. Very impressed.
4 Changing the oil on a GT is a two man job ask Doug for details.
5 I really enjoyed the riding the Shitty and yes I have to admit it flys and goes around corners like dream.
6 That ET4 was a steal and I'm a bit jealous. What a bargin.
7 Despite J and S having a warehouse full of stuff it had nothing I wanted to buy.
8 The GT feels even smoother with its engine full of Rock Oil.
9 Doug you are the most excellent host with never ending cups of coffee.
10 Fish and Chips for lunch. Full of guilt but oh so nice.

A good day

Regards

Bill X

i am well and truly gutted that i didn't get a picture of bill in his 'look at me!! i'm flying!!' pose as he held up the scooters while the last of the oil drained out.

Well if you come down to Maidstone tomorrow Nick and I are going to re-inact the flying pose as we are going to lay over the GT when we take the exhaust off ready for the "hoops" arrival.
More later
Bill X