Modern Vespa

No actually its external factors that are fucking things up.

I want more money, more pickles, and less contact with chancer solicitors with all the brains of a toffee hedgehog.

Just seen on another forum: ride through Wootton Bassett to RAF Lyneham in support of the Afghan Heroes charidee -

http://www.afghanheroes.org.uk/bikersevent.asp

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=231770155035

Yes, I like hanging out at RAF bases, WHAT OF IT?

Go and see The Book of Eli. Just go and see it.

You won't feel it coming but when it does.......

Bill X

I want to do that - but there's sod all info on the ride-in meet-ups. And I'm NOT doing Faecesbook.

You don't need to be a Farcebook member to look at the group, luckily; meetup points are under the 'Discussions' tab.

Howard is considering a BWAM ride from somewhere Dorsety - bit of an early start for you though!

How are we all booked for the 4th of April ?

I'm thinking that we could all invade another Italian Restaurant in Central London that day for an as yet untitled Kok-a-doodle-do.

Oh I forgot to add it's open to non Koks as well, it's a bit like a meet the Kok's for non- Koks so to speak.

Is everyone available on that date ?

Bill XX

So far - I'll do my best to keep it clear!

Fun thing seen on my way to work this morning: cyclist riding through a red light, blissfully unaware of the three police motorcyclists behind him, who stopped him for a full dressing-down

I've got the 4th snagged in the diary.

People do seem to miss police bikers. I remember following one home through the Piccadilly underpass and a mad driver proceeded to do an insane and very illegal u turn in front of us.

The look on that driver's face when the lights went and he had to stop was brilliant!

apart from an annoying detour laden pootle of a ride to work this morning, i had a very very good scooter day today i took the headset apart and sorted out my headlight (the connector had worked loose) then installed my dogleg levers while i was in there.

best of all, lawrence (lovely mechanic at scootech) gave me a perfectly fantastic fender crest - it's so amazing that it's got its own thread: my new fender crest - pure awesomeness

By contrast Mr Wonder had a four hour lunch break on the way to Clapham. I'm sure he will post WHY in due course.

Hope he and the bike are OK. Or maybe he stopped off and bought another one??

Because I leave everything till the last minute, I have the pleasure of changing a GP800 headlight bulb before work tomorrow so I can ride down to Dorset in the dark. Bet it rains on me.

i hope it was due to road works and nothing more serious

Oh Husky that could be a COLD ride. You might need HEATED CLOTHING for it.

Still, envious of a good blast on the roads at any time.

bleh.

i took advantage of the warm temperatures, and the fact that it was still light, to change mine today, immediately after buying it. that's so not like me.

Oooooh, like...Gerbing, for instance?

There will be lovely snuggly heated waistcoat action for me. I do rather want heated socks/insoles though.

As I have to keep them on the public highway, my options for doing any bike-related tasks are severely limited during the cold/wet/dark season

Just wear your all-in-one, and pee down the legs. Heated insoles, voila!

For five minutes, perhaps - then, voila, wet feet.

Another one gone? How many is that?

The first replacement one (Arras ) I had from Halfords (expensive) blew within a few months. The very cheap "GBP3 for two" (Lidl) one I replaced that with has lasted ever since.

I've had at least 3 go since Arras: one on the Iron Butt, one in France in September, and this one.

I'm buying the Lidl cheapies and I wondered if this was my error, but I guess not! Stocks are running low, I hope they're in again soon...

Like Genie, I took advantage of the weather (and working from home) to do some work on the scoot at lunchtime.

Wired up the battery harness for the heated jackets and gloves I've just got. Went for ride to Infinity in Clapham. Lovely and warm, even though I was being very careful to only use the gloves on medium and the jacket on very low so as not to drain the battery in traffic.

On way home, scoot dies at the lights in Stockwell. Competely. No electrics whatsoever. I immediately realise I've either blown a fuse or the battery voltage has gone so low the computer's shut the bike off.

Find a space, get access to battery/fusebox. No blown fuses, decide it must the battery. Phone Infinity (who are about a mile behind me) to see if they have a matching battery. They don't, but their van driver is coming past me anyway, so will see if he can use a booster battery to get mine started.

He shows up, even with the booster battery connected nothing is working. Recheck fuses. Swear. Consider getting a van. They he notices that I haven't reconnected the positive lead from the bike back to the battery. Reconnect that and everything is hunky-dory.

I am a pillock.

So... why was the bike running at all? I have a theory. My scoot has a red plastic condom-like thing over the positive terminal on the battery lead. When I connected up the harness, I pushed that back on top of the bolt. That was making contact when I started the bike at home and at Infinity on the way back. It came disconnected on the way back, and that killed the bike.

The scary thing is that I'm fairly certain there was a good chance that had I had the jacket switched on at the time, the entirely main circuit of the bike would have gone through the jacket. The only saving grace is that because I'd been being a good boy and following the instructions (although I got one bit horribly wrong), I had actually replaced the fuse in the battery harness with the minimum one I'd need (10A from the 15A it came with).

I only think that didn't happen because the 10A fuse in the harness didn't blow.

Scary, and I'm a bit disappointed in myself, as I took my time and was (I thought) very careful.

Still, after I wired it up correctly, my was nice and warm the rest of the way home, and the nice chaps from Infinity are funded for a couple of rounds in the pub this evening, even though the bloke in the van didn't want any recompense. [/i]

Yep. T5 gloves and their jacket liner. They're grrreat.

Having had an unfortunate... incident in this direction, there's no sensation at first, either of warmth, coldness or wetness. It's only when you start to get cold that you realise you're rather wet, and that you're only going to get colder.

Pillock! Recognising a problem is the first step to curing it.

You won't leave a lead off again.

Finally getting back to normality. I have been really pissed off getting the tube to work. At least this week has been a Vespa week.

And now some prat has managed to reverse into my scooter and put a dent in the legshield. At least the paint isn't broken so it is probably a dent repair job as the back of it is easily accessible via the left legshield cover. And it was parked in a quiet area....

Work is finally calming down, as we have had a dreadful two weeks from the 4th Jan, what with teaching 8 hours a day and the snow on top of that. This week has been heaven in comparison and riding the Vespa has been a joy. This evening was lovely with glorious sunshine in London at 4.30pm.. hurrah first sign of the days getting longer!

Can you show the dent Doug ?

Yep. Here you are. It is barely visible... but annoying... Runs from the outer edge of the indicator in towards the upper bit of the horncast.

That will come out easy. I know a man that can Doug.

Bill XX

Fantastic. Although, if I continue riding in lunatic fashion like I did today, there may be a few more dents to fix.

How much does your man that can charge Bill?

As long as he can get behind the panel it won't be much more than £30 quid.

I may have to take it to work on a particular day but I'm sure we can sort it.

He's a mate of mine.

Bill X

Aren't we all

How cool....

Bugger me: daylight at 16:30? I was cracking up at at some wifey for driving her Qashqai with her lights off round about that time. She wouldn't even have been able to read the dials! Still, longer days are coming right enough. I've never been so excited about Summer in all my days.

Sorry to hear about the dent, fella.

Bad luck, Doug! Hope it's perfect again soon.

I have changed my headlight bulb: 7 screws (it should be eight but I've lost one), half of which are crosshead and half torx; one Maplins screwdriver which broke on the first screw, so I had to use the one from the ET4 toolkit which seems to be the only functioning crosshead in the household; gosh, don't those metal clips that hold the bulb in hurt, especially when your fingers are cold?; and now my hands smell of Swarfega.

The worst bit is that rubber shroud that just will NOT stay in place when you replace the lens cover.

Next time i'm going to super-glue it in place.

Yes! It's a right little bugger, isn't it?

Go away, rain, I have Plans.

a delicious picture for your delectation. what animal am i impersonating?

and here is a picture of a giant knitted rabbit that can be seen from space:

Don't know but awesome 'specs 8)

Ummm, you are the walrus? Koo-koo-koochoo.

Duck?

No the animal smart-arse, head back up!

Duck Billed Platypus...... (excuse the spelling).