Mississippi Bullfrog

I thought I'd try a new navigation app - so downloaded Motobit. They have a special offer on the full version which is usually £25 but is £16 for this year for new subscribers. I set a 60 mile circular route which proved to be a good mix of back lanes and faster A roads. It uses an American voice which is a bit annoying as the pronunciations are all wrong. I was looking to Rosette Lane when it meant Rossett Lane. At one stage there were two junctions very close together and I had both the American voice and an English voice both speaking at once. That was a bit odd. But overall I'm quite impressed with it. It analyses the ride data and I can't see anyway to tailor that to the bike. The Bobber tends to go round bends rather easily because the weight is so low and the app tracked the cornering data as constantly in the hooligan range. Maybe it will learn?

Some of the guys I ride with are older than me. One of them went for a Honda CB300R and got on very well with it. Another has been through a series of bigger bikes and then got rid of them within a few months because he finds the weight of them is a problem. I keep suggesting he goes for one of the new Triumph 400s. I have a 1200 and a 500. You can still have a lot of fun on a smaller capacity machine.

A few years back I wanted a replacement workhorse bike so looked at a new CB500. I then sought out dealers with used versions for sale that were a couple of years old. The signs of rust on such new bikes put me off buying a new one so I went for a 2006 CBF instead. The build quality back then was way better and it's been a cracking bike. I hope the dealer sorts it out for you. That's not good on such a new bike. At least the ones I was checking were 2-3 years old.

A bit of a follow up. My Beeline is now four years old. The charging unit got a bit tricky to get a good connection a couple of weeks ago. It still worked but I had to give it a firm press. I contacted Beeline who immediately sent out a replacement free of charge. They have a brilliant attitude to looking after customers.

I suspect dealers like most people who have to deal with that many headed monster known as the general public are inundated with time wasters who send out multiple emails expressing interest in something they're never going to follow through. Having wasted many hours my policy with all email expressions of interest is to invite them to come to see me in person. Only about 1 in 10 ever actually show up.

A lot of those youtube videos are either riders who are idiots and then get angry because they did something stupid and failed to spot a problem - or increasingly I suspect riders who are out for content so deliberately engineer a confrontation. If you ride with anticipation most potential issues become non-events.

I tried Riser last night. It's something to do with Cardo. The free version sounds usable but when you sign up you automatically get the pro version for a period so I can't yet say how the free version works. It found me a good route but no speed monitoring or speed camera warnings. Whereas Google maps did flash up a speed van. I was in Wales of course!

As above....mistakes happen. If you do it frequently you might shorten the life expectancy of your transmission. But they will withstand some mistakes without harm.

Oh joy, it's a lovely sunny day and I'm stuck in a conference about AI. I think I shall send a holograph of myself instead.

Hope you have a great day

Now £50 just to get it to work.

Basically you need three things, fuel, spark, compression. Check that the plug is wet after cranking. If it's dry then fuel isn't getting into the cylinder. Have you checked there is a spark at the plug? If it's the old battery the capacity may be reduced to the point where it will crank the engine but not have enough amps to fire the ignition properly. You need a really healthy battery. Check there isn't a restriction in the exhaust. It wouldn't be the first time a mouse has nested in there when a bike has been laid up. You should feel a healthy flow of air when the engine is cranked over.

A rattle in the exhaust could mean there's a partial blockage. That's a good way to restrict power.

Don't do what a mate of mine did. He was told that glass resin would seal the holes so he mixed up a good quantity of resin, put a plug in the outlet and poured the resin into the tank. Then he swilled it round so it coated the inside of the tank and allowed it to set. He then re-assembled the bike, filled the tank with petrol (no leaks - hurrah) and tried to start it. It wouldn't fire. We let him ponder this for a few days before reminding him that having swilled the resin round the inside of the tank he'd not also sealed the leak but also the fuel outlet. Once drilled out it worked fine.

I tried earbuds under a helmet without much success. The sound was ok, they just weren't comfy and the didn't block wind noise as well as earplugs. The noise cancelling system isn't designed to cope with motorcycling so it's pretty useless in that respect. The microphone won't work. For one helmet I got a Cardo kit which works well with earplugs. But that's not the route you want to go down. So here's an off the wall thought..... I have tinnitus so sleep is a problem. I've ordered a snoozeband which is head band with slim padded speakers. You can buy cheaper versions on Amazon for about £15 but they tend to be bulkier. The snoozeband original version is very thin so would probably fit under a helmet. The sound quality won't be as good as earbuds but you could wear it over earplugs. No microphone omn the slim version. There is a version with a mic but it's bulky.