Categories
Clothing/Protection

Childrens Motorcycle Gear

Childrens-motorcycle-clothingMy daughter has been dying to ride on the back of my motorbike for ages now. The legal requirement being only their feet can reach the foot pegs and the wearing of a helmet. Since my daughter is rather tall, there’s been no problem there, however from a maturity point of view we have held off for some time. With her 8th birthday later this year, we have decided she is now old enough to ride on the back of the bike and hark back to the days when she was a nipper and would ride on the back of my bicycle.

Of course, safety is a paramount concern, so we have been keen to kit her out in some decent gear to protect her. A tricky prospect considering the price of motorcycle gear and the rate she will grow out of it, and so we hit ebay with a vengeance to find decent gear without breaking the bank.

Categories
Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 10 (SMIDSY)

Did you manage to guess what happened? A classic SMIDSY, that just leaves you wondering how on earth they didn’t see you, your headlights, hi-vis, or anything past their nose. Thankfully, they braked at the last second and I resisted the urge to panic brake and managed to swerve. Breaking those panic reactions is not easy, it takes time and is something that new riders often struggle with. It’s all too easy to grab a fistful of front brake, lock up and hit the deck. Of course, it helps a lot if you have ABS.

Categories
Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 9 (Booner Racer Dodging)

Another example of some fine driving by a young man in a small hatchback with his companions. Happily enjoying a quiet drive and making best possibly use of all lanes of the carriage way.

Maybe. See if you can spot where the reality deviates a little.

Categories
Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 8 (Filtering in a car)

Filtering the UK is perfectly legal. On a motorbike. Filtering in a car is just plain dumb.

Categories
News

TFL Start Campaign to Improve Motorcycle Safety

Transport-for-LondonGood news for London bikers, the TFL has just announced a new campaign to increase motorcycle safety in the capital with the aim to reduce injuries and casulties by 40% by 2020. A bold ambition, but I think we can all agree something needs to be done about the disproportionately high number of motorcycle incidents. 21% of those killed or seriously injured on the capitals roads in 2012 were on a motorbike, yet motorcycles only make up 2.3% of road users.

The plan highlights a number of key factors that need addressing, including improving rider skills (e.g. through BikeSafe), educating other road users, greater enforcement of traffic offences for all road users (e.g. speeding, red light jumping) and promoting the use of proper protective clothing. It also includes a move to add rear facing average speed cameras to the A13 (planned for 2015) and elsewhere.

You can read the full plan here on the TFL website.

Categories
Motorcycles

ZZR Gone!

KwakZZR400And there we have it, the ZZR has now gone. Mary never really got on with this bike, as great as it is, Mary was just too short to really be confident on it. It was too high (even with cut down seat), wide and too much of a stretch across the tank for her. Real shame.

Still, whilst servicing it and getting it running sweet, I’ve learnt a lot of invaluable skills. I’ve enjoyed having a good tinker and it’s been really satisfying to fix the odd niggle. It was also great to borrow when my Fazer was off the road. It’s sad to see it go, but the cash will be go towards a better suited bike for Mary.

Categories
Riding

Day Out At Ace Cafe

Ace CafeHad a good day out at the Ace Cafe today. Catching up with a bunch of fellow Fazer riders from the FOC-U.co.uk forum, bumped into some of the LondonBikers too. It was Overland & Adventure bike day at the Ace, with the place rammed with huge Dakka and globe crossing bikes, loads of big Beemers, KTM’s and Triumph adventure bike. My Fazer didn’t wholly fit, but that didn’t matter, it was great to check out other styles of biking. The day also saw off Steph Jeavons on here sole trip round the globe on a little Honda CRF250.

Categories
Maintenance

Tinkering With The ZZR400

KawasakiZZR400-EngineServicing-7Over the last couple of weekends, I have been tinkering with Mary’s ZZR400, trying to diagnose some running issues. I had known for a while the HT leads and spark plug caps were on the way out and last time I had the tank off I had managed to split a fuel line – doh! So with some new fuel hose, fuel filter, NGK leads, caps and spark plugs I set to work.

Categories
Courses/Tuition

A Night at Biker Down

Biker DownThe other night I had the pleasure of attending a Biker Down night with Bucks Fire Service. For those not familiar with Biker Down, it’s a great (and free) course run by a number of local fire services aimed at preparing you to deal with a traffic incident when first on the scene.

The bulk of the course content covered first aid that would be directly relevant to the trauma that would be common in a biker off. This including checking airways, circulation/bleeding, providing reassurance with a brief rundown on techniques such as CPR, dressing bleeding wounds and how to safely remove a helmet. I know this last item is a controversial one, however the presenter argued it was better to this earlier, whilst a biker is (hopefully) conscious and before they go down hill (say if they’re loosing blood etc). He argued the first thing a paramedic would do is remove it anyway and he showed us a two person technique to carefully remove it and support the upper spine. If it’s a full face helmet and there’s issues with blocked airway, it’s arguable more critical to get them breathing again regardless.

On top of that, we got a brief rundown on managing an accident scene, from where to park visibly to warn other vehicles, yet not leaving yourself in danger should a trunk hit your bike; to delegating tasks to other members of the public and handing over to emergency services. We also got a quick bit of information on staying visible on the road, covering stuff like positioning and some debate on hi-vis.

Overall it was a very informative and useful evening, I learnt a lot of stuff that I hope never to have to use, but invaluable should the need arise.  I can highly recommend you sign yourself up for the course, it’ll cost you nothing and is now being run in many other parts of the country as well as just Kent and Bucks. More info on the Biker Down Facebook Page or google for info on your local fire service.

Categories
Maintenance

Maintenance Day, Fairing Swap, Crash Bars Fitted

Yamaha Fazer Fairing SwapIt’s been a busy and productive afternoon, I managed to grab a few hours and some nice weather to tackle some jobs I’ve been waiting todo for some time. I swapped over my new genuine Yamaha fairing and fitted some genuine Yamaha crash bars.

You may have previously read how I had picked up a Fibreglass fairing copy, which I had been meaning to send to a local spray shop. Time and money delayed that, however in the mean time Yamaha had drastically reduced the prices of their fairings, from £450 to £180, with these supplied fully painted. With a spray shop quote coming in at around £100-120, it was a no brainer.

I still need to source some decals and swap the Yamaha tuning fork badge on the front, but all in all a reasonably straight forward job to swap everything over.

FazerFairingSwap2