elliotsdaddy

Not sure if you've got this sorted yet or not but check out thebikeinsurer.co.uk I used them and went with H&R Insurance in the end after having no luck with various others. £78 (I think) TPF&T. Worth a browse if you are still looking. On a side note, I'm looking to join up to Zona1 once I have sourced a towbar, so I will probably bump in to you at some point......I'll be the one faced down in mother nature with a black and white Sherco on top of me.

Oooooo I have just rocked up 100 posts.....do I get a prize?.....thought not. Chris.

Thanks, but I don't think my ex wife would agree.....cow! Good point about the battery life. I'm sure it must be good for a couple of hours which in all honesty would be fine, but something just doesnt excite me about the electric bikes. Same thing applies to cars for me though so that kind of makes sense. I would much rather have a Nissan GTR than a Nissan Leaf.

Yeah I like the look of those, but he is set on one that "makes a noise". I will keep most bikes in mind though when I am having a browse. Hahaha, well I wonder who the seller might be? I had a quick look, going to leave it a while before purchasing anything, no offense.

Hello fellow enthusiasts. Does anybody have any advice on a small automatic trial bike that would suit a Toni Bou wannabe? My 6 year old has hinted at a want for his own bike. It wouldn't be until Christmas this year so he will be a couple of weeks away from turning 7 (where did that time go) when he gets it. I have mentioned that they are pretty expensive and that Santa would have to go halves with me in order to get one. I don't fancy my chances of being able to track down the big fella though, so I had better get saving. There is a 2011 GasGas 50 on the bay at the moment for £1000. Is that the ball park for this kind of thing? Also, is there a particular shop somewhere that specialises in kids trial gear, or should I just stick to the trusty old interweb? Thanks in advance, Chris.

Hahaha well it certainly sounds like Plebsville really does have a bustling population. Come along billyt, time to come clean 'Mr Carb Man'.

Plebsville x3..... Plebsville x4, we've almost got enough to form a town council.

Haha yeah I can imagine that they are pretty, um, entertaining shall we say. I'm only a couple of minutes in various directions from the woods where I live, so I will only be pottering to and from natures playground. Certainly no fancy 'urban trials' that you see on YouTube, well, not yet anyway. Chris.

Hahahaha...that beats my confession for sure, welcome to Plebsville...population x2.

Ok, so picture this... After working for hours on my bike fixing this and fixing that, replacing this and replacing that. I finally thought I was done......started it up, had a little potter by the garage and...'putput, baaabaaaa, putputput' and then it stopped. Started it up again and the same thing happened. I thought 'ah ha' it's probably a fuel issue thanks to the new lines and filter I put on. I thought that the pipe run might've been less than ideal causing it to splutter and die. So I re-ran the fuel line in what I thought was a much better direction, jumped on and the thing wouldn't even fire....nothing...not a thing. To make matters worse I only had trainers on and the kickstart did that 'SNAP' thing a few times, needless to say the arch of my right foot was a bit sore, lesson learned. So after a bit of head stratching it dawned on me........put some flippin' fuel in the flippin' thing! Yep, that's right, it was out of fuel.....what a pleb, I mean really. Sometimes it's the simple, little, obvious things that pass us by. Anyhow, Sherco is in for an MOT tomorrow afternoon, which me luck. Ho! Ho! Ho!...etc. Chris.

It is quite a high excess, but I would rather pay £450 and get something out of it than swallow the loss of a £1500 bike should something happen, and still have to fund a replacement. Besides, as I want to use it on the road, it's a must, regardless of the bikes value or the excess costs. Chris.

Hello all. Just wanted to share a bit of info with regards insurance. I have been looking to insure my Sherco 290 (road registered) once I completed my bike licence. I called all the various 'speacialist' companies whos names crop up around these parts when you search for insurance guidance. All in all it was a pretty dissapointing experience up until this week. The company I was most dissapointed with was Carol Nash. The chap I spoke to was rather aggressive in his manner and I certainly didn't expect to be in a rather heated debate with someone about the bike, considering I was trying to give them business.....anyway.....back to topic, here are some stats - Age - 33 Marital Status - Divorced or depending on your point of view Bike - 2007 Sherco 290 Miles per year - Under 1000 NCB - 0 Claims - Nope Bike value - £1500 Security - Oxford Boss Disc Lock Licence held - Less than 1 month So taking into accout the NCB, having only just passed my test, the low mileage and the kind of bike it is, I still wasn't expecting £600+ figures for fully comp insurance. On average it was pretty much £600+ fully comp (ie we don't want to insure you fully comp), £300+ TPF&T and the cheapest quote I got was £178 TP only. Now, I'm not planing on being on the road that much so I'd like to think having a prang is quite unlikely (um, oooops! might be a jinx right there) but I would very much like cover for theft, which is more likely. So it looked like i was going to cough up for the TPF&T, until I went on thebikeinsurer website....check out the quotes from H&R Insurance - Fully Comp - £450 total excess - £218 TPF&T - £450 total excess - £79 TP Only - £0 excess - £75 Excatly the same cover under exactly the same circumstances as the 'specialist' insures, and way, way cheaper. I have gone for TPF&T for less than £80 as I probably won't be using it enough to warrant the fully comp quote, even though £218 is still good I think. So if you are looking for insurance, give thebikeinsurer a try and don't limit yourself by just sticking to the few 'speacialist' firms. I hope this info is helpful to someone as we all want to save money when it comes to insurance, especially on the run up to the festivities....so using 'man maths' it looks like I am about £220 up.....so does that mean I can make another juicy Splatshop order? Thanks, Chris.

Thanks for the link. I'll finish off the left side and go for a potter then recheck the levels. Chris.

Hello all. I am in the process of changing my fork seals...all is well but just wanted to double check something. I have just done the right leg so far, so i filled it up to 60mm from the top of the fork tube as recommended, with the fork in the bottom position. I pumped the damper a few times and then topped up to the same level. Is this correct or should I have just left it and not topped it up after I pumped the damper? I think I've done it right as there really wouldn't be that much oil in the tube otherwise, but I just wanted to check....pretty new to this kind of thing. Many thanks, Chris.

Thank for this. I will get out on it and see what happens. Chris.

Hmmm I cant recall if i'm honest, but whatever it is it was supplied by Splatshop, so I assume it should be fine.

Hello all. So, I have eventually put my 290 back together following trying to sort out the ever troublesome sticky clutch issue with the 'Beta Clutch Mod'. After a couple of minutes of riding, hey presto, no more sticky clutch....result.....but, it's developed another clutch issue that is slightly frustrating. The clutch has lost all of it's lovely progression. When releasing the lever its, nothing, nothing, nothing, EVERYTHING! When it bites it's really aggressive, to the level of it being pretty unusable. It's a proper launch forward.....which is great if I was looking to kill myself. Does this sound familiar to anyone and is there a cure? It didn't have this problem before, and I can't see what damage I could have caused just by doing that modification to the plates. Thanks in advance, Chris.

What a good idea for a topic....kudos. I am Chris Harris, you can probably tell that I've got a little boy called Elliot, he'll be 6 in January, gulp! I work for an aerospace firm called Messier-Bugatti-Dowty LTD. The company design and manufacture landing gear for military and civil aircraft. My role is as a Non-Destructive Test (NDT)Technician...basically it's my job to inspect each landing gear component using various (yawn!) methods to ensure they will not fail in service and kill everyone on board, happy days. I have been playing guitar since I was 13, I olympic lift at a local gym a few times a week and have quite an unhealthy obsession with performance cars and bikes, mainly off road bikes but also on road stuff recently as I am currently doing my test. I live in the Forest Of Dean in Gloucestershire with my girlfriend Nicole (shameless plug coming up) who has her own jewellery business www.nicoleiredaledesigns.com and Elliot on the weekends....plus various fluffy and non fluffy animals.

Welcome indeed. If you are looking to ask a load of dumb questions you better get a move on if you want to beat me. Seriously though I hope you enjoy your stay...you do realise that once you get a bike and start playing there will be little chance of turning back. This site is full of information and tips and the people who frequent here are very helpful regardless of how silly you might think the question is. Keep us updated about the bike situation. Chris.

Panic over. All done...I just hope it doesn't explode into a thousand pieces when I kick it for the first time. Chris.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sherco-80-125-200-250-290cc-Clutch-Holding-Tool-2001-2005-/111137408196?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item19e04e44c4#ht_626wt_952 It does state 2001-2005 but it fits my 2007 so might be worth a punt at £18.....if you don't already have one that is. Chris.

Evening all. I am in the middle of changing the kickstart spring on my 290. I'm following the very handy 'how to' courtesy of Splatshop, but I am having a little trouble re-assembling and I was hoping someone might have a handy trick up their sleeve. The issue is this......I have re-located the kickstart assembly with all new springs and washers into it's location, I have wound the assembly anti-clockwise until it pops back into place so the kickstart is located on it's stop where it should be. The problem I have is that when I attempt to slide the casing (with new gasket I might add) back over the kickstart shaft, if there is any movement off dead straight (which is difficult to avoid) the assembly pops back out of position. I am attempting this from side on. I know it'd be better to attempt it with the bike led down but I'm not sure it would make a hugh difference. Does anyone have any tips on how to re-fit the casing without disturbing the assembly or am I missing something obvious? Thanks in advance, Chris.

Thanks for the information all....torque wrench on order. Found one that has a 5lbft-80lbft range for just under £30, so that'll do nicely. Mags, cracking reply there mate, thanks very much, though I just wish you went into a bit more detail, hahaha. Chris.

Evening all, When playing around with your bikes do you adhere to the torque levels whenever possible? I'm not talking about deep engine stuff...it's just that I am gonna change my fork seals and wondered if I should purchase a low value torque wrench or not as specific values are quoted. Chris.

Agree. Looks just like my forks. As mentioned above, don't worry about it.