trapezeartist

I don't think anodising would need a keyed surface as there is no extra material being applied (like plating or paint). It's just a chemical conversion of the surface material.

bvm-moto.co.uk

+3 for Mechanix, though I don't have experience of anything else. But at about £5 a pair, what's not to like? Those other gloves look like gardening gloves. I used them when crewing on fast skiff dinghies. I think I was paying €1 per pair and they were far better than the £25 sailing gloves. Brilliant grip when hauling on a skinny bit of spinnaker sheet. I considered them for trialling but thought the grip may be too good. What if I want to slide my hand on the twistgrip?

Thanks Motopelli. It's about 40 years since I last did that sort of calculation so a reminder was most definitely needed. Most large springs I have known in the past (ie suspension springs) have either been stamped with the rate or colour-coded (in which case you need to find out the code). It's the 4th power of wire diameter that makes the measuring process rather finicky.

New springs may well be on the cards. First I need to establish that there is no other reason for the forks feeling too stiff (air spring effect, too heavy fork oil, etc) and then I will need to know what the rate of the existing springs is. I'm hoping they may be marked in some way. I've heard good things about Magicals.

Thanks P. That was the sort of info I was hoping to get. I feel an evening in the mancave coming on.

Presumably that's the same quantity in both legs. Does that leave an air gap at the top? Behaving as an airspring? Is there any preload adjustment?

I want to try softening off the front forks of my 200. Unfortunately the manual doesn't go beyond telling me how to change the fork oil and I can't find a drawing of the forks anywhere. Can anyone enlighten me so I don't get any surprises when I open it all up? Are standard springs identified in any way? Are alternative spring rates available? Is the preload adustable? If so, what is recommended? What weight of oil is recommended? Should there be an air gap above the oil, and how much? Thanks in advance.

It was advertised on eBay, but not (I think) the one you mention.

300 is utterly unnecessary for a beginner (and probably most other people too). A lot of people advise a 125 or a 200, which is usually a lot less than 200cc. I started by buying a Beta 300 4T which is generally considered to be quite a benign 300, but I'm still a lot happier now with my Fantic 200 (156cc).

Well the give-it-everything wash cycle worked on the clay-mud stains pretty well. Now I have to dig around on the laundry shelf to see what might be around to tackle the grease stains. The chain grease has survived several conventional washes so any success now will be all bonus.

It gets easier with practice.

I wasn't really holding out a lot of hope over the oil stains, but I'll try getting a bottle of Elbow Grease. In the meantime I've thrown them back in the machine on the pre-wash, post-wash, super-duper wash cycle and I'll see if that helps. Unfortunately leaving on the floor doesn't work in our house Jimmy .

"Proper" trials clothing (shirt and trousers) is expensive but should be made for the job. So why does mud and chain grease not wash off easily? Does anyone have any cunning methods for keeping their riding gear looking good?

I don't know, but I can give you some information that will allow a comparison. Look up the internal dimensions of your Zafira and compare the equivalent figures for a Citroen Berlingo (2003 or theabouts). To get a bike in my Berlingo I have to put it diagonally across the space. I had to take out the rear seats (I think I could have got away with just removing the left rear seat, and folding the other) and slide the front passenger seat forward. The handlebars are very close to the roof lining so foul against it every time I lean the bike or turn the steering. If the Zafira is a gnat's wotsit smaller than the Berlingo, it won't fit.

You may have found it then. Try running it with the cap off. If that solves it, you've got a blocked breather.

Yes, you really need them. Without them a tubed tyre will rip the valve off the tube as soon as the tyre moves a bit on the rim. It's less important on a tubeless tyre, which is presumably why there is normally only one rimlock (I always called them "security bolts") on a rim designed for tubeless.

Yours is nothing to be ashamed of, Sam. I'm holding off the clutch lightener at the moment as it will obviously increase lever travel as well and make it a bit more fiddly to get adjusted right. One day, when I have time for experimenting. I'm really tempted to get rid of the toolbox. Originality is the issue, but my bikes not that original anyway and I do like to get rid of things that don't perform any useful function. I really need to sort something out on the chain/swingarm issue. I've protected it with PVC insulating tape for the moment but I'll be lucky if that lasts five minutes. I see you've got a nice clever re-routing of the rear brake rod. That's another point of where on the paint on my bike, so I need to do something.

Thanks stpauls. On your advice I've contacted Somerton DMCC. I should perhaps also have mentioned that I have a twinshock, but at novice level I would hope that doesn't really have much of a bearing on things. Is Breakheart Trials Club ACU or AMCA? I was planning on going to their trial in about 10 days time, but I may not have all the ACU stuff sorted by then.

I live near Bristol, so within the Wessex Centre, but also close to Western And South-Western Centres. Which club would local forumites recommend for a novice looking for as many easy trials as possible?

Every bike has a weak spot. Personal experience is a more measure of the reliability/durability of anything as complicated as a motorbike. If a particular item has a 10% failure rate, 90% of owners will have no problem and say the part is good. The other 10% will think the item is rubbish. Making wild generalisations on such a small sample size will not get you far. On the other hand, I once owned a Hillman Imp for a short while (yeah, I know!). That car worked it's way through every problem the Imp was know for, and then started making up new ones itself.

It's got a red anodized engine oil plug! I'll go and put my order in now!

I've just changed from a modern seat-less bike to a twinshock with a seat. Sitting down on a bike feels really weird.

That's true. Just ask Fernando Alonso.

Good point Dabba. You don't have to take it off completely like I said, although I suspect in practice the spring preload will generate too much friction to allow rotating of the top relative to the bottom.