Nishijin

Maybe two months ago now, I was with a couple guys for some green lanes. My DR350SE is always filthy, and I don’t clean it often. The other two make a point about this, because they always detail their bikes We met early AM at the motorway junction’s coffee stop. One of the guys bought himself a drink and snack, I clocked two police cars with officers looking toward us. Ominous. I said something like “Oop, check your plate’s clean!” As I wiped the dirt clear from my number plate, staring right over at the officers. I ride a large plate, but flexy and vertical three-line. By the letter of the law not legal, but huge and legible, so far no stops because of it. In fact, I have even had police drive up close behind me to get ANPR’d and then carry on their way. The guy, who runs a 1/3-sized plate, drank his coffee and seemed oblivious to my remarks… We crossed to the villages, onto the lanes, through some puddles and so on. Good little ride and three very muddy bikes. Then we split and made our own way home. When I got back, he’d messaged us that he got stopped and fined by a policeman barely 100 yards from his front door. The policeman’s first question was, “what is the registration of this vehicle?” The guy having owned it a few months hadn’t bothered to memorise his reg, and went to check. As he looked, to his horror it was one solid sheet of brown. This particular officer was having a rare moment of sympathy. He gave him some words of advice over the obviously illegal number plate, and only a fine for illegible plate and indicators. The guy was lucky that the officer decided to issue the one fine, but not issue the points and fine for the illegal numberplate. All at 100 yards from the house.

Have you watched the Jan Peters videos on the Jitsie website/Youtube channel? They are very useful. As a complete beginner I found Jan good for explaining the motion of the different skills.

Welcome

Sounds daft, but have you tried setting the idle to be a bit faster? Just for curiosity give it a fraction of a turn to idle a bit higher and see if it makes a difference.

I had incredible pain one day in London while walking, swung by The Cut to the army surplus and grabbed some Alt Berg army boots in okay condition. Heavy but saved me from further injury. Quality of manufacture was clear. My instructor had to send back his first pair of AltBerg MC boots because they were ill-fitting. He loves the pair that fitted, but says they are very hard/stiff. I’d love a pair of proper MC boots, but like you say - better to go up there and get measured properly to avoid costly returns.

Since I’ve only had my obviously newbie-friendly ‘16 ST300 for a matter of weeks, the tank or two of fuel has been spent on the basics of full locks and clutch control. So far, the speedo has been the most useful accessory I could fit, because it has a clock on it. On the DR350 and the XJ600, fitting a little Casio Bomber (F91W) on the handlebar has been essential while riding, since neither bike has a clock on the cluster. Much easier to glance down while riding. The speedo I bought displays the time, so has been really useful. If I hadn’t fitted a speedo I’d have fitted a Bomber anyway. With that said, I’d be loathe to lob it at anyone because then I’d have to check my phone.

Why do people do anything? Why do bad things happen to good people? etc

I didn’t want to poo-poo your efforts, so avoided mentioning it before… but yes, it will spring back. Realistically you’d need to make a form/jig separately to make the guard, so you’re not applying heat so close to the bike. Probably the bike is okay but the degree of trial and error, you’re now applying a torch close to the rails. Have you tried marking the points, removing the material from the bike, and heating while clamped in a large vice? Possibly with thick pieces (of metal/ceramic/etc) to distribute the pressure as you bend? It would allow you to be more aggressive with your heat and folds. Whether it cools over 10 minutes or overnight, the material will always spring back further than you want.

Only around 6 miles I think, back and forth a couple stops. Seat holds fine, and is comfortable ‘enough’. Totally appreciate why @sectionone prefers the seat much higher.

I haven’t had a chance to use it, but going back and lashing down tight, I didn’t like the risk of the screws coming out. It didn’t feel lashed down as tight as I’d want even for a quick couple miles. Instead, I have now removed some of the staples and run the webbing on the inside, between the plastic and the seat foam. This way it is a single continuous piece of webbing and the force is distributed across the width of the plastic seat pan. Immediately that I tightened the webbing, the seat pan formed better to the bike. I would recommend you do this rather than waste time trying to screw it on to the underside. Next steps are probably covering the underside’s added foam with a thin sheet of rubberised material, stapled to the seat pan. That would tidy up the appearance and hold everything firmly.

It should have a speedo to be legal for use on the road, yes. They are so cheap it’s easy to fit and forget.

There are threads across various forums. You’ll be recommended to just buy the Buttrest one for £50-odd. The alternative is using a pit bike seat. Someone actually made a ‘mushroom’ mount to lock it in place. Can’t find that link. You cut all the plastic tabs from the seat, then somehow attach it. I sewed up some loops and side release clips, then melted holes to avoid fraying the webbing when screwing to the plastic. 10mm foam stuck to avoid scratching the bike and to reduce the risk of slipping about. Haven’t tried it on the road yet, but felt secure enough.

As an aside, the spare DR wheelset is also Akront. Did you want me to measure position of the rim locks as well?

My mechanic was cursing me when he fitted a tyre to my spare dual rimlock wheelset on my DR350!

Did you ever get a solution to this @stpauls ?

Hey guys, Background: cyclist, always maintain my own bikes, got into motorcycles Oct ‘19, CBT and a GN125. Then trained on big bikes Feb ‘20. Typical lockdown delay to test, full license Sept ‘20 - been riding a DR350SE on green lanes since passing, and 2 1/2 months ago an XJ600N (which has had nearly 1000 road miles per month). I’m comfortable cleaning out a carb, air/oil filters, checking and swapping oil, plugs, etc. I’ve never used/maintained a 2-stroke. I bought a road reg’d ST300 a week ago from BVM Moto, practiced nearby some static balance and extra-slow barely above idle slalom, and of course a few wheelies. Finally after three consecutive days it stuttered into reserve fuel level. Trying to get the basics before even thinking of fun stuff. This week I’ve been putting the horn, speedo, number plate, reflector, etc to make MOT *and* road legal. I need to drive on the road a few miles to green lanes. My concern is how do I maintain this bike? I appreciate there must be a number of idiot guides, but I thought I’d ask in case some things are specific to this ‘16 Sherco. And moreso, because it will have a few road miles per use. There are two loose connectors behind the number board. I assume one is for the lights that were removed. Not sure the other, and cannot see a 2016 specific parts or service manual. I was told that little has changed between mine and 2021. Is this true? 1. For peace of mind I was thinking an hour meter - will a tacho/hour one plug into the second loose connector behind the light? 2. I was told 75ml Putoline per 5L high octane. I don’t want too much dribble out the exhaust but don’t want to run dry. How accurate must I be? Measuring cylinders and pipettes? Or trust the petrol station pump plus a small syringe for oil? 3. A little extra oil in the fuel is better than a little less, right? 4. If the bike is barely seeing mud/excitement, how often are you replacing fluids? And what brands/weights? 5. What fluid are you using in the radiator? How often are you checking it? 6. I am going to ride on-road to get to green lanes to practice. Any concerns, apart from extra fuel? Anything to keep an eye on as far as running the bike? 7. On the topic of on-road, has anyone else done this, how far do they get? More than 5 miles to a tank? 8. What else am I missing from a maintenance ritual? Thanks!

I gave in and bought a ‘16 Sherco 300 ST this week. BVM in Stroud dropped it off this afternoon. Straight onto fundamentals!