Date: 25-01-20  Time: 13:17 PM

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Messages - rustyrider

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FZS600 Fazer / Re: Fork breather?
« on: 01 July 2019, 06:20:34 PM »
Nope, definitely not coming out of the drain, but from the seals.  I lifted the dust seal (which is covered in oil), there's oil laying on top of the fork seal and I can see it dribbling down the fork leg, caliper and disc.  Yes, I know I'll need new pads as well as a lot of degreaser to clean the disc off too.  The only thing I can think of is the fork leg is pitted at the very bottom where the seal will be when there is no weight on the bike so the fork leg is fully extended but when being ridden the seal is higher up the leg and seals at that point.  I'm thinking that if I can see any damage on the leg when I get it apart to fit the new seals, I fit the seals with a spacer under them so they bear on a different area of the leg.

FZS600 Fazer / Re: Fork breather?
« on: 01 July 2019, 04:17:43 PM »
I've ordered a set of fork seals so will be changing them as soon as they arrive and see if that cures it.  I'm intrigued that I can ride it and nothing gets past the fork seals, yet if I leave it sitting on the sidestand somewhere hot, it pisses past the seals.  I've pulled the top dust seal out and it is definitely coming past the seal, just not when I'm riding it, only when it's parked up.

FZS600 Fazer / Fork breather?
« on: 01 July 2019, 01:00:54 PM »
Hi folks, not been on here for ages but have now the need to ask a question of the great and wise.  Is there a breather hole anywhere on the front forks?  I ask because I've got a leaking right hand fork leg but not when being ridden, only when it gets hot.  I keep it in a sort of mini-conservatory so it gets quite warm in there and after a couple of days of sunshine I found this

That's fork oil and it's dribbled down the fork leg, over the caliper, pads and disc and dropped onto the wheel.  It's only the RH leg and has only appeared since we got hot weather.  So is there a breather somewhere that has got blocked so as the temperature goes up, the pressure in the leg increases and is pushing the oil out past the seal rather than through a breather?

FZS600 Fazer / Re: Thanks Freck
« on: 20 February 2017, 11:08:47 PM »
Not really bothered about an alarm anyway.  It's an 18 year old bike now so unlikely to be that high on anyone's nick list.  It's safe when at home and as it's only a weekend toy is very rarely left anywhere where it could get lifted.  Even then, when it is out there's usually far more desirable bikes around than mine......

FZS600 Fazer / Thanks Freck
« on: 19 February 2017, 11:02:27 PM »
Decided to get the Fazer out of hibernation yesterday so lifted the cover that has been keeping it warm and dry over winter only to find a spider had made a nest in there and the whole thing was covered in cobwebs.  Tried to start it and all I got was a couple of turns on the starter then nothing.  Decided that as I'd got to dismantle half of it to clean it I'd do something I'd been meaning to do for about the last 4 years, remove the poxy Datatool Evo alarm which I figured was almost certainly the reason for the non-start.  Other than being a pain with constantly setting itself it would flatten the battery if the bike was left for more than a couple of days so I'd been removing the fuse for it whenever the bike was going to be left for more than a few hours.  Traced some of the wiring and found the back to back connectors but they had to be cut off as whoever had fitted it had Superglued them together.  Then got stuck as I'd got a few more wires going to it that I couldn't trace.  had to get my password reset on here as it's been quite a while since I was last here but the foc-u search did the business with this thread,17530.msg203127.html#msg203127.  Thanks Freck, with the installation document I was able to restore it to a running state and bin a big plastic box and a load of spurious wiring.  I also found that they actually tell you to Superglue the connectors together!  It's now cleaner than it's ever been since I've owned it.  Just a shame that I spent all of yesterday afternoon and this morning cleaning it and putting it back together that I only had time for a quick run out on it this afternoon to convince myself I'd not forgotten how to ride it.  Hopefully, I'll get a bit more time to actually use it now.

General / Re: accident
« on: 17 February 2015, 06:47:03 PM »
Any one know what happens with my own insurance? Do they refund me the remaining months?
Some will refund, others will charge you for the full year and then cancel the policy, it depends on the company.  If you buy the remains back, insuring it later may be a problem depending on what category they give.  If it's a Cat C, some insurers won't touch it but others will expect it to have a new MoT to confirm it is OK.  Cat D and most will insure it as that usually applies to cosmetic damage only (I've seen Cat D cars that have been stolen and recovered and all they need is a set of locks, but have been written off due to the costs of supplying the owner with a hire car, etc).  If you buy it off them they may not even register it as having been damaged so it won't have anything shown against it.

General / Re: accident
« on: 17 February 2015, 03:44:56 PM »
The way insurance companies work, a cracked fairing would probably make it a total loss.  They look at the price of the parts (brand new, dealers list price) the cost of the labour to fit it and any paintwork that might be needed.  You can soon rack up a huge bill working it out like that when they compare it with the trade value of the bike.  Get a list of the damage from the dealers that assessed it and then tell the insurers you want to buy the salvage.  They will pay you the value of the bike, or something close, less a couple of hundred at most which will be what they value the remains at.  You then hunt around eBay and ask on here to get the bits that need replacing, buy them secondhand, fit them and with what's left over pay for your trip to Scotland.

General / Re: Jordan
« on: 10 February 2015, 05:21:14 PM »
Last year at work we had a project that involved pairing up office workers with engineers so we could give them an insight into what life was like in the real world.  One day I got paired up with a guy who was well known as a God botherer of some description and I was warned that he might try to convert me.  The whole day passed with no mention at all until he turned round to me, out of the blue, and asked, "Are you religious?".  I told him I wasn't, had no interest in becoming religious and couldn't understand why anyone allowed themselves to be brainwashed into believing everything they are told without being able to prove it.  He then started to try to explain it so I stopped him and said, "Let's just suppose that I have an invisible monkey that sits on my shoulder, watches everything I do and whispers in my ear telling me what decisions I should make and how I should live my life.  He's completely invisible, only I can see or hear him and nobody else can.  You'd probably think I was a nutter right?  Now you tell me what the difference is between my invisible monkey and your God?"  He never said a word and religion wasn't mentioned to anyone for the whole month of the project.

General / Re: Jordan
« on: 06 February 2015, 07:10:27 PM »
I was thinking much the same.  If you give money to someone who claims to be penniless and they then go and spend that money on booze and fags, is it your fault?  If a country gives money to another country and they then give some of it to support a terrorist group, is that your fault?  If the recipient had been open about where some of the money was going to go maybe you wouldn't have given it but you yourself can't be accused of supporting the terrorist group.

There is only one language they understand.  You can't negotiate and quote the Geneva Convention with an organisation that kidnaps a journalist, asks for 200 million dollars ransom and then publicly executes that journalist, and post video of it on the internet, because the ransom isn't paid.  Same goes for burning alive what is effectively a prisoner of war, it isn't warfare, it's barbarism.  Fuck the rules of warfare, give as good as they give.

General / Re: Lewis Hamilton
« on: 25 November 2014, 06:11:25 PM »
Just need a few more big crashes on turn 1 to make it better now :pokefun
and a better soundtrack.  I'm fortunate enough to get paid to attend the odd F1 race and the new cars are so quiet the bloody helicopter doing the overhead shots is noisier.  You don't get the effect on TV because the sound level is limited so they sound roughly the same level just different.  In real life the old V8 engines revving to 18,000 were so loud you had to be there to realise just how loud they were.

Having spent time amongst some of the drivers, the real personality and what comes over on TV are often very different.  Lewis used to be a cocky little shit when he first started but has actually turned into quite a nice bloke.  Unlike Schumacher who went the other way, really nice bloke when he started and in the Benetton years but turned into an arrogant twat later.  Alonso is friendly and approachable as are quite a few of the others.  The problem they all have, in common with many other people with money, is that some people only want to talk about the money not the person so they keep them at arms length which comes over as arrogance.

General / Re: Lewis Hamilton
« on: 22 November 2014, 10:19:41 PM »
He said a German team are not not going to let the German driver win
But Rosberg isn't really a German, even the Germans haven't taken to him.  Finnish father, German mother, born in Germany but has lived most of his life in Monaco.

General / Re: Ride to the wall
« on: 13 September 2014, 07:26:44 PM »
Me and a mate are planning on going, but in his Trabant......

Although at the moment the engine is 20m away from the rest of the car and a set of piston rings are, allegedly, in the post from Hungary.

General / Re: The Jock vote
« on: 11 September 2014, 08:25:03 PM »
Survey out today, of all the major European countries, one countries citizens voted to kick UK out of the eu.... Yep, France...
Blimey, does this mean that just for once the French and English agree on something?

General / Re: mot
« on: 11 September 2014, 12:42:47 AM »
For bulbs and wipers most testing stations will replace the bulb and wiper and then issue a fail and a pass in one go.  A friend is a tester and during one of the routine VOSA checks he was asked why he never seemed to fail anyone on light bulbs.  He pointed to the rack of bulbs on the wall and said, "well I just put a new bulb in".  He was told that he should issue a fail on a light not working and a pass.  Keeps the stats up.  Not sure if it's changed but it used to be the case that you couldn't get done for no MoT, only for not being able to produce one.  So if you've got a pass that hasn't run out yet and a fail just done, you produce the pass.

It's 10 working days (and weekends don't count so 2 weeks in effect) for a retest where they will check things that may have failed in the meantime (such as bulbs) but only the bits it failed on rather than a full test.  Over the 10 working days it's a full test and full fee.  Whether you get charged depends on the garage.  VOSA set the maximum price for a test (£54) and a retest can be no more than half the price of a full test.  Of the two places I use, one charges £50 for a test but a retest is free while the other charges £29 for a test but a retest is £14.50.

General / Re: Insurance... again...
« on: 03 September 2014, 08:47:12 PM »
Tele-sales people are slimey bastards that want your money.
I think I can go one better and also point out the benefit of being an old git.  I got my renewal through from Swinton.  Last year I paid £99 fully comp but the renewal was for £168 although they could offer me an alternative company (Aviva) at £148.  Better but still a 50% jump from last year so I tried the new MCN compare site.  Best quote, and it wasn't the only one with the same ballpark figure, Saga at £58 (told you there's an advantage to being an old git!).  A couple of days before the insurance was due to expire I get a call from Swinton.  Now at the time I was working up in Glasgow so wasn't going to renew until I got home a few days later.  Told Swinton that their quote wasn't competitive and told him I'd been quoted £58.  He then says he'd see what he could do and proceeds to check the details.  A simple, nothing has changed would have sufficed but he insisted on checking every single detail of me and the bike.  At the end of it he comes up with £95 so I point out that I've been quoted £58 so why would I want to pay £95?  He'd speak to his manager and see what he can do.  Comes back and says that they can do it for £74, would I like to go ahead and pay it now?  "Why?" says I, "I've told you I've been quoted £58, you've kept me on the phone for the best part of half an hour and then expect me to pay over 20 quid more.  Do you think I'm stupid?"

Went with Saga but had to phone them as there was nowhere to put mods on the site but even with a bellypan, heated grips, Scottoiler, hugger and non-standard can, it still only cost me £61.

« on: 02 September 2014, 02:42:09 PM »
That'll only work in the States where they have a ground based Crowd GPS network and 100 feet range may be OK for finding your keys but no good on a bike.  The others can be had for anything from £20 up to about £100.  They all use satellite based GPS, or at least all of the ones I've seen, the chipset is so cheap these days and it's a lot more accurate than GSM locating.  Some will only work with a 2G SIM card which are getting difficult to get hold of, others will work with any.  Some will store the last known location, so if it's in a lockup or container, will still tell you were it is (or at least, where it was when it lost signal) as long as it can still get a GSM signal.  Rather than go for the cheapest, find a UK based supplier and ask them.  If I was going to fit one to a Fazer, I'd put it under the inner fairing plastic bits either side of the tank or in the tail.  The magnet wouldn't work but a bit of stick on Velcro would do the job.

General / Re: Is it compulsory (Spanish registration)
« on: 01 September 2014, 09:25:11 PM »
That's one thing that's different in Spain then.  His insurance is 19 Euros a month.  That's only third party admittedly but it gives him a 12 month green card rather than a UK policy which will only allow up to 30 days use outside the UK.  Even though it is with AXA, AXA France and AXA UK are different companies so his French insurance doesn't get entered on the Motor Insurers Database so doesn't show up when he's over here and gets pinged by ANPR.  He's only been stopped once over here and once he'd shown his documents then it was fine.  At the end of the day, insurance is insurance no matter what country the company that issued it is in.

I think the problem with spares is that nobody in France repairs anything so a motor factors as we have over here would go bust as they would never sell anything.  Consequently, other than NorAuto, a sort of French equivalent to Halfords, you have to go to a main dealer and pay main dealer prices.

General / Re: Is it compulsory (Spanish registration)
« on: 01 September 2014, 05:37:19 PM »
Not sure what he cost to register in France is but I think it's a lot less than it cost you.  One thing they have started asking for these days is a copy of the EU certificate of conformity in French which most manufacturers will charge around 100 Euros for.  Secondhand car prices in France are also ridiculous, you'd pay between twice and three times as much over there as you would for the equivalent car here.  My mate runs a 2003 Peugeot 406 Coupe, a UK car bought over here for £1050 but the same car in LHD on French plates would cost him at least 3000 Euros.  As long as he has a need to come over here at least once a year and keep it MoT'd and taxed, then he'll carry on using it on UK plates.  It isn't only the price of the cars but bits too.  Just about every time I go over I get asked to take brake pads, oil filters and oil because they are just so much cheaper here.

General / Re: Is it compulsory (Spanish registration)
« on: 30 August 2014, 07:07:26 PM »
A mate lives in the South of France and has done for over 20 years now.  Both his and his wife's cars are UK registered at his mothers address and his UK driving licence is also at his mothers address.  He gets to come over here often enough that both cars get an MoT and tax.  That isn't quite straightforward as DVLA will only accept insurance from a UK insurance company (one that lists on MID so can be checked online) and French insurance is far cheaper.  French insurers aren't bothered what plates are on the vehicle as long as it is legal in it's country of registration, so he has been known to get UK insurance on a car online, tax it and then cancel the policy.  There was a situation about 5 years ago where an ex-pat with a UK registered car, with a valid Controle Technique (French MoT) and French insurance was involved in an accident.  There was an argument over who was at fault and an assessor got involved.  As it was a UK registered car, he checked on what it needed to make it legal here and asked for the UK MoT certificate and tax disc, neither of which it had so the rejected the claim and cancelled his French insurance.  This scared a lot of ex-pats as the cost of driving to the UK, getting an MoT, insurance and tax and then driving back would come to around a grand so the cars were put up for sale at stupid prices as they daren't carry on using them.  I bought a £2k Seat Alhambra for 200 Euros, a £30k SL55 AMG Merc for £8k and had an Audi A4 given to me, bought them all back here and sold them on.  In France you can do it legally if are prepared to do a bit of work and have a reason to come back to the UK at least once a year but if you don't, then it looks like you are going to be stitched up and have to change registration.  Not so much of a problem with a bike but it is with a car.  Trying to sell a French, or Spanish, registered RHD car would be pretty nigh impossible so changing the registration isn't such a good idea if you ever intend selling the car.  What some have done is not cancelled the UK registration, just put a car on SORN then put it on French plates.  At least then it is still registered in both countries so you can swap plates over if you want to sell it.

General / Re: New Tax disc rules: DVLA incompetent, yet again.
« on: 29 August 2014, 05:10:41 PM »
A lot of folk ride on Brit Plates but no matter what anyone says they are breaking the law out here if they have residencia.
Nit necessarily.  As Spain is EU the rules there are the same as every other EU country.  If a vehicle is permanently exported, within 6 months of export it must be transferred to the registration of where it is now used.  If it returns to it's country of registration at least once a year, it has not been permanently exported so can remain on, in this case, British plates and be used in any other country, EU or not, as long as it is legal in it's country of registration.  So, if it is registered at a UK address, MoT'd and taxed it can remain on UK plates as long as it visits the UK at least once a year, which it would need to do to be MoT'd anyway.

« on: 27 August 2014, 06:51:11 PM »
You must all be living in caves then.  It was on the last renewal you must have received.  Not that it matters, if your tax runs beyond October 1st you'll be told about the new system when you get your reminder to renew your tax.  Taking your bullet points one at a time

It's been mentioned in newspapers, online, on websites and forums (including this one) and, as said, on the last renewal you would have received.
If you buy a bike on a Sunday not only can you not tax it if you don't have online access but the previous keeper can't cancel the tax either so it's still taxed until he tells them he's sold it.  It's no different to now, he is still responsible until he tells them he no longer has it, the only difference is that as well as being responsible for speeding and parking tickets, he's responsible for the tax too.
If the system is down the same applies as above, it's still taxed.

Personally I think the new system is much better.  No need to display a tax disc, the option to pay monthly by direct debit, the option to cancel the direct debit and declare sorn at any time so if you want to only tax something for a month you can.  In other countries that have a road tax, almost all of them have the tax with the owner and not the vehicle just the same as the owner gets the plates issued to him for a particular vehicle and they stay with him when it is sold, they don't stay with the vehicle.

General / Re: Centenary Memorial Poppy Tour 2014
« on: 22 August 2014, 11:10:40 AM »
Despite me being the guide, Steve, his mate and the poppy(s) arrived safely at Harwich ferry port just before 8am this morning.......

From the state of his mate it would appear that a Fazer is more comfortable for long journeys than an SV650

General / Re: Centenary Memorial Poppy Tour 2014
« on: 21 August 2014, 08:58:00 PM »
No sweat, I'd better go to bed now.....

General / Re: Centenary Memorial Poppy Tour 2014
« on: 21 August 2014, 08:47:27 AM »
I haven't gone quite that far but I have given mine an oil and filter change and a coat of VHT paint on the downpipes.  I'm looking at getting to Peterborough A1(M) services at 05:30 to meet up with you and be wingman down to Harwich.  I think I should recognise your bike now, mines silver and a lot less shiny......

General / Re: Belly pan
« on: 19 August 2014, 11:19:53 AM »
With because of the colour coded hugger.
Rusty No as it doesn't match the hugger
I prefer the hugger to be in black then it isn't immediately noticeable.  Without one there's this slab of black under the back end and personally I think it looks too fussy with it any other colour.  Mind you, I do now think my bike looks (is) dirty even when I've done my half hearted efforts at cleaning it......

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