stop smoking patches & giving RO

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[TophatMark]

Have nearly finished a Suzuki "lowrider/ bar hopper".. just preparing the metalwork for spraying, Have another trike on it's way too.. but that won't see the road until next year because I have to strip and rebuild the engine, which (to me) is a winter job because I am redecorating the spare room before putting my lathe and other machinery back in there..

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past "projects"

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[TophatMark]

After I have played with them and then decided to build something else.. will keep my old Triumph, probably the "new" Suzuki and the Yamaha trike though.. maybe in different forms to how they are now but I'm attached to them and they have too much of my blood in them. Some stuff I just build to sell on - have found it more profitable and a lot less hassle to just make parts recently though

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u have done a great job with them mark

[Freddo]

Bikes are looking good Mark

[monty69]

My OH wants me to get a trike - and I am not so sure!!! My experience of bikes is very limited. Did have a Kawasaki KH250 when I was 19 but that lasted about 2 weeks - blew the centre pot. Havent bothered since then and of course the rules have changed - you have to take this test and that test to get on the road, and its a bloody dangerous place out there!

Probably will stick to my cars and tractors!!

Great bikes though Mark, you have a real talent there

[TophatMark]

My OH wants me to get a trike - and I am not so sure!!! My experience of bikes is very limited. Did have a Kawasaki KH250 when I was 19 but that lasted about 2 weeks - blew the centre pot. Havent bothered since then and of course the rules have changed - you have to take this test and that test to get on the road, and its a bloody dangerous place out there!

They changed the rules SO much (with a whole new batch of "nasties" working through the European Parliament) that you can drive a trike on a car licence - but not on a Bike licence (before, either licence was valid).. which is OK if you have it set up like a car (tractor).. but with a bike based trike, changing gear with your foot and operating the clutch and accelerator with your hand is alien to most car drivers.

Trikes end up dangerous - normally for other people.. Have had a policeman walk into a lamp-post when too busy watching the trike ride past, a car driver went straight over a roundabout doing the same thing. Good thing is that they DO get seen.. even the 50mph motorway middle lane hogs suddenly find that they CAN drive in the inside lane without hitting an invisible truck! On a bike most car drivers see a crash test dummy or power ranger, no helmet and no real need for protective clothing means they see a human being.

I remember those KH250s (and the other Kwak triples).. Triumph Trident suffered the same problem.. front wheel blocked air to the middle pot, oil pump/ flow couldn't cool it and BANG

[monty69]

Talking of bikes and how dangerous they can be, a tragedy today. One of my Co-operative Members had an accident happen outside his yard. It turned out that a youngster in jeans and a teeshirt was on his motorbike and overtook a car on a bend, had to cut in sharly as something was coming the other way. He caught the front of the car he was overtaking, cartwheeled and his body took out two concrete fence posts! Needless to say he killed himself. His action spun the car he hit but the driver escaped unhurt, albeit traumatised by the accident.
Apparently a couple of hours later, the brother of the biker came along looking for him as he had only gone out for 10 minutes. Cant imagine what he thought when he found the accident and saw his brother's bike.

[TophatMark]

Not wishing to detract from the tragedy in any way, and my sympathies DO lie with the car driver and brother who will never get the image out of their memory!
Bikes in themselves are no more dangerous than being a pedestrian, or driving a car, truck, bus.. but the injuries in an accident tend to be more severe.. it's the person "in control" that controls the speed (even if the throttle jams) and where on the road they are positioned. Accident rates for motorcyclists (per vehicle) have fallen to below "government targets" over the years, ahead of "schedule" and in so many cases are not actually caused by the motorcyclists.