this is mine, and i love riding it
These shows are quite good, take your licence & insurance along & you can get an assessed ride out with a Police Biker who will point you in the right direction with Positioning/Gearing/Observation/Cornering etc & if your lucky The Best Burger Van in the area. 
i passed my bike test early '80’s,650cc BSA with tin bath sidecar,and apehanger 'bars 
still riding now,but glad i don’t have to commute on a bike these days!
Hmph, did this for a while early 90s.
Changed job, needed cheap transport 50m from the coast to S M’c’r, my mate was emigrating and selling his GS750 - it all made sense(!). Turned out that M6 at 6am on a bike was a nightmare but did a whole winter of this. No fairing, no screen, no grip heaters, just Belstaff 2-piece and 3 pairs of gloves n socks - used to stop under bridge on M56 just to hold on to the exhaust to get some feeling back into my fingers. One morning passing Haydock, the rear tyre went down quickly - keeping upright, managed to weave across 3 lanes of heavy traffic onto the hard shoulder and puked. That was it - next weekend went out and bought the first diesel car I came across. Never again.
In fairness, that was too far, but by the time I had put all that not-that-weatherproof clothing on, I could have been half way there in a car.
Chas:
Roymondo:
If, like many drivers, your commuting takes place outside of “rush hour” you may well find that using a bike is no quicker, and may even take longer than using the car due to the time spent kitting-up and de-kitting at either end of the journey. I use a one-piece oversuit over my regular work clothes, but it was Not Cheap (see TCO above…) and suiting-up with helmet, gloves, boots etc still takes a few minutes twice a day.When I take the bike to work, it can often add an hour to the journey there & sometimes as many as 3 hours on the return journey home.
Very few people can ever work out why this is so !
In my 4x4, the journey is 12mls. On the bike it varies between 12mls & 100mls
The fact that the roads are much longer on a bike were proven when I worked at Ontime Automotive. I lived in the village and we started around 8am, If I walked I would leave home at 7.45, if I went in the car I would get out of bed at 7.50 but if I went on the bike I left the house at 6am 
im a strictly fine weather man :blush: my bike hasnt seen daylight since the first salt went down 
commonrail:
im a strictly fine weather man :blush: my bike hasnt seen daylight since the first salt went down
+1
The last bike I used for commuting was a honda 250 superdream, lovely bike.
One of my bikes but I wouldnt use it to commute , i would commute the blonde though ! 
how about these girls ?
might use this fizzy to commute though. this is semi show and rider .
What’s the best stuff for bikes to get the grit/dirt of around the engine 
mickyblue:
What’s the best stuff for bikes to get the grit/dirt of around the engine
I swear by Gunk. Brush it on with a paint brush, work it in, rinse it straight off. Roberts ya mothers brother Micky.
the maoster:
Roberts ya mothers brother Micky.
I’ve been caling him dad for the past 30 years
mickyblue:
What’s the best stuff for bikes to get the grit/dirt of around the engine
TFR mixed 50/50 with water spray it on and work it in with a soft brush and pressure wash off, don’t use it neat it damages paint and other coatings.
JAKEY:
might use this fizzy to commute though. this is semi show and rider .
I had one the same colour only a DX with a disc front brake, RUH 440R easily the best year of my life.
the maoster:
mickyblue:
What’s the best stuff for bikes to get the grit/dirt of around the engineI swear by Gunk. Brush it on with a paint brush, work it in, rinse it straight off. Roberts ya mothers brother Micky.
Gunk can be nasty stuff & will destroy many rubber items, therefore should not be used on any part of a bike IMO.
mickyblue:
What’s the best stuff for bikes to get the grit/dirt of around the engine
The below is taken from this site …bikersoracle.com/vfr/forum/s … p?t=104111
My bike seems to gather flies faster than a cloud of bats in May and the reason for this stinging summer fly scream?; my favorite road runs alongside a river beneath trees and where do you find the flying insects?, either beneath trees or alongside a river, yuck. Now add in road grime, road salts, bitumen, ultra violet light, bird droppings, salt water and winter temperatures, they all take their toll on the shiny stuff.….
Where else do you find such a wide variety of materials, other than on a bike?
- Steel painted in body color, typical example the tank.
- Steel painted in heavy duty background paint, typical example, sub frames and stands.
- Steel painted in heat resisting paint, typical example the exhaust shield.
- Plated items like chrome plated forks, galvanized steel, fixing bolts, plated cable connectors.
- Stainless steel down pipes and minor components
- Anodized aluminium alloy, levers
- Painted aluminium alloy lower forks, clutch cover
- Varnished aluminium radiator headers
- Translucent Thermo plastic in the screen
- Opaque thermo plastics, instrument surround
- Painted thermo plastics, fairings
- Flexi plastics, seat covering
- Foamed plastics, seat
- Reinforced rubber hoses
- Rubber, foot pegs and engine mountings.
Just to ■■■ up this list, how about After market exhausts? wow, here we go:
- Carbon Fiber
- Aluminium
- Titanium
- Stainless Steel
- Ceramic coated metal
- Mild Steel
- Chromed mild steel
- plastic polymers.
And to top it off the baffles inside of the exhaust are usually mild or stainless steel.
What’s the problem then?
OK, steel rusts, aluminium furs, plastics get brittle, paint fades, rubber rots and on and on. Luckily for you and me Honda have selected long lasting materials and finishes to make life more pleasant. Most of the materials on the bike have some form of protection be it a coating or a treatment, the winner on area alone is Paint, and this is what we are trying to keep shiny without destroying the rest of the bike in the process.
So what is paint?
Wiki says Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. wasthatmeanthen? Slap it on and it dries hard, bit like mud. So what’s lacquer/varnish/clear coat?, same thing as paint, but without the pigment, so it is a clear layer rather than opaque.
So, what’s paint ever done for me?
Well its got various functions. Ordinary paint helps protect the underlying material from corrosion, mostly, by excluding oxygen but some times there is a chemical component in the paint to provide protection, it helps with the aesthetics and in the case of red, actually makes the bike go 10 % faster, (a fact scientifically proven with the knicker elastic test). The paint it’s self has various features, typically paint includes a bonding agent to help it adhere to the object, a barrier function which makes the material impervious to air and a pigment to produce a color. Special paints many have enhanced features such as improved corrosion resistance, bend-ability, chemical or heat resistance.
Paint is is often applied as a paint system comprising of multiple layers; a base coat which will be good at adhering, a colour coat which will produce the cool appearance perhaps topped off with a protective clear coat. Paint thicknesses varies from component to component, but on your petrol tank factory fresh, we can expect to see a total thickness between 0.10mm and 0.15mm, (about the thickness of a human hair). If you have a metallic paint the opaque layer is not very good at providing corrosion resistance so a clear top coat is applied to provide decent corrosion protection, the clear coat is about 0.04mm thick, this is thin, really thin. So what’s the fuss? well if you scratch or remove too much of the paint by cleaning or polishing the corrosion protection will be lost and the parts beneath begin to corrode. With metallic paint you need at least half of the original clear coat to prevent corrosion, so a scratch 0.02mm deep is a potential problem.
Getting it clean. Washing the bike
A mate of mine in the high end motor trade says he hates when owners say “I wash it every weekend” as their cages are more often than not extensively marked with swirl marks and other scratches, which according to his valeter are “an orror tofexuptidy”. The thing is that paint is quite soft and it is easy to scratch with harder materials and once your through the protective thickness the materials below are vulnerable to corrosion. And what will scratch paint? Well paint is ard as nails… er, finger nails or just slightly harder, so dust from the road even the plastic bristles on a cheap brush can scratch paint.
Washing.
OK armed with a bucket of soapy water this is your chance to do some serious damage to your paint work. The grime and dust on your paint work is effectively a grinding compound, add water you’ve got a grinding paste, rub a little and you’ve got full on abrasion, so if you grab a cloth and wipe a dirty bike, you will scratch the paint. OK you won’t see much difference the first time, perhaps not the second time but, as time goes on you will damage the surface and reduce the corrosion protection. When you wash the bike the objective is to remove the road grime without scratching the protective paint work. To do this I use a simple procedure; rinse, rinse, shampoo, rinse then dry.
Rinse.
Just good old water, use this to soak into grime and sluce away as much grit and grime as possible. Even with just water, you do need to be careful, a direct blast from a jet of water can dislodge grease from bearings and lead to premature bearing failure, worse still, a direct blast from a power washer, well this can rip up bits of a concrete drive, so you don’t have to have a hyperactive imagination to picture the fate of your P&J. For the rinse I use a hose with the nozzle set to a coarse spray and starting with the dirtiest areas I soak every thing, underneath the mudguards, all over the body work, everything; well, almost. There are a couple of things to watch out for, a direct stream on to the clocks can drive water into the electrics and that by all accounts is bad, unless of course you enjoy sudden and unplanned stops on unlit country roads where you are presented with the unexpected opportunity to learn all there is to know about auto electrics aided only by half a tool kit, your zippo and a shivering desire to get out of the rain and back home for a cuppa.
Next up shampoo, slop a drop of shampoo into the bucket, and go and fetch some warm water from the kitchen. Waddle back, to the scene of the slime and the next thing I do is a second rinse, eh? OK while I was away, getting harassment and making fragile promises to complete impossible DIY tasks, the first rinse was working on the dried flies and stubbornly baked on crud. All this crud nicely softens with a soak and cow splats should slide away with another spray from the hose. No need for the shampoo then?, I wish. The drop of shampoo I used was an economy car shampoo, you can pay a fortune for “Xtreme foam Ph balanced ultimate safe for all surfaces on your bike” but I don’t see that they work any better, or even as well as economy shampoo. Halfords economy shampoo is cheap as chips, it’s almost pure soap and it does exactly what you expect. The economy shampoos do not have any additives; they are easy to apply easy to remove. I avoid washing up liquid, the salt in washing up liquid can lead to corrosion also I avoid a wax shampoo as the wax tends to bond to very fine dust trapping it against the paint making the paint look drab. To avoid scratching the paint as you apply the shampoo, the best thing to use is sheep skin mit (a lass poor Gwen I knewe her well) or a micro fiber wash glove, the second best a soft brush, the thirds best a sponge, but remember its not the wool, brush or sponge which does the damage (unless you use a cheap brush) it’s the road grit and grime, which is already on your bike which will do the real damage, so as you wash, keep on rinsing the glove/brush sponge to keep things as clean as possible. Start by washing the cleanest areas and finish off by using brushes, as you head towards the awkward / greasy bits. Now once the bike is clean, the choice is… shampoo again with a wax shampoo or rinse the soap off with plenty of water in a fine spray. Dedicated folk can Google the two bucket method (no not that old joke) and a grit guard.
Drying the bike. If you leave water to its own devices it will dry on the bike and leave little circles of lime. To avoid these marks dry the bike. I know of people who use a leaf blower to dry away the water, some use a chamois leather, but best of all and the method I use is the traditional blast up the road, great fun, and ensures that the most important bits, the brake pads and electrics and stuff behind the fairing are properly dry.
Top up the protection, now you’ve washed the bike, spray some ACF-50 into the cap of the tin and apply it with a small paintbrush to all the bare metal parts or anything which is prone to going furry; brake banjo’s, clutch cover bolts, caliper bracket bolts, battery terminals, earthing points and electrical connectors.
The final step?, well how about a cuppa, sit back, and admire your P&J but don’t relax because SHMBO may be lurking waiting for you to drop your guard, having chosen the moment a voice will come from around the corner to remind you of your DIY duties. By the way the bike wash is a good time to carefully run an eye over the bike, to check that everything vital still in place and to plan improvements.
Grubby stains cleaning the dirty bits
For lightly soiled areas I use neat shampoo scrubbed in with an old tooth brush (I confess that some times I use Muc-off, but its a bit… well, gay in pink).
Degrease cleaning the seriously soiled areas
For serious contamination there are two ways to go; hydrocarbons or gloops. I go for the hydrocarbons…. My favourite is paraffin, (WD40 is similar but it leaves a light oily residue) I stick some Paraffin an old hand pump (I reuse old kitchen cleaner bottles, or similar) and label it with the sort of pen that writes on CD’s. Before starting, park the bike on old boxes/news paper to absorb the run off. For really dirty areas spray on the crud, let it soak, then use a spatula to scoop off the slime. For dirty areas or little spots of grease spray onto the muck and agitate with a brush. If any grime remains, spray on more paraffin and then wipe off with a paper towel. Just remember don’t spray paraffin on your tyres or anything hot. For the front and back wheels. rather than spray directly onto the wheels, I spray paraffin onto an old paint brush and I use the brush to dislodge the muck then wipe off with kitchen roll or loo roll.
There are loads of patent instant cleaning gloops on the market. Frequently these products are acid based. Do they do the job?, Hell yes they’ve got acid in them, but the chances are that all the gloops will attack the varnish, electrical contacts and paint on your bike, if you ask me, they are best avoided.
There are drawbacks with all of these products, Paraffin is flammable and many advanced products are, environmentally questionable. I heard that at one time the Coke garage used Coke as an engine cleaner on their dray lorries, when the top brass found out, they went spare saying “don’t you think that will give people the wrong impression”, allegedly the Coke garage replied… “no! People like to see clean lorries”. A bucket full of My Mums Coke cost almost nothing so it must be the cheapest cleaning product on the market.
Getting it show room clean The clay bar.
After you’ve washed the bike as clean as a wash can get it then the next step is a clay bar. A clay bar is a simple, safe way to remove contaminants from paint, plastics, mock chrome and glass. Clay bars remove anything which has taken up residence on top of the surface including tenacious stuff like the remnants of manky old polish, tree sap, road tar, in-fact just about anything soap and water don’t shift. Tee cutting also does the same job but in a more aggressive way, so you can only Tee cut a certain number of time before you rub through the paint, a trick which is particularly easy to achieve on the edges. It’s best to think of a clay bar as a very gentle tool which works at a microscopic level to ■■■■ unwanted rubbish off your paint with almost no surface abrasion.
Now before you rush out let me say claying is a really easy way to scratch your paint, badly, really badly. If your bike is a bit dirty, or you are a bit clumsy, or dis-organised, or you are in a dusty garage, forget it, you’ll damage the paint. But if you are well organised and a bit meticulous in your ways then a clay bar is the way to go. You’ll want to use a decent mild abrasive clay bar from Maguire’s or similar and no matter what the voices in your head tell you, clay from the garden is just not the stuff you need. If your bike has just been washed to a super clean standard, including the seams and around those little corners, you have a fresh clay bar, your working area is clean, you have a clean sheet on the floor and you have a good ear the clay bar will give you superb results. Clay bars are used with a wetting agent (mild soapy water) on a small area at a time. Mist the surface with soapy water and glide the bar over, you should feel, or more likely hear, a very slight plucking, take a look at the bar and you’ll see streaks, the streaks are the crud grabbed off the surface, fold the bar to show a fresh surface and wipe the same area of paint again, as you repeat the process you will feel the crud coming off and the bar will glide more and more smoothly. When the bar moves silently, with no more streaking marks appearing on the bar you are done and you can move on the the next area. Wash any remnant bits of clay off the paint and continue to the next section until the entire job is complete. Spray the bar with lubricant and store wrapped and sealed in a plastic bag. Why did I say a good ear?, well if you pick up even a single grain of sand on the clay bar it will scratch your finish, you’ll need to listen carefully to stop this happening. Remember Clay bars will not remove scratches, swirls or oxidized paint for that you’ll need to T-cut the paint but at least you’ll be working on a properly clean surface before any abrasion begins.
Getting it shiny Polish.
The process of removing a layer of paint (or oxidation) to restore the original colour. Before you start, has the bike got a clear coat? All the metallic do and some of the solid colours as well. Once you know what your dealing with have a look at the Tee-cut web site and follow their advice, just take it very easy at the corners and don’t polish the decals. If you get any cutting compound on your black plastics it will show as a white mark, use a soft white pencil eraser to remove the marks.
Scuffed plastics[/b]
If you’ve got a scratch on your windscreen head lamp or indicator lens? Give it a polish with tooth paste, marvellous stuff, yes tooth paste, but not the gell stuff, try a small area first or get a specialist liquid abrasive for plastic.
Keeping it shiny Wax .
Wax is a kind of top up for the protective properties of paint, an extra layer of protection, so its a good thing and it also helps the bike to look smart and stay clean. There are easy choices here, if you’ve got a light coloured bike use Auto Glym auto super resin polish, it lasts six months, it is easy peasy to apply and remove. If you’ve got the fast Italian Red or a dark colour use a Carnauba Wax, to date, none of the Carnauba waxes I’ve used last more than three months.
Keeping the furies at bay Anti Corrosion
There are a range of useful anti corrosion sprays. All weather bikers sear by waxoil, thick, sticky, not pretty, but effective. For Dry weather bikers like me then you can relax a little with corrosion Once or twice a year, I use a fluid which is all but invisible and works just fine, ACF-50; to apply it I remove the fairings give the bike a good wash, let it dry then I spray ACF-50 over everything apart from the brakes and tyres. To keep the brake discs safe just wrap a couple of carrier bags around them and spray everything; then ditch the carrier bags, spray some ACF-50 into the cap and use a small paint brush to paint the pink fluid onto the calipers and other bits, use a piece of cloth to wipe the fluid on to wheels. If anything has gone furry, try brushing it with a toothbrush before you apply ACF-50. After all this spraying the bike smokes a bit on start up, don’t worry, just don’t linger at junctions or peeps will throw buckets of water over you.
Rubber and stools.
To make your life as a dedicated bike cleaner easier then it’s well worth investing in two simple but incredibly useful tools, a kick along step, (or an empty beer bottle crate), ideal to sit on to take the stain off your back and a thick rubber mat which is ideal to kneel on when you are reaching for the hard to reach places. Of course if you have a bike lift you are away to go.
Bodgeit and legit
If all of this keeping it clean is too much fuss then a spray of pledge or instant mint, spray and shine (motrax) makes plastic shine really nicely for long enough for the buyer to load her up and leave.
Power Wash = bad idea
Just in case you missed this, spraying your bike with strong detergents and then power washing your bike is a really bad idea. Yea yea, “all the professionals do it” but this is what’s going on:
- Detergents erode through protective wax then starts to eat into the paint, varnish and anti corrosion plating of components.
- The water jet will pick up any particles of grit which are about and blast them across the paint work scratching the paint en-route.
- The high speed spray will be free to go where ever the hell it likes, taking contamination and detergents into every ■■■■ and cranny of the bike, under seals and into electrical connectors where it will eat away at the finish, corrosion soon sets in.
- The high speed water jet hitting the oils seals will force water and grime beneath the seal, where it will wash away the lubricating grease and water and grime will be trapped in your bearings leading to the rumble grumble.
- Any jet touching the floor will pick up grit off the floor to sand blast your bike quite nicely thank you.
Motorbike mags may wave a lance about and say “Wash your bike like a Pro”, but after 12 months they’ve moved on to the next pretty new thing and some poor sod is left to pick up the pieces. So Power Washing?, it will wreck your bike. Just don’t do it, it’s not big, its not clever, your not saving time, your not saving money.
Usual disclaimers apply. If you wreck your paint or set your fringe on fire when referring to this guide, don’t be so stupid.
Booked theory test in, got CBT again since original expired 
Hi mike68 , fizzy is 40 years old this year , your fizzy was lasted taxed in 1/9/86 does this ring a BELL ?, GREAT FUN , i have a three fizzys a dt175mx a dt50m and a chinese monkey bike (4 stroke) .