At Long Last... And Pics.

[Mintbread]

You are best off avoiding this type of thing:


2mm treadplate is very strong but is still easy to work with (I have made a couple of small frame covers out of the stuff.
3mm plate aluminium is as thick as you would need to go. Any more than that and you are going to have a very hard time shaping it without a lot of heat. I made the bracket that my instruments sit on and it is more than capable of handling the job that you need it for.

[sapaul]

That really is a great job and as I spent some of my youth on UK roads I think that bike is going to be a real good squirt and go job. I can picture you in front of the pack from stop streets and robots. I also get the feeling that you will outgrow this bike, but you need to have fun on this one first. You go girl.

[Loonette]

Rock on little mama! Great job on your project. I'm good at wrenching vehicles, but I don't think I'd have the courage to dabble in body work. Good luck on your test - I'm sure you'll do just fine.

Cheers,
Loonette

[Henriettaah]

Ooh how exciting!

I've just been up on the bike to an empty car park with my neighbour for an hour. Setting off, corners, stopping, turning as if on a junction. Even zipped up to second, and while the powerband wasn't involved, it still felt pretty fast! You can go pretty fast in first

Its just like learning to drive a car again - clutch in, in gear, biting point, foot up, brake, clutch, foot down, stop, out of gear. A couple of times I put my foot down too quick which I mustn't do I'm sure it'll all happen without thinking soon enough though (hopefully pretty much by the time I have to ride 8 odd miles home, across town in rush hour tomorrow night! )

Very happy and excited, it felt really natural and very beautiful. Oh, I think I'm going to cry. Turning corners felt great too, and this was only in first!

Feel quite hindered doing lifesaver, as the chin of the helmet coupled with shoulder armour makes it quite restrictive - I always check blindspots in the car, where you can swing round and get a good look no trouble.

Chain is a bit loose though, no time to tighten it before tomorrow - if worst comes to worst I'll have to hire one of the schools bikes.

On the way back, Jan said "grab hold!" and she pulled it open so the powerband kicked in - - and only a 125! Very funny. And very zippy, especially to a rookie like moi.

I feel like hugging the old bike

[Ninja Geoff]

On the way back, Jan said "grab hold!" and she pulled it open so the powerband kicked in - - and only a 125! Very funny. And very zippy, especially to a rookie like moi.

gotta love 2 stroke snappyness. You think that felt good, wait until you're zipping around town.

[Henriettaah]

Got back a little while ago from my day's training - suffice to say, totally gutted, didn't get my certificate today.

Instructor said that I'd "given myself a handicap" and had bought a "difficult bike" to learn on. Fair enough. Then she said "Goodness I've never had a whole group not make it!" Great - why not make us all feel a bit more cr@p and inadequate?!?!

I'm feeling pretty shortchanged, myself - not least because I have to cough up a half fee to return and do the whole darn day again.

I can't blame the instructor. Well, not wholly.

The bike was great though, a 2-stroke enthusiast came in at lunchtime and was really excited to see the bike, gave some great little snippets of info about her - just the kind of person who'd be great to yakk with over a pint about the bike. - Need to check the float needle and also maybe change the jets due to the allspeed exhaust (affecting performance at bottom end) but his bets tip was to give it plenty of throttle/wellie when riding the clutch - like 3/4k - that made things a whole lot better.

But still feeling pretty dejected, inadequate and a bit rubbish - like a deflated balloon when the party's over

[Ninja Geoff]

Got back a little while ago from my day's training - suffice to say, totally gutted, didn't get my certificate today.

Instructor said that I'd "given myself a handicap" and had bought a "difficult bike" to learn on. Fair enough. Then she said "Goodness I've never had a whole group not make it!" Great - why not make us all feel a bit more cr@p and inadequate?!?!

I'm feeling pretty shortchanged, myself - not least because I have to cough up a half fee to return and do the whole darn day again.

I can't blame the instructor. Well, not wholly.

The bike was great though, a 2-stroke enthusiast came in at lunchtime and was really excited to see the bike, gave some great little snippets of info about her - just the kind of person who'd be great to yakk with over a pint about the bike. - Need to check the float needle and also maybe change the jets due to the allspeed exhaust (affecting performance at bottom end) but his bets tip was to give it plenty of throttle/wellie when riding the clutch - like 3/4k - that made things a whole lot better.

But still feeling pretty dejected, inadequate and a bit rubbish - like a deflated balloon when the party's over

Ah! don't feel bad. How often do you get to practice? Just keep at it, eventually, it'll just "happen". And the instuctor was right, 2 strokes aren't the easiest to learn on. But, yours isn't outragously powerful so it shouldn't be too bad. What did you do/not do at the test to fail?

[Henriettaah]

What did you do/not do at the test to fail?

Mostly riding the clutch and covering the back brake at the left/right turns. All that slow stuff i.e. U turns, figure of eights etc were easy enough. Emergency stops mostly ok. You see, I could handle riding the clutch and going at a walking pace to do left/right turns, but it was when she started shouting "back brake!" that the bike would just sputter and die. Maybe the revs just had to be even higher.

(Bike did great except it didn't appreciate being kept pootling along in first.)

[basshole]

Nice looking bike!!! Great work!! Now we need updated pics of you riding it!

[Henriettaah]

Onward and upward; I'll get there, dammit - I just feel shortchanged, after all the "oh yes, its unlikely you won't get through, bla bla blah" "oh yes, its easy enough, nobody ever 'fails'... " Well we bloody did.

The other thing that has narked me is that when I spoke to the bloke on the phone about teacher:student ratio, he said "bla blah, if anyone is particularly struggling we'll call up the assistant teacher to come and give some 1:1 time..." Well, I suppose the argument could be that we were all struggling, so... ?

Not sure if/how to go about voicing my feelings to the training place. I'd like to complain, but they've pretty much got us by the short and curlys; after all - would you pay another £90 and go somewhere else to re-take the training, or would you pay them another £40 to get through it? I guess they could always just say "yes, but you all really were pretty crap, its not at all down to our teacher's methods/competence". Also, what if complaining about the level of instruction only provokes another fail; and only defence of the instructors abilities. In fact all three of us on the course didn't do well enough to get out on the roads, and get the certificate at the end. Maybe it was just the teacher. She must have thought "what a useless bunch!"

Anyway, tomorrow I've got some work to do on the bike - tighten the chain. The carb still needs 'tinkered' with as its not quite right yet. And - between you and me - I'm going out next week in the mornings with my neighbour on a quiet route to get some practice in. Also round and round and round the estate doing left and right turns.

Don't feel happy or comfortable about the feeling I've got today with this training school - but what can I do about it. I certainly won't be taking my test or further tuition with them, thats for sure - and I'll be far from recommending them...