I was wondering if the ebay pattern parts were right. My question should have been are the originals bar end weights or bar end finials?
Yes, they are just ends, not weights. Here is a photo:
Nothing to grab onto, but I am sure I could just hack at the bit left inside to break it up clear it out. I would still need to remove the other end if replacing with something different though. And not that I am planning on any more accidents, something a bit more solid seems a better idea anyway.
pry-it out with a flat bladed screwdriver?
I’m guessing those handle bars vibrate a bit…
Looks more Yamahaha than Yamaha. Is there enough room to get a junior hacksaw blade in there? Cut what is left into two half pipes and a flat blade screwdriver will be your best friend from there on. Look for a weighted replacement, a little more expensive than the yamahaha parts but they’re weighted for a reason and that is to cut down on the vibration at the handlebars.
Based on my experience of having never ridden anything else (well, other than a long forgotten hour or so on a school bike) I do not think vibration is a problem, but what would I know? Mind, I learned when to shift up a gear based on when the mirror starts to vibrate, so I guess that suggests they do.
I was thinking of just getting these…
http://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcycle_parts/content_prod/73870
They do not have much choice but I need a new lid and have not used my insurance voucher with them yet, and the bar ends did not seem worth spending too much time fussing over. Anything solid would be an improvement.
After my experience with the lack of headlamp output, I get the feeling Yamaha treat their 125s more as disposable bikes.
Does indeed look like Timmy’s Corner… Add checking tyre pressures to the to-do list, I wouldn’t be shocked if it were too high.
Checked it out on the map… don’t think it was, but did look close!
I’m not sure what you did wrong! The road was a bit wet and there is debris but the back end went away so quickly! Were you still on the rear brake? Did you start feeding the gas on to keep the weight balanced? Were your tyres cold or over inflated? Hope you get the bike sorted soon.
Hopefully not as I checked them just over a week before (my gauge is the digital one Halfords sell in the motorcycle aisle) and they were spot on the correct PSI.
It is the speed it happened which confuses me. Everything seemed normal going into the corner but my thoughts literally went “I seem to be leaning too much and now I am sliding along the road.” I never felt anything upset the bike nor had any time to react.
There had been another 90° bend just before that one, which is why I was still in third gear and only approaching at around 40mph. And seeing chevrons makes me slow down well in advance, so I was only need to use engine braking to cut my speed. Then just back on the throttle and holding it steady into the corner.
As said, tyres was exactly as recommended by my gauge, the rear one being at the lower up to 198lbs load setting, so geared up with my tank bag I was probably just under that. And I had been riding for about 50 miles so temperature should have been fine. I do nor push myself on corners and just let them improve gradually with time and experience, but never felt too fast or that anything was wrong going into this one. So no stupid panic responses with the brakes, throttle, or steering either, and was looking straight ahead and not distracted.
At least my collision record still only remains at two van mirrors from my rare forays into filtering.
I watched the clip a number of times - but I couldn’t see anything obvious (i’m pretty inexperienced though.) The speed at which it went, seems to imply something properlly slippery (to me anyway.) I guess you didn’t have a quick walk back up the road to try and figure it out?
Btw on the turns, do you lean your whole body over or keep the torso relatively upright?
It looks like you saw the mud, maybe fixated on it a bit causing you to ride into the very edge of the mud (you go where you look) instead of the clean bit near the white lines.
Bad luck.
Following on from Martin, something I picked up from him was touch your foot on the floor to better sense slippery surfaces or dodgy Tarmac. It’s scary how slippery some surfaces can be, and very quickly you’ll want to slow down even more and be even more careful about leaning the bike over at all. Another friend had an incident like yours around a loch in Scotland, a bit wet but awful Tarmac made things 10x as bad. We went back and checked the Tarmac and it was slippery as he’ll.
Ps - learned in Spain tsar they used marble in their Tarmac, explains why it’s a death trap in the wet! They’re starting to use more normal materials now.
Abzero - Unfortunately it never occurred to me at the time to go back and look. Just after I got back up someone passing stopped and helped get the bike upright. After checking it and myself were okay to thank him and let him go, then trying to fix the mirror, my main thoughts were just hoping I would be able to make it home. And, I have only just now remembered, I was probably also distracted by some horses who came over to see what was going on!
On the video the mud seems to have a straight edge in alignment with the driveway, and it is when I pass that the bike seems to slide out. So I think I must have caught something on that edge. From what everyone has said I am happy to accept it is a bit of bad luck but poor positioning when I could have been further to the centre and safely away from it.
Most of the time I do nothing consciously with my body position on corners, so just naturally go with the bike. Although sometimes I do lean out so I am upright to get a better view around corners, it feels a lot more comfortable too, but for some reason it only occasionally occurs to me to do that. Usually on left turns with less visibility around them. I had actually been doing it earlier on that road too, but was not when I came off. Hopefully just another of those things that will work itself out with the more time I spend on the bike. At least I hope so because I think it will help in sweeping corners where I sometimes start to panic if I become consciously aware of how long I have been leant over and with no end in sight.
Zander - interesting tip, thanks. One of the things that stuck with me from one of the Roadcraft Nottingham videos was to not be afraid to use use the middle of the road as it will not have been worn smooth by car tyres, and in wet conditions would be dried quicker by their engines.
Thanks all for all your help and advice.
I wouldn’t advise counter leaning, that is staying upright while the bike leans beneath you. (I think that is the drift of what you were saying above), the reason racers hang of the side is that they are lowering the centre of gravity of the combined mass of them and the bike. Them leaning off allows the bike to not lean as much as it would have to were they not. What this means to us as road rider is that the less you lean, the higher your centre of gravity and the more the bike will have to lean beneath you to achieve the same speed through the corner. Consider it comparatively, the more you lean the less the bike has to to get round a corner at a given speed, the less you lean the more the bike has to to achieve the same speed through the same corner. It’s all about the relationship between the centre of mass and the contact patch of the tyres with the ground. There should be no need for you to seat shift but your shoulders should certainly be turned into the corner, you should be looking where you want to go, as far ahead as you can, and then you will find that you will naturally lean into the corner at a slightly more exaggerated angle, assisting the bike is staying stable.
It may feel better when you stay upright, and there are times when you should (at very low speed for example when counter leaning can be helpful), but generally stay inside the bike and it will be more stable.
For corners in slippy conditions, as has been said above…
Adjust to a safe speed well before the corner
Adjust your body position on the bike (to the inside of the corner) so you do not need to lean the bike so much (also do this well before the corner)
Once in the corner do not suddenly cut the throttle (especially on a bike with heavy engine breaking)
Do not increase the throttle in the corner (especially if the bike has a power band and your revs are near it)
And, as has already been said, make sure your tyres are in good condition and at the correct pressure.
Also worth noting some tryes are particularly bad in damp and wet conditions, my SV had several slides on the original D220 rubber.
http://motorcycletirereviews.com/20-1-dunlopD220.html
Since the D220s, I’ve got through PR3s and now on PR4s and no unexpected slides since binning the D220s.
to see someone changing their body position (top box cam) well before the corner watch this. Also note how hard he is concentrating, and as he commentates say to himself more than once “look THROUGH the corner”.
nice riding Baron.
KTM D - Aye, that was what I meant. Having read and heard so much along the way I must have got some of it jumbled up as I am sure somewhere I picked up that it is better to be straight with the horizon. It is not something I do often though, so will just make sure not to do it in future.
Once I can get back on the bike I will try to remember to note what I am doing, because over time they have got better so presumably must be doing something right. Early on though I realized that trying to make myself do this and that became distracting and confusing, and it was better just to keep it simple and safe and let things build from that. Which until last weekend had been working for me.
MikeDerBike - I think the stock YBR tyres are regarded as being pretty poor, although I have only once had a problem that was not my own fault. That time was also a damp road and a 90° right turn, but clean with no debris on it. I felt the wheel slide a little but that was all, so just assumed I was going too fast for the condition and considered myself lucky. That corner was on the A227 near Tonbridge and had a 30mph warning sign, I had dropped to 25mph. But my tyres were definitely under pressure then, it made me check them for the first time in too long and both were several psi low. But I had added around 1,000 miles without incident between then and now.
Sorry to bring this up again, but something occurred to me last night. Could I have gone down the way I did because of the rear wheel being out of alignment?
I am sure it is not, when I cleaned the brake and put it all back together I did as TimmyFox showed me, by rotating the wheel to look for kinks in the chain. Then measured from the swingarm pivot to the axle nut (although using a piece of string as I could pass it around the exhaust etc. so it had the same path on both sides) and it looked and measured okay. I then also rechecked everything when the nut came loose holding the brake on the tension bar, hmph. Nothing felt any different riding afterwards to before suggest a problem.
Hopefully I am just being paranoid, but having had the thought it is better to ask anyway.
@Michael - sounds like you’re over thinking this. Just remeber Occam’s Razor - it was probably just a bit of mud!