10 or 11 - on an ungeared motocross sort of bike around a roped of track in the middle of Chester race course in race week sometime in 1978 or thereabouts. Incredible. The deceleration was almost as addictive as the acceleration iygwim. I was barely ever off push bikes as it was, so the idea of some...

local training school had cbf600s and a mt03, plus a knackered cb500 (I bought a '97 500, and actually still have it - i need to get shut cos it sees no miles really) https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/113617271093_/Honda-Cbf600-N-6.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/DjMAAOSwLh9hBCQy/s-l1600.jp...

Horse wrote: ↑Wed Dec 22, 2021 8:45 pmattempted ear guillotining

They are generic 'V6' intercoms. There are a bunch of similar ones. I've got a pair of Fodsports V6 intercoms, plus a third badged as a VNet - they talk to each other fine as they are identical bar the decal. These are now a generation (or possibly two) old. These allow duplex (ie two-way) comms on...

Hmm. Expense? A perfectly adequate pair of Bluetooth radios with an 800m - 1 km (line of sight) range can be had for under £70. That's what I use. A lot of observers / tutors / etc. would probably baulk at the expectation to spend £70 when they're already paying local subs and national annual membe...

The IAM long denied that they 'trained' riders although they now have an 'advanced course'. To my knowledge some observers use comms, most don't. AFAIK, the vast majority of independent post-test trainers like myself use comms. This is consistent with my experience too. None of my four local groups...

no

the ninja rolled round to 91k - but has more recently developed a weird intermittent clacking sound at low revs in second. Idles as well as it did when i bought it 4 years ago w/ 18k on it - so am assuming it's either a gearbox or clutch thing? Not really that bothered because it pulls as well as it...

change the seat to a garish green, swap the grips out to bright purple, misalign the front light another 20mm, resite the battery 4 inches further back and i'm in baby!!!

Here's what I do and it works for me. Firstly I use these: earplugs on Amazon I trim the long stem off because with a helmet they can be uncomfy. Just use scissors to trim 5mm or so off. I ride a few times a week, all year. My lid is noisy. These earplugs are very cheap, but they work very well. I'v...

dern wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:53 am I did my IAM course a couple of years ago and we didn't use comms. I was expected to pay attention to the indicators of my 'instructor'.

Do you reckon it'd have been easier via radio?

There's no rule, it's down to the group. I think most do use comms now. My local group has been using PMR since about 2005. Blimey! There's a multi-level IAM observer competency qualification! https://iam-sheffield.bike/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/iam-radio-skills-competency-framework-v9.pdf&ved...

The IAM do not use coms. They expect you to use your mirrors to watch for the observer's indicators. I thought I'd struggle with that but I soon got used to it and it improved my rear obs. 'See a junction sign - mirror check' is not a bad habit. There's no rule, it's down to the group. I think most...

yeah there better be some serious science in that swing arm because it's definitely low in the aesthetic scoring

If only they'd made the chrome on the air filter run parallel with the frame tubes. https://kickstart.bikeexif.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/yamaha-xs650-purpose-built-moto-2.jpg Agreed. This leaped out at me. Also, I don't get why the headlight is off-set. There's so much symmetry on the bike, to...

I've used comms for giving directions, but I stop to explain anything more complex; same in the car - if you are doing any more than confirming what you've already explained then you risk distracting the student. Imho. if i've understood it correctly, the tucker and rainford book mainly advocates u...

https://catacombs.space1999.net/main/merc/model/dinky/ivmedinkyet01.jpg ISTR reading that's a rejected design for a ship from Star Wars too? Or maybe one ship in Star Wars became a different ship in Star Wars actually. I don't bloody know :lol: yeah not sure - Space 1999 was first aired in '75, and...

Dodgy knees wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:40 pm Battling tops.

Remember my brother pulling the string and hitting mum in the face breaking her glasses on Xmas day. Oops

Have had comms on 3 advanced training sessions (2 different people, one of them is The Spin Doctor, the other was an ex-police trainer with Rapid Training). It's some time ago and I think comms were only 1-way. The Rapid chap did a demo of riding commentary à la police but obvs the trainee couldn't...