'Eventful' ride home on new bike

[Shay HTFC]

Well the day started off well and I packed my new biking gear to pick up my 125 from an ebay auction.

Got there, paid the owner after filling in the relevant form and drove off heading about 35 miles back to my house.

The thing is, I picked it up from the other side of the New Forest to where I live and the roads were lovely... pretty quiet and it was great to be riding in the countryside for the first time ever, so I thought I'd just ride around without thinking at all where I was.

Anyway, was on a 50 limit road and going up hill, so the little cg125 was pushing it and being such a new rider, I wasn't too sure about if I was in the right gear, so I flicked down to see if it would pull away better, but it just revved too much, so I went back up.

Got to the top and started to come back down the otherside and started to pick up speed just before I just lost all drive power. I was just rolling down this road with some cars right on my tail in the middle of a forest.

So I pulled in the clutch and free rolled to the bottom of the hill where there was a layby. I pulled in and had a look at the bike, but I couldn't really diagnose anything seen as though I know feck all about bikes and had no tools on me whatsoever.
So after about 10 mins of just nothing (kicking the kickstart lever like theres no tomorrow to no avail) I rolled it across the road into a more secluded layby and then through a gate and essentially hid it in some woods.

I then thought about if someone noticed it and just messed about with it that they might try to take it, so my idea was to camouflage it. So I started ripping up ferns and what do I do.. I rip up a set of ferns and my hands slip all the way up the cracked stem and I just ripped my fingers to bits. Blood is now dripping from my fingers.. I'm in the middle of nowhere and have no form of transport and no phone reception. Bugger!

So starting to shit myself like man with a laxative addiction, I think about what the hell I'm going to do.

I head back to the road and start to thumb for a hitch (with my bike safely hidden in the woods - hopefully), but no-one stops at all.
Then again, my fingers were all blooded up along with my T-shirt which I had to use as a bandage temporarily, I had my biking gear on, but no bike in sight and just happen to be waiting in the middle of nowhere, so I can fully understand why any normal person would steer well clear of me


Anyhow, after going back to try and start it again, some grannies come out of the woods walking their dog, so I talk to them and they said they could give me a lift to the train station.. WOW I thought. So I picked up my gear and tried to hide my bloody hands and got into their car.

Anyhow, we eventually pull up at a train station and just my luck, a train is heading to Winchester in a few mins, so I jump on and get back to Winchester.


So here I am, boring everyone with my story while nursing gashed to shit fingers and worrying about how I am going to retrieve my bike thats stuck in the New Forest somewhere (although I have managed to locate the exact spot using google earth ) and once I have it (hopefully sometime lol) how I'm going to mend it.


Anyway, thats my story of collecting my bike. eventful, but not quite how I envisaged it ending




Anyone got a trailer they wouldn't mind donating?

[Ariel Badger]

You do know about putting petrol in a bike don't you?
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[nynfortoo]

If you instantly lost power, check the choke didn't flick itself onto full. My CG had a habit of doing that every so often, and trying to run a hot engine on full choke is a pretty sure-fire way of cutting it out.

[Barker-CBR 600]

And the fuel tap?

Might be set to off in which case its like having no petrol.
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Previous - Gilera DNA50 / XVS125 Dragstar/Honda CBR 600F/GSF 650 Bandit
Current - 2013 Suzuki VZ800 Intruder
'Is this a rhetorical question?'

[Shay HTFC]

It was full.

To be honest, that is what I was thinking... Is it a petrol issue. But yeah, I'd filled up and just to check, opened up the tank and yeah.. It was sloshing around near the top.

Tried flicking the reserve switch to see if that would help, but it didn't.
Is the tank supposed to just be a big open 'bowl'? Because when I looked in before filling up, it wasn't just a big empty container, but rather had a metal bar or something at least so I couldn't really see all the way in. Is that normal?

(cracking out the Haynes manual now)

EDIT: Ok.. now I'm htinking that it could be something to do with the petrol flow... such as the choke or whatnot.
Will get a lift out after work tomorrow and check it out. Just hope its still there heh

[Barker-CBR 600]

Petrol tanks arent like a big jug, i know on my CBR you looked in and it was about 3-4 inches deep and then the tank extended in both sides. Kind of like a big /\ shape.

Not sure if its space saving, avoiding splashback, safer blagh blagh but i think most bikes i have seen always had that type of shape.
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Previous - Gilera DNA50 / XVS125 Dragstar/Honda CBR 600F/GSF 650 Bandit
Current - 2013 Suzuki VZ800 Intruder
'Is this a rhetorical question?'

[Finglonga]

Might be an idea to invest in a mobile phone.
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Andy Sez....
F.Y.Y.F.F.

[Shay HTFC]

There was no reception and I wouldn't have known who to ring anyway.

Its a serious worry as to how I'm going to get it back if it doesn't start. Only newly moved down here and none of my house mates have cars, so I'll need to ask someone from work to go all the way out there and that doesn't even cover having a trailer if I can't start it lol

Maybe it'll fit on the back of a car, but that'd one hell of a favour! (well, it'd require a feck off big favour on my behalf anyway lol)

[Paivi]

Er, breakdown cover?
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My other bike's a Monster...

[instigator]

Sign up for cheap breakdown cover?

Damn you Paivi...*shakes fist*

[Paivi]

You've got to be fast in this business!
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My other bike's a Monster...

[apple tango]

I know i shouldn't giggle, but that's a great story. Sounds like quite an adventure, although not exactly a fun one for you.

I sincerely hope you get it back in one peice.
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CBR125 -> Bandit GSF600 '99 -> SV650 02

[Noxious89123]

Look in the yellow pages, there are people that will move bikes for £££
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'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[yzf750r]

So youve left your bike dumped at the edge of some woods overnight covered by justa couple of branches?

Hope its still there when you go back for it!
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04 zx10r with mods - 187.4bhp at the wheel! :o

[Shay HTFC]

[Andy C]

Yea if it has a choke check that. When i first got my RS i left it on and 5 mins down the road it died and was a bitch to get started!

Get the bike ASAP! That sounds a dodgy place but well funny story!
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

[yzf750r]

Have you got your bike yet?
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04 zx10r with mods - 187.4bhp at the wheel! :o

[Hooky]

I live just outside the forest, I also have a big van

I like beer & ciggies .
Send me a pm if you need help

[Spoon261]

Shay HTFC wrote

[powelly]

[Shay HTFC]

Ok.. an update.

I signed up with breakdown cover yesterday (so it starts today).
My mate gave me a lift out to see if my baby was ok (although its 18 years old.. more like my brother!).
It was there, just as I'd left it, but we decided we couldn't get it in the car as I didn't have the tools to remove the wheels etc.

I rang local recovery services to get a quote on how much it'd be to drop me off in Winchester and I was getting quoted £100+ so for a bike I got for £350 I thought bugger that. Being a thrifty (incredibly tight) Yorkshireman, I just pushed it deeper into the woods and really covered it up proper!
I'm fairly certain now that it is safe and hidden (Moved it quite a way just incase anyone had seen it and gone off to get a van )

I'm going to head out to the spot after work, and ring up breakdown recovery to pick me up. They say they'll drop it of at a location of my choice (if they can't fix it on site), so hopefully I'll get it back to my house and can get to look at it. (my initial reason to get an ageing bike, other than cost, was to get my hand into basic motor mechanics!)

Someone from work offered me a trailer with tie down straps and everything, but my mate's car didn't have a tow bar and I couldn't find anyone else really to do such a big favour (new to this area)... gutted!

And a1trackdays, I would love to take up your offer, but my bike is near Lyndhurst and my home is in Winchester and I noticed you are in Bournemouth on the complete other side really, so I think the amount of beer I would have to buy to repay such a generous act would outweigh the free breakdown cover I now have (unless there are some stupid catches, but I think I've read all the policy wording etc )

Just means I have to trawl all my gear on the train to Ashurst or somewhere, then get to Lyndhurst somehow, then on top of that get back to the accident site on the A35 somehow (In the whole spirit of this 'recovery on a super stinjy budget' I'm thinking of hitching a lift, rather than taxiing


P.S. If anyones heading down the A35 (Southampton -> Totton -> Lyndhurst -> Bournemouth/Christchurch) direction tonight and doesn't mind giving a 'biker' (i.e. fecked up on 1st proper day of riding) in despair a lift, then I'd be duly grateful and would release a few of my hard earned bob from my wallet


this is the closest I'll get to doing 'Long Way Round' for a while yet Want to make the most of this for the true 'adventure' feel


P.S. I know that about 80% of people reading this are just thinking "You complete nobber"

[veeeffarr]

[Shay HTFC]

[powelly]

First time I showed my girlfriend google earth I found our house and said "oh fuck wheres the car".

She legged it outside to check
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Yamaha RXS 100 > Gilera Runner 50 > Suzuki SV650SY

[Cigaro]