reliability/ trusting your bike

[mudcow007]

I've had my bike now for a couple of years an only really used it for short journeys, longest was probably 60 miles around trip.

I dunno why but feel i cant trust it to go further, I dunno why, its serviced an runs pretty well*

What would make you not trust a bike to go any sort of distance?

Am i being a girl?


* touches wood

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[chickenstrip]

What bike is it?
How well do you look after it?

Out of all the bikes I've had over 30+ years of biking, I've had 2 breakdowns. The first was a snapped chain on my Kwak 750 Turbo, and the other was a rear wheel bearing failure on my 3rd Fazer thou. Must have covered a trillion miles in that time. Not even had a puncture.

(I am currently touching all the wood I can get my hands on like a mad bastard!)
____________________
Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE!

[Pete.]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I go on the basis that a week's commute is 150 miles; if it can handle that, I'm good for a 150 mile jaunt. If I can commute for a month with no issues, that's 600 miles I'd be happy with.

Given that I rarely do more than 250 miles in one go, it doesn't take too much for me to stop worrying.
____________________
Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[mudcow007]

I tried to get breakdown an they refused with it being a 1996 Bandit, bad times

to be fair, i have looked after said bike, but god knows how the previous 40 (probably) owners have.....

[stevo as b4]

Id look at it as what's likely to go wrong on a Bandit?

For any 90's bike, it's probably going to be wiring/electrics and consumables that'll be the reliability issues now.

Lots of chassis bearing and bits that should be lathered in lots of grease are the things that are likely to all start failing at once when they get old and have never been given any attention yet.

But on a Bandit, simple solid steel frame, bullet proof engine, loads of cheap spares, and there's still pattern parts on the shelf like exhausts, shocks, brake discs and gaskets etc.

I don't think there's much to worry about in this case.

You haven't bought a bike with a terrible reputation for failure, a weird or obscure model that's a mare for parts, or a bike that has a hand grenade engine reputation.

Bandits might well be around in the apocalypse, and if Mad max ever becomes the norm you'd be far better off on a Bandit than an RGV etc.

[MCN]

It is something I rarely consider.

I worked in the Sahara for 4 years and the only thing we worried about was to take enough fags and water.
Our pick-ups were scrap-heaps that moved.
____________________
Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[andys675]

I rode my '83 powervalve to Amsterdam, 400 miles each way with no breakdown cover, not long after I got back it suffered from the common CDI death syndrome.
____________________
Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

[Teflon-Mike]

I don't have 'Home-Start' on my AA cover...
I have a far better tool kit in my shed than they have in thier van... what they going to do, I cant?
So much more common shorter journeys, as in the 2-miles or so to and from town are probably the greater worry on my 25 year old machines, as they wont come out & recover if you are within walking distance of 'home'!.... It was a bitch pushing quarter ton of 750 1/4 mile home the other week, when I flattened the battery trying to start it, fumbling the fuel tap NOT actually onto reserve! Doh! Moment! I should have taken the battery off, walked home with that, charged it and gone back and fitted it, really... but of course... locks were in the paniers.... and I had taken them off 'just' before I popped out for a pack of fags to fix a broken zip tag!!! Typical! Sitting at the side of the road, miles from home, reading a book, on a sunny afternoon, waiting for a van to turn up sounds quite appealing in comparison!

You takes your chances either which way...

Pay heed to the service schedule.. and ride wherever... just remember shit happens!! And breakdown is but one mishap you might encounter.
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[groovylee]

I own a R6 5EB.

I am literally waiting for second gear to explode, and the cylinder liners to crack ffs.

zero fucks given.

its going to the alps next month
____________________
Past - 1988 honda revere 600, 1996 kawasaki gpz500s, 1999 Yamaha R6

Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

[1198]

[pepperami]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

it's a cb500 - trust is the only thing i've got
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[ZX-7R]

The worst bike i owned for reliability/trust was my RG500,but what else do you expect from an 80's 2 stroke?.

My current ZX-7R had a Datatool immobiliser on it when i bought it.Was 50/50 if it would start or not so i had it removed.Been spot on ever since.
____________________
Current Bike - 2000 ZX-7R

[Rogerborg]

[ThatDippyTwat]

I don't trust my "new" one - yet. She was stood for 3ish years, and I'm discovering the first owner was a fucking butcher with wiring. However, she'll get there, it's only just over a week I've had her on the road.

Once she's sorted, the vibration will stop me long before reliability issues ever will. I went to the Peak and back from N. Wales on a 125 with a very noisy engine that was on the way out, that's what recovery is for... "No idea mate, made a nasty noise then stopped dead. If you bank with Nationwide, the Flexplus includes this

Pushing it home up a sodding hill when the clutch cable snapped on the way to work was less than fun, but I don't have recovery within 3 (I think) miles..
____________________
'98 VFR800 (touring) - '12 VFR800 Crosrunner (Commuting) - '01 KDX220 (Big Green Antisocial Machine)

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[grr666]

Bought new, got a couple of years Yamacare so free recovery. Tested out recently when I rode into a ditch puncturing
my rad. Oddly the RAC who I called at the outset didn't cover me for accident recovery, only breakdown but they
knew I had this Yamacare thing when frankly I hadn't even read the letter. Result, it would have cost me a hundred
quid for recovery otherwise.
____________________
Currently enjoying products from Ford, Mazda and Yamaha
Ste wrote: Avatars are fine, it's signatures that need turning off.

[Nobby the Bastard]

[pepperami]

This thread has made me think about how I/we coped in the bad old days before roadside recovery was affordable.

When I was a spotty yoof, on more than one occasion I rode from West London to Southend and back over the week end on my little Honda MT5 .
I never even gave roadside recovery a second thought.
Also that little Honda never ever missed a beat.
We had an assortment of bikes and peds and none of us worried about our bikes or had roadside recovery.
We had a couple of fs1e's , a Suzuki gt 185, a Honda SS50, a Honda MT 50, and a Triumph tiger 90 and the only one to ever let us down on route was the Tiger 90 .
Luckily it was minor (boogies in the float bowl) and we fixed it at the roadside.
____________________
I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[stevo as b4]

I take it you had a nice little unmolested MT5 that was fairly new then?

I knew someone that got through a big end within a week of putting on a 65cc kit.

A lad at school had a lovely Honda, it was AFAIK an MBX80 liquid cooled, but with 50cc side panels. No one in my school ever had anything that would keep up with it. These were in the days before the Derbi Senda and Minarelli AM6 engine though.

[Polarbear]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

[mentalboy]