Anyone after some cans...
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- randomsquid
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- Despatch Rider
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And I've had 4 (yes four) Z250 Scorpions. They were all atrocious.
I have often asked myself, usually just before buying something else completely worthless/useless, why I kept buying the damn things and have yet to come up with a sensible answer.
Amongst the many and varied 'issues' were their propensity for turning camshafts into swarfe. They would have inexplicable electrical issues, such as the lights failing for 10 seconds as I negotiated a corner on an unlit country road at silly o'clock am. Or they would fail to start for the next 11 or 30 pushes of the starter. And would then burst into life as if nothing was wrong. One of them liked spark plugs. It liked them so much I had to replace them every few weeks. Another liked covering people in petrol if they went near it. But then would stoically refuse to show any sign of having done so for weeks on end. Another had a thirst for oil. But you'd never find a leak, and it didn't smoke at all.
Of course this is all on top of their shocking finish, piss poor brakes, flexible handling, and the tendency to run on one if it rained. I must have been mad.
I have often asked myself, usually just before buying something else completely worthless/useless, why I kept buying the damn things and have yet to come up with a sensible answer.

Amongst the many and varied 'issues' were their propensity for turning camshafts into swarfe. They would have inexplicable electrical issues, such as the lights failing for 10 seconds as I negotiated a corner on an unlit country road at silly o'clock am. Or they would fail to start for the next 11 or 30 pushes of the starter. And would then burst into life as if nothing was wrong. One of them liked spark plugs. It liked them so much I had to replace them every few weeks. Another liked covering people in petrol if they went near it. But then would stoically refuse to show any sign of having done so for weeks on end. Another had a thirst for oil. But you'd never find a leak, and it didn't smoke at all.
Of course this is all on top of their shocking finish, piss poor brakes, flexible handling, and the tendency to run on one if it rained. I must have been mad.

I'm right 98% of the time so why worry about the other 3%?
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- Despatch Rider
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I had an XS250
It got me (and the tart i was with at the time) from Liverpool to the Bulldog Bash and from there it got me to Tiverton, Devon, a week of riding round Devon and then back to Liverpool. With the exception of riding round Devon it was fully loaded with all our camping gear.
It was a reliable rat bike that did not miss a beat on that journey.
It got me (and the tart i was with at the time) from Liverpool to the Bulldog Bash and from there it got me to Tiverton, Devon, a week of riding round Devon and then back to Liverpool. With the exception of riding round Devon it was fully loaded with all our camping gear.
It was a reliable rat bike that did not miss a beat on that journey.
- randomsquid
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You never had a pushbike?randomsquid wrote:The xs was the first bike I tried counter steering on.
They steer in just the same way as a motorbike and, of course, you need to destabilise the bike to initiate any turn ... almost always the result of countersteering unless you just happen to encounter some external destabilising force from the appropriate direction at the moment you need it
“Scientists investigate that which already is. Engineers create that which has never been.”
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- flatlander
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“Scientists investigate that which already is. Engineers create that which has never been.”
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- blinkey501
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- Aladinsaneuk
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- randomsquid
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Aye I had a pushbike, most of them inherited. I don't want to talk about it. Especially the huge trike thing with bell crank brakes.D-Rider wrote:You never had a pushbike?randomsquid wrote:The xs was the first bike I tried counter steering on.
They steer in just the same way as a motorbike and, of course, you need to destabilise the bike to initiate any turn ... almost always the result of countersteering unless you just happen to encounter some external destabilising force from the appropriate direction at the moment you need it

So the xs was the first concious effort I made at counter steering. I was usually a bit behind the tech curve so all the tricks in the glossies only worked if you liked dragging things out of fields afterwards.
Where ever I lay my hat.....
- Aladinsaneuk
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