Hello from a complete newbie

[Butch (cb)]

Good looking bike. I went Suzuki B100P, CD175 to my A10. Blew that up within three months and it was then another 25 odd years before I got it back on the road.

On 6V indicators - could something be done with LEDs now? I'm still a 6V 'enthusiast' though have developed a taste for hot grips and sat nav mounts on other of my bikes.

[Sam C]

Thanks for all the kind welcomes.

I insisted that my bike came with the plastic cup upgrade... only a fool parks on carpet without that 

Yes, the 12v upgrade is something bouncing around my head at the moment.

And as for jumping straight to an A10: Yes, I'm both excited and pretty nervous about this. I've got a 'classic' car too, and if you cock something up in that PEOPLE NOTICE. So I'm having nightmares of stalling / bein unable to kickstart it / slowly toppling over at a traffic lights at the moment!

I'm conscious that Im very lucky to be in the position that I can do this. The truth is, as I mentioned, this is a heart decision. And an unusual one for me. I think there just comes a point where you realise 'well, I think I'd quite like that... and life is quite short'. So you just have to go for it. Plus, my step father wanted to sell this bike and it's nice for it to stay in the family. So here we are!

Just got to learn how to ride and look after it properly now.

It won't quite be my first bike: I'm taking delivery of an extremely fetching 1980s GS125 for £500 this Friday.... that'll be the bike to make all my mistakes on. Full test ('Direct Access') follows in a couple of months (then I've just got to get used to doing everything the other way around)!

Of course none of this holds me up from the essential job of standing in my garage, drinking a cup of tea and just staring at it and smiling 

Cheers

Sam

[Greybeard]

Hmm...indicators on motorcycles...I've had misgivings about them ever since I witnessed an accident. I was stationary behind a couple of cars waiting to pull out of a tee-junction. Lad on motorbike appears stage right with his left indicator blinking - car pulls out - bike goes straight on and smashes into front wing of car - rider learns to fly and lands on the pavement about 30 feet from the impact. Luckily the rider was not seriously hurt but things might have been a lot worse. Biker lad had forgotten that his left winker was still on. Unless they have some kind of technical solution such as a timer or VERY loud buzzer you have to remember to cancel indicators on a motorbike. I was following a BSA rider at the weekend and he kept leaving his indicators on. I resisted the urge to tell him off!

I use hand signals when riding my machine; seems half the cars on the road don't bother to indicate; must be just too difficult to push that huge heavy indicator stalk!

[nimrod650]

had the same problem on my honda 90 leaving them on fitted a small loud buzzer on each front indicator about the size of a two pence piece on ebay about £2.50 pair and people about to step off the pavement in town  hear you as well

[Butch (cb)]

Well the two bikes should be chalk and cheese, so this is going to be an interesting learning curve I reckon. Certainly an amusing transition as you ‘step up’ to the A10. One step at a time though and it should be most enjoyable.

Sometimes just kicking back in the garage with a glass of scotch and a pipe on the go can be very pleasing. I always think in those moments that my 17 y.o. self would have been pretty pleased with his lot.

So two schools of thought on indicators then. Some folks reckon classics without them are more overly dangerous, but then if you have them and then leave them on it’s not so good. Of my bikes I tend to run them with whatever they came with. My T3 came with a buzzer installed but I couldn’t stand it so that was one of the first things that got stripped off. Hardley is the odd one, with a button on each side to operate that set of indicators. Really quite awkward and particularly so on roundabouts, so on that one I tend towards hand signals anyway

[bsa-bill]

Sometimes just kicking back in the garage with a glass of scotch and a pipe on the go

That just doesn't fit with your avatar  cyclobutch 

[Butch (cb)]

Oops. I'll get me coat.