rabbitstew

Im near Wellingborough but work in Cambridge. Some cracking roads around here, like the B645 from Rushden down to St Neots and others around Huntingdon/Sawtry that way.

Well same here tbh. Ive had the ZXR since 1996 and the R1 since 2001 so im kinda attached to them. I used to use them all the time, but had about 4 years when I didnt use them at all due to house DIY and work etc. Then last year the missus told me she was pregnant so I immediately MOT`d the R1 and ran out & bought a 996 too. Think ive probably been out a dozen times maybe this year. Its laughable really, I bought the 996 and immediately dropped about £1500 on a major service, plus new brake pipes, brake fluid, new uprated calipers, fuel filter, all the belts, etc... then 200 miles later the clutch blew up, which was another £400 and now ive had to just fit £230 of new tyres as the old rear tyre had a tendency to slide out on bends ....and i thought the zed was expensive to run!

Very true. When I was a lad, bikes were expensive and insurance was sky high, so you`d start off on a 50cc or maybe a 125 if you were old enough. Typically your first "big bike" would be a 2 stroke 250cc. Mine was an RD350. Then you`d probably work your way up and get a 600, then maybe a 750 and finally then jump up to a 1000. But, these days, nearly everyone I know jumps straight onto a 600cc as their first bike. Mad really when you think that something like a modern R6 or GSXR600 has more power than a 1000cc bike had back in the 90`s. how many bikes!!? You sound like my missus!!!

Now that deserves a That was pretty much the expression on my face when I opened the bonnet on my lovely car and saw the flames.....

Ive just sold one of my bikes, which just leaves me with my 1999 Yamaha R1, my 2000 Ducati 996 and my 1994 ZXR750L2. Can never have enough toys! Very true. When I was a lad, bikes were expensive and insurance was sky high, so you`d start off on a 50cc or maybe a 125 if you were old enough. Typically your first "big bike" would be a 2 stroke 250cc. Mine was an RD350. Then you`d probably work your way up and get a 600, then maybe a 750 and finally then jump up to a 1000. But, these days, nearly everyone I know jumps straight onto a 600cc as their first bike. Mad really when you think that something like a modern R6 or GSXR600 has more power than a 1000cc bike had back in the 90`s.

Thats a great result and good that the garage is being honest & sorting the problem out. I actually had a car catch fire once as I drove away from having a new clutch fitted at a national clutch chain. I kid you not, the car actually caught fire. It was just sheer luck I noticed the smoke straight away, pulled over and popped the bonnet and managed to put the fire out. The cause was that the sound deadening hadnt been put back on properly and it was left resting on the exhaust manifold so it promptly caught fire. They had also forgot to reconnect a pipe on my turbo which meant the car was dangerously overboosting. The garage didnt want to know about it and basically said it was my word against theres so tough. I spent a few weeks disputing things with their head office but in the end didnt get anywhere. It was just pure luck I was alert enough to spot the smoke and put the fire out. I dread to think what would have happened had I been a mum in the car with a bunch of young kids strapped into car seats etc..

From watching road wars and personal experience, the old bill do enjoy a good chase, so id expect them to leap at the opportunity of a high speed chase like a fat bird in a sweet shop.

I think in general most women I know dont seem to view their cars in the same way we do. One of the reasons I bought my current house is that its got a double width driveway which means I can get both my car and my wifes car on there away from the road. I always park my car the furthest away from my neighbours side to reduce any chance of door opening marks and yet my wife still managed to catch the side of my car walking past mine once with her bags. Then to make matters worse, the neighbour one side, rather than ask her other half to move her car (he parks behind her on their single drive), she will shunt her car back & forth, then sideways actually onto my drive and proceed to do a 3 point turn ON MY DRIVE right next to my £30k beemer before then driving back out on the road and off to work. Its ridiculous. I remember when I first got my shiney new car home, i parked it up proudly and went inside. Next day I heard all this chainsaw noise going and didnt think much of it. When I went out at lunchtime to my horror the neighbours husband was happily sawing up loads of logs and wood with a chainsaw right next to my new car. My car was totally covered in scratchy saw dust! It had filled up all the rain guttering under the bonnet and everywhere. He then had the cheek to wish me a cheery "good morning". I couldnt believe it, there would be no way id even dream of doing that next to someones car, let alone a brand new one. Got knows why they couldnt have taken the wood out back in their big garden and cut it up there, rather than in the drive. Not only did it take me ages to get the sawdust off my car, I then had to empty my garage and brush tons of the stuff out from where it had got under the garage door and cover everything inside the garage.

Awesome cake!!!!

Yeah they are pretty long guns, but very handy to have. The other thing I didnt mention, is that when your in the field, at 2am stalking bunnies, the rambo style "click click" of the pump action seems incredibly loud and actually louder than the noise you get when your firing it. For crows though, i think it would be ideal, you can get a quick 3 shots off (5 if you have the FAC version) and soon sort out a few crows before they fly off. .410 cartridges though arnt cheap. You can get 12 bore versions, in fact the saddlerey & gunroom might even sell you a hushpower barrel for your one which might be an option.

Ive the .410 version of that mossberg with a silencer (moderator) on it which I use for lamping, and in the USA its known as the "defender" aimed at home defence! They do it with a much shorter barrel, no stock and a "spreader" choke which helps you maneuver it in tight spots and inflict max damage to scumbags inside your house. How quiet is this? Something ive been thinking of buying. Would love to have access to more land to shoot on Thats the problem I have. I used to do no end of lamping but moved a few years back and dont have anywhere near my current place except clay pigeon ranges. Ive 9 shotguns in my safe and a couple of really nice PCP air rifles gathering dust atm. The hushpower mossberg is a handy tool. The .410 one has no recoil at all and is like a toy gun in size compared to a 12 bore. Noise wise, if your in the middle of a field, its like a sneeze. Really weird experience the first time you fire it. If your near hedges or barns then the noise is louder, but the key thing is, people 70 yards away cant hear it. They have a really tight choke on them so you have to be pretty accurate. On the clays it just blows them into dust. Handy for upto about 35 yards id say. Personally I tend to prefer PCP air rifle as quieter and more accurate, especially if your planning to eat what you shoot. The biggest downside id say is the sheer length of the gun. Cos of the pump action reciever on them, the full length silencer can only go back so far. So what was probably a 18inch barrel ends ups being like 34inch or something silly. Its like carrying a drainpipe around with you. I have to dismantle it to get into my gun safe and yet my 30" beretta semi auto 12bore fits in fine! They do hold their value like mad, so if your interested in one, id be tempted to buy one 2nd hand, try it out and if you dont like it then you can just sell it on for what you paid no problem at all.

Ive the .410 version of that mossberg with a silencer (moderator) on it which I use for lamping, and in the USA its known as the "defender" aimed at home defence! They do it with a much shorter barrel, no stock and a "spreader" choke which helps you maneuver it in tight spots and inflict max damage to scumbags inside your house.

I would have been kiling myself laughing.

I actually gave up on my ride out on my motorbike last sunday because of cyclists. First time out in about 10 weeks, and im looking forward to a nice ride out, and every country road I went down I ended up getting stuck behind wannabe Bradleys, all lycra`d up, 3 or 4 abreast holding all the traffic up. It used to be tractors or caravaners who were the bain of the back roads, now its the lycra gang. Amazing how every man & his dog seem to be into it now, i wonder how long this "fad" will last for? I used to enjoy a nice bit of cycling myself but didnt feel the urge to pretend i was in the tour de france. For me, it was just jeans / t-shirt and my mountain bike. Id try and stay off the roads as much as possible as I found nothing was more boring than just cycling on tarmac.

kin ell, half my family live in cov. Will have to keep an eye out in case they try to steal the father-in-laws rover off his drive!

Im not sure id be doing 20mph in a tesco car park, but can certainly relate to the comment above from Tricky. I remember once driving through my local village. I turned down a road and accelerated gently in first, changed into 2nd and I must have been doing about 20mph if that, and some old bloke on the side of the road went mental at me. He was balling at me and was waving his walking stick in the air and everything. There was no other cars about and as i was only doing 20mph I just stopped my car there & then to see if he was going to come over. Whilst I was pretty angry that he was trying to suggest that I was driving dangerous or speeding I didnt get out of the car as I didnt want to be seen to be intimidating some old bloke. He then had 2nd thoughts about it all and wandered off muttering to himself. I can only blame it on the K1 exhaust I was running at the time. Even 10mph sounded like you were about to go super sonic.

I wish. It was defo the car. I was paying £160 a year for a Golf GT TDI at the time, my Yamaha R1 was costing me £60 a year and the zed came in at over a grand. I was staggered as id already been quoted about £500 for a Porsche Boxster 3.2s, £600 for an E46 M3, £460 for a Lambo Gallardo (yep, just £460!), and about £600 for a brand spanking new NIssan GTR. So, it was defo the zed they just didnt like.

Mad how cheap zeds are now. As ive said before, i was paying over a grand when I got mine a few years back and i was 40 with 20 years NCB living in a quite cul-de-sac full of old pensioners. Seems to be insurance companies no longer think they are such a high risk!

Must be that time of year, on Saturday i went into the garage and saw one of my big 40mm impact sockets on the floor which id been using in the vice to help press a wheel bearing out. I picked it up and instinctively run my hand around it to wipe off any muck only to feel a sharp stabbing pain in the palm of my hand between my thumb and finger. Pull socket away and see a shard of barbed metal had gone straight in off where id been hitting the socket, went straight through the fleshy bit of hand there and nearly out of the other side. I tried to pull on it and as it was barbed it wasnt going anywhere. I had a moments debate whether to get the pliers on it and rip it straight out, whether to go to A&E or whether to except my excited wifes offer to help. Baring in mind she loves gory extreme ER programs on the telly I quickly ruled her out of the list of options. In the end I slowly (and very painfully) managed to pull it out by gently but firmly wiggling it about and pulling hard - but it took forever. At one point i wondered if it was going to be easier just pushing it through and out the other side. In the end it was a bit about 3cm long! Still, once it was out I had to have quite a few whiskies (for medical reasons obviously).

Hmmm.. unfortunately my wife wont let me mod her Juke. Still, its still going well, just turned over 50k miles last week, which isnt bad over 2.5 years. Just had the original front tyres replaced too, so they lasted pretty well. Is your shock absorbers rusting on the top part of them under the bonnet also? Ours look like they are off the titanic. Think its a design fault that water seems to go on them when it rains.

The dealer resprayed my front bumper before I picked my car up to make it look new, but no matter how carefully i made sure i was miles away from other cars in front of me, it soon started picking up stone chips again. Not much you can do to avoid that. Scratch wise, I was paranoid to the point where I refused to park in any supermarket carparks and if i had to park somewhere made sure i was miles away. It was silly really, as rather than enjoy the car, id be worrying about if anyone scratched it. The plus side was that when I sold it to a dealer, the dealer really could not find any faults with it at all, it was totally 100% immaculate inside & out. It was like a brand new car. Id clean, polish & wax it every week, giving it 2 coats of wax, the roof was treated every 3 months with conditioner & sealant, the leather was cleaned and fed every 3 months.... I used to spend hours on it. I even used to take the wheels off and polish them on the inside. Funny thing is, my beemer which I replaced it with, which cost 3 times as much as the zed, i seem to only wash it once a month now, and even then its a quick once over with some soapy water! Although thats mainly because i just dont get the spare time to look after it as well.

It looks like prices for 350z insurance has dropped loads over the last few years. When I bought my HR Roadster in 2011 the cheapest insurance I could find was just under a grand with Adrian Flux. That was with having 20 years NCB. As a comparison, an E46 M3 would cost me £600 and a Boxster was £500. Even a nearly new GTR was coming in at about the £500 mark. I was amazed. Even the "specialist" companies were coming in over a grand. Now if i get a quote for the same car its coming in more like £300.

Depends on how many miles since the P2. But, if you want peace of mind, id be tempted to have a P3 done as at least you then know its been done. A P1 is basically just oil + filter so chances are the YTS lad did it and they probably used the cheapest bits they could. Also check when things like the plugs & brake fluid needs to be changed. I seem to recall HR sparkplugs are every 60k miles or 6 years so they might need replacing. Also whilst you have the bonnet open, check the condition of the rubber "fan" belt on the front of the engine. Mine used to shred itself every 20k miles. Its only a cheap item, but you dont want it to snap on you.

Make sure you dont try to race Corsas!!!!!

Sounds like you like people handling your arse......