coldel

What in gods name is the world coming to

Very nice, not sure on the red lips but otherwise very nice - like the way you can get away with parking it across the street

My clutch went, but I was in cornwall at the time I had to drive hundreds of miles back to London, by which point it was slipping like crazy. Sometimes you get lucky, the flywheel is ok, but if you don't order it and you spend hours opening the transmission up and find the flywheel is damaged then you have wasted a lot of time and money as you will have to order another one and do it another day. Most dealers will (hope I am not dropping anyone in it here!) allow you to return an unopened flywheel if you dont fit it...so order both, if you need it fit it, if not send it back unopened. As an aside, if the clutch is slipping, it usually is already too late to save the flywheel ... ... and yeah, lots of younger drivers picking up Zeds, maybe more powerful cars are becoming relatively cheaper. At 21 I was in a 1.1L Fiesta with insurance of £850, more than I pay now on my Zed, that was 16 years ago!

Cheap and cheerful, make an offer? Not blue but its just temporary right? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NISSAN-2004-2005-2006-2007-2008-350-Z-GENUINE-FRONT-BUMPER-SALE-/250936330119 Other option is to go via the car breakers and see what you can source online, probably cost you around £100-£150 though.

Not sure you need a specialist to change a clutch - just check the traders on here (ZMANALEX is a good start) to price up the parts and then any reputable garage should be able to unhook the gearbox etc and switch the clutch over. Should take 4-5 hours max I reckon? If you have an eye on a car already, maybe post some details of it on here and people can give opinions etc (you dont have to show the actual ad if you want to keep it to yourself )

As much as you want to ask questions about mechanicals and electricals - ring around your insurance companies first if you havent already insuring a zed isnt cheap if you are a younger driver and have seen a few people on here save up for one buy it then realise its another £2k to insure And welcome! Have a browse through the help sections on here, LOADS of great advice.

It was a fleeting idea mate...I had a nice little pay off from work when I got let go so am eyeing up some new stuff for the car - exhaust, HFCs and uprev I think is where the money is going

I think best reastion is to at them when that happens!

As much as I sympathise with getting hit (thank goodness I never experienced that on a bike) it is this 'its ok, dont worry, cars do it too' thinking that puts us where we are now. Because a car goes over 30mph doesnt make it right to cycle through red lights and not give way to the right at roundabouts. And, actually, no, I dont drive over 30 in a 30 zone as it happens, and I know a lot of other drivers that dont either I am not sure what riding defensively is exactly, I think it might be just sticking to your line, constant pace, with sensible clothing, having lights on the bike at night etc works fine. Weaving in and out of traffic and banging on car windows I am pretty sure is tantamount to road rage. It is not ok to jump lights and break the law either a. because someone else does it or b. because your interpretation dictates otherwise - I am again staggered that people can justify it in this way. How many times do you see drivers get agitated when they see cyclists jumping lights, cutting across the road, riding three abreast etc and then driving erratically afterwards - and conversely seeing a driver give a cyclist total respect and space when pulling away from a red light because the cyclist stopped as well. Share the road - share the rules

Go to the Z Store, they got a whole stack of options on there...

Ah so thats what it is...mine does that, if I accelerate and then ease off the stick moves a couple of mm...

I need reforming...anyways, got to buy an exhaust first...

But they are 'performance' taillights so they will surely add 30bhp to my car, so cheap mod

...if I said just now I thought 'hey they might look alright on my black zed' http://www.jtote.com/product_info.php/nissan-350z-driver-and-passenger-side-pair-euro-black-led-performance-tail-lights-p-112299

I do still have an old bikeradar login I might post something

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NISSAN-2004-2005-2006-2007-2008-350-Z-GENUINE-FRONT-BUMPER-SALE-/250936330119

I think learning to cycle helps. A friend on mine who runs a proficiency course gave me a lesson, thought I was a competent cyclist but realised how poor I was. Helped me focus on going from someone who can ride a bike to someone who can ride a bike on a road. Try cycle whilst looking over your shoulder and holding a hand out, bet you swerve a basic skill that many dont have and in fact saw a tour de france groupie do just that in Windsor the other day, nearly killed himself as he swerved across the road into the path of an oncoming Mercedes which fortunately had great brakes If cyclists learnt to cycle, as I think there is certainly more gain to be had from educating the majority of cyclists than the minority of drivers, it would certainly cut down tremendously on the amount of road rage and subsequent car slapping as cyclists would not be stupidly putting themselves into dangerous positions on the road the way they do now.

Thats what bugs me the most, I did a lot of cycling, I didnt jump lights etc - it is possible to cycle without breaking the law.

They do this in London - I've seen a few threads on BikeRadar of people complaining of Police giving them a talking to about it. So some bobbies have the right idea at least And therein lies the problem, cyclists break the law, they get caught, they complain about it. If I jumped some lights in the car, got caught and had a talking to, I would hang my head in shame and just take it on the chin, I am in the wrong. There seems to be a lack of culpability for ones own actions ...

I guess to 'stay on target' with this thread, and not veer towards the theme of many others - we need to change behaviour, cyclists, and I mean the majority here, are breaking the law all too frequently. There needs to be an awareness campaign, along with some level of enforcement of the law. If you were to have say a few traffic police stand by a busy junction, have one watch the junction and radio ahead to a few police the otherside to round up the light jumpers and fine them on the spot, or even confiscate bikes, it would have a massive impact on the flagrant law breaking that we see all the time.

I agree in principle, although you will get the this is the law version which is that its not road tax but vehicle excise duty thus bikes are excluded as are some cars. Roads are maintained through income taxes blah blah.

There is a fee there somewhere, although I would disagree with the first statement, cant imagine people would toss aside their tour de france lycra and carbon fibre bikes because they have to pay a £10 admin fee for an awareness course. Even if as a start it is done purely online. When I did my football coaching you had to do online courses, they were pretty good, showing you examples of behaviour etc I still remember them to this day and the online stuff can easily be sponsered by celebrities to give more impact.

Silver carbon wrap - et voila

We should start up a government petition Cyclists to undergo a one hour awareness training session, as an occasional cyclist and a petrolhead I would do this, so whats your excuse? TV adverts to stigmatise cyclists choosing which laws of the road apply (so similar to the drink drive campaigns). I think anyone using a bike to commute should be covered by some level of insurance as well.

You havent seen Motorway Cops if you think every driver has a license. Most of the people they stop dont have one OK OK so most do and I agree that on the whole drivers are better than cyclists. I do think they should do awareness courses for new drivers (as part of getting the license) for cyclists so they know to look out for them and what to watch for. Yep, especially in London where there are something like 50,000+ cyclists on the road at any one time. Get drivers aware of what you might expect from cyclists. I think though any cyclist buying a new bike must produce a cycle training certificate or similar before they can buy it. Just a certification that they have done some standard 'awareness of the road' training. I still find it incomprehensible that in this day and age you can buy a vehicle and ride it on a road with no training whatsoever. Cyclists at the moment are cycling like they are driving, which is dangerous. Even this morning, as I was pulling out from the side of the road, a car had stopped to let me out, I had my indicator on, the right wheel was turned and out onto the road but a bunch of cyclists having a chat and the front guy looking back over his shoulder to chat didnt see that all the traffic had stopped for me and were waiting, they undertook everyone and it was only me seeing this incident coming stopped and waited until they had passed - I could have pulled out, gotten out in time, but that isnt the point - I saw what was going to happen, the cyclists, had no idea, not a clue, total lack of awareness of the road.