Eunos Chump

I've made a couple of recommended (and very simple) modifications to the VFR, detailed here .  These disable the 'flapper' and PAIR valves, which control emissions and noise, and it took all of 10 minutes in total.  I've not ridden it far since, and there's always the risk of placebo effect with this kind of thing, but the response below 6000 RPM seems far more linear and the flat spot around 5K is gone.  That has the benefit of smoothing the transition into the VTEC zone too.  If it ever stops raining I might be able to test it properly.

The order has been placed for Mrs B's car (C3 Picasso).  This should mean I can spend the next 3 years buying various shoddy bikes/cars without getting heat from the domestic management!   I've got a hankering for a GPZ500 at the moment: Old - check Dated - check Rot-prone - check Available in various undesirable colour schemes  - check Cheap - check I still like the VFR, especially it's looks; I often just go and admire it in the garage (it's much too wet for riding at the mo).  However, it's a bit... serious, perhaps sterile.  If it was a person, it would wear a shirt and tie, even at weekends, and go to bed at 10pm (after it's drunk every drop of petrol in the house, of course). I've just realised it's a year to the day since I started my CBT!  I've covered more than 14,000 miles since then, it's addictive stuff.  Wish I'd started in my late twenties, really...

We've been looking at new cars for Mrs B this week, to replace her tired and broken Berlingo.  Yeah, proper new cars!  I'm getting a company motor 'cos it's cheaper than buying a used one.  Unfortunately, she likes her cars like her men (ugly and malformed), so the candidates are: Nissan Juke:  It's so amazingly, breathtakingly ugly I can't help but like it.  A bit.  Definite future Autoshite though, especially with a Renault diesel engine.  They weigh 1700KG for no obvious reason (it's a 1.6 FWD), and they charge you extra for any colour apart from white. Citroen C3 Picasso . I liked the look of these, but was sure it would be cheap'n'nasty inside; I was wrong.  It's a world away from the sparse Berlingo.  It's very cleverly packaged and there are lots of toys (thanks to low emissions and it's impact on benefit-in-kind tax the top model is plenty affordable). This is going to mean one or more of our existing cars will be getting FIRE...

This is how the stylish young man travelled to school in the late '70s; no plebby school bus for us.  1100 Escort with wheelarches secured by pop-rivets.  Hello mum!

Had a 6 hour ride out with my IAM observer Steve yesterday; cross country through Salisbury, past Shrewsbury, skimmed the New Forest then back home via Loomies.  Not all that time was on the bikes, about 2 hours was spent in various cafes, including lunch at an airstrip where we watched a Tiger Moth doing it's thing. I came away with a solid 'B', you need mostly 'A' to be ready for the test.  I need to demonstrate I'm able to spot overtaking opportunities apparently, even if I don't take them (it's too much like hard work overtaking everything not doing 100% of the speed limit as far as I'm concerned). MX5 has been idle for 7 months now, I don't know what to do with it.  Taxing, MOT'ing and insuring it would cost as much as a Yamaha Virago, and I know which one I'd prefer.

Mrs B's Berlingo is out of action because it's overheating, the fan's not cutting in.  I had a look at the Haynes manual and groaned at the over-complicated VAN-bus wiring, but it turns out the fan motor is duff (it gets voltage when I short the temp sensor, anyway).  I'll try to bodge that (probably with a hairdryer or something) when I finally get some time off later this week. I keep looking at Yamaha Viragos, what's wrong with me?