Selling Your Motorbike

Selling your bike privately can be a hassle, and advertising doesn’t come cheap these days. There are however other options out there. A private sale is the first thing that comes to mind for most people. This can indeed be rewarding but it’s never guaranteed. Most people will spend a lot of time and money without actually getting a resulting sale. In today’s busy world, time is a luxury and not many can afford to waste it. SellBike.co.uk is a bike buying website, who will buy bikes of all makes and

I suspect a number of us have seen in the new that there is discussion now about changing the speed limit on motorways from 70mph to 80mph and I cannot help but think that, what difference will it make??? My gut feel that this is a chance for the governement to try and make some people like them again without having to spend any money. I will admit that I think like most people I drive around 80 anyway as I think that is 10% give or take and so probably ok. Surely I am not the only person that thinks that if the limit is 80mph then it would be that I would drive at 90ish…

Answer me this people, is this the case? I pressume that other people have had similar thought and I would like to think that the ministers (don’t get me started on them!!) might have thought about this and so they must expect that this is ok. Also, if 80 mph is deemed to more acceptable does that mean the general rule of losing your licence at 100 will have to go to 110?

I always enjoy the arguement

Helmet Cameras Capture Bad Driving was the title of a news article that I saw today on BBC News website. This article is basically talking about some cyclists that have been using mini video cameras whilst riding and capturing examples of other motorists causing obstructions and near misses and the such like. I had a good example just today

London potholes have come under the spot light with BBC news heading off to the Ace Cafe. It is amasing that they have finally found out that there is a pothole problem but we must embrace that they are finally arriving at the party. In fact is appears that all counties have suddenly noticed about the pothole problem as it is all that you can see on the BBC news in each counties section, we suspect they have decided to use the potholes as the way to cover the money that is being removed by the current crisis so that the government can look good when they announce they are giving extra money to help fix them – ! Oh yeah, that

As an every day rider it is great to see that there are so many other bikers out there these days. As the days are dry and the temperature increases there are more and more bikers hitting the road and dusting off teh bikes from the garages. However it occurred to me how these days due to the police forces recent tactics of having undercover bikers going around and joining groups and then radioing ahead with details of people to stop, we have all become rather paranoid about another biker being behind us as they could be a copper. Regardless of how you are riding, whether it is all legal or not peoples riding starts to do some weird things  as soon as you think you might have a policeman following and recording you.

With this in mind, and seeing that there are campaigns for everything now,  I believe the next step forward for bikers is to start the Do something a police biker wouldn’t campaign. As we ride along these days  

As part of this years New Years Motorcycle Resolutions “Average Joe” declared that he was going to look after his bike a bit more! Average Joe has a 2 kids and a day job and so time is at a premium and he has generally gone with the theory of cleaning your bike is a nice to do rather then a SHOULD DO, however he has now admitted he would like a clean bike once in a while as well as the fact that cleaning help to spot problems early as well as making sure rot does not set in – Road Salt Grrrrrrr

Motorcycle tax rates for bikers has been announced for 2011/12 following the budget information and I am sure it will come as a suprise to all that they have increased the rates for all motorists to have the right to hit

Potholes are getting quite a lot of press these days but my thought as I was riding off to work the other day was which is worst for the bikers, is it the pothole or the gravel that appears that used to BE the road!!

A few days ago I was riding through a town to go to my local motorcycle shop as I was needing some chain lube etc and rode up to red light at a T junction, I could see that there were signs of the road having been through “A Rough Winter” and hence when the light turned green turned the corner very gingerly. One small coronary later I emerged

I have been in motorcycle shops many times in the couple of years that I have been riding. I have not been a big one for looking for no reason though and so am a bit of a typical man in that I walk in the door for a reason and once I have succeded in my mission I pay and leave!! However, whenever I go to a bike shop I tend to pass a mass of cleaning tools and lotions and feel guilty that I don’t own any!! Yes, a messy bike covered in grease and hence my promise to attempt to clean the bikes a few times.

When queing up to buy whatever I went in for there would often be a display section showing Muc Off products and have always been curious to try this magical pink liquid

2011 Bikers Budget – Yes it is time to see how the government have decided to help us spend our money by making everything cost a bit more. We have therefore put together a version of the budget that is targeted at us “the peoples enemy” the bikers.

It can be true to say that a biker may well like the odd tipple of may even be a smoker and so lets start off with the highlights of any budget which is to make enjoyment more expensive. Well, I hope your sitting down because for the first time that I can remember there are NO additional taxes to be added to alcohol duty BUT there is to be a 2% rise above inflation increase in excise duties of wine and beer. Smokers – Duty rates are to raise by 2% above inflation. With the current price of cigarettes the strategy is to make more people homeless through smoking rather then stop smoking. (yes, bit smug that I gave up – still miss it though)

The new everyone is talking about (no idea why!) is that fuel duty has gone down by 1p a litre rather then going up by 4p a litre and so it will save you a negligble amount with the RIDICULOUS petrol prices at the moment but that 1p out of the 60% or so in tax we pay will make all the difference hhmmmm…..

It has been declared that council tax is to be frozen OR reduced in EVERY English council. This is a bold one to be made at the moment and ironically our new tax bills arrived just yesterday confirming no increase (obviously no decrease, wonder where they are) with the only increase in charged being from the small village council that happen to be located in.

Road Tax – This one I think is the annoying one for the biker. There is to be an inflation in road tax but not for HGV drivers. This I find tough for 2 reasons, firstly we should not need to pay more for roads that are substandard – Can we not get the under the trade descriptions act?? Also, it is the HGV drivers that damage the road the most with the weight of the vehicles. Personally I think bicycle riders should need to pay road tax as well, as they are using the same roads, and to be honest they cause problems by being so slow and making people drive round them!!

In Summary – the 2011 biker budget means you save a bit on petrol but lose the benefit through paying more road tax and still having to try and avoid all the potholes. Could have been worse!!

The Road Safety Minister Mike Penning announced today that there will be new powers for the police to tackle the problem of uninsured drivers, yes that means bikes as well. It is estimated that every driver pays within their insurance premium approximately £30 to help cover the cost of accidents where an uninsured driver was involved, as when their is an accident with an uninsured driver do not be fooled it is you and I that cover the cost for those repairs!! It is estimated that uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people a year and injure a MASSIVE 23,000 people a year

CMC Motorycles in Chesterfield have announced that they are to relocate their operation, as yes, they are growing better. We always like to support bike shops and all bikers in fact and so we are eager to let you all know about this. CMC Motorcycles are moving to the old site of Stratstone/Clay Cross Powersports. This was a purpose built motorcycle dealership location and one of the best in the UK!!

A real benefit for all bikers is the 42 seater biker cafe

Well the snow has gone and so the roads must be safer again! Oh No They Are Not. Once again the biker has got a challenge or 2 to undertake. There are 2 big problems out there again today now that the snow has cleared and they are in the form of Pot Holes and Gravel that are out there to get the bikers. Thanks to the snow we have got the return of the Potholes all over the place tempting us bikers to lose a wheel into them, but this is the time

Just last week we made a few motorcycle new year resolutions that we are getting rather close to needing to start doing something about. Once of them was the admission that some of us do not clean our bike quite as often as we should, therefore we spend evening sitting in front of the goggle box feeling guilty that our love and joy is either falling apart due to the sale that was put down on the road or sitting under 2 inches of Grease as we have never quite got round to cleaning it off.

It is with this in mind that since Average Joe has the dirtiest bike in town (still his pride and joy), is rather