Just starting out

wazza300 · 22 Nov 2015 at 14:05

haha congrats,sounded like you had fun

go round the bike when you get chance and makesure everything is tightened up ect,just to be sure

misterjingo · 22 Nov 2015 at 14:22

Here's a pic of it in its new home:

http://1drv.ms/1X6ovLY

savagesam117 · 22 Nov 2015 at 14:23

Congrats on passing and getting the bike. My mate has one of them, and it's pretty quick. I love riding it. I really want a bike one day!

Enjoy it

Captain · 22 Nov 2015 at 15:21

Looking good.

Post a link to your video once you have edited it.

tom_e · 22 Nov 2015 at 18:02

Did it come with the kid or did you have to pay extra?

Nice looking bike mate, won't be long before you're craving for something bigger

misterjingo · 23 Nov 2015 at 03:11

I've uploaded to youtube. It's my first ride, so I didn't cut too much - allowing me to look back and remember

. If I do upload other videos, I'll snip quite a bit more out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dobKfCcv5uo

I shot it with a Ghost drift-s HD, not sure if it's just me, but the 60fps makes it look a bit jerky and fast. Will have a play with the settings for future recordings. I'll also get a mic, the wind noise is overpowering.

Junglist · 23 Nov 2015 at 10:10

Nice ride. I'm very jealous of your new toy. Starting to wish I bought a 125 rather than go through a long DAS process.

Can't wait to be let out on the road by myself. I've enjoyed both times I've been on the road on my CBT and Mod1 training but I'd enjoy it even more without someone watching and judging my every move!

Looking forward to seeing more of your rides

misterjingo · 23 Nov 2015 at 19:47

@JunglistE to be honest, you're possibly taking the more sensible approach! I can imagine that most people outgrow 125's fairly quickly, upgrading to something a bit more powerful. So I'm going to take a financial hit sometime over the next year

I found driving on my own feels good. I've been driving for years so road sense and observation taking are second nature - it's just a case of translating that to the bike, not trusting anyone else to do the correct thing, and enjoying the ride

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Captain · 23 Nov 2015 at 19:58

I did the 125 for 6 months thing, soon as i started my DAS course and rode a 650 i immediately wish i had done it from the start, i don't feel it was time wasted riding a 125, more so time wasted not being able to ride a 650.

BTW JunglistE my 125 is for sale if you fancy riding one for a few months

misterjingo · 27 Nov 2015 at 14:43

So I've been going out and about during the day, at rush-hour kind of times to get my experience up. So far everything feels great.

I've already met a lot of idiots, but I could preempt their actions, so it was fine. Today I had a woman driving literally a foot behind me for a mile or two, if I created a gap, she'd catch up. I just filtered at the next junction to put a couple of cars between us.

I've had people determined not to let me in front of them at junctions, so they've literally had their bumper hanging out into the road, and some guy over take, then try to merge in, then stop and tell me to go (I let him go as I didn't want him behind me) - you have to question what the point of the overtake was if he was going to do that...

Having driven my car around these roads, I'm used to crap drivers, so I just took it in my stride, and tbh, it made the drive more interesting

My approach to junctions needs some work, a few times I should have perhaps slowed a bit in anticipation of the lights changing (they'd been green for ages) and I coasted a few times whilst gearing down before breaking to a stop. It'll come with time though.

Would my 125 be OK for A roads? I'm thinking of making a few longer journeys to clock the miles up, I might visit a friend in Notts (from Brum), but that would mean the A42 which is always fairly fast when I'm on there in my car.

TallPaul_S · 27 Nov 2015 at 14:53

You'll soon learn that you're not riding a 125 correctly if the throttle isn't on the stop all the time

125's are fine for A roads, most will sit at 60mph all day long.

If people are sitting up your arse, and you're doing normal speed (not doing 20 in a 30 zone) then it's just the L plates that they see. Any 125 can keep up with normal traffic with no problems.

tom_e · 27 Nov 2015 at 14:58

People definitely stop treating you like you don't exist once you ditch the L plates.

misterjingo · 27 Nov 2015 at 15:14

TallPaul_S said:
You'll soon learn that you're not riding a 125 correctly if the throttle isn't on the stop all the time

125's are fine for A roads, most will sit at 60mph all day long.

If people are sitting up your arse, and you're doing normal speed (not doing 20 in a 30 zone) then it's just the L plates that they see. Any 125 can keep up with normal traffic with no problems.

I was perhaps a couple over

I just got away when I had the chance.

Because it's a new bike, I was told not to use too much throttle for the first 600 miles (and first service), so I'm trying (hard) not to use too much throttle

misterjingo · 27 Nov 2015 at 15:15

tom_e said:
People definitely stop treating you like you don't exist once you ditch the L plates.

ahah that's something to look forward to! In fairness, I did have some people let me out at junctions and such which I never get when I'm in my car.

misterjingo · 10 Dec 2015 at 10:13

Riding still going great - actually had a couple of dry days which has been nice!

I've started commuting on the bike and even in busy traffic it's still a lot of fun!

A bit of an aside, I was keeping my bike in the garden, and it was a pain getting it in and out, so I decided to get some double gates installed to give me plenty of room. I got a few quotes which were crazy, so decided to give it a go building them myself.

I took a couple of days, but:

http://1drv.ms/1YZLLZJ

ahah. Get a bike, learn carpentry ;p

Yaayuh! · 10 Dec 2015 at 10:27

Looks good!! Nice one

Got to be extra careful now, getting colder again and there's goin to be salt on the roads. Just be cautious.

misterjingo · 10 Dec 2015 at 21:42

Rossi~ said:
Got to be extra careful now, getting colder again and there's goin to be salt on the roads. Just be cautious.

I'm perhaps being extra cautious due to being fairly new to it all, I'm hoping that come summer, I'll have a load of experience and will be able to just enjoy riding

.

I did my first after dark drive tonight in loads of traffic, managed to do a tonne of filtering. I figured I'd just take it easy and go for it

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVowCf7ifXY

TallPaul_S · 10 Dec 2015 at 23:11

Ahh, reminds me just how god damn slow 125's are!

I'd have been straight in some of those gaps filtering, but that just comes with practice, confidence on the bike etc. If there's a gap and I've been sat still for more than a few seconds, it's getting filtered

Oh and "Papa's got a brand new bag!"

Haha

Try to remember to do a lifesaver before moving to filter from behind a car, I don't always remember but there might have been a biker coming past. Also do the 'look back' if you ever change lanes or switch from the inside to outside of the cars (or vice versa) when filtering in case there's another bike coming up that lane.

Give it a few months and you'll filtering more like this

I'm far from amazing, but it's amazing what 18 months and 15000 miles of this sort of traffic does to your confidence!

Dogbreath · 11 Dec 2015 at 07:41

misterjingo said:
Would my 125 be OK for A roads? I'm thinking of making a few longer journeys to clock the miles up, I might visit a friend in Notts (from Brum), but that would mean the A42 which is always fairly fast when I'm on there in my car.

They are entirely usable, but on fast/busy DCWs the lack of power is annoying when you want to overtake an HGV etc. Unless you are happy to sit behind an HGV at 56mph then you'll be pretty much flat out most of the time.

misterjingo · 11 Dec 2015 at 19:39

Well that's a bag of ****. Bike stolen from outside work, in a secure area where all entrances are covered by CCTV, in a busy place and parked under a CCTV camera. Checked on it at 17:00, got gear on to go, and it as gone.

Police informed and site security.

Luckily I took out fully comp, but can't imagine it's going to do great things to future insurance quotes - my policy states that if stolen and not recovered, because it's new and I'm the first owner, they'll replace with a new model - I can't imagine I'll get a replacement in the near future though

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