mike wilson

Nail catchers used to be popular optional extras on vehicles in the early part of the last century. Tyres were less robust then and road hazards (horsehoe nails, flints and thorns, generally) much more common. The catcher is just a metal strip, with the contour of the tread, placed close and perpendicular to the circumference of the tyre. The idea is to catch anything that penetrates the tyre before it has a chance to work right through the carcass. It fails, of course, to deal with incidents where the object penetrates fully on the first impact. Even worse, it rips the object out of the trye and leaves one with a much bigger hole for air to escape. Still...... mike

I see no point in spending money on the front of the engine until the front mudguard does something other than look swoopy. Guarding from mud would be a good start. m

Seconded. If it doesn't sound like somebody is using the engine for sealclubbing practice, it will be the sender. Either disconnect it or replace it. A pressure gauge would be much more useful. m

Now go and wash your mouth out. People ride bikes for all sorts of reasons. In my own case, it was the only form of motorised transport I could use without puking my ring up. Speed didn't come into it. Lack of vomit did. m

If you get a clear run, you can do Edinburgh - Cambridge in about five/six hours. Two+ hours for the bit from Edinburgh to Newcastle, three+ hours for the rest. That's assuming a car, legal(ish) speeds and short breaks. Glasgow - Cambridge will be similar, maybe slightly longer. Add an hour for bad traffic, at least. mike

Edinburgh is no more than an hour from Glasgow. Pretty much motorway (70mph) all the way. mike

It's good to know that American designers place a high priority on buggery and protection therefrom. I am as suprised at that as I am at the lack of thought or protection on Italian machines. mike who has been protected from buggery for about 200,000miles.

Plus quite lot of condensation from moist air drawn in as the fork extends. Sucked in on a warm day, it will condense that night and settle to the bottom of the pile. Then get mixed up the next day as a fresh charge is drawn in. I know they are supposed to be airtight but, in an absolute sense (ahem), they are not. m

Early 80's, I think. He was a sidecar racer who started to suffer from depression after a bad patch in his personal life. IIRC, he ended up in his house with a shotgun and the police outside and the house burned down with him in it. Not the nicest end. m

Glad to hear you are OK. You can alway buy another bike. As for the hysteria; it's normal, let it ride for a time. Later, you can point out to your folks that this guy would have gone through you if you had been on foot (in America? - Har!) and you would have been much more seriously injured. You were prepared and on the ball and that saved you from a worse outcome. That matters more than the vehicle you were using. mike

I wish there had been no need to. Very sad case.

George O'Dell

One of the V7 specials. Ambassador? 703 or 757cc?

Good mudguards. Hope you don't swap them for somethiing "sporty".

Aiace? Never heard of that one. 61-63, according to my source. Ambassador was only made in 69, according to the same. Cardellino83 from 62-65 Dingo Cross? Can't have been many of those. Plenty of other Dingo submodels: GT, MM, Sport, Tre, SS, Super, Tourismo. Plenty of others overlap from 50s to 60s - Hipania series - and from 60s to 70s - Trotters. Of course, you haven't said that it's a bike. So it could be something like the Mulo Mechanico or the Motocoltivatore Universal.

eldorado V7

I'm about 500yards from the main road to Scotland in Northern England. Wave if you're passing. 8-)

Does he know that you are the one who will be writing the bill? Those specialist labour charges on exotic foreign machinery (brand, spanking new, to boot) are horrifying. Not such a PITA day after all, methinks. Still, sorry it happened. Can take the gloss right off new ownership. mike

Give us a decade. Please.....

I hope you get back to full fitness, Rick. It's not always easy and often requires plenty of determination. The best advice I can give you, from experience, is never give up. The same advice applies to doing what you want to do. mike

Here. I'll let you know when it's in......

Sag seems to be correctly set. After that, it's just fiddling. Uncle Ernie

Alan Freeman's DEAD!!!???? He once made me a very weak coffee and gave me a pile of crap records. I never moved out of the chair.....

Google for "Ducati Apollo"

Honda seems to have lost it across the board. The reliability (normally spelled "Honda") of their F1 cars for the last two years has been shocking.