chrisk
Hero member
- Location
- Brisbane, Australia
I’d buy the Astralites if they were that price, and still in boxes.
I’d buy the Astralites if they were that price, and still in boxes.






If you did that sort of mileage on the Mirage , you must have quite a few sets of World Cup coins from the petrol station! Serious mileage- but don’t bikes love to be used everyday? I was doing about 15,000 miles a year when I was commuting but used loads of different bikes- sometimes a different one every day. I used to have to test ride bikes with intermittent problems ( cutting out, carbs freezing, over heating fouling plugs etc..) on my way to work..I was working before I even started work! I rode a ZZR1100 that used to spew coolant onto rear tyre- blasted it to work for a week trying to overheat itGot a rear wheel puncture last week ... ( on a non Laverda ) ........ the Pirelli Diablo was about three quarters worn , yet had covered over 12,000 miles .......... which is staggering , as I still scoot along at pretty much the same pace as I have always done ......... In fact , if anything , a little quicker .........
The rear chain has not needed to be adjusted once over the same period .......... which makes me think that consumerables such as these seem to last a lot longer nowadays than they used to .
Which put me in mind of digging out from the archives a list of the rear tyres that the Mirage chewed it`s way through ....... together with the mileage each one covered ..........
Sad or what ......... not , I say .......... but it`s interesting that the Pirellis seemed to last around 4000 / 5000 miles each , whilst the Avons would last around 1500 to 2000 miles longer ............ There are a couple of other interlopers in the form of Continental , and Michelin ..........
Later Avon AM21`s seemed to last quite well .
I would usually wait till they were completely bald in the middle before replacing , so actual legal life would be at least 500 less than shown .........
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If you did that sort of mileage on the Mirage , you must have quite a few sets of World Cup coins from the petrol station! Serious mileage- but don’t bikes love to be used everyday? I was doing about 15,000 miles a year when I was commuting but used loads of different bikes- sometimes a different one every day. I used to have to test ride bikes with intermittent problems ( cutting out, carbs freezing, over heating fouling plugs etc..) on my way to work..I was working before I even started work! I rode a ZZR1100 that used to spew coolant onto rear tyre- blasted it to work for a week trying to overheat itnot a drop. Guy picks it up, back in five minutes covered in antifreeze…I used to have to “ run -in” bikes that had glazed bores and used oil- Triumph technical phrase was “ give it a good Birching”
It’s short for “ Birch the arse off of it” comes from public birchings where you you strapped to a post and hit with a Birch switch.Maybe you should have ridden the ZZR gently, like the owner probably did. Overheating from going too slow maybe.
WTF is a Birching? A good fanging?
This was birching.Maybe you should have ridden the ZZR gently, like the owner probably did. Overheating from going too slow maybe.
WTF is a Birching? A good fanging?
Haven’t heard that for a while! Another old chestnut was “ get the gypsies breath” which meant the liberal use of Easy-Start to coax a crap car into starting! “Aunty Wynn” was our name for Wynnes Stop-a-leak, a miraculous liquid that can stop an engine leaking before the customer gets there!I've always known it as an 'Italian tune up'.