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Welcome To Bikes And Travels...

...It's about bikes...and travels...mostly on bikes!

NTV 600 Revere Loaded with camping equipment set against a spanish desert

What's New?

Helmet Review - Shark Vision R CBF 250 Carb Issue Part Two Short Update Review On Keeway RKS 125cc - April 2014 France Day 20 Early Morning Traffic Types Will I Achieve My Goal of 2014 Miles This Year.... ??? - April 2014 Replacing CBF 125 Head Bearings (Tapered All Balls USA) Resting In Ambleteuse France Day 19 - Campsite Conundrums Too Far For 125s?

Around The Web

Excellent and honest review of Triumph Bonnie. Funny too. Click Here

Foldable Eleccy Scoot. Foldable, portable, great idea! Click Here

Tyre myths debunked. You know...they do try to make good tyres. Click Here

Anti slip manhole covers seem to make everyone happy! Click Here

Trick helmet, head up display and you can talk to it. Not sure it's for me though...Click Here

Get points riding throughout Europe soon? Looks like it's coming.
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Want to bounce a Honda up the side of a quarry? Montessa Hondas now for sale in UK.

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India is the place to sell motorcycles. Honda wants to sell the most!
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Proper trike...scary skills..monster motor...good music...what's not to like?
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Triumph at 400mph? If the Yanks get it right they might break a record
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New UK Electric Bike speed record - 160mph by Kingston Uni students - Well DONE!
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The end of the petrol motor for bikes? These guys reckon so...
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Honda is having a summer sale! Great! But there's no details on the website...?
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2 Lads, 2 bikes, some gear and 2 weeks. Just 'cos it ain't the world don't mean it ain't an adventure!

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Get a comfy bottom while you ride. It's seems comfort isn't cheap though!

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Licence rules explained...I'm still confused
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Delays for the Circuit Of Wales, but everyone seems upbeat and positive.
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25 Special Edition GSXR 750's from Suzuki. Can YOU get one?
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Electric bikes...it's the future! See 10 interesting concepts and machines here.
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Ed March...C90...Artic Circle...Winter...Video...Perfect!
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Your pee can power your phone. What next...pooh powered bikes??
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Kwak Ninja 300 recall in USA. Dunno if it applies here yet
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Latest Posts

Helmet Review - Shark Vision R john de ville said :-
A good and honest write up there Shar........like mine, i prefer the ski lock system on the strap, much easier to use and can be adjusted in a tick to fit snug.......

Fazer FZS 600 Amazing Fuel Consumption Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi Phil

Tales of my ups and downs with the new-to-me CBF 250 are all over the blog!

Triumph Street Triple Review And Follow Up Phil said :-
I've yet to try one of these Street Triples, mostly because if I do test ride one I'll know i want one, Fully.com puts mpg at mid 40's tho, which is what a friend gets on her '09 plate, so that's a negative for me, and I've heard the 3cyl engine across the triumph range can drink a fair amount of oil too???

Fazer FZS 600 Amazing Fuel Consumption phil said :-
Shame. Fazers are great bikes. I ride a Honda Innova too that returns 140-150+mpg and its great, as close to free motoring as you can get. Do you have a blog to follow with your CBF?

CBF 250 Carb Issue Part Two Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi John

For those who don't know, Latchy is a friend who also owns a CBF 250 and his runs perfectly. John, I agree it's a sensible notion - BUT - Latchy's bike is running just fine and there's an old saying, if it ain't broke don't fix it. It's possible that by removing his carb he could create a whole hill of trouble for himself and I don't want him to risk that.

Now...if there's anybody out there with a spare CBF 250 carb lying around, do let me know!

CBF 250 Carb Issue Part Two john de ville said :-
Swap the carb with latchys?.................if Latchys is running right then it should in principle make your engine run right......if it runs the same then its not the carb........just saying loik.

CBF 125 Fuel Pump Removed Norman said :-
ps.

Once the pump is blocked it's done for. The fault is usually described as kangaroo hopping. Mine on the other hand was a max speed of 50. After quite a few days of trying to find the fault it ended up getting slower and slower till it stopped after 5 miles. It was then the wax had almost completely block the outlet.

I also had other faults at the time so they were confusing the fault finding.

I am only getting 90mpg and, other than riding style, the only thing left to try is a replacement pump as my theory is as follows.

The pressure regulator that should keep the pressure at 43psi (3 bar) is faulty and the pressure is high. As the injector is fired for a set time the excess pressure is causing too much fuel to enter the cylinder and engine is running a bit rich. Not enough to cause a noticeable problem other than lower than expected mpg.

What do you think?

CBF 125 Fuel Pump Removed Norman said :-
The cbf 125 does have a fuel pump problem but it's more down to design and the tank.

The filter in the pump is non-serviceable. The inside of the tank is coated to protect against rust etc. It seems that the problem could be the ethernol content of the fuel degrades the coating forming a waxy substance that finds it in to the filter blocking the flow.

I've not had that problem as far as I know but I did have a lump of waxy substance block the tank outlet preventing the fuel getting to the pump.

The answer seems to be fitting a small inline filter between tank & pump. This can be changed as required.

CBF 250 Carb Issue Part Two Tom McQ said :-
This sounds like the hell I've been to.

CBF 250 Carb Issue Ron said :-
I have been thinking about this tickover problem and can't come up with a definitive answer. However, a few things you might consider:

The bike runs well in all situations bar tick-over, and even then only under certain conditions, so not much would seem to be wrong! I doubt an electrical problem personally because all else seems fine. However, is the spark plug the right type and new? Cheap to eliminate this idea.

The throttle stop and throttle cables have been checked, but make sure that when the twist grip is "shut" the butterfly really does hit the throttle stop. Push / pull cables should both have slack so you are sure the throttle isn't being held open slightly. Similarly the "choke" cable and mechanism.

Idle mixture is only significant at tick-over, not at mid and high revs. This bike won't tick-over when cold. The standard 2 1/4 turns out of the idle mixture screw is a general setting - try a 1/4 turn (or more) either way with a warm engine and see what the revs do.

Its easy to suggest these things but of course I have no idea if they are relevant!

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