Recent content by barryh

My first 3 were: !970 Ducati Monza junior !975 Triumph 750 Bonneville 1976 Kawasaki Z900 There have been a few more since then but I've just let the last one go after a no fault accident that wrote off the bike and badly broke my wife's wrist. You don't bounce so well after 70. I miss my bikes...

All modern cars seem to have so called smart alternator but there's nothing smart about them if they cause premature battery failure. 12.0 volts is way way too low for a rested voltage and with the car asleep. I've just replaced the EFB battery in my Golf with stop/start. It has a rested...

For batteries that I've fitted and looked after I get 10 -12 years in a relatively cool climate and that's without waiting until they fail. The Varta oem battery in my used Golf lasted 7 years but who knows how it was treated for the first 5 years. Stop start and exposure to engine heat will...

Is that an indicator of OEM battery quality or an indicator of how the battery was treated or rather misgtreated from when it left the factory to point of sale. I can't imagine they would think of charging the battery if a long time elapsed between factory and sale. The mentality will be if it...

High temperature is a big killer of batteries and not just from the climate. A battery with no thermal insulation and exposed to engine heat will not last as long as a battery mounted elsewhere such as behind a sealed and insulated bulkhead.

Perhaps some people might want to prioritise comfort. I'm one of them but my tyres are never underinflated for the load or for the speed. I run comfort pressures around town and highway pressures on longer trips.

I thought about getting a portable compressor type AC unit that vents outside via a window. But isn't there a snag - if it vents air outside then it must be pulling air into the house as well. This has to mean that hot air from outside is being pulled into the house and ultimately into the room...

If you have the time, what I like about gravity bleeding is that provided you keep the reservoir topped up there is zero chance of introducing air. In my experience it's vacuum bleeding that pulls air in around the bleed nipple threads. I've never had that problem with gravity. Gravity...

Knocking off one or two decimal points would make it fit better as it's not as if quoting viscosity to two decimal places has any useful meaning as far as the comparison is concerned. Turning the problem around. I always fail to copy tabulated data from a web page directly into Excel but it...

The penal code in Tunisia is fairly severe but they certainly don't cut hands off, you'd need to go to Iran and perhaps only one or two other countries that have a very strict Islamic code for that to happen. My impression of Tunisian people was they were fundamentally honest and not honest out...

Earlier this year we had a holiday in Tunisa on the North African coast. On an organised motor scooter tour I asked the tour leader if we should lock the scooters when parked. He said leave the key in the ignition and I assure you no one will touch it while we are away. He was right and this in...

What's surprising is the silly fashion for ultra low profile tyres on big wheels is being carried over to EV's. Off hand the only EV I can think of with designed fit for purpose wheels is the original BMW i3 which had large diameter narrow tyres to minimise rolling resistance, wind resistance...

The bike in front of Marquez suffered a sudden power loss and they were riding so close, as they do, that Marquez ran into the back of him. Racers place tremendous faith in other competitors, can you imaging driving at 150mph only a few feet from the vehicle in front.

It's true more braking capability is available for the front wheels but It depends on the degree of weight transfer so the figure will vary quite a bit depending on how hard the brakes are applied.

Gasoline prices would have to go very much higher to curb peoples driving. In the UK prices are double what you pay and still I see no evidence of people driving less or driving slower which suggests lots of drivers don't seem to care what it costs. The worst aspect of fuel prices rising is...