Adventure Bike Rider Forum

well .. i'm happy to report that things have looked up a great deal.
I was quite ill and exhausted from gardening in the cold and wet .. and from removing the (lhs) damping fork from my crf250 rally.

I was thinking of going for Rally Raid cartridges. They looked much bigger (valve to mid fork) .. but the cost is £757 .. just for the front fork cartridges .. then there is the fitting cost, though I could or may, do it myself. Ive already fitted a RaceTech system to the front, took it out as too harsh, then fitted the 7.2 nm (N/mm")KTech spring to the rhs side.

I had a Ktech technician fit a mid valve (like a gold valve) to the damper rod in lhs fork ..... but absolute Crap, mostly over loose stone... rest was ok.

I contacted a local suspension expert/fitter, and he suggested going for the Ktech damper valve. I'd already had this done, but this guy looked the biz, with testing machine for compression and rebound damping,... s o I agredd, as he assured me it would be a Lot cheaper.

He started messing me about, taking his time to even start .. so i `cancelled` him by email .. he phoned back ... and , ........ long story short I have now ordered the Rally Raid open cartridges, and the suspension guy is going to fit them.

I have suddenly perked up ..... and feel a lot lot happier.
I suppose I really wanted the RR cartridges, as they had very good reports.
This left me 0 bank balance.... but .......


while moaning miserably, feeling full of rheumatic, fluish, arthritic, depressed and exhausted with little will to carry on ... I came across a prehistoric thread, that said that the earth's axis had shifted from 25* 12000 years ago to our present ~ 23* causing chaotic stuff to happen to the climate and extinction of species like mammoth and bib big rhinos etc.... lots of things happening .. floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, younger drias event metiorite multiple strikes, ............ and guess what? ....

there were very few humans around ... just a few thousand.

All this nonsense started with the anxiety producing, tax-raising scam of human made global warming .. they had the temperature graphs change colour from light nice yellow to angry wild red. That's why the weather temperature charts look so silly today.

Anyway ... it's not called man-made global warming now... it's climate change.
of course the climate is changing.. we can see and feel that.... but its not made by ice engines.. needing EV introduction etc etc wind mills, higher green bills, more taxes etcc.ctetc ..

Anyway .... I have managed to change my mind set
.. from end is nigh, old twat about to snuff it..
.. to .. let's get sorted ... stuff the weather... heavy winter rain. long hot summers, where riding bikes seemed to last forever. (see? ... a lot of good points)
.. and just get out and enjoy it while ya can ... ayye/

So I got the RR cartridges coming soon, a fitter lined up (paid by my overdraught)
Got a walking treadmill, to try to get fit (nearly fell off at 1 kmh lol)
started doing some light exercise while looking at the rain outside.
got a new (second-hand) camera to master (huh) in a few days/ weeks, ready to take amazing landscape pics, and maybe videos.
I've even got a cheap helmet cam somewhere stashed away ready for my amazing 10mph speeding vids, lol.
A load of cheap protective wear, trousers, shorts, knees etc etc .. (already gort a cheap ebay body chest protector etc)
New gortex waterproof gloves, thin but winter ones, got silk gloves for under.
handlebar muffs.
New spare tyres for the crf250 rally and my nc750 road bike.
anything else.?
that's enough to remember for now ..
,,.... POSITIVE THINKING ... POSITIVE ACTION .. FROM POSITIVE INTENSION...
(at least for now, anyway.)

so .. fuck the weather, my age, my money savings, arthritis, depression etc.
.. Just get on with it ayee?

Great stuff!
Really hope the RR stuff works

As an aside I used to do Cardiac exercise testing on patients and a long time ago we had someone come in who unfortunately had a little flatulence… as the treadmill speed got faster so did their parps. My senior doctor at the time had to leave the room from laughing too much at maximum speed their farting almost matched their leg speed…

Godspeed wrote: ↑Sun Dec 14, 2025 8:03 am Great stuff!
Really hope the RR stuff works

As an aside I used to do Cardiac exercise testing on patients and a long time ago we had someone come in who unfortunately had a little flatulence… as the treadmill speed got faster so did their parps. My senior doctor at the time had to leave the room from laughing too much at maximum speed their farting almost matched their leg speed…

lol ... made me laugh .... Cheers, Chris.

So .. got the RR cartridges fitted.
The items are British made and very high quality (looking). The RR website is very poor though, and very frustrating, as the instructions are non-existent and very misleading. I was even given the wrong advice by the guys answering the phone at my queries for fitting.
My local suspension fitter sorted it though, and the result is very good.

Overall the suspension is much firmer, but pliant, giving a lot more stability and confidence.

I must admit I was actually Scared to try it all out, as my recent episodes involved some quite serious Offs due to the front leg anomalies, and got some minor injuries too, mostly due to lack of rebound, I believe.
Apparently there was way too little oil in the forks.. about 200ml, whereas the RR is 400ml. .... no wonder it was diving around and trying to wipe out the front, to the left, all the time.

Once away, I felt confident, ..and growing, and actually started to enjoy the ride. Much firmer and controllable.
Looking forwards to using the new suspension during this coming fine weather, even though cold?

I've started doing some very light exercises, and steps ( I think its called .. treadmill) and have lost half a stone recently. Feel much better, but still very tired all the time, but lucky to have reached 77, lol.

The camera looks awesome, Lumix TZ70 .. £175 .. ~half price, ebay. ...
VG quality. good pics. Not sure yet of width of view for panoramic scenes, but vg zoom. So small and compact, and well made. .. It's a Compact camera. My Nikon bridge camera couldn't really be taken off road, as to fragile and cumbersome.

Hope your'e all as happy as me ...
xxx .Happy Christmas, to all. xxx

That’s a decent Christmas present!
Happy Christmas

Please could we have just a little bit More, Global Warming.. say about another 10 degrees should be OK, not to overdo it ... its so bluddy cold for my old bones, I'm afraid to go out and check out my new suspension set up

Global warming is exactly that. Global. It doesn't say that you cannot have local cooling.

Magnusson wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 9:43 pm Global warming is exactly that. Global. It doesn't say that you cannot have local cooling.

So do these local cooling areas have reductions in green taxes?

Does mad Eddy milliband know about these special cooling sinks?

TBH I don't really care anymore, at my age, what insane policies are invented .. I just waiting for local weather to improve to be able to get out and test ride my new suspension and plan some sunny summer adventures

Coldest start to the year in central UK since 2010.

My stepson-in-law snowed in at Aberdeen airport..helicopters not flying out to the rigs.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4q898dkwxo