Archive for the ‘motorcycle’ Category
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 |
In 2007 alone, 1000 ’s of Chinese bikes, scooters and mopeds were imported into the UK. This seems to be a growing trend, with more and more manufacturers importing them into the UK. Currently an estimated 450 separate manufacturer ’s import into the country and this grows every year. With this in mind, more insurers are joining the game to get these insured. However, import bike insurance can still be difficult to find.
So why buy a Chinese import bike? For one, they are generally half the price of a standard moped or scooter; this is despite the import costs. They are normally based on current mopeds and scooters manufactured by major companies, just with a different name on them. These are also known as replica bikes. A majority of these bikes will need registering in the UK, at a cost of 55.00, pounds a small price to pay considering the cheaper cost for the bike itself.
Import bike insurance can be tough to find, a majority of insurers and brokers have never heard of the vehicle you’re looking to insure, and that ’s usually where the conversation ends. However, with the popularity of these scooters and mopeds, more and more insurers are providing competitive schemes to support the demand on these types of vehicles.
One of the main problems with import bikes and in particular the import bike insurance is that many of these vehicles parts are not readily available. In the event of a claim and the bike needs repairing, it is difficult and costly for the insurer to source the parts and authorised repairers. That is why many of the insurers will opt out of offering a fully comprehensive quotation, or they may offer an expensive quote, often more than the value of the vehicle itself.
As many import bikes, scooters and moped for sale are based on current models manufactured by major names such as Honda bike, Suzuki bike and Yamaha bike for sale. The parts and spares can be easily picked up at the usual local repairer. This all helps with the insurance side of things, but with over 450 different import manufacturers, you can imagine how difficult the parts are to find.
Another problem with import bikes, scooters and mopeds, is that they require registering in the UK. Many are sold without first being registered. However, before registering a vehicle, it requires insurance, and many insurers will not insure without a registration number plate, a perfect catch 22 situation. Although many insures understand this and are providing this insurance, it still can be difficult to track this type of insurance cover down.
The most popular scooter on the road today, is the Baotian BT 50cc, an import bike, over 1000 were imported during 2007, figures supplied by the MCIA (The Motor Cycle Industry Association Limited). This gives you an idea of just how popular these bikes are, out selling major manufacturers like Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha.
You may ask yourself, where can buy these bikes? Well, many local dealers are starting to sell them, and there are plenty of bargains available site. The majority are sold through internet only bike shops, delivered direct to your door, again this promotes the problem of repairs and spare parts, many of these vehicles are not sold with any warranty.
In short, these bikes, scooters and mopeds are a perfect way of commuting to and from work. They are cheap to buy, cheap to run, very economical, and parking is generally not a problem, and with more insurers realising the demand on these bikes, they are helping on the insurance availability, cost and cover provided.
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Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 |
There are three basic categories of street motorcycles: full dress or touring bikes, cruisers and sport bikes. Though some bike designs tend to bridge the gaps between these categories, most motorcycles fall easily into one of the three groups.
Full dress motorcycles are so-named because of their extra equipment to make long rides or touring more convenient. They have hard-shell trunks on either side of the back fender, full fairings, windshields and a dashboard. They also typically come with in-dash audio equipment, often including GPS. The passenger seat on a touring bike has a high rounded back with armrests. These heavy bikes have advanced suspension and rubber motor mounts that smooth out the road and make long hauls a pleasure. The Road King by Harley Davidson and Honda’s Gold Wing are two examples of full dress motorcycles.
Though touring bikes are beautiful, the motorcycles most closely associated with the legendary biker image are cruisers, which include customized choppers. A chopper has a “chopped” frame with the front fork extended and raked beyond the standard stock cruiser.
Cruisers and choppers are synonymous with cool and virtually all Japanese manufacturers have invested in the legend started by Harley Davidson with cruisers of their own. Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki are a few examples.
Cruisers and choppers particularly Harleys are also the motorcycles most often customized. Many owners can easily invest over US$30,000 for everything from eye-blinding chrome to custom engines and airbrush paint jobs. Harley Davidson Softails, Springers, Wide Glides, Shoveleads, Panheads and Knuckleheads are all classic cruisers.
If cruising isn’t your style but racing is you’ll be interested in sport bikes, also called café racers. These bikes have a sitting posture that puts the rider’s feet beneath him or her, rather than out front. The rider leans forward over the gas tank with head and shoulders to grasp small, straight handlebars designed for quick, exacting turns. This posture is perfect for taking curves at high speeds, leaning the bike and maintaining tight control. Sports bikes are perfect for playing in the mountains, flying down lonesome, winding country roads, or even zipping around town. However, they are not designed for comfort on long, steady treks, where the front-leaning posture puts strain on the lower back. Sports bikes come in a wide range of models and prices. The Honda Interceptor and Ducati Supersport are two examples of sports bikes.
Off road motorcycles include dirt bikes designed with tall frames and high tailpipes that won’t bottom out. These motorcycles have knobby tires and lack street gear or license plates. Instead they are issued yearly green stickers by the Department of Motor Vehicles, allowing owners to ride in off-road parks. They have either two stroke or four stroke engines and are illegal to ride in the street.
A hybrid dirt bike, known as an enduro, has a headlight and license plate and is street legal. Stock tires are called combination tires and look like “dull” knobby tires. Unfortunately, these tires don’t have much traction in the street or in the dirt. Enduros are not as popular as dirt bikes or street motorcycles, but can be useful for those who live in rural areas or farmland surrounded by dirt roads.
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Friday, August 15th, 2008 |
Next time when damage occurs to your motorcycle, you will think twice to buy new body parts. The best option at this time is to go for used motorcycle parts. They will help you to save your money greatly. You can see that when you get your vehicle repaired, it costs you less with used motorcycle parts.
Are you in search of a place to buy used motorcycle parts? There are various options from where you can make a choice. You can buy used motorcycle parts from a dealer who has brand name. This is the safest way to buy used motorcycle parts. The general dealer shop is another source from where you can buy used motorcycle parts. You can get different brands in such general dealer shops. They have parts that are suitable for bikes of different quality. They might not be selling branded products or products removed from branded motorcycles. If you are not in much contact with the dealer or if he is a stranger to you, it is better to buy from the owner directly than to go for a general dealer. Such possibilities may not always be feasible to you and that’s why more and more people search online when such a need arises.
Auctions are another place from where you can get used motorcycle parts. This is a suitable place only for experienced people. Those beginners who are not that aware of auctions should not depend on them to buy used motorcycle parts.
Buying from the previous owner is another option to buy used motorcycle parts. Here you will have a chance to know more about the product and the history about it. You will come to know the entire details concerning the bike. Now you get a chance to negotiate with the owner when the price matter comes in. if he is a person whom you know before, there are chances that you get the used motorcycle parts at reduced rate. The difficulty with this option is that when you are not that aware of the market rate of used motorcycle parts, you will be cheated.
The last option is to depend on online shops for buying used motorcycle products. You get chances to search for the product you are looking for directly in the website. With the help of the reviews, you can know more about each internet shop selling used motorcycle parts. This is the most useful and beneficial method to buy used motorcycle parts. This is the easiest and simplest method as you can collect the complete details online sitting at your home.
When buying used motorcycle parts always try to pay ready cash. When you are ready to pay the cash at the time of delivery, the seller will also be ready to come for negotiation of price. Make sure that you are buying from the most trustworthy source. Since you are buying used motorcycle parts, the quality can be a problem. You must not be ready to compromise the quality of the product for the price, which will lead you to trouble.
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Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 |
Yamaha Motorcycles, under this motto, employing all its creativity, and with a very strong spirit of challenge, became what it is now: one of the biggest players in the worldwide motorcycling scene.
But Yamaha’s history doesn’t start with motorcycles…
It is back in 1877 that Torakusu Yamaha started with the Nippon Gakki Company that later would become Yamaha Corporation: an important manufacturer of fine musical instruments.
As the company grew, they explored several fields of opportunity in the textile industry and others.
During the World War II, the company set up a factory to produce airplane propellers. This plant played an important role in Yamaha’s entry to the motorcycle industry as you will see.
After the war, Yamaha Corporation had to find new ways to use the tooling and experience that had been accumulated during their times in the airplane industry, and it was then when Yamaha Motor Corporation was founded.
It’s important to mention that even though this new company was just another branch of Yamaha Corporation, it was placed under an independent management. In this case, under the guidance of Ginichi Kawakami; which turned out to be a brilliant move.
Before producing their first motorcycle, Ginichi Kawakami traveled a lot establishing what would be very useful relationships. He also sent out his engineers to Europe and had them learn how to build motorcycles, particularly from DKW; whom with they kept an underground and unofficial long lasting relationship.
One proof of this is that nowadays, the only two manufacturers in the world of mass-produced five side-valve engines are Yamaha an Audi (DKW - Auto Union).
One of the most important legacies from this international relationships were all the skills learnt by Yamaha’s engineers on two stroke engines know-how. Other manufacturers as Suzuki would not reach the same level of development in this area till seven years later.
Not to wonder why the first bike from Yamaha Motorcycles the 125 YA-1 was fairly a faithful copy of the 1949 DKW RT 12. The only two important differences were the four speed gearbox instead of the original three speed gearbox, and a gear transmission replacing the primary chain drive.
IMPORTANT MODEL FROM YAMAHA MOTORCYCLES
>>> Yamaha YA-1
Even though the Yamaha YA-1 - baptized “Acatombo” (Red dragonfly) by its fans - had “nothing in special” and was more expensive than its competitors, it almost immediately became a great success.
It was reliable: before putting it into the market, the prototypes were tested along 10,000 miles of rough rides . Even the big boss himself, Ginichi Kawakami, rode the bike without any incident from Hamamatsu to Tokyo.
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