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Can fully sympathise when working I had to deal with the public when train services got disrupted. For instance driver gets his lorry stuck under bridge My fault. Herd of cattle get onto line My fault trespasser on line My fault. The thing that really used to annoy me was when somebody would ask. A question and then talk over you whilst you tried to give them an answer. Towards the end if they started to swear at me I would simply say" I'm sorry but I'm trying to help but if you just want to swear at me I'm not prepared to continue the conversation " I would then just walk away. Somehow I man

Normal my Nc750 gets ridden at speed around the M25 / A2 for most of the 100 mile a day commute, and generally I get 78mpg. over the past week, I have changed by chain / sprockets and also had a 40k service and now, even with me ridding it hard im getting 83/84 mpg. My feeling since the service was a just a oil one, is that running with a chain that was well past it and wearing the from sprocket was adding potentially about 8% mpg hit from friction etc.

A looser chain is always better than a tight one. As long as its not slapping the underside of the swing arm at mid-point you will be fine.

Chains have been replaced under warranty in the past. The full term is "fair wear and tear" and it all hinges on 'fair'. Is it fair that you have to buy a chain for a brand new motorcycle? Of course not!! Don't stand for any of that old bull shit. Any dealer worth his salt would go into bat for you - yours sounds like he's wimping out.

A bit like the old hot box detectors then.

Yes, two separate problems caused by the same contamination. One symptom is as described causing poor railhead adhesion. Makes for difficult station starts, stops and yes, wheel flats and railhead damage. The other symptom is that it insulates train from track making it "disappear" from the signalmans panel for a time - or worse the contamination gets onto the wheelset making the train invisible wherever it goes! I should add that we are now using more and more of another method of train detection called axle counters. These are inductive devices that are mounted at the

The official definition is reduced speed due to poor rail head conditions. This causes the driver to have to brake more gently and can actually lead to run byes. During the leaf season SouthEastern run a modified timetable to allow for running at reduced speeds.. As to the wheels for a time I worked in Chart Leacock repair shop their was extra shifts worked changing wheel sets due to flats.

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with it. I've seen it when I went on a tour of a rail workshop. However, their description was slightly different. They explained that running over leaves compresses them into a hard, thin, brown layer on the wheel, a bit like a varnish. This builds up on the wheels and eventually acts as an electrical insulator. They showed a way of mitigating it, which comprised a frame which fits around the bogie and carries some kind of alternating current and works a bit like the primary winding of a transformer. It induces a high voltage between the wheel and the track, suffic

Yes that's right but it was a journalist that first used the phrase wrong type of snow which was then attributed to the railway company to make them sound stupid. The media do the same with the leaves on the line thing making it sound like a stupid excuse when as Larryblag will confirm there is a scientific reason for it. Next Autumn get a leaf and rub it between your fingers. The stuff that comes out is what gets on the rail head and causes the adhesion problems which mean that when the driver brakes the wheels just skid. This not only makes stopping difficult hence they run the trains at red

BT pays my pension...... Call centre staff have a terrible life...conversations led by systems, so they need minimal training, continuously measured, monitored and targeted, driven by stats, treated like numbers (despite nods to motivation). The only variety during the shift is they get to say good afternoon, instead of good morning. I feel for them.

You have guests?

Hang on, I saw a programme about this. It was definitely something to do with the characteristics of the snow and the air intakes. I can't remember the details - the snow was either unusually dry or unusually wet (the former sounds more likely), or maybe unusually fine. I think it melted unexpectedly in the wrong place and caused water damage. Hmmm.... my memory is extremely sketchy. Can anyone fill in the details? Edit: Ah, yes, here we go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_wrong_type_of_snow The snow was unusually fine, dry and powdery so it got picked up by the air int

I used to work for BT, and can confirm this. Basically, most noise faults are impossible to detect by remote testing*. The trouble is, the help desk people aren't told this, so they simply don't believe the line is faulty if it tests OK. Also, BT is slow at fixing faults and is happy to discourage fault reports by making out there is nothing wrong. Noise faults are also quite difficult to locate, because the usual location techniques like TDR (time domain reflectometry) won't work on noise faults. This means the technician is usually stuck with having to perform various splits

What a load of tosh first the so called mechanic really should have noticed the tight spot second their shouldn't be a tight spot as early as 600 miles third only way the chain could have a tight spot so early in its life is it probably wasn't adjusted correctly at pdi adjust at the tightest point whilst turning the chain in the direction of drive (sometimes makes a difference ) and measure full travel up and down somewhere between 30 and 40mm I run mine nearer the 40mm seems to run smoother lube chain after you have ridden soak in over night

Made me a fair amount of dosh working the Sandite on long night shifts though:)

BT are the best at this. We had a line fault so I reported it. I had to do this using my mobile since the noise was so bad you couldn't hear a thing. The nice lady couldn't understand at first why I hadn't called on my landline. Eventually she said she would perform a line test and ring me back. When she did it was like the late Norman Collier on the other end. But through all the white noise she managed to tell me that she'd done the test and nothing was wrong with the line... !!!

And it's never fully explained that lack of adhesion caused by railhead contamination (leaves on the line) is only part of the problem - much worse are the (wrong side) track circuit failures that make trains "invisible" to the signalling system. Older stock used to have tread brakes which cleared off quite a bit of this stuff from the train wheels whereas the modern disc brake vehicles don't do this.

Honda have calculated that at 35mm there will still be sufficient slack when the suspension is fully compressed. That's why you need 35 mm at the tightest point of the chain. Tight spots on a chain only 600 miles old is disgraceful. What does the dealership boss suggest you do? Buy a new chain at 600 miles?!

Sorry when you say 'first service' do you mean the 600 mile one? Or the first 'annual one'? To claim a tight spot in the chain is 'wear and tear' at 600 miles is a bit steep! The correct course of action is to set it at 35mm at it's tightest point. That means it will be too loose at it's slickest point - that's the way it goes. Sorry.

Have the valve clearances been checked recently? I'm getting the feeling this engine is quite sensitive to settings. I had one experience of rather rough running, just after doing valve clearances. I hadn't pushed one plug cap fully home .......

No that was a stupid misquote from a journalist who obviously knew FA about trains and how they work

I know what Andy is saying, the consumer's contract is with the retailer not the manufacturer, that's the legal position so use it if necessary. Personally I usually take the easy way out, my life is too short. Bad service? Take my business elsewhere and forget about it (if possible). Obviously not always possible, but a case of overfilled oil and possibly failure to drain/change oil and filter, do it yourself and know it's done right. Don't go back for more cr*p.

I have run teams that take these calls (not out of choice). What do you want them to do? 1. They can try and talk you through the problem. When you decide to eat the oil filter or round off all the nuts and bolts with your plumbing tools you will complain more. 2. They can call the dealer on your behalf. The dealer will know, or at least claim you are a whinging muppet who's putting diesel in because you think it'll get better MPG. They are independent businesses who if pushed too hard will drop the brand. If you ask them to do the job they send you the bill. If you hav

In fact the opposite is true, some years ago the EU legislated that manufacturers had to make fault codes available and readable in order that consumers are not tied into the maunfacturers franchised dealer networks.