How quickly things change!

I finally made up my mind to buy a Classic Royal Enfield Bullet. I had intended to keep the Lifan and to see how often I would use it as part of a two bike team. Then one day last week I decided that I would offer it for sale on Gumtree, the free ad site. It just seemed a more sensible thing to do. Within ten minutes of posting, I had three calls. A lad from Portsmouth wanted to strip down his bike this winter, knew all about Lifan, and wanted it as his winter runaround in the City. He picked it up later in the day.

I'll have fond memories of the Lifan. It got me back into motorcycling. Gave me 2600K of trouble free fun riding. For any learner who wants a cheap and reliable bike to start out with - it's a great buy. In fact for anyone, for whatever reason, it's a delightful experience to own a brand new bike at an affordable price - a price that's no more than the first day's depreciation on most cars!

Thanks little Lifan. You are missed already.

Late summer

Looks like the week ahead will be another short summer. More outings! Now approaching 2500K I still go out for a run each day when the weather's OK. Only been caught in the rain three times so far. I took great care and each time didn't really get too wet. The bike's still running well. I'm pushing it a little faster now when I can. 55 to 60mph is achievable when I open up the throttle a bit more on flat roads - it's near max but on the roads I'm on it's not for long stretches. I'm very undecided about when I might want another bike and what to go for. The more I get used to the Lifan, the more I like it for the journeys I do. No doubt more power would encourage me to go further afield - but just how far, and just how often?

Bike storage

One of the things I like about a 125 is ease of parking in a tight space. I keep my Lifan behind one of my cars in a double garage - the one I use least. I can easily push it into it's space - it would be much for difficult for this old boy to manoeuvre a 600cc plus bike into the same spot.

Past 2000K

Now that the bike's fully run in, it easily cruises at 50mph plus a bit more although I wouldn't want to spend too long above 50. 

First 1000 miles

Just passed the first thousand miles in just under three months. Delightful, trouble free riding. Cruises easlly between 45 to 50 mph which is all I need for most of my journeys in and around the New Forest with its 40 mph speed limits. Now I must get into a routine of lubing the chain, putting the battery on a trickle charge and checking tyre pressures. Something I rarely do on my cars.

50 plus

Did a few miles on a dual carriageway today. Purred away at 50 - 55mph No problems. Perhaps I can push it just a bit harder. There again, I spend most of my time on 40 limit Forest roads. But it's good to know what the bike can do in comfort.

I'd strongly recommend every returning rider to get some refresher training even if they have a full motorcycle licence. My control of the bike has improved massively over the past week or two as I applied the lessons from my training session. And the bike is running really well now that it's run in. 50 mph plus is now quite easy although I tend to stay in the mid 40s. Just as well since most Forest roads are 40 limit!