h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I dearly love my 1990 flat bar Yamaha XV535 Virago. She's even got a name - Ceridwen (Cez for short). She's metallic blue, with shiny (ish) after market slash cut exhausts, a Renntec sissy bar/rack and tidy paintwork. Even though I had to have a restriction kit fitted when I bought her in May, she's been known to zoom around at quite a speed. And she runs and handles beautifully. Or she did, anyway - until last month. In the last 7 weeks, she's been serviced, broken down, been recovered by the RAC (eventually - took 6 hours for me to get home ..), had an electrician called out, had a new fuel pump fitted, spent the day with a mechanic, had a new set of spark plugs (which have since been cleaned twice). She backfires, misfires, skips firing on the front cylinder at all, has a dodgy spring in the rear carb, a hole in the carb balancing pipe, knackered fork springs, a slightly leaky gasket and piston ring (both front cylinder again). Today is the last day for a couple of weeks thatI have to cajole her into getting me home (she got me to work OK this morning, once she'd coughed a bit). On the 3rd she's going to see an engineer who will hopefully give me back a bike that starts, runs and handles. Oh, and stops - I forgot to mention that my brake pads are wearing a little thin.

The thing is, though - I have absolutely no desire at all to swap her for a newer or more reliable model. I just want her to be well again. I do, however, think I need to locate her forehead and paint on a little curl, right in the middle...

hi ya iam geeting a virago 535 and to ride it i have to have it restricted could you please tell me what they do to the bike and what sort of speed will it do when restricted i would be very pleased if you emailed me at [email protected] or post something on bbc i thanks very much ben