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I have just spent all morning sorting out insurance and think I have it all sorted now.

I have a hire bike arriving tomorrow. They said my XTT225 is a write off. And I just received a call to say the third party has accepted responsibility.

On the photo of the side, the frame tube that goes from the foot-peg diagonally back should be straight up to halfway where the pillion peg mounts are. Note the bent fork and axle, ripped seat, broken body work, dented tank, broken brake lever and bent foot peg.

I have just got my XT225's seat back from www.motorcycleseatworks.co.uk . It was in need of a new cover (due to split) so I thought whilst it was there I would get it padded out a bit (2in extra).

Quality is better than standard, uses multiple stitched panels (top and sides are one piece, but the front and rear are separate pieces. The only minor negative is that its a little more bulky at the rear. But its far more comfortable for me now and well worth the money.

I almost forgot about this site. What reminded me was finding out that Reggie from www.xt225.com was made redundant from Millenium Motorcycles as they are closing down. On visordown someone posted a thread about Millenium closing down and mentioned Ted was working there. Both Ted and Reggie (and myself) are members of Horizons Unlimited and I remembered Ted started his blog Touring Ted.

I have recently discovered a problem on one of my XP machines where there was not enough idle time to effectively defrag the hard drive using Diskeeper 2007 Home.

So I have decided to revisit my choice of defragger, initiated by a nice discussion at Defrag opinions - Wilders Security . Donn Edwards of The Great Defrag Shootout fame has been getting involved. I initially dismissed his report based on some flaws on his initial comments, but after he was kind enough to explain in detail, I have been working my way through his in-depth report.

I am investigating reducing refragmentation rates and noticed Perfectdisk's Smartplacement claims to reduce refragmentation, but has no figures to back up this claim. Donn Edwards was kind enough to point me towards the Perfectdisk blog, where I spotted a new entry on Multi-pass mess, which appears to be a dig at Diskeeper. It was mentioned in there that Smartplacement reduces refragmentation, so I thought it appropriate to ask there for figures.

Finally, I am currently evaluating JKDefrag, which seems a great free tool so far.

Using Diskeeper 10 and Perfectdisk 8 I ran a test to measure refragmentation levels. Both using 100% default settings. Hdd is a 20gig virtual drive with 23% free space.

There was minimal difference between Diskeeper's and Perfectdisk's file placement strategies in terms of refragmentation. I ran the test 3 times for each defragger to confirm and the results were very similar each time.

So what did I do ?

Reverted to previous project version in visual studio (project under version control), and my test text, zip and sql files replaced with originals. Cleared Browser cache. Close Browser and all running apps. Clear windows/temp and user profile temp. Then the drive was scrambled using Raxco's scramble tool Raxco Technical support Diskeeper left a few fragments so I re-defragged and the remaining file was defragged (using perfectdisk to confirm).

I Counted the number of files and number of fragments (using analysis of both diskeeper and perfectdisk, they reported different file counts, but gave the same number of new files created and also the same fragments) I then rebooted.

I then did the following, which represents a sample of what I do during the day...

Browsed to Google, Wilders, Ebay and then Gmail. Added specific text to a Test text file. Updated a test zip file. Updated Visual Studio project from source control Edit SQL file in SQL Manager Close all running apps in task bar. Count files/fragments.

This test was repeated using Diskeeper and Perfectdisk 3 times, the number of files and fragments created/modified only varied by 1 at most.

The (averaged) results...

Diskeeper 230, new files were created, 293 fragments created Perfectdisk 230 new files again, 298 fragments created. Dont forget that quite a few files were modified as well.

These results are very similar - the difference is insignificant.

I will not draw any conclusions, but thought I would share, just to show how hard is it to measure refragmentation.

One thought I have had is that there is something more significant

To be scientific, the test needs model a week or 2 weeks worth of simulated usage, then we might be able to see any significant differences.

I have waited, but there is still problems with autopinger when I try and add my site I get a database error. I have had no response when I ask for support. So looks like I am going back to pingomatic. Is anyone else having a problem ?

Took a while to arrive from China and I was sent the incorrect fitting (luckily 2 tabs that could easily snipped off). I think the new bulb is twice as bright as my last one - its 35w (vs 25w) and its halogen, might actually be able to see past the end of my mud guard now !

Standard 25W 35W Halogen

Colleague of mine G, is just putting the finishing touches to his website: www.gagandeeptiwana.com.

Interestingly he has chosen to make a static website to start with (even though, like myself, he is a Web Developer capable of creating a database driven website). This gives him the ability to make sure that the html is totally as he wants it, and allows him to research adding dynamic options (eg photo gallery or a full blown cms) in the future and not sacrifice quality (even if it is a bit of a pain to keep updated)

Only thing missing is a bit about his motorbiking and his new bike

Nick.

It has been on hold for a long time, but I shall be finishing off the template for Room 42 soon, so I thought I would share the link.