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Inquiring minds want to know

Thanks guys. I have that list printed out actually. Appreciated. I have a large selection of lifts, supports, stands, lumps of wood... Recently got hold of a lovely, German made impromptu centre stand / tool made for the BMW R-NineT. I think it can be adapted for the V11. By the way, the Michelin Road 6 tyres have really improved the handling. Anything would've I guess as the old ones were ancient.

You are free to have that much faith, that much confidence, in Michelin. I do not share your faith and confidence in Michelin. Without even a sign of impending tire failure I don't see a legitimate justification for the current minimum pressure. F1 tires have nothing in common with MotoGP tires. A fundamental issue if you do accept that the minimum pressure limit is justified, is why do their tire perform best at a pressure below what they deem safe. Normally, a tires performance is reduced before it ever gets below what would be considered a safe pressure. For example, when I was racing we would adjust the tire air pressures to get maximum performance out of the tires. At an event down at Roebling Road I mistakenly set the tire air pressure too low. The tires weren't so low they were in danger of failing, but they definitely did not perform well. The tires were sliding around and wearing excessively. That is what you would expect. You would not expect max performance from your tires to occur at a pressure your engineers deem unsafe. I do not except that the minimum pressure rule is justified, but even if you do accept that it makes no sense that the tire works best at a pressure below that supposed safe limit. As to pushing back the introduction of the new front tire, I am not sure that is on Dorna. Michelin announced the push back of the new front tire claiming they needed more testing. Likely that relates to the fact that they can only beat themselves in a spec tire series. The incentive to push the limits is not there. The only incentive to Michelin in a spec tire series is to not screw themselves, to not have tire issues. Introducing a new front tire that turns out is a problem would make Michelin look bad. Not introducing the new front tire until they are sure it is good would make sense. They have nothing to gain by taking a chance. Personally I would rather they roll out development tires alongside the existing tires, allowing riders to choose which tire they want to run. That would also allow them to actually test the new tires under actual race weekend conditions. I think they only have some 30 minutes of actual testing of the new front tire so far. I can see why they are reluctant to commit.

Past performance is never a guarantee of the future. By the way, Michelin had a very difficult experience of tires failure in F1; remember Indianapolis June 19th, 2005? I don't believe Michelin would have set a minimum required front tire pressure if it was not necessary. They have ran tests to confirm that possibility. Probably extreme tests, but as a company, you certainly don't want to have your name attached to a catastrophic event, again, Indianapolis June 19th, 2005... Conscious that imposing a minimum tire pressure, and laying down rules to enforce it would never win them any sympathy, they came up with a new tire, that Dorna did not authorize to use. My unbiased opinion would be, why would you release an imperfect tire in the first place? do it right the first time. Of course, this is probably a simplistic way to look at it. There must have been other factors, maybe time to influence that decision. Whatever it is, having a rider arriving second, and given a penalty for an insufficient tire pressure is simply ludicrous. We all agree. I wish they replace that front tire immediately.

Billy Strings just might be the best guitarist I’ve ever heard! Worth exploring on YouTube..here he’s playing Pink Floyd.

One of the best flat and finger pickers I've ever heard. Grew up playing bluegrass, but can play and sing anything. Here, he's covering Dylan, the only person I've heard that gives the same feel.. Don't know how to imbed. Well I see it did it automatically.

I found some picture at Stein-Dinse. Assuming they are accurate, the Centauro did indeed have a similar side plate to the V11. I can't tell from the pictures, though, if they were exactly identical. Centauro: V11: The part numbers are very close, though. Centauro: 01415850 One V11 version: 01415890, another V11 version: 01415830. Maybe the difference is only the colour. PS: it seems the Daytona RS had them too: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_daytona_rs 94.htm And a picture from the Wikipedia Franken-Guzzista, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I would love to know who designed the beautiful, cast Frame Side Plates. Marabese Design? Rodolfo Frascoli? Did the Centauro have them first (1996)? If so, I would suggest Rodolfo Frascoli of Marabese Design (at that time) is the designer.

My 2017 Stelvio NTX is probably going to turn into a Duecento Tributo. The colors appeal to me, and it's fully loaded up with all the options. For a long-haul bike, I am also attracted to the "PFF" radar traffic monitoring functions - which could be helpful when being pursued at night by a murderous Tesla with a sleeping driver.

*Nothing* survives politics.

Thats Motogp these days. WSBK is heading there tyre wise though. At the Phillip Island round this year about 3 weeks before the event Pirelli the tyre supplier announced that their tyres wouldn't make the full race distance and both main races would require a mandatory pit stop. This totally ruins the whole meeting turning it into 5 sprint races with confusing minimum pit time requirements and disadvantages riders that can conserve tyres and come on strong at the end of the race. Even the riders after a day of practice were saying they had zero issues with tyre wear. Money, technology and stupid officialdom and manufacturers fearing litigation no matter how remote rule racing these days.

Bev gave this album to me for B-day.

Just beeing polite. What I realy meant . Cheers Tom.

I miss the good 'ol days of consequences.

Talked to Jim Hamlin. Got some good info. He's the man!

I sure don't like the way those hydraulic lines are routed . That looks pretty sad.

It is the old story, something is only worth what twp people are willing to pay for it. If one of those people is you, either accept their offer or you can get to keep it a bit longer.

As Phil said, those hairs won't cause anything. You may want to adjust the air pressure in the tire(s) that feel "squirmy". I would guess lowering the air pressure would be the way to go, but it could also be you need to raise the air pressure a small amount. If you adjust the air pressure, you would typically do it in small steps, maybe a pound or two (not sure what the Bar equivalent would be, likely a tenth of a bar or two). A good way to tell if your air pressure is right is to measure the tires pressure cold and then ride the bike as normal. Stop the ride and check the air pressure while the tires are "hot". That increase in temp causes an increase in pressure. That increase in pressure should be around 10% - 15%. If the tire pressures don't increase enough, lower the tire pressure. If the pressure increases too much cold to hot, add pressure. It could be the tires simply need to bed in, as mentioned tires generally have mold release to help them come out of the manufacturing molds that give the tires their tread pattern. That mold release tends to be slippery.

As mentioned, they do have minimum pressure, in particular (the one that gets all the attention) is the minimum front tire pressure. Michelin set this minimum, in theory, to stop front tire failures that result from running air pressures too low. It must be said, however, that in the era of Michelin being the spec tire supplier there has not been a tire failure from running too low air pressure in the tire. On the other side of that coin, it turns out that best performance of the Michelin front tire occurs at a pressure below the minimum pressure set by Michelin. That makes no sense. Why would you design a tire that performs best at an air pressure you claim is below safety limits? To further complicate things, whether you are running out in front in clean air or behind another racer has a large impact on how hot your front tire gets, and how hot a tire gets directly affects the air pressure inside that tire (as temp goes up, air pressure goes up). So, racers are left trying to guess what front tire air pressure they need to start the race with to keep their front tire pressure above the minimum set by Michelin for at least 60% of the race. It is a balancing act, too much air pressure and they will be slow. Too little air pressure and they will get a penalty. It is not as simple as set it here or above and you are fine, as your front tire pressure will vary depending on whether you are out front or directly behind someone. This was famously shown recently when Marc Marquez pulled over to let his brother by so he could run directly behind him to bring up his front tire pressure. Once he had done enough of the race with his front tire pressure thus elevated, he passed his brother and ran off in front using a tire with air pressure below the minimum value. The rules are so stupid that what Marc did was perfectly legal. Had Vinales paid better attention to his front tire pressure, they typically have a display on their dash telling them what their front tire pressure is and / or whether it is above the minimum value, he may have avoided leading the laps he led to stay in behind Marc to keep his front tire pressure higher. We don't know the details, because they don't tell us things like how low his pressure was and for how much of the race it was. All we know is that his front tire pressure was below the minimum for more then 40% of the race. What was messed up the most was, they should know all this real time, but they only announced the penalty for Vinales around two hours after the race, after he already stood on the podium and got his second place trophy. The rule is stupid, but that was incompetence.

I have a pair of Staintunes for the V11 that someone would like to purchase. The trouble is I don't have a clue what they are worth. Could anybody place a price on a pair that would be fair to both buyer and seller?

Michelin set the minimum pressure rule, because if underinflated, the tire may suffer a catastrophic failure that could put the rider's life at risk. They have since come up with a new tire that no longer has that constraint; however Dorna did not authorize its introduction. This was a safety measure that was a stop gap while developing a front tire that did not require it. Everybody agrees that it is plain unacceptable to have race standings established after it has ended. Tech3 said they had not expected Maverick Viñales to race at the front, hence why they had set the pressure too low. Maverick himself said that front tire pressure was not his problem, even if there is a warning on the dash. Why is Dorna not allowing the front tire?

It looks to me like the front end has been rebuilt/repaired from parts, silver wheel fender, prior fork comments, so maybe has a crash history.

I also found out that nobody pull the dipstick out any longer. Now, my 911 has an electronic oil level indicator, but I don't rely on it. I physically check the oil and other fluid levels. I am told that you no longer need to worry about oil changes mileage, since cars tell you when it is time to change it. No need to check your rearview mirrors either, you have radars. Soon, no need to watch the road since cars are going to drive themselves... or maybe not?

They've constrained tire pressure...? I'm not a follower of MGP, but I'm stunned stupid by this.