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I'll definitely take advantage of this for the urchin redframe.

@Woody V11 Here's my sale's video; I think it provides a solid foundation about the bike's current status; I purchased it on February 2nd, 2024 from a lot seller in Peoria AZ; I could not ride it because the rear tire was flat. The seller assured it only happened as he was trying to inflate it to nominal pressure for my testing. Which led me to believe he purchased it and never rode it himself. Nevertheless, I liked it and I had already pre-ordered new tires to fit it with at a local Guzzi dealer in Peoria (amazing, they had one!) I drove the Quota back from Peoria to Houston, and surrendered it to the good people at MPH Houston. MPH is one of the few Moto Guzzi haven in the USA. They used to be a Moto Guzzi dealership until Piaggio took over. They have a lot of experience and skilled (old) mechanics. During the ride from Arizona, I noticed the tachometer being unreadable as the pointer was oscillating continuously. I learned from Quota people that this is actually a known issue for those Veglia Tachometers. As I am meticulous with my things, I sent both instruments for a complete check to a specialized outfit in Germany. The Tachometer was fixed, both instruments were rejuvenated (faded pointer repainted) and calibrated. (Invoice is in the video) MPH kept the motorcycle about two months and as requested fully inspected the vitals and did a complete maintenance on it. That meant changing all the fluids. The bike was found in good working order, no major defect, nothing out of place. They installed a new EFI map, changed the collapsed turn indicators (another known problem). I then went ahead and put 5000 miles on it, making stops for the Motorcycle Grand Tour of Texas 2024 and also 2025. The bike rides like the wind. I had a little taste of trail riding last year at a fundraising drive for pediatric cancer support association. I rode in the Conroe forest with modern dualsport bikes, KTM, Sherpa and others. The Quota held her own! It is a fantastic motorcycle, odd, but rugged. On my long trips, I do 45 mpg easy, so I get 200 miles out of a 5 Gal tank. It only has five gears, and the spacing is such that the fifth is an overdrive. The gearbox is crude, but works fine. I blip the throttle for gear changes. I would never sell it if I could, but I have to be realistic. I already have two bikes behind my car. Each time I need to move it, it takes some doing. A third bike would complicate matters even more. So this is the sole reason why I have to part with it.

I learned about the tire rebate last year and enjoyed applying it to a fresh set of T32 for mySport. Thanks for posting this, @Speedfrog !

@OuijiVeck has not updated this topic, but I believe the Tekno have gone to another member . . .

Piaggio is a pretty big company. But Aprilia is a pretty small part of Piaggio. So it does not get the resources for this that it needs. A classic example is that for much of the time until now Aprilia fielded two MotoGP bikes as required by the rules but they basically had one good one made with the best parts and the other was made with the parts that were left over. When you are custom making parts there are always going to be differences in quality of each part, some will be better and some will be worse. If you have the resources, you throw away the ones that are worse. But if you can't afford that you keep all the parts you make, and then decide which bike you use the worse parts on, saving the better parts for the A bike. Aleix rode the A bike for many years, with whomever was the B rider riding the B bike. There was always a massive difference in performance between the two bikes (actually two sets of bikes, if you want to be correct). It was a massive step for them to start actually fielding two sets of equal bikes. And now they are building four sets, although how equal they are remains to be seen. From what I have heard, as well as what I have seen, a good judge of a teams financial resources is how many people work for it. And Aprilia, for a factory team, has the fewest number of people working for it.

As ever, in this situation, the promotion is never applicable for the tires you really want... Not specific to Bridgestone, all manufacturers do that. You seem to only get a rebate for tires that don't sell well? I recently looked at tire prices for the Quota, when replacing the rear tube; 90/90-21 and 130/80-17; not that I don't like the Dunlop Trailmax, but I wanted something more road than terrain. The Michelin Anakee cost twice as much in the USA as in Europe. They are made in Thailand. With the "De minimis" 800 USD exemption on imports, you can actually get your set of tires cheaper as mail order from Europe, including shipping! The set of tire at Cyclegear/Revzilla is about 400+ USD. In Europe, the same tires total 185 EUR. Even with shipping, you are still better off. If you can get them shipped to the USA.

That is better. is this NLA from a dealership ? Maybe someone has one and can help you out .

If the Tekno brackets are available I would love them. I’ll happily buy the bags as well but only really want the mounting kit. I have Teckno bags but in their travels my brackets went AWOL. A set is a bit of a holy grail for me. Yeah, I’m in Oz but we can sort out shipping. thanks. Pete

I would like photos as well. Thanks

If you need new shoes for your bike, now is a good time to try the new Battlax T33 . . . Bridgestone Promo

The obvious difference is that an unskilled, unfocused diver may cause harm to himself only. An unskilled, unfocused driver may cause harm to himself and others.

My little tart-of-a-roadster has been at my specialist shop for ten weeks. With these beautiful spring days, I miss her spritely ways she cheers me up on the lovely backroads and winding country lanes. The wife said, "Why don't you just sell it ?" It's okay, I still love her. The wife? Yeah, keeping her, too.

If the bracket has been bent, there is potential for damage to the attachment into the sump spacer of the smaller, bottom fastener. Inspect carefully. Also, the larger, upper fastener that threads into the timing chest is torqued to an astounding 70 Nm. Both of these fasteners tend to loosen over time and benefit from periodic checking and, perhaps, a threadlocking agent, IMCO.

At first glance, I did not see much difference between "divers " and "drivers ", yet recognize the vast difference in skill, focus, and attention to detail!

In particular I need the mounting bracket. Item 2 on the drawing. I'll take the whole assembly as well.

I am not certain, and I may be wrong, but Piaggio is probably very strong financially. Probably not as strong as Ducati, but at least KTM? but the mistakes they keep making are sort of beginners'... surely, they must have check lists?

When I started my job, my first assignment was in Gabon, and I got to meet a bunch of divers from COMEX. All saturation dives. As I was already into diving, I got tempted, but quickly realized it was not all what I thought it was. I remember a time when one of the divers was sick, and they did not want to bring all the divers up, so they were simply telling him to take it. I was not impressed! I trained all the way to Rescue Diver with the objective to become Dive Master, but my job got in the way, as ever. Diving is just as invigorating as motorcycle riding, with a lot less danger from the distracted drivers.

APRIL, 2025 - MPH Cycles is accepting bikes " BY APPOINTMENT ONLY " for service and repair at our new location in Hempstead Tx. Email: mike@mphcycles.com

other "air" in the tanks. rather than the usual nitrogen/oxygen/other mix, its a different concoction of gases to achieve certain things, like to avoid nitrogen narcosis at deep depths, or nitrox to allow for different dive times, etc.

I've never heard of that . . .

Yes, in the end the challenge to Ducati may come from Honda or Yamaha. I know everyone was always slamming Honda and Yamaha, but I think they were never that far off the pace. It looked worse then it was because there were so many bikes / riders that were so close together pace-wise. So being a second or two off the pace put you so far back. But in terms of how much performance they needed to gain to be near the sharp end of the field, it just wasn't that much. And given the resources of Honda and Yamaha, along with the concessions that were made for them, it was always a fools errand to believe they weren't going to catch up. It may take them a little while, but they will catch up. Aprilia has always struggled, they simply lack resources. And, as mentioned, they do shoot themselves in the foot periodically by doing things like loading the wrong map into a bike. I put that down to having too few people handling too many tasks. They probably don't have a guy whose one job is to make sure the right map is loaded at the right time. He likely has other jobs, making it easier to mess that job up. But I don't know that for sure, just a guess. It also could be that guy is just not good at his job, but maybe he is family....

i've not done the puerto madryn, which sounds excellent. But I did my inital scuba training and first year or two of diving all in Alaska. I did it all drysuit, though others used thick wetsuits. Was a great way to learn, and a unique place to dive and see. I fondly recall the first real dive, where it was snowing, gray, miserable, and with the drysuit and insulation I needed about 45lbs on my belt plus 4 lbs per ankle, so i'm sweating, damn uncomfortable, feeling like a beached whale, wondering why i'm doing this, and then I backed into the water and voila, of course it all changed.... awesome. Now weightless, "cool" (no longer hot from the suit, nor freezing from the water), with Sea lions, schools of black cod, wrecked boats and airplanes, etc. Getting that drysuit dialed in was key. took some time and focus to get it just right... not so tight on the seals that its painful, but tight enough to not leak. did some mixed gas diving too.

I must say that I am disappointed that Jorge Martin self shot himself in the foot before the season started. I can accept that he got some bad luck during the opening tests, but he did not have to make matters worse by injuring himself even more. He is also penciled to race in Qatar, which may be another mistake, even if he is announcing that he may not finish the races, the intent being getting back in the saddle. I am looking at Piaggio as a bunch of amateurs, owing to their mistake in COTA, when Bezzechi's electronics put the bike in engine preservation mode; twice! it seems their team is plagued by this kind of errors which obviously aren't compatible with winning a championship. Even the root cause of Jorge Martin crashes was fishy when they outwardly accused the tires, and Michelin seemed to show them they weren't at the correct temperature. Martin was the only one who crashed twice like that. If we believe the media, the KTM have not resolved any of the issues they knew they had, that leaves us with nothing but yet, still Ducati above, below and beyond... The only positive is Honda and Yamaha seem to be making some progress.

Yeah, we will know soon enough. Bagnaia has his own history of making mistakes like that. But he has mostly learned his lesson, that is why he has two titles. But at the level they are riding at everyone makes at least some mistakes. You just can't go as fast as they do and not make at least the occasional mistake. The question this year likely will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes, more then who is the fastest. It should be fun to watch it unfold.