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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.

I do not disagree with your statement. He may have wanted to hammer in a statement to Bagnaia, he has had lots of experience when he was battling with Rossi, psychological warfare is unfortunately very important too, whether you think you are immune to it, or not. This is where the Valentino mentoring will help Francesco Bagnaia. While Bagnaia is possibly not as strong as Marquez in this department, he has the "Italian family" around him, which is something you have to live to understand. It is a bit patriarchal, but once you get it, you appreciate it. I lived for months with a Sicilian family, and felt adopted. Not anything I ever experienced with my own family. Anyway, Qatar is being built up in the same manner as the three first GPs, by putting Marquez at a disadvantage. He finished fourth last year, on a GP23 which was said to be really inferior to the GP24. We will know soon enough.

Have done cold water diving? I mean, dry suit? this one is the real ordeal! I trained to see the whales in Puerto Madryn; you know, no alcohol, healthy diet and the like. I was already a bit old for the effort. Then my company sent me to Kazakhstan with very short notice, I lost that opportunity. But if you are really game for it, this is probably one of the most memorable dive you could do. There are plenty of diving companies that propose it.

You don't have to ship it. Go get it !

Go up there and ride it down. It's less than Melbourne to Brisbane.

@activpop, the shipping might be more than i'm looking to spend...

@fastaussie I can do that, but they will have a bike attached to them.

will do. Cheers Tom.

I'm not sure I knew that, it is a long time ago. But as I mentioned further up, the NSX came out during the period when Honda engines where dominating Formula one, and Mr Senna, may he rest in peace, was a major factor in that.

I think that is the one that I have on mine. Having said that, mine has the long tank without the chin pad, so the ring doesn't have to sit as high. Nevertheless, I like the system, and have it on my Breva 750 as well. Good point. Only every other screw is long, and really goes into the body of the tank. So yes, I wouldn't load the ring up too much.

Yes to both points. I'm not that big, neither vertically nor horizontally. About 175 cm, and about 65 kg. Duckdiving the first two metres or so is an effort, after that I'm more or less neutral. All the diving I did was in Port Phillip bay, Wilson's Promontory, and somewhere on the lower east coast of Australia. Water temperature between 16 and 18°c, so 7mm wet-suit, bouancy vest and weights. I can imagine that, even in tropical waters, maybe a 3mm suit would be good, although I heard from diving colleagues that one can dive the Great Barrier Reef in a lycra suit. Whatever, weights might help, maybe only one, and maybe a suit. I had a slightly nasty experience during a holiday on Sardinia. Diving without a snorkel but with fins, I went down, down a bit more, saw something interesting and down a bit more, then realised I needed to breathe soon. I had "forgotten" that I wasn't scuba diving, and went too deep. I only just made it back up before the urge to breathe became uncontrollable.

@Tomchri, @activpop, if you gentlemen decide to ditch your lame ti pipes, please let me know...