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In Chicagoland the Norton Club has put on an outstanding Antique Motorcycle Show every August. 20 years ago I woke up Sunday morning and hopped on my 1993 Daytona and went to it. Not having had my coffee I was a little groggy and when I pulled into the show someone waved me in. I suddenly thought “Oh Shit I’m in the Show”. I was directed to park with the Guzzi’s. I spent my day bouncing between the show and parking lot looking at cool bikes. At one point I walked by my bike and saw a sign on my seat. Move Your Bike To The Modern Bike Section. So I did. I ended up staying all day until the end. When they announced the show awards they started with Best Modern Bike and called my name. I was in shock and had not realized this was possible. The plaque was nice and I stuck in the back of my pants for its ride home. What happened next was a heart felt note that the award announcer stopped to add a special guy. He said the best Norton award goes to Joe Blow. Now his bike is a beauty but I feel that I need to tell you that everything that has been done to this bike was done by Joe. From rebuilding the engine and trans to painting it. I thought what a nice thing to say. As a baby boomer I remember when everyone did this back in the day. I knew how rare it has become to not farm out the work. I got my award because I forgot to get my coffee and park in the parking lot. My hats off to you Joe for a job well done.

Starting 2025 in all the right ways! I went off on a no destination morning ride. 2010 Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Classic

Hearkening back . . .

I learned this one the hard way with my wife. I won't make the same mistake twice.

The bikes are staged to get out for celebratory rides to establish hopes for good riding in 2025. Having only gotten my little Honda back together a couple days ago from three months of remediatory repairs, I am most excited to have her out for a romp today. Low 40ºs F today, while this was taken day before yesterday on the checkride in the low 60s . . . edit: This New Year's Day, rode the GB500 a thirty mile loop over the river and back. At 43ºF/6ºC, my fingers said, "Enough !" edit/2: Got mySport out 36 miles through the hills. My, but these V11 motors do love to ring in this cool air!

Set up today and pulling great shots. Phil

A few photos of my 2004 Ballabio after the major work

Naming professions : James Mariner . He is the last of my counsel . He is 90 yrs old and I am not sure he finished High School . This man can explain why one carb is jetted differently than the other on a M/G bike , he can explain steering geometry , anything having to do w/motorcycles . He has owned all brands . His brand of choice : Moto Guzzi . He said one time , every die hard Guzzi owner is some type of craftsman . The owners are an authority on some kind of subject and can/do apply it to their bike. They are not riding a German bike where the owner has his grips installed at his local dealership , has someone else change the oil , etc. There are better motorcycles but Moto Guzzi is bike of choice for a professional .

The problem with a lot of gear sets that have been, and in some cases still are, offered for the venerable 2V motor is that they are utter shite. Shite material, shite production, shite tooth form or a combination of any or all of the above. Twenty years ago I ended up being abused and sometimes physically threatened by people who swore by the wretched things . I was told all sorts of guff, the funniest being that I had ‘Installed them wrong’! It’s three wheels on sticks! How hard can it be??? There were various commonly available types. Full alloy sets, sometimes made of Ergal, which is a particularly tough form of aluminium alloy, but often just seemingly any old cheesy junk. Then there were alloy/steel composite sets with a steel crank gear and aluminium oil pump and cam gears and finally a set with a nylon crank gear and aluminium pump and cam gears. Now ‘Back in the day’ I too was a dyed in the wool ‘Gears are best’ person and indeed, if made correctly from the correct materials, they really are. I spent several years exploring the different options but unlike many of the ‘True Believers’ I didn’t just fling them in and forget about them. I’d put them in and then regularly reopen and examine them for wear and damage. What I found was very disturbing. They ALL started failing almost immediately! Even when I tried modifying the timing chest so that the pump gear ran in an oil bath to assist in lubrication of the teeth they all failed. I actually have a ‘Rogues Gallery’ of a few failed sets of different types in my Flickr gallery, these include some pics taken by Joe Caruso of similarly buggered sets he’s removed. These include some of the Ergal sets made by Agostinis that some of the more wild-eyed swear by! I have terrible trouble getting pics to post on V11 LeMans.com but I can probably send a link to the gallery if anyone is interested? The end result is I refused to install them. They were and are, engine wreckers. No ifs or buts! This doesn’t mean I don’t think gears are ‘The Best’ solution. Simply that these comparatively cheap commercial sets aren’t it! FWIW back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s you used to be able to buy helically cut steel gears with quite a fine tooth pitch. I shelled out for a set of these way back when and they were brilliant. I clocked up an astonishing distance with them in my ‘Primary’ bike and used them in my short stroke hot-rod. While the helical cut meant they would sap a bit of power it also gave you the advantage you could shim the cam gear to finesse the cam timing to a ridiculous degree and with the cams I was playing with every bit helped! I ended up giving them to a bloke called Steve Harney, (I think?) who was racing at the same time as Rob Johnson and I were in the early 2000’s. I’ve no idea where they are now! These weren’t common, have long been unavailable but if you want gears Joe’s are certainly the only ones I’d be bothered with. For most everyday riders though keeping the chain and running a Valtech blade type tensioner is perfectly adequate. A new chain and tensioner will probably be required every 140-150,000 Km in normal use. If you throw a new set at your engine at 100,000 your sprockets will probably last until the sun shrinks to become a white dwarf so longevity isn’t really an issue! The cost is also paltry compared to Joe’s gears. So really, it’s down to choice really, and the depth of your pockets and how obsessive you are. As for the noise? I love the noise!

It was about a dozen clicks from a blank diagram to a printed piece. I just did this to see what it was like. About an hour to print out. Next will be to start getting actual dimensions.

It's been some time since I went to this show. Frankly, it's mostly cars, but today I needed a ride. I show up and there's something like 300 cycles parked in a row. Granted, mostly all Japanese, mine was the only Guzzi. I met an Englishman now living in SC that owns a Coppa and a Greenie. Maybe he's on here as well? Hope to see him there again, maybe some others on this board that are local.

Yup, and, providing the world doesn’t end, IC vehicles will end up being an ‘Enthusiast’ hobby, a bit like steam trains are. Oh, they will, at least for the foreseeable future, remain a lot more popular than steam trains simply because unlike steam locomotives IC vehicles were, and are, ubiquitous and everybody in the western ‘Developed’ world will have memories inextricably woven in to the fabric of their lives that will involve them. Be it memories of family holidays as a kid or that thrill of discovery when you took your first trip *Away* independently on your first motorbike or car? Almost everyone will have those and ‘We’ and the generations up to the present will wish to preserve those memories and the items associated with them. I don’t think IC will need to be legislated out of existence. I think it will just fade into the background. What will replace it? Who knows? Whatever it is will still have the potential to be just as exciting, if society wishes it to be so. As it is more and more people nowadays, and not just young people, seem to be more interested in consumerism and living out a ‘Fantasy’ life vicariously through the lives of others on a small, glowing, screen. Is that wrong? Or bad? It’s not really my place to say. I’m an old man at the end of my (Enormously lucky!) life. The world I am bequeathing to my children is pretty f*cked up! If I were young I wouldn’t listen to a godammed word people like me say!

Well, off the top of my head…….. They used a very tall final drive. Enormously tall. Compensated for by lower internal ratios in the gearbox. The driveshaft and universal joint are a ‘One piece’ unit and they use the 20 tooth spline form used on the V11 and later bikes rather than the ‘Standard’ 10 spline system. It is critical to keep the ignition timing spot on as if the motor ‘Kicks Back’ while starting it has a tendency to round off the hexagonal key that drives the torque converter fluid pump. Drive is then lost as the fluid overheats. They are also very touchy about what type of ATF to use. Early ‘Verts had a lightweight, pressed steel, flywheel that tended to rip its centre out. Later ones have an enormous forged steel item that weighs about as much as a neutron star! As well as the standard ‘Vert, which closely resembled a T3/G5 with cow-horn bars and a weird tail light, the engine and transmission were also used in an automatic version of the California II. All their owners are strange, hump-backed midgets, usually with a withered arm, buck teeth and rickets. They tend not to bathe often and may or may not have communicable diseases so it’s best not to touch them. In fact try and keep them at arm’s length and stand upwind of them if possible. I am, obviously, the exception that proves the rule……….

This anecdote comes to mind. I may have first read on this forum: A fellow pulls into his shop with his car barely idling and stalling repeatedly. The mechanic pops the hood for a look and walks back into the shop emmerging with a small screwdriver. Deftly turning one screw the motor smooths out and idles stably. The driver says, "That's amazing! What do I owe you? " The mechanic replies, "$100. " D: "A hundred dollars to turn one screw ?!?" M: "No, just a dollar to turn the screw. The other ninety-nine is for knowing which screw to turn. "

Finally changed the speedo cable, then rode it slow and fast to make sure it was ok 👍

It's the same with everything these days. I needed all the guttering replace on my single story flat block small house a few months ago. 50 linier metres of guttering. No down pipes just gettering. Going rate 100-110/LM! So $5000 for a simple guttering job. Materials? $800. So $4200 labour for 10 man hours of work for a pro doing it day in day out that involves about $500 worth of tooling/equipment. About the rate a heavy jet commercial pilot earns for stick time with 500 lives in his hands. Solution? I bought the materials online delivered and the wife and I spent 25 hours taking our time 4-5 hours a day being super cautious to eliminate any serious errors and doing a first rate better than a pro job on it. I've never done guttering before but I know how to string line the required fall and fit the support clips and I have good quality tin snips and a pop rivet gun. The corners are all done with cast fittings these days so they are a doddle. So that's $4200 net in my pocket. I think a lot of the issues with getting work done these days on anything, houses, cars, bikes is that the average person totally lacks any sort of basic hand and mechanical skills and is at the mercy of anyone in a trade. The value system then becomes distorted. The ultimate degradation of our forbears ability to carve out a life from the wilderness by hand, swearing and sweat. My single biggest fear getting older is losing the ability to do things like this myself. It's just fundamental to who I am and the foundation of my independence. Not looking forward to losing that. Phil

I drilled half of the pucks in my bike back in Mar 2018. Six drilled pucks, with the remaining cavities empty. The difference was barely noticeable, but I liked the idea of lowered shock loads on splines/gears/dogs. I have not felt the need to revert to standard over the last 6 years. https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/topic/30472-rear-wheel-for-tire-change/#findComment-286089

Opening a spin on filter is really easy. Just use an old school, (Only type I possess.) can opener, (As that’s basically what the filter is, a can for the filtering medium.) whizz the flange off, lift off the ‘Dome’ of the container and ‘Voila’! There is the filtering medium. You can also see and work out how the bypass system works which for a lot of people is an eye, rather than can, opener! (F’nar, F’nar! I slay myself sometimes!)

Cheers Doc. All done and dusted for another year down here ( Boxing day ) .... You know about 3 years ago when I took the bike to Chrissy at my nieces place, I put young Austin ( about 4 years old ) on the tank and took him for a ride round the block. Sounds dodgy but he was quite safe. When I got there yesterday he was busy setting up his new play station but he made a beeline for me to tell me all about it and says remember when you took me for a ride on your motor bike? Where is it ? I had to tell him it was resting at home for next time! Priceless and still got a wee lump in the throat typing this.... Cheers to each and all.

That is very good. I watched some experts setting up bikes with Guzzi Diag at the forum rally last year. The bloke on the computer is Beard (Bernd) who programmed Guzzi Diag (the computer is inside the cardboard box that he is looking into). Karsten, orange t-shirt and overalls, was doing the adjustments. Going by what he was satisfied with for the TPS on various bikes, within 2 mV of the target is excellent.

I recalled some conversations about air boxes like this one I just got a new 3D printer (Bambu P1S) and I've been busy making stuff. As part of this I'm learning OnShape, which I'm finding more intuitive than Fusion, which I also tried. I'm finding that if I find practical (or even semi practical) projects it helps me learn the CAD app better. The nice thing is that the printer is nearly flawless. I had a small printer many years ago (something like 2016) and I remember having to futz with the printer a lot. Now it's nearly pushing a button and waiting. And even though the printer is much, much faster it still takes time to print. The other thing that's changed is the materials you can print with. There is a huge variety with a variety of properties. Where was I? Ah, projects. In thinking about fun projects I thought that a custom air box would be interesting. The print area is approximately 256mm cubed so it will need to be made in sections. I may just start by making some velocity stacks. Then go from there.

That is funny . Also thank you for being the interpreter !

Looking for some bass riffs for a Dylan song, I stumbled across this never-aired concert filmed at the Bellevue Biltmore Starlight Ballroom, April 1976, in Clearwater, Florida, where I graduated high school a couple months later. The link opens with the Joan Baez performance at 16:54, hauntingly beautiful. What was billed as the largest wooden hotel in the country is gone now. So amazed this video exists.

We're in the fire biz (3 planes on the current fire), but I grew up in the woods with a cedar roof. Needed to replace it, and was just too cheap to get it done until some winter storm damage finally helped force the issue, and it's all metal now. i'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to replace that roof. we're not in high risk area, but have had some big ones not too far away in the last decade. Those cedar shakes from the roof, i'd use them for kindling in the wood stove whenever we'd get removed shakes after doing some repair or trim work, and literally just a little paper and a match and that stuff lit off and burned so easy. crazy. Now I have to remove my favorite cedar tree next to the house, that would go up like a torch... And then there's the issue of US homes (in the NW) vs so many old world homes that still stand after hundreds of years. "When in Rome" is the thing, and I live in a timber rich area (and actually in the forest), so there's all that great building material right at hand, but it has always seemed at least less-than-ideal to build homes that you know won't survive like something built of longer lasting materials (and as it happens, fire proof/resistant).

Touring in a vintage Italian car….sounds good to me.

It's a V11 Guzzi. First thing you do when you have any electrical issue/gremlin is do a full wiring harness/fuse block/connector/ignition switch detailed inspection. Then move onto parts replacement/testing. Phil

I can't press the like button to this . I can only say prayers for these folks and hope for a safe exodus .

Yes. Lived in Atlanta then. The thread said "no words," so I followed the rules. I'll say this now ... December 2006. Near top of Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway in north Georgia, a lovely romp. https://exploregeorgia.org/things-to-do/article/helen-dahlonega-fall-road-trip I do not have to strain to hear that Ballabio's cans roar as I ascended. What joy. This, on nearby Ga 75 and Brasstown Bald ... Those were the days, my friend ... we thought they'd never end ... etc. sigh. Bill

. The mention of “Paradise” is interesting for its timing. Over on ADV Rider forum, there is an entertaining and informative thread called "Pillion Viewpoint (PVP).” https://advrider.com/f/threads/pillion-viewpoint-pvp.1525703/ The “host,” a lady from West Virginia, posts great photos of the things we “pilots” only see, if at all, briefly as we are so darn focused on the literal way ahead without dying. Her narratives are also engaging. Her “groupies” (I am one) have been encouraging her to collect and publish in, e.g., a “coffee table book,” the best of her posts. Great stuff. Her husband, Wally — PVP calls him “Rider” — is a fine fellow. He is often mentioned, and occasionally seen, but don’t think he ever posts in PVP’s thread. Rider is quite a wrench, too, and has many solo and two-up miles on his beemer and his new KTM. Anyway, PVP — a retired lawyer — has an architectural bent, and her pix often include interesting buildings. Her interest in houses of all sorts led recently to this comment, "All this architectural inventiveness, fading away, and replaced by the ticky-tacky," and 60’s or so protest songs, including, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes. Go to her thread if you care to see all of the interesting chatter, but I responded to the "ticky-tacky" post, including mention of "Paradise." "I understand the Little Boxes, ticky-tacky houses, and the like, and enthusiastically sang (badly) those along with my friends. That said, and I did not recognize it at the time, there is, IMO, an unmistakable whiff of elitism in that and other "suburban protest ballads." Those little boxes were the literal dreams-come-true of so many whose lives, when young, had been scarred by the Depression and then disrupted -- if they survived -- by WWII. Those folks were now raising families in those ticky-tacky homes we condemned in our songs. As a boomer, vintage '47, I lived a care-free teenage life that made it easy to complain about the wrongs of my parents' generation, most of whom were struggling and still sacrificing for their children. As one of those kids, I lived in a tract home in Daviess County, Kentucky, in the 1960's, and dated a sweet lass from Central City in Muhlenberg County, so my favorite song at the time was, of course ... Recognition of my own frailties as a young person helps me overlook and forgive the teens and young adults of today. Now ... get off my lawn, PVP, and take and post some more pix!” Whatever the socio-economic and political value then and now, it’s a great song. Bill

The fitting on the tank is an externally threaded 20mm diameter fine thread, the internal diameter of the fitting 10mm smooth bore. EDIT For Info I think the pitch is 1.0mm as best I can measure The sender slides into the tank through the smooth bore and a lip at the its base holds it captive on the base of the nut seen at the bottom. The top hex part of the nut is 20mm and screws onto the external threads of the tank fitting (a bit confusing but it's the best I can do to explain it) The fitting on the Steinse Dinse sender is 16mm so it's too large to install into the tank. Some sort of collar/adapter nut to extend and step the 16mm thread to a 20mm might work, but it would be "Heath Robinson" at best and probably look horrible. It would also lower the height of the sender in the tank, altering the volume of fuel left in the tank and reduce reserve capacity. I reckon it would be easier to purchase a thermistor and purchase parts to make a new thermistor, as Phil did in this thread, although that's not that easy either. https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/topic/30780-fuel-level-sensor/page/2/

Probably because people that own bikes over 15 years old won't pay the going service rates and the work will usually be major and parts availability almost non existent. Then they will need to put too many hours into sourcing parts and probably have the bike taking up workshop space for months on end. A close friend of mine that ran a specialist motorcycle marching and race bike building business for 40 years had a customer leave him an Triumph twin aluminium head for a full rebuild. This was only a few years after he started his business in his garage. New valves, guides and seats, the whole 9 yards. The old guy came to collect the head and when he was presented with the bill told my mate that for that sort of money he could keep it, he wasn't going to pay that. My friend advised him of the hours he's put into the work but this guy was refusing to pay, obviously trying to negotiate the cost down. My friend confirmed that he wasn't interested in paying the bill and the customer then watched as he went to the bandsaw and cut the head in two. Apparently the look on the guys face was worth it. People don't like paying for the complex stuff old bikes often require to make them run well again. Phil

My January 1st ride was on my Jones Flagship snowboard at Mammoth Mountain.

Some US insurance companies won't insure your car without a separate tracker fitted. People have bought second hand cars and have battery drain issues and subsequently found a tracker wired into the system they were unaware of the previous owner was obliged to fit. Maybe the DD preppers and tin foil hat brigade aren't looking so silly now,lol.

I've posted this before. This guy is worth listening to on the subject of not only cars but WW2 aircraft as well. His stuff is extremely well researched and he runs a side company in tuning cars as well as a writing a few books on turbocharging. His full time Gig is a commercial heavy jet captain. Where does he get the time.

Suspicious, but it could be that your pump simply lost it's prime, and you swapped filters just before it caught on. I'd cut the paper filter open and inspect the guts just to have peace of mind.

To cap it off we now have the Guzzi lawyers trolling the world threatening Guzzi Forums with legal action for using "their" corporate property. So you pay to advertise their product for free and in return they crap on your good intentions from a great heigh. Not restricted to Guzzi I know. So it's the middle digit to them from me, lol. The irony being that less money spent on lawyers and more on R & D and quality control might mean that there wasn't such a need for forums where fellow enthusiasts make good the gaps and shortcomings of Guzzi's output. Sent from my SM-S901B using Tapatalk

I guess you pick and choose your complications these days. Life's a lot simpler and just as satisfying when you "dont know what you don't know". As a kid in the supermarket I had a choice of 3 tomato sauces and was happy as a clam with that. Now when I go into the supermarket I'm faced with at least 50 choices of meat sauces and apart from choice anxiety there also the anxiety of thinking that maybe I made a wrong choice. All that matters is you enjoy what you now have.

It's funny I suppose, I have this position where I refuse to wear any "branded" clothing unless I get it for free. I'm not paying my hard earner for the privilege of giving free advertising to a corporate entity. I'm not talking about the consequential logos on a polo shirt or the tag on a pair of Levi jeans but the sort of Jacket the OP has shown and similar. Nope, you want me to be a walking Billboard then you foot the bill and I'll wear it, if I like it that is. It kind of started years ago when I was at a bike show and Australian Motorcycle news had a stand and on the stand was a pile of stickers and I thought I'll grab one of those for decorating my toolbox. The Journo at the stand then said that's $2 mate as I walked away. I turned around and put it back then let him know how I felt about me paying my money to advertise his rag at no cost to them. Baseball caps are another surprise these days. Weren't baseball caps giveaways at the start? They were here for sure. Then some corporate advertising clown found out that punters will hand over now, what $50 or more for the privilege of providing free advertising for a multinational or a sporting club owned by a gazillionair! To cap it off we now have the Guzzi lawyers trolling the world threatening Guzzi Forums with legal action for using "their" corporate property. So you pay to advertise their product for free and in return they crap on your good intentions from a great heigh. Not restricted to Guzzi I know. So it's the middle digit to them from me, lol.

That looks like a nice Griso, and the owner's garage is also well-organized with a few other well-kept toys. That's a good sign. If all the stock parts are included, you can undo any modification you don't like.

Looks like a steam punk dildo washing machine!

Back at all-y'all! Christmas Eve here and loving the peace of this "Silent Night" . . . Best regards to everyone, and a very Merry Christmas, indeed.

I used to work on a friend's Countach occasionally. It's electrical system was Guzzi familiar. Talk about a vehicle that screamed "I'm a machine.." Glorious sounds.. You couldn't drive it anywhere, though. As soon as you started it up, there would be a cop following you.

Yes I have a set of Joes new gear and his updated pump. I thought I posted an image here a little while back. I had him make my cam gear 4mm narrower the same width as the V11 gears because a steel gear can have a higher tooth loading than the cheesy aluminium one and we save weight. His latest pump has reverted back to a plain bronze bush for the drive gear to minimise oil loss through the original oem style needle bearing. The new gears also have a different surface finish due to the previous providers of this going out of business I believe. So they are now a silver low friction finish. EDIT.. Oil pumps L to R Joes new pump, std, some aftermarket version which was almost impossible to remove due to the alignment pins being oversize. New gears and MGS-01 jackshaft

I keep an eye on batteries since my company has used Lithium batteries in our proprietary tools from the 80's. A long time before anybody in the public could even say Lithium in a generic conversation. At that time, we had a partnership with a battery manufacturer, SAFT. My company was funding their research for batteries with a longer autonomy, while being submitted to hydrocarbon wells temperatures. At the time, I was a tester for the batteries, SAFT showed me how dangerous Lithium was, and how difficult a Lithium fire was to put out. Anyway, the number 1 vehicle battery manufacturer has introduced a battery using new chemistry; LFP for Lithium Iron Phosphate, instead of what you typically find in cars today; Its interesting to me, because when I left my company, we were using Lithium Oxyphosphate batteries in our tools already. That was in 2015! Here's the article from the horse's mouth: CATL, the Chinese company responsible for powering 80% of the EV market. https://www.catl.com/en/news/6091.html About the Solid State batteries, and when they will become standard in cars, there are only assumptions. What is known, is that all the battery manufacturers, including CATL, are actively working to iron out the known issues of Solid State batteries, the most notorious one is their prohibitive cost, another is reliability. Today's actual target to install Solid State batteries in cars is set to 2027, although a Chinese car manufacturer has it planned for 2026. Some of the major car manufacturers, all are invested in Solid State batteries, which seems to be the next step to break through the EV adoption plateau the world is seeing today. I heard that the US is also actively trying to get a foothold in Solid State battery technology.

Fascinating. Impressive. I’ll always be in the bleachers cheering on such things, as opposed to actually doing anything of the sort. Still, I’m amazed at the potential. My only direct connection with 3D printing so far is ordering some wind deflectors for the V85 that literally fill the void between the stanchions and tank. That gap has been viewed as the cause of lots of wind turbulence and noise since the V85 appeared. I found the fix pretty useless, but did admire the ides and execution. Then, the Georgia Guzzi Guru, Wayne Orwig, made up a test set of front and rear turn signal stalks for my EV. The OEM ones are infamous for corroding and falling apart. That led to all sorts of MacGyver fixes of the popsicle stick splints, black electrical tape covers, and cable tie supports! I wish I had a "before' pic handy. Wayne's are grand ... Best wishes from the snow-covered alps and steppes at the top of Virginia. Bill

The Miura is my favorite Lamborghini.

Ditto. Do my own. I have well-stocked tool and parts cases. OK, OK. My moto-techy friends do the work. My job is to supply the tools and beer. Several bring their own of both. Moto Grappa Tech Days 2024 Seriously -- tho almost all of that was -- I'd last about 30 minutes in a "retail" business of any kind before I, some asshat customer, or both of us wore orange suits. Kudos to those who can do it. Bill

Sadly, this is very true. Even newer bikes can be a problem. I had some real doozeys when I was an official service agent in the Noughties. On more than one occasion I was threatened with physical violence by disgruntled customers who thought their bikes should be fixed for nothing after they’d done stupid shit to them. As for the folks who own 1970’s and ‘80’s Guzzis? Well they expect ‘70’s prices for parts and labour! In my last twenty years or so I just had a policy of refusing to work on any bike not built this century. That was after I had one arsehole dispute the cost for some clutch parts and a gearbox rebuild on his Eldo. While I was off dealing with another customer he went through my toolbox and stole a whole load of my Guzzi special tools! Then he had the temerity to phone me up and get shitty with me because I dobbed him in to the police! With something like a Gen 1 Hi-Cam things are much, much worse. They were never made in large numbers and were built at a time when quality control was in the toilet and many of Guzzi’s suppliers had cut them off for non payment of outstanding bills! This led to some, errrr? ‘Creative’ assembly at Mandello. As Chuck said of the Centauros of that period the only reason the factory bothered assembling them was to ensure the owner got all, or at least the majority, of the parts! Parts for them are generally very hard to get and things like belts have long been available only as NOS which means even your ‘New’ belt is probably thirty years old! Then there’s also the fact that many workshops don’t employ skilled labour and those that do have clever, qualified shop staff can basically name their price! I certainly wouldn’t buy a new Guzzi if I couldn’t service it myself and wouldn’t trust any ‘Official’ shop to do it properly. A thirty year old orphan is orders of magnitude more difficult!

With KTM apparently selling their majority stake in MV Augusta there are some deep discounts (40-50%) on some beautiful machines. Don’t know where MV will end up but hopefully it’s a soft landing