Polished and polished (and polished) my new internal pump tank.... This is actually the original colour my bike had before all the paint fell off!
What a steal for £180 with the pump!!
Most of the little mark polished out with consecutive paint restorer/polish application. I am rather sweaty now though 🤣
Yes that's true John along with the exhaust gas velocity which was calculated to be the equivalent of 150 hp from memory. The Germans also used to calculate the exhaust velocity and convert to a HP number as well. Hives did a deal with the head or Rover to do the overhaul of the Meteor engine in exchange for the contract to build the whittle gas turbine which the war department in their wisdom had given Rover the contract to build. They did the deal over dinner at "the club" RR gave Rover the factory and overhaul business and RR got the jet engine to build and develop.
Ciao
Thicker paint doesn't necessarily mean better. I have another late tank here (same colour in fact) that's "taken a hit". The tank itself is fine but the paint has delaminated in large pieces back to the plastic.
I had a Ducati 1098 tank ( on a bike that I'd owned from brand new) repainted about 10 years ago and when the painter went to sand it back he found it had been fully painted at least 3 times. He called me up and I had the tank stripped back to the plastic and then he painted it. Seems at the factory they were having some automated paint problems and they just kept feeding this tank back through until it's quality of finish was acceptable. So it had paint about 1mm thick which the painter wouldn't paint over.
Ciao
In must say, the paint seems much better quality on this compared to my short tank, definitely laid on thicker.
New ones go for about £600 usually, and that's without the pump.
No doubt that there is a fair amount of Piaggio puffery involved in this new model. It almost seems that they spent as much on the promo video as they did on the bike itself.
As to the aero (trim tabs actually), one needs only ensure that both are either out or in when the Tyco relay goes.
Here is an excellent image of the 2002/early-2003 "carry-over" LongFrame with short tank compared to an early ShortFrame/short tank Sport. Notice the amount of exposed frame between the front of the tanks and the forks. That is where the V11 frame was lengthened. A trim piece ("panel" 01 57 59 60 ) covers the otherwise exposed wiring/etc crossing the space. Later "long tanks" (internal pump/filter and no chin pad) obscure this area.
Image (and Sports!) courtesy of @Guzzimax