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I replaced the crankcase vent tube. It was disintegrating on each end and leaking bad enough to let me watch the hot oil run down the right side of the crankcase and onto the hot exhaust. Smoky. I had done it on my silver bike and recalled that it was a bit of a struggle, but this time, oddly, I enjoyed the struggle.

I know it is possible to improve the stock mapping and that might be the next step. as of now I am glad I went from a crappy unrideable bike to a very smiling riding bike .

Won't happen. They say they will but it won't happen.. Just like Germany when they were flossing renewable energy as they were quietly bringing in a natural gas line from Russia (which has been exposed already). They'll bring in a lot of these electric vehicles but in truth running off of electricity made by fossil fuels..

My grandchildren will look back at my generation and say "Can you believe they burned things for energy?" So my next car will be battery electric. The technology is mature and durable. We have known since the 1970s that this day is coming. NASA gives us proof: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ Carbon Dioxide | Vital Signs – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet (nasa.gov)

I have been under circumstances when you have to drive and start working immediately, then drive back. But driving a car is not as demanding as driving a motorbike, even if back then, we did not have AC. But I will not compromise with safety. If I start feeling uncomfortable for any reason, either sore back side or anything else, I will stop.

Changes are coming. So far, I have only invested in electric bicycles, which are nice way to do some short trips. My wife and I go out to dinner on them, and occasional trips to the store for small purchases. Almost bought a hybrid Subaru a while back, but it just seemed stupid to pay so much more to have two motors and a battery to maintain, coupled with the reduced the cargo space and eliminated spare tire (all to make room for the battery and such). I just took delivery on what will likely be my last gas-powered car (I assume gas-powered motorcycles will continue to "cycle" through the garage for a while.) I put my $100 deposit down on a Ford Bronco almost two years ago, and waited through all the production delays for all the options I wanted. It's rated at 17MPG, with a 2.7L turbo. That's only marginally better than the MPG I get on my F250 with a 7.3L gas motor. I recently paid $200 for gas at one stop (empty truck and empty dirt bike in the bed). So... The Stelvio continues to be my primary form of transportation when I am going alone. And I notice that the majority of cars and trucks are occupied by one person. I think we should make every new driver spend a year on a motorcycle before they get a license to drive a car. Imagine the national savings on fuel and resources devoted to roads and parking if just 50% of single-occupant car trips were replaced by motorcycle or scooter trips. And people would start noticing motorcycles when they drive their cars. Ok - so that solves everything. Thanks for reading.

Some of you may be aware of my ongoing frustration with these things. Briefly I've had one that refused to close off and another that has leaked when in the open position. Time to investigate. I suspected that the issue was junk seals and it turned out I was correct. I carefully removed the crimped section of the aluminium operating knob so I could screw it off the body and remove the internal plunger. The seals were toast which was causing the leaking in the open position. Bearing in mind that this thing gets used once in a blue moon the seals shouldn't have an issue really. So seals removed measured up and left in fuel overnight. I also tested a seal from an elcheapo kit I bought at the local Aldi store for comparison. No idea what the Aldi seal is made of but it was almost an identical size to the original. The first image shows the two seals after 24 hours in fuel ( the originals hadn't seen fuel for a week or so) As you can see the original has swelled a lot, around 1 mm in dia. So if your manual tap is difficult to open and shut and needs pliers to do so here's your reason. Garbage non fuel compatible seals. My cheap control seal is fine and hasn't swelled at all. This sort of thing drives me nuts, to save pennies they use rubbish seals and to compound the issue they aren't replaceable.......until now,hopefully. The difference in the seal sizes is quite obvious after 24 hrs in fuel. So what we need is Viton or FKM seals which I suspect will need to be 10 mm ID X 2.4 mm CS. I'll confirm this soon. The problem is what to do now with the the tap and its lack of open stop since we have removed the crimped section from the knurled nut. The issue for me is the lack of equipment. I've got plenty of nice ideas but dont have a mill which would allow me to do it properly. What I came up with is in the following image. I drilled and tapped the plunger for a 4 mm grub screw that can be inserted into its hole through the tap outlet. This grub screw when installed now forms the down stop for the plunger internally by it striking the inner bottom edge of the outlet hole replacing the crimped section of the aluminium knurled nut. The only issue I had was that I drilled and tapped the plunger hole about 1 mm too high which caused issues when the tap was closed. I resolved this by opening up the throat of the outlet port up near the closed seal face. Downside? a reduction in outlet area but i doubt it would be an issue as the inlet and filter screen are smaller than the tap outlet spigot ID.Next time I'd drill and tap a 6mm access hole on the tap body opposite the outlet port and make the 4mm hole in the plunger all the way through. I'd then have a 4mm stainless grub screw with the stop end turned down to 2 mm and it would be accessed through the 6 mm body screw from the opposite side. This would be much neater and minimise the loss of outlet area. The 6 mm access screw hole would need to be sealed with some thread sealer but the tap could be easily pulled apart for seal replacement and servicing.Note here only 1 seal is fitted to the plunger. I give this idea to the greater Guzzi community and forego retiring in luxury on the Caribbean on the obvious fiscal benefits I could derive from patenting etc. Ciao

It’s the V4S. Doesn’t feel like 170hp, but eats fuel like 270hp. And she invites to sporty riding. 4000rpm is the lowest she will except. Instrument panel will start to show signs of vibration under 4k and yes you can feel it. BUT what a bike. Cheers Tom.

Set of Pillion peg/exhaust hanger mounts..Freshly powder coated, never mounted $75 plus shipping Pls PM if interested Pay Pal

PM sent (dibs on the headguards)

Its good to know that some are reading between the lines...............

We have to try. More fires, hurricanes, droughts and floods anyone? My Australian cousins know about that. The Nordic and Scandinavian countries are showing the way.

I'll be long dead before the Brave New World is fully instituted. In fact, I might be dead before it is partially instituted. History will reveal that the ruling elite dd not care nearly as much about saving the earth as it did about securing absolute power and their own wealth. Broken human nature. Understanding it is the key.

Wow…811 miles in this blistering heat? That’s going to be brutal…I would spend the night in An AC conditioned room and start up day 2 refreshed… Hats off if you can do it one day!!

The oil and coal conglomerates have been doing a very effective disinformation campaign since the 70s. That is all I'm going to say.

I got news for you, they have in the past and they did it all the time. In fact Michelin used to make custom tyres "OVERNIGHT" for the factory guys and fly them in for race day. So during Friday practice Michelin would email the factory and get them working on a custom tyre for each of the top guys whatever they thought they needed to use in qualifying and the race. Stoner mentioned this in his autobiography that "occasionally" in his first year in a satellite team if he was doing well in practice some of these tyres would be "bestowed" upon him and the "lesser lights" for qualifying. It's the reason he would often qualify well or even on pole then everyone would ask why he wasn't up front in the actual race. Reason? because even after getting pole he'd be back on the std "junk" tyres for the race. Naturally he found it quite annoying that Rossi et al would know that although he qualified well they wouldn't need to worry about him or the other satellite riders that qualified well because the top guys would prevent them having the best tyres for the race. The spec tyre changed all that for the good but now it's run it's course and I don't see any reason in the preseason testing teams couldn't choose from a number of different constructions offered to them that they thought worked best for them and their bike and rider and Michelin build those tyres for them for the season. The actual tyre construction variations aren't a big deal to build. Sure it would be more costly but all they need to do is cut down on the F1 style bullshit creeping into MotoGP and they'd find the money. Phil

People say these are weak but in my honest opinion the power felt like the 865 air cooled Bonnevilles. I can confirm since I can 3 of those darn things. I thought it was felt faster than the v7 ... I love V7s but man, they're slow. Only issue I have with the 650 trin is it felt kinda small. And Im like 5'9". But that's just me. I think these 650 twins all "sorted out" would be sweet. An 865 kit would be pretty cool.

This is where the control tyre situation doesn't work. Far faster, cheaper for the factories and easier to tailor make tyres for each bike than re design frames, swingarm, triple clamps and forks for each new iteration of tyre construction. All that chassis development out the window when Michelin change tyre constructions. Like tossing the deck of cards into the air and see who wins and loses in the "do they work with my chassis" game. Yamaha's problem is they like all the factories get sucked into the "hiring an old has been rider" thinking there is value in their experience. In fact there is almost zero value in old riders who are set in their ways and want the whole bike designed around their style to make up for their degenerated competitiveness. They still fall for it though. Franki Morbidelli who I like very much as a person has hit the wall a lot of rider hit after a big, big injury, a phycological one that many never recover from. Always the acid test of a top rider, how well they deal mentally with a big injury. Rossi's record was never the same after he broke his leg. Rookies just ride what they got and accept the current situation. The skill isn't cutting fast lap times on these bikes these days, even rookies can do that, it's learning to race them and then dealing with the pressure of being a "factory" rider if you ever get there. Phil

Physics is observed by science. It is not defined by legislators, ergo physics is not wishful thinking, being bound by reality. Legislators are clearly wishful thinkers, but divorced from reality.

Johann Zarco, you mean the Johann Zarco that caused the biggest crash in MotoGP history at the Red Bull Ring a few years ago and thought he hadn't done anything wrong? That Johann Zarco, lol. I have a ton of respect for these guys that go out and lay it all on the line but It's extremely rare for me to take any view of a racing incident they have too seriously, esp if they have been involved. "Clearly Naka was never going to make that corner because if he was it means he's out braked me and I'm the best on the brakes in motoGP". That folks is how 99% of circuit riders brains work, lol. Phil