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I protest. If we are going to have drums, these: Bill

Buy the factory luggage rack, it doubles as a hand hold and makes pillioning better although it's always shit it's just a little less shit. Phil

We need rain badly here at the top of Virginia, with daily drought warnings and heat advisories. My brother in Hiawassee reports similar conditions there. I'd ride uncomplainingly in the rain just to bring some relief to the flora and fauna. Bill

It seems @ScuRoo has given us our theme music for this year's XIX SSR . . .

Audiomick, it’s sort of Grappa with your coffee ☕️ for breakfast, bourbon 🥃 for lunch, dinner and happy hour.

Aloha! What’s your experience? I haven’t had the opportunity to ride the island… but years ago, I did ride with a couple of mates up to Big Bear outside Los Angeles and the dew at 6,800 feet is bad. Dew at any level is terribly treacherous. Here’s the opening lines from a magazine review by Robert Smith. “One the most memorable and exhilarating rides of my motorcycling life was on a Guzzi: a race-tuned 850 Le Mans Mk1. I rode it from Ha’iku, Maui (close to sea level) up to the Haleakala Park entrance at 6,800 feet on the volcano’s switchback access road, and back down again. With a race cam, lightened flywheels, flowed head, Bub exhaust and flat-slide Mikunis, that baby really flew, handled precisely and would stop on, if not a dime, certainly a nickel. But what was so seductive was the way the motor loved to rev. Below 3,000 rpm, it wouldn’t have pulled a fly off a cow patty; but when it came on the cam, it surged to the red line with a rush of booming power; but on closing the throttle, all was uncannily smooth and calm.” Uncannily smooth and calm… stay strong Lahaina 💪 https://cdnbkr.ca/3893-2-motorcycle-review/moto-guzzi-breva-1200-2008/

Our craziest ride was on the Cherohala skyway, down that way. The fog, clouds, whatever you want to call them, were so thick we could not see both sides of our lane at the same time. My wife could see my tail light, and I her headlight. But I was either towards the left of the lane and could see the centerline, or if you were to the right of the lane you would see the line marking the edge of the road. I just followed the centerline, and could tell that if it was solid it was likely curves were coming while if it was dashed it was likely fairly straight for the time being. In hindsight maybe we should have pulled over, but honestly I don't know where we would have pulled over. You could not see anywhere to pull over. And being stopped on the road in those conditions seemed riskier. But to keep moving, less chance of being hit by someone else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spJ-nQ1iiH0

I've never ridden Maui, but leaving the South'n Spine Raid to cross the Appalachian Divide often takes us into the "cloud ceiling." Some call it "fog", and I suppose "dew." The cloud ceiling often lies at 1500 feet above sea level. The pass over the divide is some 5800 feet. That is a long ride through the cold, damp "dew" with limited visibility. Read: "sucky riding conditions."

Got you! My new spring only has two coils and not three. I will complete my Texas tour and switch the springs then. By the way, I did my trip home in 1st gear, because when I got stuck in second gear, I managed to shift down and that was the end of it. It gave me more time to appreciate the landscape.

Yeah, stops bodies colliding, but puts all her weight on the rider's hands on the bars. I find that very hard to deal with. I like my pillion to hang on with the thighs, like on a horse, and brace with the hands against my hips. When I'm a pillion, that works well for me as a pillion, and when I have a pillion who does that, it also works well for me as the rider.

Saturday, 68 south turns into 5, then 60 to Suches, then 19/60 through Delonega, turn left on 60 (only), the turn left on 129 all the way back to Murphy. As I remember, 129 in GA has a really good section of curvy roads, sort of the southern Deals Gap of 129. It may be more fun because the turns aren’t as technically tight. Anyways, the motorcycle riding (not the view) is possibly better than the Cherohala. Also pretty sure we will ride past some water falls along the way. With a high of 81F, it should be about perfect. Can’t wait Docc/Bill!

Actually there’s about 1500 degrees of difference between fog and dew One is ground level 😏

Yeah… the meedia do haarp on over climate change Stay strong Lahaina 💪

On a different note, Kayla Yaakov is going to ride the Tytlers Supersport bike of Stefano Mesa in the last two rounds of the season. Mesa is filling in for Cameron Beaubier, leaving his 600 supersport seat open. As Kayla had issues in the early part of the season and isn't in the championship chase she is free to move up from the twins class to the supersport class. Kayla has been having a good season overall, with several wins in Spain in the Yamaha R7 Cup series. https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/yamaha-r7-cup-kayla-yaakov-wins-race-two-at-circuit-de-navarra/

When you are on a racetrack you expect everyone to be doing roughly the same thing. At that point everyone should have been accelerating. One guy, for whatever reason, didn't. Cam was on the gas, as you would be coming out of that chicane. When Yates didn't go there was no time to do anything but hit him. Why Yates didn't go I don't know. But that was not Cams fault in my opinion. It may have been a bike issue with Yates bike. I heard his electronic throttle connection pulled out and he basically had no throttle. The bike was in limp mode or idling.

That's interesting. I know at least three of them from other forums. Jaap, I think you must be world famous.

My online legacy :-)

Best emoojis on the whole interwebs!

The bulk of the emojis are older than most of your Guzzis! When I find time I will update some of them, but the custom ones I made a long tome ago, I will keep of course

The first tune I played and sang for my girl 18 yrs ago was A Pirate Looks at Forty. She was a sailor. It worked.

R.I.P. Jimmy Buffett. Here, I lift "The Parting Glass " . . .

What the hell went wrong there? It looks like he just wasn't looking where he was going.

I've been pondering what some forty-fifty years of the "bacon slicer" Guzzisiti must have thought of the BigBlock twin.... "What a bloated load of lard! Can you believe Moto Guzzi would make such a toad? There is certainly no future in this. You can't even see the flywheel! And a ferkin' prop shaft! WTH?" (Heh, well, they probably made some valid points. Time marches on . . .)

Has she tried to put her hands on your shoulder blades during braking? The component of force she exerts is braced by the line of your arms on the bars and might be enough to keep bodies colliding. Panic stops might be too much for this tactic, but with regular braking it would help. I ride completly different with someone behind me because of necessity and to make them as comfy as possible.