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If I recall correctly, the Monster headlight is a match for the early Sport steel Bosch unit . . .

That 2013 HP4 was an exelent 60years present. Made 28000km with it. Some of those had some serious white finger problems. Mine was fine. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

some of the usual suspects. yummy bass player.

If you want the real Yurt experience, head to Kazakhstan.... closer to us, indeed the Yurt is fun. When I got to El Cosmico they had a family in one of them, and they have a lot of RVs or Trailers that have seen better days. I think some of them have AC; They also have an area dedicated to those who bring their own tents. The facilities are rudimentary. Not much privacy; it reminded me of the army, including filthy bathrooms!!!! I always try to stay at the Hotel Paisano; however since it housed James Dean and the Giant movie crew, it gets full easily. I like to watch the old photographs of them and what is left of the shooting site. As you know, we have a solar eclipse over Texas on April 8th, 2024. It would be a great reason to head to Marfa. Unfortunately, Marfa is in Zone A, so only partial eclipse. The Marfa viewing area is more or less in line with Chihuahua, thus in the path. @docc sorry again for leading the John Day topic astray...

We're just coming out of a cold spell. About 2 weeks, a number of days not over -10° C. and nothing over about -3°C. That counts as "very cold" for Leipzig. Today is about +1°C. Snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow, and again later in the week. This week it apparently wont get much over +2°c, but also not much below -1°C. That is about right for here and this time of year, but I still find it too cold for my taste. The week after is predicted to see temperatures around 5 or 6°C for the whole week. Maybe I'll finally be able to get a couple of hours in the practically unheated garage in.

North of you, we are in the same boat. Will supposedly rise to the 30s or so over the next day or two.

Well surprisingly today was another beautiful day, which meant of course, that I had to get in another ride today...180 miles on different roads than normal. Tomorrow and the next few days promise to be quite chilly, so it was nice to get another ride in before the cold snap...lots of other folks with the same idea! Seems like winter will finally arrive tonight!

Yes Activ, .... a little foam and then sandwiched between two piece of heavy cardboard. Any international I will make a little sturdier.

14° right now with this continuing for a few days. Looking forward to a balmy 27 tomorrow midday. Minnesota weather in Oregon right now. Daffodils were 4"tall before this hit. Let's see how hardy they are.

I worked there, I mean in Atyrau, on the Caspian Sea. My German colleague purchased an Ural side-car and went on a craze. Kazakhstan is beautiful, absolutely! Today it is more open than when I was there, until 2009. You can get a visa on arrival good for 15 days. Don't go there in winter, unless you like Siberian temperatures!

Very interesting! I tried staying at the Paisano in November but it was full…ended up at the Reata…quiet but not luxurious and overpriced…oh well!!. I was very pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the menu and dinner and service at the Hotel Saint George…quite good! Kazahkstan looks interesting to explore…have enjoyed several ADV rider YouTube videos of their travels thru there…

Yeah, German engineering. There is quite a lot of stuff on various channels (particularly youboob) that is not visible here due to copyright issues.

An anecdote from the former East Germany: Apparently the winter 1996/1997 was very cold. A colleague related how the had repeated power failures. Most, if not all, of the power was being generated with brown coal. It was so cold that the coal froze to a solid block in the transport wagons, and they couldn't off-load it to feed it into the power plants. EDIT: 1996 was after the re-unification, of course. But "only" about 15 years, and a lot of the infrastructure in the former East Germany still hadn't been renewed by then. The power in the DDR was almost all from brown coal. Even today, there is still a power station a bit south of Leipzig that is still using brown coal. I think it is planned to be closed down in the near future, but at the moment it is still on line.

Good thoughts sent your way! Hope the medical team is ready to go. Brutal conditions for lots this week.

3 degrees, wind and snow. Gotta take the wife for surgery tomorrow and 5am. She'll be overnight there.

This documentary is worth a view.

I’m not a big camping fan unless a) there are no people around me, and b) its cool/cold outside, so that a warm sleeping bag can warm me up, vs the inability to ever cool off if its too hot. So i camp in alaska and northern canada, but not often elsewhere. John day in late june…. Probably quite warm or hot. I guess my Norwegian blood likes the cold air. So for now I’m at the best western, burning some Chase points. for what its worth, when i last rode through that area, after staying at Sylvies on a moto ride with a buddy from Bend, we took NF16 east from Seneca area, and there was some nice looking camping areas up that direction. Not that far, but presumably too far to ride to camp after an event at john day. I just liked that it was more remote and scenic. I see a couple NFS campgrounds listed up in that area which might be ok, not sure.

My daughter is in Austin and I checked the forecast. Looks to be a super cold front. At least it doesn't look like the last freeze which was an ice storm. She was without power for days...which meant no heat or cooking. She had to run out and get a Coleman stove to cook.

Alternative tuning? How about Richard Thompson...

Hence the invention of the Pecan, I mean the Pee Can! Saves you trips to the rest room...common to see at Guzzi Rallies for Old timers! Sounds like El Cosmico was El Catastrofe....una lastima! It does look like they have Yurts however...that would be kind of cool for the next time. I stayed at the Riata Motel in Marfa in November...not much better, but at least it wasn't camping!! To be fair..camping at John Day is quite nice...it's a nice grassy field...plenty of fun activity...the bathrooms however are not far...they have porta potties setup within 100 feet of just about everyone...

Hotel prices have gone insane following the general freeze. Besides that you no longer get room service after the initial move in, but still pay full price per night. Many hotels have also implemented the infamous Las Vegas "Resort fee" which you need to pay even if there isn't any resort. Furthermore, I tried a couple of dates on their website, and it is a two nights minimum stay.... the cheapest I found was $500, while the average was more around the $700. Three nights, and I could buy another Moto Guzzi Quota.....:-)