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Like a Woman..

This came up today on the Cafe Racer Magazine Instagram feed. Thought it was perfect to post under "Origins of the V11 [emoji56] Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Philosophically, I would agree with you. Now, I do not think Aprilia has a championship winning package. We have seen with the actual pilots, they still have a lot of technical issues, which makes the bike unreliable. We do not know how quickly Martin will master his new mount. He will have two years only put his imprint into the championship, since in 2027, they have that major technical shuffle. He took a gamble with Aprilia, we will see if it pays. This is why I am hoping he will get the championship this year, and thus, not need to rely on Aprilia in 2025. It's all about money! Domenicali said that he understands that other manufacturers are unhappy with the melodrama, but at present, Ducati is the team to beat. Ducati will probably gloat as Marquez picked them up to end his career. Whatever downside to their decision (losing Martin), it is still a winning move. I do not know if it is because of their success in MotoGP, but Ducati has improved all their selling figures worldwide year-on-year. With Marquez onboard, it is going to be another boost. Ducati shenanigans aside, I am more interested in Acosta's progression. To me, he seems the guy to root for. Since his arrival, he has made the factory team play second fiddle. He has got that incredible riding style, his body completely outside the bike in corners. Let's not forget that Joe Roberts won at the Mugello, it would be great to have him in Trackhouse next year too.

The Ohlins forks will fit the original triple clamps too. Been there, done that

So long-ish story... but the essence is that the sale didn't work out and now she doesn't want to leave. So I put her up on the rack and will sort out the remaining little bits and try to get her running as well as my Scura does. Maybe I'll even get adventurous and finally try installing the Caruso timing gears I've been sitting on.

2002. We V11 addicts know that the Champagne LeMans was only available in 2002, but not everybody knows that. Thanks for helping me clarify.

This a complete set, all boxed up and ready to ship or pick up. It's from a low-mile Scura that another member parted out, due to a garage accident that messed up the back end but only put one scratch on these forks. You can rotate the fork so the scratch will not be visible when mounted. Other than the scratch, they look like new. No leakage. Steering bearings look good (But if you're swapping forks, you may as well put new bearings and races). Includes axle and spacer. Asking $1,100 for the complete set-up. I have pics that I can text anyone who is interested.

His style reminds me of Kevin Schwantz quite a lot. Watch him in the heavy braking zones. His line into the corner can sometimes be a metre inside everyone else's line. Schwantz was the same, hit the brakes and point the bike straight at the apex and still somehow be able to get it turned without running wide. Zero classic race line here. He is also a bellwether for a Motogp team. Too many teams hire older riders who get to the point where their riding style is set in concrete and they then expect the team/factory to find all the solutions with design and engineering. A young rookie just adapts and rides what he's given and often makes the old riders look silly. Honda need to hire a young rookie. Having said all that you won't really know what Acostas real potential is until he has a factory seat next year and the expectation comes into play. At the moment he's not expected to be a winner but in the factory team that will be different. Some deal with this and some don't. The same as some deal with their first big/serious injury and bounce back and some are never the same rider again post injury. Time will tell. Phil

that's about my average for slow/no speed tip overs so far lol

And the 1st thing you do is jump up to see how many were watching ?

Yes, Martin WANTS to win it this year. More so now then before no doubt. But if he doesn't win it this year he will have a shot next year, and the year after that. Unlike Marc, who doesn't have many years left in him, Martin has plenty of years left to win the title. If Marc wins the title next year, he will probably only race one more year then retire. Where as Martin will be a thorn in Ducati's side long after Marc is done. I am not sure Ducati "won" by signing Marc to their factory team. They kinda look like idiots, especially the way they shafted Martin when Marc changed his mind. That was weak. And it shows you who is really in charge. But it should make MotoGP more interesting now that Ducati has less of a stranglehold on the top racers. And their factory team is going to be a struggle. We will probably see a semi-return to Marcs old ways, not so much the dominance but the aggression. He takes people out, and I suspect he will take out Pecco at least a few times. It may not be the "Dream Team" Ducati want it to be. And if / when Marc wins on the Ducati everyone will credit Marc and not Ducati. It is a lose / lose deal for Ducati. They should have stuck to their original stance on Marc. He brings nothing to them that they need.

I watch "Driving 4 answers" content too Phil and although I knew some of the story, I found that video quite shocking. As for "Stuart Fillingham" the YouTuber on the first post, he's forever posting grossly over exaggerated vids on nefarious beaurocrats coming after yer bikes. Of his videos I've watched they're exagerated and misinformed. I cannot stand his accent nor narration and think he does it to up his views, which I class as duplicitous. One quote from Pete that always made me smile and I'm paraphrasing, ........."If anybody complains, just tell them the bike runs on very old sunshine"

Well...since the tubes are already off the bike for the seal change, I have the opportunity to do it by the book. Plus I can bleed them properly this time with the bleed tool. Once they are back in the bike, I suspect they will be good for a long time...and I learned something.

Beautiful bike..someone missed a great opportunity on that one!!

And what year is this bike ? It becomes important at installation time !

Hi, this is going to be a quick one. A leaking fork seal in the left fork was the reason I started looking into the cartridge topic in the first place. I ordered the cartridge from an Italien dealership last Friday and today, 4 days later they arrived. Getting the fork seal out proved the biggest challenge in the whole enterprise, the spring ring to secure the fork seal used is a nightmare to get out. Finally I ground a small groove into the material and got the leverage needed. What a crazy spring ring selection, looks like a custom made part only for Guzzi. The Andreani kit installation was totally straightforward. Remove the original cartridge, install the new cartridge, fill oil up to specified level and done. I took a quick spin and the fork forked :-) Not optimal yet, but it felt less bumpy than the OEM. During the next days I'll adjust the settings and see if the investment was worthwhile. Cheers Meinolf

Yes, my Le Mans has a number of issues, but I have grown to be quite fond of it.

One reason nobody’s listening is that there’s a lot of ‘in plain sight’ obfuscation going on under our noses that various levels of grubberment are implementing. Here in Australia it’s rife. Here’s an insightful discussion about how the climate emergency scare will move people and communities from their homes

I am thinking we should do our due diligence and pump those hydrocarbons to burn systematically in small, distributed amounts before they reach the surface in sufficient quantities to turn our atmosphere into a sea of methane . . .

Here's something interesting. I was talking to my SIL's father a few months ago about this. He's a retired physicist thats spent a good deal of his career in the oil industry. Our long held beliefs and education of the origins of oil are quite possibly flawed. In the history of all forms of drilling for exploration nobody has ever found fossilised material below a drilling depth of 16,000 feet. So thats the maximum depth ever recorded for buried originally organic material, material that may under the correct conditions be turned into a hydrocarbon or crude oil. So why then is a large percentage of our oil derived from wells between 28 and 32,000 feet? This may be the answer and means that oil reserves are instead of being a finite resource are more like a continuing by product of the earths naturally occurring geological conditions. So oil is the product of dead forests under the influence of pressure and heat? Quite possibly not as it turns out. Saturn's larges moon Titan has also been speculated to have vast subsurface deposits of crude oil by both NASA and the European space agency after reviewing probe information. There's never been forests on Titan as the surface is a sea of Methane. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/41889 As for the death of ICE vehicles, don't worry it ain't going to happen in my lifetime. Phil

https://www.motociclismo.it/guzzi-che-altro-moto-54327

Phelon and Moore of Panther fame did a guzzi style V twin in the late twenties /early thirties :the Panthette http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P%26M_Panthette_250_cc_1927.jpg Very advanced but also had some flaws like leaf valve springs...sadly got killed by the depression.

Well , yesterday morning I pulled into the Waffle Hut to stop for breakfast , came to a complete stop and couldn't get my foot off the peg fast enough....timber . Remember Arte Johnson / tricycle incident from Rowan & Martin's Laugh In . That was me. Bike did pretty good , L.H bar end , turn signal lens , spark plug cap are the only apparent damage. I didn't = dislocated / separated / torn shoulder or something and this HURTS. The good thing - I have kept all my string of get-offs at < 1 mph intact.