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Surprisingly little infield chatter here for this close to the event. Supposing the routes and activities -- -- are so well-known to the regulars that not much is needed. I'll start. AJ and I launch on our Guardias on Thursday, RON in Princeton, W.V., then close on the objective Friday afternoon. Kathi -- who will get back the day before from Seattle following 10 days with our PNW grands -- will cage it with various essentials, e.g., Kentucky bourbon. After all, no gentleman drinks Tennessee corn swill. Oh, and Bob Wegman rides one of his Guzzi harem here to the Moto Grappa from Rochester on Wednesday to join the Guardia gang to Princeton before pulling pitch and returning home. Actually, as I am TDC-challenged, I HOPE to be on the Guardia, which is still on the lift awaiting my completing its 12K service. Kathi is getting annoyed at turning the rear wheel while I give her helpful instructions, all conveyed in a loving way, of course, e.g., "Not that far, [expletives deleted]" ... "Slow down, can't you feel the resistance [expletives deleted]!" ... "Lordy, watch my hand & arm signals [expletives deleted]!" We are going back down today to try it again. Yes, the right jury would acquit her. Seriously, she is an indulgent and almost-suspiciously saintly wife. See all soon. Bill

Another gratuitous action shot of me on my burgundy Sport, photoshopped to remove the water mark, it resulted in the Guzzi logo disappearing from the alternator cover

First, great re SSR. Second, re Italy ride, etc., simply wow! Very much look forward to your stories. Don't know Mirto; in fact, have never heard of it. Wikipee told me this: Mirto Thanks to you, I will not sound too rubish -- at least on that account when I ride this next month ... Moto Guzzi Tour of Sardinia & Corsica Bill

Morning Bill...yeah seems this is getting to be my usual wake up time 3:30-4:30 am.... Maybe if I stayed up later than 9:30 I could stretch it out a bit. I just Got back last week from 3 weeks riding in Italy with a friend from Rome..mostly Dolomites/Stelvio/Switzerland...so not 100% time adjusted yet ! This time while with my friend in Italy I had some very fine Grappa (Thought of you).and a new found obsession...Mirto! Looking fwd to seeing you and the others in Tellico!

A lot of people have left off one or more of the ring terminals when playing around with the battery . Don't overlook this area .

Good luck with that. In years to come the evening news won't be about busting some suburban meth lab but busting me in some suburban petrol lab. Phil

@Guzzimax, not sure what the UK market is, but in the US one sold a few months back on the Bring a Trailer auction site for an even $10,500. Maybe a year or two before another one sold for around 10k, same site. The one that just sold looked pretty good, but had a few niggles. I thought mine looked better than that one. You say they are rare in the UK. Idk exactly how rare they are here, but Coppas are around and for sale maybe once a year. But it has been said that only 40 came into the US...who really knows? One comment that was made after the sale of the last one was that it was the most expensive V11 ever. Not sure about that because I have seen Nero Corsas command some high prices.

As for the Black Walnut Bottom clan, I am happy to report that the Lady Kathy has recovered to the point that she, too, will be driving our support vehicle to SSR #20, allowing me to strafe the Cumberland plateau with Docc and the Katzenjammer Kid. As to Tennessee corn swill, I consider the gauntlet laid! Roaring River Distillery and I accept your challenge! You supply the red Dixie cups.

You can do these same tests w/the positive side of the alternator circuit. I want this thing fixed.

Ah Phil, but drugs will be so much more fun when you burn them in a V11

"Crabbing" the SpineFrame may well be an early P.Roper-ism . . . Chocking the front of the bike whilst loosening the front engine mounts and releasing the rear mounts to hoist the rear of the SpinFrame up off the chassis:

It's settled then... we ride old bikes. The first V11 barnfind is documented.

No worries DGI. Mate we can only dream of that sort of attitude to speed here in Victoria....it really is ridiculous. A couple of kays over and it's a 2 or $300 donation to the Policemans ball and 2 or more points off your licence.If you really let er rip you can end up in jail and lose your bike too. Sooo glad I gave it heaps back in the day as tolerance is long gone. Tassie (Tasmania) has a much better attitude and some brilliant roads and riding but I believe the roads like everywhere else here in Oz are going downhill too. It's a bit of an effort/cost in getting your bike down there too. It was a riders paradise back in 87 on my GPZ900. My native NZ has great roads too but a similar attitude to speed as here in Victoria.....arghhh. Just gotta make the best of what we've got I guess and be ever watchful for Mr Plod. Actually, that's where the Guzzi is handy in that you can still enjoy yourself without going over the top.I don't know how you could run a modern litre bike or even a smaller sport bike and keep your licence for any length of time. I've got a Hyperpro shock on the rear and have 15mm of preload* on it now and 28 of 50 clicks rebound ( Both comp and reb are set together on a fixed ratio on these emulsion shocks) and forks sorted resprung/valved and adjusted for me. She's still firm but worth it for the way she handles. Mate the best thing you can do on the red frame V11 is sort the compression leg ie block those holes so oil goes thru valving and not everything damping wise in the last 25mm of travel and hydraulic lock! Then correct springs for your weight and adjust accordingly. I may add 5mm to the shock down the track to put a bit more weight on the front. Mate, I look at some of the photos of the roads in the States and the condition of them, and think wow they' be fun especially with that tolerance so you can enjoy them. Anyway's we can still have some fun and enjoy ourselves down here all the same. Ha ha enjoy mate and keep that Oz licence handy as it seems to be doing the trick eh! Cheers * up from 10mm.

A landmark rally!

(Slightly off topic sorry Guzzler) Wow. So sad to read that $1.20 means you've got to watch the mail for a couple weeks! Glad I don't live where I was born! Most of the West Coast of the U.S. is $1.00 to $1.20, but if you adhere to those values you have people right up your arse on their horns. $1.20 seems to be the minimum everywhere and $1.30 to $1.40 is really common. Hell, in Los Angeles a couple years ago, a cop reprimanded me for only doing $1.30 in the fast lane, He flashed me to move over! Road conditions are mixed with everything from perfect billiard table surfaces to rough potholed roads. Would love to change the suspension on my Greenie to Ohlins front and rear for the extra compliance and adjustability because I find the stock suspension pretty harsh. So specifically, what did you end up doing Guzz? If you can avoid the roads that are rough, there is some excellent riding here. Eastern Oregon has some absolutely beautiful roads in fabulous condition. Anyway, back to the speed thing: The police here are by and large great and very reasonable, so I have found. Been let off 9 times in a row over 10 years. I keep telling my mates here, that when number 10 rolls around, I'm buying beers and lunch for everyone! It really pays to keep my down under license with me when I'm riding. ;-)

Bestandschutz / "right of continuance" / "grandfather clause" is not a constitutional protection, just a common practice in writing regulations. For example we have Low Emission Zones (LEZ) and Zero Emission Zones (ZEZ) and changes to which fuels are registered for sale. If in a few years only E10 and higher are available then some adaptation of a V11 would be necessary. Also most countries have annual roadworthy tests, which include the vehicles current emissions. The V11 is a Euro 2 bike, but if E85 produced lower temperature combustion, but also more complete (due to ethanol being partially oxidized already), then perhaps it could meet a higher emission standard and be permitted in LEZ zones in future.

G'day mate. Yeah, like everywhere else in the state...bad and getting worse! It is a bloody disgrace that a supposedly first world country has main roads and national highways in this condition whilst what money that is available is being squandered on ever more ridiculous pursuits not to mention budgetary blowouts due to incompetence and bureaucratic bullshit ( Victorian public service has grown 30 + percent under this very hard left government ) whilst roads health education you name it suffers.... Anyways back to topic in hand,I ride this road a fair bit so know where and what to watch out for but geez it'd be something else if it were in perfect nick! Only a bloody fool would ride the backroads hard without knowing them but having said that it's only a decent deluge/ frost/ heavy windstorm away from disaster so you never can be sure what's around that next corner! Cheers

For now , use a DVOM and go from the battery negative terminal to the ground wire at the regulator . It should read 0 volts. Then disconnect the original ground wire from the regulator and use test light and test the wire integrity going from the battery positive to the lug at the ground wire you disconnected . You should get a good bright light . After that Check the voltage from the battery positive to the battery negative . Record your v reading . Now check the voltage from the battery positive to the ground wire at the regulator. You should have an identical voltage reading. Even if you do not discover anything you will learn how to detect voltage drops. Also , you will learn how important a test light STILL is .

A couple of points. E85 is not readily available in Australia. I've never seen it at any petrol station and I live in almost the largest city in the country by population. Google tells me it's available at selected United outlets but I never use that outlet as they traditionally sell shite fuel so maybe they do but they are a small player outlet wise. The other issue with E85 conversion is less MPG and the plastic fuel tanks on a V11 swell bad enough on E10 let alone E85. Also unless the engine is optimised for E85 then there's little to no performance benefit and if you know me then you know how concerned I am with the "climate emergency" and domestic motor vehicle pollution. The gains from E85 in performance terms are with the turbo engines. Running E85 has significant power gains due to being able to turn the boost up safely with a "tune". Unless you pull the engine down and bump the comp to utilise the added nock resistance then there's not much to gain on a v11 engine. A little better cooling maybe but as I said worse fuel economy which isn't particularly attractive for most. Like Guzzler I go out of my way to avoid ethanol fuels. If you are environmentally concerned about the future of ICE engines the way forward is synthetic fuel. Carbon neutral and zero mechanical or tuning requirements. 4 times the cost at present but this will come down as mass production increases. Porsche has a facility producing it now in Chile and MotoGP will run it exclusively in a year or two. Phil

G'day Dave. Mate, having owned 14 Guzzi's you should've opened with..... Hi, my name is Dave and I have a Guzzi problem....(ha ha it's a glorious problem to have by the way!) Cheers,good luck with the Coppa and welcome back to the madness.

Update. Well I've adjusted the preload another 5mm and gotta say......Woo bloody Hoo! Should've done this years ago when I put on the extra kilo's. Only had one ride so far but I'm bloody chuffed with it,doubt any more weight on the front but front and back seem much more together or cohesive if that makes any sense? She was good before but even better now. My usual test road has a bit of everything (and is a great test for suspension) was quite a revelation! Bloody hell the sections where $1.20 was pushing it a bit previously (road conditions mostly) left me thinking maybe try that a bit harder next time ha ha. Then again watching the mail for a couple o weeks gets old eh! Just another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of V11 ownership slotting into place! Cheers Ps I'll live with it like this for a while and determine whether or not to go the 5mm extension on the shock later on eh. Pps still buzzing and still amazed that having owned this bike for nigh on 15 years she still delivers on all fronts for me and can't wait for the next ride! No other bike has....

I ride 20 miles out of my way to find ethanol free fuel

Yea I also like and looked at a Jag F series. Great looking car but it's a Jag, and well, it's a Jag. When I was researching a new DD 18 months ago I saw stats for the Range Rover Evoke with regards to reliability and the reviewer mentioned that they were considered to be quite problematic in that regard but people were still buying them Phil

This is probably the wrong thread for this but @docc asked! It was at Halloween Eve Party 2023 at Vancouver’s Notorious and Famous 1960s “Peace House” where I was fortunate to capture a photo of a Chinese Police lady arresting a Nurse for allegedly forcing the famous Princess Lulu to dress up as a Witch, a great offence to her status as the matriarch to another famous Lulu entity. The Peace House is notorious and famous for many things including being a commune in the 60s, a movie star in 1968 and where all the after concert, all night parties for the Rock Bands playing Vancouver in the 60s took place. Some of those that were there were The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, and many, many others. https://evelazarus.com/vancouvers-peace-house/ Today there are more Motorcycles than people calling it their party place including some Moto Guzzi’s🙂 I was trying to get arrested or hurt enough to need medical treatment😂