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Always amused when people go to all the tourist spots in the EU and are dismayed because its crowded and expensive..like coming to the US and going tho Disneyland, The Grand Canyon, New York City, Nashville, San Francisco, Orlando, etc. etc and expecting reasonable prices and relaxation....I spent almost month in Italy/Switzerland/ Austria in July /August, Riding the Guzzi over 3000 km in the Dolomites / Passo dello Stelvio/Timmelsjoch ..etc,etc with a friend born and raised in Rome..We purposely rode Stelvio early AM on weekdays and spent every afternoon and evening in smaller towns and villages.....The whole trip was very relaxing and enjoyable, I went a couple years ago too, and I will go again next Summer...very nice. I asked a few people from the areas we were in about those tourist backlash articles, they all just chuckled and said they hadn't heard about it.

[docc merged the threads to combine the details with the photos.] Best of luck placing the Sport with an eager new owner. Let's be aware that @SLtrek has been a member here since 2005 even though he has not posted much.

Yesterday, October 12th, 2024 was the Grand Opening of Iron Supply Motorcycles Katy (Houston) at their new location. Majority of participants where on four wheels, but there were a few interesting motorcycles; in particular a Kawasaki H2-R. As you probably know, the retail price is about 60k USD (without taxes and all the other add-ons that are not shown in the USA). It is really beautiful, but at that price? 321 HP @14,000 rpm... I have documented the previous location in 2021, when they informed they were moving. Three years after, they have now a much larger building and parking. I am going to take some photos and update the thread. Nevertheless, I went there by chance and won a dual sport helmet from Alpinestars decorated by Troy Lee Design in "Red". There is justice after all...

Another update of sorts. The bike opted to stop running a few miles into my local ride. Once on the side of the road, the bike would start but refuse to stay running. Out of ideas, I decided to swap the starter relay and the fuel pump relay - not the first time I’ve done this. The bike fired right up and took me to my destination (and back) without any issues. I’ve ordered five new relays and suspect this will remedy my problems.

I’ll say it’s a 4

You might should ride uphill . For the same reason you take a boat out into the river to try it out . You always go upstream.

Yay, it does seem somewhat crazy. I was recently offered the opportunity to buy one of the only 2 original Coppa’s in the UK, & I couldn’t let it pass me by. I don’t really want to sell any of the others

Let's ask the other inmates on the ward if this represents a pure and crystalline sanity.

https://www.wildwestmotoplex.com/ Today I learned from MPH Cycles that we have a new Moto Guzzi / Aprilia dealership in Houston; I went there to check them out; I could actually sit on the Stelvio and the Mandello! They also have a bunch of V7, and the V85TT in two livrées. The Blu White Red looks really nice. They told me they only sold two Guzzi since they started. They have one part of the floor dedicated to BMW, and they have many GS1300 (of course!). According to the sales assistant I spoke to, the Yamaha Tenere and the Honda Africa Twin are the most sought after. In fact, he said they never have any on the floor because they get sold as soon as they come. There is less than 1000 USD difference between the Stelvio and the Mandello. They are both around 15,000 USD. You can basically purchase both and still spend less than for a BMW GS1300... unreal! Although I can keep my feet flat on the floor seating on the Stelvio, you really have to make an effort to bring it upright from being on the sidestand. Much more than my Quota, and that is with an empty tank.

I am going to Paris in November, and I have made a direct deal with the owner of the place I am going to rent. AB&B prices have increased fueled by all the new laws enacted by localities in order to protect the Hôtel businesses and the long term rental market. The municipality in Paris has made it very difficult for owners to rent appartments through AB&B. They already had imposed a limitation of the number of days they could rent, and now, to be able to rent short term, you need to possess another appartment of the same surface that you can rent long term. They have also come up with additionnal taxes, mainly to satisfy the Hôtels. Therefore, with less rentals, prices have gone up. Not to forget that this year, the Olympic Games in Paris had inflated the prices to levels never seen before. As I go to Paris once a year, I have been staying in some dumps which really should not even be listed. Still, better than those expensive 2 stars hôtels... But if you are looking for better deals, there are ways to alleviate the pain. For example, if you stay outside of Paris, prices go down very quickly. The subway takes you to the city center in minutes, so it is not compulsory to stay with a view on the Seine. When I was working in Italy, I quickly learned that if you wanted to spend time in Venice, you stayed in Mestre. Take the bus to Venice, you have one every 10 minutes. The money aside, yes indeed, you now have to fight your way for every sight you want to visit. But if you really are daring, and resourceful, not easily frightened, I can recommend a few places where you will not see many tourists; Kazakhstan is one of them. I worked there for a few years, and it is stunning beautiful and tourist untapped.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes with the relay change. Otherwise, we will soldier on!

My battery must have been a bit low when I got the earlier reading at the relay. I just measured it again and now it’s reading 12.85 at the relay.

Battery is reading 12.85 volts after my quick ride. Yes, those are the relays I ordered. Thanks for the link that was posted earlier in this thread.

I'm a big fan of High Current (right now: Picker Components) relays. Get the correct ones: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/picker-components/PC782-1C-12S-R-X/12352866

2004 V11. $3500, in California. Contact me for more information.

What type battery is in it? Is that the voltage across the battery terminals, as well? For an AGM battery like the Hawker Odyssey native to the V11, 12.09v is quite dead and should be "conditioned." A fully charged AGM is 12.84v. This recovery cannot be accomplished on a low amperage "trickle" charger. Time to assess your battery and charging system . . .

It’s not so bad Adelaide Hills were nice, and the city itself had a feel of an untouched London in a better era. The market was real unlike Vancouver’s Granville Island market or Fremantle’s touristy excuse for one. But yes, compared to Melbourne, everything’s a village —including, and especially— Sydney.

Exactly. We just spent 4 nights at the Sheraton in Mestre. 5 min walk to a bunch of restaurants a shopping centre and the Ospedale train station and 3 stops to Venezia. It's my usual MO for foreign travel. Stay on the fringes, save a ton of money and utilise the local transit systems. I normally wouldn't stay at a Sheraton but in this case it was a very good move. Phil

See? Right there, "a pure and crystalline sanity."

There is this smoke-containment magic (just don't get it on any of the waterproof seals) . . .

Indeed. It is running perfectly now. Easy enough to take a peak at the switch, so I will probably do that. The corrosion on the relays and immediate resolution after reseating them explains the data for me. I hit all the relays with a contact cleaner. A friend nice told me that 95% of all electrical problems are bad connections. Looking backwards a number of decades now, he was right on target! This is a good prompt for me to go through and clean all of the easily accessed connectors. I gotta take the time the to thank everyone on this forum. Though I’m not particularly active, I would come back here from time to time and always found fantastic, well articulated advice by you(gstallions), docc, mickaudio, and countless others. I have posted only a handful of times, but that was because most of the answers I sought were addressed in previous posts. Thanks again, cheers.

Just back from that Corsica & Sardinia Guzzi tour. Saw one spine frame, a red beauty. Sadly, no pic. Shame on me. Bill

06 Coppa Italia; 03 Rosso Corsa; Silver & Greenie red framed Sports; 03 V11 Sport; 04 Le Mans; & a Griso 8V. All at the same time

I think that those relays are barely up to the job, and should be regarded as consumables. I fit new ones at the same time as spark plugs, and I make sure to throw the old ones out, not keep them as spares. Then I put a set of new spares in the monkey paw trap behind the seat. For a lazy person like me, it's much quicker to change a set of relays than troubleshoot a fault.

Without wanting to discount @docc 's reference to relay problems, after reading your update I would - Have a close look at the throttle grip (motor off, good light) and see if anything moves when you wrench open the throttle. - Whether yes or no, open the switch block (and the throttle grip) and have a good look at everything. Your discovery of the apparent connection with the kill switch makes me think that the throttle grip / switch block might be slightly loose, or something along those lines, and the "violent" movement is enough to break the contact, or perhaps cause a short, in the kill switch. Annoying for you, but a very interesting problem.

Nothing today. The day before yesterday I took it out for a ride. Charge the battery a bit and so on. I thought it was happy to go out, started first time and ran pretty well. After I got back, I left the cover off to let it all cool down and thought to put it on when I went out shopping later on in the day, but forgot. Yesterday I was all set to ride the Breva 750 to work, and put the forgotten cover on the V11 before I (tried to) set off. What do I see? Apparently the entire oil content of the left fork on the ground. Bugger... So I went to start the Breva to go to work. For whatever reason, I hit the button with the throttle wide open. Probably flooded it, I think. It didn't start, and I kept on trying instead of giving it a few minutes to recover. Result: battery is flat. So tomorrow, I wont be doing anything to the V11 (again), but will be taking out the battery from the Breva to put it in the cellar where the charger is, and hoping that I haven't killed it. The fun never stops...

Sadly, 'could not make the Southern Spine Raid this year, but went for a long ride in solidarity Sunday, ending at my friend's cigar shop, who captured my arrival with a decent photo. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Purchased another V11 ! Pick it up at the weekend. This one compliments the Rosso Corsa, ie. another “limited edition” model Here’s a clue …

A few items done today…and then a wonderful 100 mile ride. New oil sensor, new plugs (left one nice tan brown, right one a little dark but not sooty), new vent tubes off the tank just for fun, was going to replace the rubber tank stops but the ones there are in great shape. Been thinking about the slight 3k cough or hiccup …wonder if it could be mapped away with a better mixture on the map at that RPM…still running the older version of the Meinolf map…may try the new one. Besides that the bike runs great at all other RPM’s. A quick check with the Carbtune…TB nicely balanced at idle and 4k…time for a ride. Out riding…a song comes on…Riders on the Storm…found a Scura at the end of the rainbow! Time to buy a lottery ticket tonight!!

I’d say that while yes, it is a ‘Western World’ phenomenon it is generally more of an anglophone western phenomenon, certainly my experiences in non-English speaking cultures in the last couple of decades have generally been more favourable. There is also the simple matter of history. History and sums! For the last half millenium at least western culture has been, both geographically and politically dominant. The historical narrative, at least the one most people absorb, is western and Eurocentric. Now other countries and cultures are becoming wealthier a proportion of their citizens will want to travel and when you are looking at countries like China and India with populations of over a billion a piece it doesn’t take many as a percentage to mean that their chosen destinations will become overwhelmed. Throw in ‘Our’ own boomers who have retired and want to see a bit of the world, often in a cocooned and ‘Safe’, ie, familiar environment that never takes them out of their comfort zone and it all turns into a rapidly evolving train wreck! I don’t think that the majority of these people are bad or unpleasant. Just boorish impatient and demanding. The way Jude and I tackle it is probably a bit unusual in that we try to avoid big ticket ‘Name’ destinations like the plague and if we do want to go somewhere where you know it’s always going to be insanely busy we go, as we do in most places, in the depths of winter as this tends to thin the tourists out a bit. On top of this we like to go to, and actively prefer, to stay in poorer, less developed and smaller towns and villages. Apart from the fact locals in bars and restaurants are always fascinated by WHY these strange, little old white haired pensioner people have come all the way from Australia to their little turdpoke village in Abruzzo or wherever! Then they want to know if you are on first name terms with their cousin in Griffith in the Riverina in NSW or their son Claudio who is a waiter in Adelaide etc etc ! In the UK we only drop down below the imaginary line we’ve drawn between the Bristol Channel and the Wash to visit relatives as anywhere below that line is an overpriced zoo with far, far too many people, most of whom think they are terribly special and are crying out for a good ‘Throat Punch’! Above the line things are infinitely better. There are still pockets of asshattery and some of the cities are really grim after 45 years of almost uninterrupted Tory destruction but the population density is way lower, it’s cheaper and the locals, (Outside the grim cities.) are friendly and helpful. It is also the cradle of the Industrial Revolution with history and museums to die for. The countryside, even in mid winter when it can be pretty bleak, is beautiful and once you get into Northumbria and Northumberland and thence on to Scotland the geography and landscapes are simply breathtaking. There is plenty of interesting Roman history to tickle my fancy in the borderlands areas and once into the highlands the austere magnificence is hard to beat although the lack of trees in the far north can cause issues! In January on one trip we were travelling around the A9 across the top of Scotland and had picked up some picnic vittles in Wick. After nearly getting stuck when it stated snowing the weather cleared and we continued but Jude got a bee in her bonnet about finding a picnic table and eating out of the car. Somewhere just west of Thurso she spotted a side road with a sign depicting a picnic spot so we hung a right and went down to the small rest area on the coast. It had a beautiful little beach, (Surprisingly devoid of naked Germans because as you know wherever you go in the world if you find a nice beach it will have some ageing banker from Düsseldorf and his hausfrau lying around with their kit off! Even in Scotland in January!) The absence of trees though belied the fact that it was in fact blowing about a force five gale! As we gathered up our meal of some cold cuts and proper English Cheddar the sun broke through the clouds and shafts of sunlight speared down onto the snow covered Orkney islands to the north, it was like the dawn of the world and stunning to behold! When we got out of the car though the gale was all too apparent but my darling helpmeet insisted we go and sit at the table, which we duly did and I set about hacking up the Baguette I’d bought in Wick. Jude unwrapped the 1/2 Kg of delicious cloth wrapped cheddar and sat it down on the table just as a particularly strong gust of wind hit, picked it up and sent it whistling off in the direction of Stromness never to be seen again! One assumes some lucky guillemot or puffin probably dined well that day! Anyway, after that even Jude thought discretion was the better part of valour and we retreated back to the car! And continued our trip! Sure, in the summer it would have been warmer, the wind would probably of been gentler and we might of got to eat some cheese! But at the same time the A9 across the top of Scotland is in some places only a single lane road with passing pull-offs. In summer it would be gridlocked with morons towing caravans and other assorted mouth breathers! We were probably lucky to see two cars an hour! Anyway! Enough. My main message is pick the ‘Wrong’ time to travel and you’ll find it’s likely to be the ‘Right’ time!

I enjoy traveling very much, and would hate to be limited. I believe with flights and accommodations being more affordable, more people are now traveling. I can't blame anyone, there is so much to see in this big world. As for being anti-tourist, it leaves a bad taste. I live near Laguna Beach, CA so I do see a lot of tourist, long lines, etc. I never considered doing anything about it. I pray we all stay safe.