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We used to live in a log cabin on the banks of the White river. My friend Lyle (RIP) and I used to put my canoe in there, and float down to Bonge's. Seldom said a word, just enjoyed navigating the river.That was before all the foo foo stuff with Bonge behind that fabulous mahogany bar and his dog curled up in the corner. Drink a couple of beers with Bonge, and head for home. Good times.

Nice video... you mentioned in your title that he "picked the wrong brand" and I assume you mean he missed Moto Guzzi. But just after 5:00 in the video he says "...or my Moto Guzzi Griso which, of course, I love as well - for the same reasons as the Kawasaki." Then he reveals that he loves riding his 400cc Husaberg close to the limit, and admires his friends' 650 and 350 Royal Enfields and how much fun they are. I had a lovely 150 romp on the Stelvio today. Brought back a half case of wine from Doffo in Temecula and about 40 pounds of oranges, grapefruit, and avocado. I rather like the big 1200cc lump in that bike and ability to carry loads of stuff and a passenger, even at extra-legal speeds (aka the flow of traffic). In no way did it make me miss any of my past BMWs (R100CS, K75s, R1100RT). I did wave to a few BMWs today, but the most memorable wave was to the rider of a red Moto Guzzi V85. You got me thinking back to the 1980s... I was on a 1985 Yamaha FJ1100. That was the fastest damn thing I had ever ridden at the time. I went back to look up the specs. It had *only* 125 horsepower. Maybe memories change things, but those must have been some buff ponies.

Having ridden & owned both, Japanese & Italian motorcycles, it boils down to character. Guzzi’s IMO look great and rumble and emit soul every time you ride. My dad bought a 2018 Kawasaki Z900RS in metallic Candy tone Brown/Orange, it sparkled in the sun light. Was set up for torque so only 110HP, making it a very street-able rider. The stainless 4-1 exhaust, wheels, and overall fit and finish was excellent. He traded at the KY Guzzi rally w Carl (Gateway) for a brand new Blue 23 V7 Special. Also beautiful, oozing w Guzzi character that he doesn’t ride due to the transmission, full of um…character, I.e. clunky 1st to 2nd upshifts, which must have been assembled on a Friday. I would own both bikes and be happy, even dad’s V7 with transmission issues, but I think the guy in the video likes the distinctly smooth running, Japanese made, um… character-less Z900RS.

I drew up the first diagram to help me understand my own bike, the second to follow what's being discussed in these threads. Both are based on Carl A schematics. I find them helpful, others may not.

Or the "ideal" spring/mineral water. A neighbor, who learned his wine making craft from his German (US immigrant) grandfather, was determined to use only natural (mineralized) spring water from a local source. The natural minerals are interactive with the processes while distilled water is more inert. Yes, they might scale, but the flavor can be enhanced.

And what doesn't get mentioned in all of this is your water supply. Perhaps a little more important for a good cup of tea, but also for good coffee. If the water is not good (too hard, too much chlorine, whatever...) the product wont be good. I remember a job I did in the first couple of years in Germany. I'm talking about tea here, but the point applies. The job was here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/240059372#map=16/46.87158/11.02950 altitude just over 1900 metres. So we are talking about "pure mountain water". Up to that point I had been a little frustrated with my attempts to make a good cup of tea in Munich, and then the caterer there served a cup of tea that was absolutely fantastic. I'm sure that a commercial caterer wasn't making any great effort in the choice of tea, or the precise preparation. It was just the water. The same applies to coffee. If your water isn't good, you can try what you want, it wont be really good.

That's it. About a year ago, in the process of rationalising getting rid of the GTR 1000 to myself, I did a back-to-back ride over a stretch of road heading north out of Leipzig. The GTR 1000 on the one hand (about 91 hp, 290 kg) and the V35 Imola on the other (something less than 30 hp, around 170 kg). I came to the conclusion that I wasn't using the extra 60 hp on the Kawasaki, even taking the extra weight into consideration. A moderately powered bike, as long as it is fairly light, is enough to have immense amounts of fun.

This reminds me of watching my young son, The Chemist , set up a coffee making station. It looked like (actually was) a lab table: volumetric flask for the exactly correct water volume, calibrated scale to weigh the selectively roasted beans for the precise ratio of coffee to water volume (coffee stoichiometry!), a bur (not blade!) grinder set to a specified "grind"/ surface area , and dial thermometers and a digital timer to assure the most-est/correct-est extraction time and temperature. Fun observation is that the extraction temperature (apparently) must be in Celsius degrees (196ºC) while the ideal point for consumption is divined in degrees Fahrenheit (145ºF, a.k.a. "hot coffee"). I must admit, the boy can brew a mighty good cuppa. Did I say , already?

Finally got to watch the guy's video today before taking mySport out on a beautiful autumn day here. I enjoyed reflecting on his philosophical take on motorcycling while slipping along the creeks and over the ridges.

Coincidentally, this appeared today. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12Bk2czNN7T/

These bikes are like today's cars . You could strip all the badging off all the 4 door cars and could not name three correctly . All the liter bike crotch rockets are the same. And unfortunately that is what sells , along with $3500 worth of space suits , good medical insurance along w long term disability if not funeral policy . YES , they are fun but I can only operate it to about 10% of it's potential .

According to these diagrams , the N light will work with or w/o the relay because the relay's existence has nothing to do w/the light. the light has B+ any time the ign. sw. is "on" and the N switch acts as the ground to turn on the N light !

Studying that Test Point Layout, I am trying to discern if it is the early V11 wiring harness, or the later. They differ. Some aspects of that diagram differ from the wiring diagrams and may be "approximations" for expediency of the Test Point exercise.

As you can tell I am better than (I hope) a chimpanzee !

Until you step down the power ladder you don't realise just how unimportant big power really is. I've said for the last 30 years (after I spent 2 days blasting around the streets of Rome Italy on a hired scooter having and absolute ball) that more than 100hp on a road bike is a total waste and in all probability a handicap to most and a burden to some. The Honda CBR600 was just a perfect road sports bike. Plenty fast enough, reliable, light, but a bit characterless and bland I'll admit. I remember the 80's and 90's when manufacturers were driven by the American obsession with 1/4 mile times and I was riding an 85hp Bevel drive Ducati. The 1/4 mile times and HP figures interested me not a jot and thankfully the 1/4 mile time focus has shifted as has ignoring making a bike light weight. The scooter memories and education fades over the years but the Enfield 650 has brought the "HP perspective" back again. Phil

The thing that strikes me about this video, and so many others, is that the notion of 100 horsepower being something less than fast, is ridiculous to the point of being absurd. My '87 Suzuki GSXR 750 had probably 90 horsepower, and ridden to it's limit *on track* was terrifying. So the remaining 110 horsepower of todays superbikes is simply wishful thinking and posturing under the pants-covered ego of anyone riding them on public roads. It's not so much about downsizing your bike, it's about downsizing your presentation and focusing on your personal reward from riding. My Aermacchi 350, at ...um... maybe 35 horsepower, is the most fun to ride in my entire garage. No, it won't go cross-country comfortably. No, it won't handle 90mph sweepers like a locomotive. (yet) No, it won't power wheelie, it has no brakes, and no, it isn't reliable enough that I take it any farther than I want to Uber back to my motorcycle trailer. (Yet) But it is the most smiles per mile, because it *never* cuts into my fun by being too heavy, or too thirsty, or too pretty with impossible to find parts to worry about crashing off of it. This is why it's on my keepers list. There's a huge fun reward in driving a motorcycle to it's limits, and when those limits are attainable (and exceedable, be careful) on public roads without breaking many if any laws those rewards come with little or no consequences.

Be sure to lube the tip, feeler, and arm before you feel 'er gauge.

Well, as the saying goes, to each, his own... I rode Japanese bikes until they stop making two strokes engines. Personally, the two strokes had something that four strokes never offered. But let us not go there, because two strokes are just a thing of the past, and if you never had one, then all the discussion would remain opaque. If we go past the early Guzzi models, once they got that distinctive engine architecture, they never deviated from it. You will always know its a Guzzi because it has that powertrain look unmissable. The same could have been said about BMW and their flat twin, but they have also added water to their wine. Most of the other brands always were eclectic in what they chose to power their creations. Honda being the best example. I think they have just about built any possible engine architecture during the years, including a Guzzi copy in the CX. I thought Ducati would have stuck to the L shape engines, with the desmodromic distribution, but this year, they have also started one with conventional distribution. Yesterday, I looked at a Suzuki SV 650 on the one hand, and a Suzuki 9S on the other. However, today, the engine architecture that prevails everywhere, is the vertical parallel twin. This powertrain is now everywhere, including on the Chinese brands. There are some exceptions; Indian and HD are still sticking to the past. I don't know where we are heading, but I am going to keep with what I feel corresponds to what I think a motorcycle should be. I am most likely obsolete, but when I look at that Suzuki 9S, I see nothing that I wish I had.

I know, right? when you have a Guzzi, you can't go riding a Kawasaki. It's a complete different phillosophy. I think a Guzzi incarnates exactly his thought process. The 900 RS is a modern copy of the Z1, and it does not fit there. I feel it is an anachronism. Now, it is just my personal opinion, and he may not exactly feel the way i do.

Well , I found this by searching "test point layout" and found it in a 2010 post of Kiwi_Roy's diagram . As you can tell I put it up here and nothing happens ! Anyone else want to improve and open this go ahead on !

https://www.v11lemans.com/forums/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=11659

This is my new grinder a Gaggia MDF 55. It's a decent grinder apparently for the lower middle price point. I was going to keep using my older machines but I never use my FF points and there was an offer on it so I bought it on FF points otherwise I probably would have researched the crap out of it and ended up spending double. I mean I did research it of course and it came up as lets say "pretty decent" even after the testing guy got the results from the particle analyser he has and the real coffee nutters buy and use for getting the grinds right. When it gets to the particle analyser stage I'm out. I love a good shot of coffee but I already have a few obsessions and I don't need anymore. Same as home roasting, interesting but too far down the rabbit hole for me. Neither of these things come on line until Christmas day as they are our presents to each other. I know he's a bit annoying to listen to but who isn't on YouTube and the info is decent.

The stuff of late night SpineRaid banter . . .

Looks like this: although, if they haven't done it already, it will probably in the near future have Charlie on it instead of Betty.

@p6x : regarding having chose the wrong brand, listen (again) carefully at around 5:03 where he says "or my Moto Guzzi Griso"... As far as the philosophy goes, yes, he hit the nail on the head. I too have experienced the value of a bike with "no power". My V35 Imola. The handling is good for its age. The motor claims to make about 30 h.p., but probably doesn't really do even that. That bike fits perfectly to what he said about "thrashing the bike without getting too far into illegal". Fantastic. And it is beautiful into the bargain. I don't need to tell anyone here about the joys of the V11, I expect. Still, it is "too fast" for public roads, actually. It seems to be happy about 140 km/h, and that is 40 more than legal, and definitely fast enough to get into trouble a bit too quickly. Still, even though it has lots of issues to be fixed, I'll be keeping it. The one that surprised me is the Breva 750 i.e. . I'm still not quite sure about the looks. The seating position is too upright for my taste, and it will get some clip-ons at some point because of that. Despite that, the thing is really good fun to ride. Moderate in all things, but just nice.

I am as appreciative of perfected high technology, over-engineering, as I am of simplicity. These things are beautiful and ridiculous. I would love to have them, but hardly anyone else would see them and I'm certain that having that Italian beauty make me a moka Cuban would suffice.

I know the thread is about espresso, actually, and I've been writing about coffee with milk in it. The espresso it still the point. If that's not good, the flat white wont be either. So anyway, these are, in my humble opinion, the fundamental requirements around which a good breakfast can be constructed.

So between the grinder and personal espresso machine, I'm $10,000 in? That's insanity. I suppose if my income had 2 more zeros, I'd probably go insane. And hire a live-in Italian baristina to operate it for me.

My StreetFighter outside Black Raven Brewing here in Seattle. One of the hundreds of extremely good breweries in the Pacific North West.

Can you explain the theory of operation and the procedure ?

I submit, once again, there is nowhere else in the world a group of friends could have this much fun with Valve Clearances. Reminds me of this girl I dated in college that was kind of a walking, talking feeler gauge.

I was getting to know my K1200rs on my first spirited ride with it and fellow vacationers on the beautiful stream-side roads in North Carolina one fall day. Flat, but pretty twisty, 60ish mph +/- and I was at the tail of a 6 rider line. I thought I was doing pretty well keeping up with more seasoned sport riders. I was surprised when out of nowhere I was passed (with extreme prejudice) by 3 loud single cyl motards with riders standing on the pegs as they swept and in and out and passed us all. I recall thinking "I should re-evaluate my priorities maybe"

I still miss my DRZ400SM. I even had a dirt set of wheels / tires for it, along with a big bore kit and card. It was a hoot.

No way , why did you get rid of something that perfect ? I had a K100RS and still regret my decision to let it go ! It was the most neutral bike I ever owned.

Pleasant video. I couldn't tell if he is thinking of downsizing from or to the Zed. Or if his concern is physical size or power. Maybe both.? I've been downsizing ever since a gust of wind blew over my precariously parked 600lb K1200RS. The Guzzi is now my only remaining weighty vice. Only 450lb or (much) less weight bikes are my future. The new Triumph Scrambler 400 X has my attention. I like the Enfields. My most insanely fun bike was a DRZ 400SM. I thought it might kill me so I sold it.

It appears to be. I didn't step in to phone anyone having no quid in hand to pay the call (I am, honestly, quite vague on what a "quid" is, but it is fun to say. ) A terrific gathering place in the unlikely place that is the town square of Gainesboro, Tennessee . . . https://www.bullandthistle.com/

Nah, I’m fully aware that Piaggio/Guzzi aren’t going to be making bikes for me. I pretty much lost interest, apart from a morbid technical interest, after the CARC series. That’s fine. I’m also a heretic because I think they should bulldoze the shitty, rat infested factory and move to a green-field site. Everyone hates me for that as well. Below there is a picture of the precise number of shits I have to give….

There are other differences. I don’t think the V7-III and onwards have the semi-dry sump arrangement of the V85 although they all have the ‘Built in’ windage plate. From about 2021 the V7 series have a pressed up crank with one piece rods but they also adopted the roller tappets as used on the V85. From 2024/5 the V7 series also have variable cam timing. I have no idea of the details. Presumably some form of centrifugal advance mechanism. V100 is essentially a ‘Generic’ Piaggio big twin turned sideways with the gearbox on the side rather than underneath.

Bottom line, just don't be a @#$$#!. If you're gonna be a pecker, I'll have stay up late and moderate your pecker-ism. Gladly, we just don't have that here with this community of gentlemen. A decorum I am ever thankful for.

So the forum software doesn't like that, because it is obviously not appropriate to talk about male body parts in vernacular. Starts with "D", and ends in "ick". And it is the most common nickname for people named Richard. Let's try, for the sake of equality, boobs, or pussy. Edit: Hmmm.... 'notheredit: I'm in for the valve clearances.

"It Takes a Lot of Medicine to Go This Fast " . . . . So, @MacMcMacmac, can you get the Sport out for a ride? That Tango might just seal the deal . . . [edit: oh, yes, yes, we are a "technical" forum. Once we get past the passion and unbridled enthusiasm. "Let's ask the other inmates on the ward if I should bring this orphan V11 Sport home " . . . ]

Y'all know "It Takes a Lot of Medicine to Go This Fast " . . . (skip to 2:14 for the horn solo)

I remember seeing Hendrix live on Cavett. As well as Janis, Lennon, Jefferson Airplane. His band was led by Bobby Rosengarden. The show's theme was "Candide". Cavett perhaps educated me as a young teen as much as any news, lit or humanity study I ever had. There were some nasty feuds as well, like Mailer and Vidal. I recommend Gore Vidal's US History Series (aka "Narratives of Empire"). My favorites were "Lincoln" and "Empire". Chronologically, the series begins with "Burr".

Yep, great food at Bonge's. I've ridden by, but the times I've eaten there ( a long time ago), cars were necessary to drag our bloated carcasses home. I used to work with Tony, the original (reconstruction) owner and chef. Tailgating is encouraged!