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I went with the shop Lucky Phil posted a link to above. They have a cover with no seams or piping that appears to be a good match for the original for 100 Euros. With shipping from France to Texas it all translated to about $142.00. I'll post pictures when it's on the bike. Thanks again for the assistance!

We've been at this SSR business for "a while" now. . . . SSR III/ 2007 . . .

"Heh - pretty sure we're all outliers here . . . " Sorry , I guess I am the real "outlier" here ( I guess I am here?)....I love my 2025 e-5+. V-85 I did around 3k miles on my friends 2020 V-85 with full bags in about 14 days this summer mostly in the Alps, , Stelvio, Timmelsjoch, and all over the Dolomites, Switzerland, Austria..St Moritz to Mandello and back down to Milano, to and then down to Rimini ..The days in the Alps I was riding with with a couple of guys from Rome , long time riders who who can ride their Ass off..one on a new 2024 1300 BMW and the other on a new 2024 1300 Ducati...Sure they could blast away from me on long straights..but in the Alps switchbacks they had nothing on the V-85. Milano to Rimini we rode 145-150 kph most of the way on the expressway in 35+ C heat and it never missed a beat..and was comfortable..400 km per tank. All you gotta do is stay busy with the shifter and keep it in the 4000..5500 rpm range. No complaints from me.

Touche. The 1st gen V85tt's had issues that caused concern for some. They've improved a bit since, but ultimately what they've improved likely won't matter much if it's not the style a guy likes. I've noted before on this forum in a couple postings here and there how I had little if any interest in the V85tt, till i was "forced" to rent it when Agostini's sent out the V100 I had set up to demo just before i got there, despite saying they'd hold it... cheeky. Anyway, ended up on a truly ugly v85 (well, its my least favorite color, but to each his own) for a few days, riding the great roads to the north and east of Mandello. Perhaps in part because I figured i'd hate it, and I can be a bit of annoying contrarian, I ended up really liking it. so I bought one. Oh, and didn't hurt that a guy was desparate to unload one in my preferred coloring and with almost no miles when i checked last winter. From my angle its not a bike that I can break down into why I like it, I just do. My oldest guzzi friends, the ones deep into guzzi for decades, they both have a V85 as their go-to bike. It's probably a little bit of laziness. for instance, I'll admit that I was looking forward to riding one of the V11's to John Day this year, but as the day got closer I gradually gave in to the dark side, yielding to my laziness: the V85 has big hard cases, great wind screen, great fuel econ + long range, and despite some pretty mediocre (at best) suspension it handles surprisingly well, and i'll say "enjoyably"... whatever that means in the way of suspension. Felt guilty leaving the V11's at home, but damn that V85 is nice for touring, with the bonus being that it also allows for some gravel/dirt road touring.

I have not seen the video Pete is referring, but I really do not think Dylan is the same guy. Throttle Co. is local to me and I have been there a number of times. I have had service performed there and my father in law bought his Royal Enfield from them. Dylan, his dad, and Nicole started as sellers of vintage bikes mainly from the 70s and 80s and grew into a Royal Enfield and then Moto Guzzi dealer. They are a really good dealer to have around as they do a lot to spark interest and inclusivity in the motorcycling community. They host weekly bike nights (Fridays), promote other venue's bike nights, host weekly bike mornings with free coffee and donuts (Saturdays), host regular larger bike rides including camping trips, and have fostered an all female local riding club called the Lolitas. Many of the rides they organize are beginner friendly. During the winter months they also host monthly 'moto movie madness' nights, where they set up a projector and show a bike related movie and provide snacks. All at no charge. As said, it would be very surprising to learn that Dylan was going on and on about Christianity in a video. https://throttlecompany.com/?v=2ecd53e541df

Here's a thought. Modern CEO's and boards are focused on value to the shareholder and fight the employees over every 2 cents and benefits to reduce costs. When times and business gets tough as it inevitable will for long term companies the first group to jump ship and leave are the shareholders and who's needed the most in those times? The Employees that's who. There's zero loyalty from 99% of shareholders. Value your people for it's them the business will need in the long term to ride out the peaks and troughs should be the mantra for modern executive management.

Heh - pretty sure we're all outliers here . . . Let's ask the other inmates on the ward if a hairy-chested V11 SpineFrame (that the rider keeps a voltmeter in his pocket and a spare shift spring in his boot) is the best of worlds . . .

I rode a very early V85 and hated it. A truly lacklustre motorbike that didn’t excel at anything with shitty suspension and an uninspiring engine. I haven’t ridden a €5 model yet and they are supposed to be better. Lots of people love them though and they, along with the V7 series, have been the backbone of the company for yonks so I guess I’m an outlier in that regard.

Way off topic, I know, but.... I heard some years ago that about 60% of the literature in the entire world about tax laws deals with German tax laws. There have been some attempts to simplifiy the tax laws, but there is a profession called "Steuerberater" (tax advisor) which is very well organised, and doesn't want the laws to get simpler.

Good , when you get ready , we will talk about the start relay being a "load shedding" relay .

Nah , they are as fast as ice floes on keeping abreast of technology.

I'm w/ya brother ! I am a believer and I don't jump on people about it or w/it . I know what I've got and if you're interested I will tell you what I know . If not we're cool . Also , if it escalates , I'm out , I'm not gonna argue about it.

Nothing wrong with the door Bill and as I said it may not be the same bloke. His faith is no concern of mine either, BUT! I am always deeply distrustful though of people who wield their religious beliefs like a cudgel and try to somehow imply they are ‘Better’ or more trustworthy/meritorious than others because of them. I don’t bang on about my beliefs or lack of them because they are of no relevance to anyone but me. I know you are deeply devout and my criticism was not aimed at people of faith, any faith, just those who seek kudos by wearing their proffered belief as a cloak of virtue.

My general thoughts on rebound dampening is I want just enough to control the rebound action of the spring and no more. I tend to either start with too little and add it until it feels like it is under control, or you can go the other way and have too much and keep reducing it until you start to feel loose, then add a couple clicks back. You can even get a decent starting point by bouncing the suspension statically, for a starting point you can bounce the suspension and add or subtract rebound to where when you bounce down on the suspension it rebounds back fully but does not overshoot. If it overshoots on the up swing and then settles back to ride height I probably don't have enough rebound dampening. But I don't want much more then what is required to prevent that overshoot. If you do bounce it to see what you have, be sure to do so with you on the bike. You can even sit on the bike while someone else bounces it. My own tastes run to minimal compression and rebound dampening, just enough to control the springs, with springs on the firmer side. I prefer to let the springs support the weight, and I just want enough dampening to control the springs. I tend to prefer starting with too little dampening and add dampening until it is under control. But you can certainly start at the other end and reduce dampening until you find that sweet spot as well.

I have a "theory" on this sort of thing. The original manufacturer contracts to Chinese/Indian/south east Asian company to make X amount of product and they supply X amount of items then keep the production line rolling and make some for "mother" and sell them themselves. You know 10 for you and 1 for us. Either that or they don't discard the "seconds and out of spec items" and do the same. Zero proof of this just something "I feel in my water" so to speak. An educated person would refer to it as Intuition I think. Phil

A good friend of mine had a Fiat Dino that he restored from junk. It was a great car when he was done, very pretty to look at and huge fun to drive. His was a convertible.

I did not hear about trying to use the subscription based features model for KTM. That would be a deal breaker for me. I can understand how some people would like that option, to only pay for features when they need them and cancel them at other times. But I don't need that. All I see it as is a way for them to milk more money out of me. If I am buying something, I expect that it is mine after I buy it. If it is not, I will not buy it. Maybe I am just too old, but I am who I am. As to KTM and Red Bull, KTM is part of one of the largest European motorcycle groups with almost 2 billion a year in revenue (not profits but sales). And Red Bull is even larger, with over 10 billion a year in revenue / sales. All of Red Bulls marketing, including sponsoring the KTM race teams and owning their own Formula One team along with all their adventure sports and whatnot, help them sell 10 billion worth of sugary energy drinks. Red Bull, and KTM, do not make money by racing. They spend money racing to promote what they sell, energy drinks for Red Bull and motorcycles for KTM. And it works, perhaps more so for Red Bull then KTM, as KTM sales did struggle this last couple years it seems. But that may be due to a variety of reasons, including a possible subscription based sales approach along with a gap in their range that they are just now filling. They have also had some well publicized reliability issues with some of the motors, including the mid sized parallel twin (790, 890, 901). And they may not have handled it very well at first, originally denying warranty coverage for these failures if the customer did not have a full dealer service history (meaning, you do your own oil changes and you might be SOL). But they have since correct their attitude, and are even offering reimbursement for people with failures that were originally denied warranty coverage. That is good news, but some damage has already been done to their reputation. You probably can't treat your customers like that and not hurt your reputation. They are also subbing out building of various KTM models, with the build quality ramifications that brings. A number of KTM models are now made elsewhere, including India and China. It may be harder to justify a European price tag on your European motorcycle when it is actually made in India or China. It makes some sense with intro level models, but they are making higher end models in those places as well. I ain't buying a Chinese built motorcycle for a KTM price. But I am old, as mentioned earlier.

"A world become one of salads and sun Only a fool would say that" Steely Dan

Of course it is. Silly question.

Well said @docc. The 350 Guzzis were created to cover a market created by the Italian registration or insurance laws (I don't remember which, exactly). Same as 400 in Japan (motorcycle licence regulations) and 250 in Australia back in the day when I started riding (Learner Permit and Probationary licence). These days, motors have got bigger, and at least some of those criteria don't apply anymore (in Victoria, Australia, it is now a power-to-weight regulation, as far as I know). Even in Europe, where "small capacity" motorcycles is a relatively dynamic market, I think Moto Guzzi is well served catering to the market that buys a V7 850. There is a market for smaller capacity motorcyles, but it is already well served, including products from Korea and China. Moto Guzzi is no longer an "Einzelkämpfer". DeepL.com says that means "Lone Fighter", which is pretty close. It is now part of a large concern with a number of brands, and does not need to try and cover the whole market. Better said, the mother concern would be making serious marketing mistakes in trying to cover the entire market spectrum with each and every brand in its porfolio. So I'm expecting Piaggio to develope the lines that it has been working on for Moto Guzzi for the last, at least, 6 or 7 years, i.e. the V7 range and the V100 range, and probably not make any radical new steps that no-one saw coming.

I found an interesting article that explains it with facts; here's the link: https://motomatters.com/analysis/2024/12/02/ktm_insolvency_and_motogp_what_we_know.html If the information below is correct, KTM owes a total of 2.9 Billion Euros. This is astronomical!

Interesting question. I'd reckon it shouldn't be too hard to scale down the developments in the newer V7 850 engine to a 500 or so, since the V7 850 engine derives from the old V50. Still, I'm not a motor engineer. Maybe it would be harder than I think. A relevant question is, I think, what is available from other brands in the Piaggio group? Not in terms of whether there is an engine somewhere that could be re-badged as a Guzzi, but rather in terms of watering down the brand image. Piaggio seems to be doing "this brand for this, that brand for the other". Have they got a bike somewhere in the 450 range that is doing well, and do they want to tempt buyers away from that brand with a competing Guzzi?

Agreed! Even my Maxi-fuse eventually failed . . .

It is hokey-pokey that they run THE current through a small fuse and poor connection connectors . I think I would use a CB or maxi-fuse in place of this stuff....

That's it in a nutshell....

Any wall painter artist can do it with a photo. I am saying this, because a French bakery in my neighborhood had a mural done, representing Paris rooftop with a few of the Paris landmarks. He worked from photographs. He said he also does some inspirational art. During my Texas travel, I saw plenty of those murals just about everywhere.

I guess I started this thread with the aim of collecting anyone's experiences in playing about with the suspension damping. Before the weather and winter set in here in the UK (it is now dark at 16.00hrs, it is often frosty at night so salt is being spread on the roads and they often remain wet most of the day - not a good combination for a m/c!) Anyway, before this set in I did have on late afternoon ride. I reduced front rebound damping by 2-clicks and there was a slight improvement cornering around slightly bumpy "S" bends. I therefore softened the front by a further 2-clicks anti-clockwise (Ohlins say you shouldn't adjust by more than 2-clicks at a time) and the rear by 2-clicks. The result was a definite improvement without any perception that the ride was any softer or would be any worse on smooth, bends. Perhaps because I had not softened the compression damping. The bike felt more "planted" on the road and whereas I took the bends at 52mph on the original setting it gave me more confidence to take them at about 64 on the 3rd run. I do feel there is some more adjustment to go, but I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by its affect so far.

Surely none of us were in the room, but it sounds like he quit. As I understand it, Tavares main stick was cost cutting. Cost cutting can be needed, but often it hurts more then it helps. This could be a good thing for Stellantis in the long run. Tavares was driving Stellantis into a ditch.

I saw the same thing at the company I retired from. We had this one old time engineer that knew almost everything about one of the businesses I worked for. I enjoyed working with him, learned a lot from him. He could tell you what it would take to fix a line and how much it would cost from the top of his head. I watched all the MBA managers stab him in the back and go over his head because he kept disagreeing with them and proving them wrong. They finally forced him out in a RIF (reduction in force). I retired not long after that. Also, the CEO is a one trick pony, every time the company was going to miss numbers, he would announce another RIF and a bigger stock repurchase, his only concern is Earnings per Share, a total BS measurement...

Stellantis is jettisoning its CEO Carlos Tavares. In case you did not know, Stellantis owns all the following brands: -Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram Trucks, and Vauxhall. Some of these brands are not exported from Europe. Things are not going too well in the mobility departments in Europe. The EEC leaders have maybe contributed to the crisis in enforcing laws to make ICE cars obsolete, when the customers are not ready to move on. NorthVolt, the Suedish company Europe's was betting on to move away from Chinese made batteries has declared bankrupcy, and will also go through a restructuration program. It seems like the entire mobility industry, 2 wheels, 4 wheels is going through changes with unpredictable future. Meanwhile, our V11s are still going strong!

With the awesome assistance of the folks in this site, I seem to have the bike sorted out. A working substitute fuel pump and new relays did the trick Thank you!!

That should be easy to find. I read this statistic some time ago : 70% of all lawyers on Earth live on the N American continent !

Oh, yeah. I worked for GM in the good and bad old days. Bunkie Knudsen was the last "engineer" at the top. Once the bean counters came in it was all over. They never looked more than 90 days down the road..

You know when I started my aviation career the managers were all people that worked their way up in the organisation, knew the detail of everything and when they got to management level they managed to avoid chaos and catastrophes. Then came along "professional manager" you know people with MBA's and business degrees and it all went to hell as they made short term decisions aimed at looking good on their resume. They often had a "throw the deck of cards into the air and see what lands" philosophy because then they could all get together in their MBA club and "crisis manage" the situation they had in fact created. It was truly pathetic to observe. My original managers managed to AVOID a crisis and the new ones managed to help create them so they could look like the guy that rides in and takes charge and "sorts it out". KTM is a classic example of modern management. Covid hits and the market goes on a buying spree and instead of pausing and thinking "this is a blip" lets make hay while the sun shines but not lose sight it's short term, no they react like a "blue sky thinking" muppet and go gang busters ramping up everything on a a short term "bubble" The Aussie wine industry did the same with the Chinese market. They all got on the Chinese gravy train as it pulled out of the station and neglected the other markets because the Chinese market was "going to last forever" but it didn't for political reasons and then they all fell on their arses and wanted the government to help bail them out. It's a very old story and if you want to see a classic version of it read "on a clear day you can see General motors" by John De Loreon. GM used to do similar to their smaller suppliers then swallow them up. I read that book 40 years ago and the lessons are still valid today. Phil

It's easy to forget that India was a very large part of the English Empire and many Indians still think of themselves as part of England, in a way. Many of their leaders, in every realm, were educated in England and these marques are as much a part of their sentimentality as they are ours, actually probably a lot more.