Leaderboard

My little tart-of-a-roadster has been at my specialist shop for ten weeks. With these beautiful spring days, I miss her spritely ways she cheers me up on the lovely backroads and winding country lanes. The wife said, "Why don't you just sell it ?" It's okay, I still love her. The wife? Yeah, keeping her, too.

APRIL, 2025 - MPH Cycles is accepting bikes " BY APPOINTMENT ONLY " for service and repair at our new location in Hempstead Tx. Email: mike@mphcycles.com

@activpop, the shipping might be more than i'm looking to spend...

Just to to complete the confusion, today she fired right up with the sidestand down like Phil said. Hmmm, will see. Cheers Tom. Sent fra min SM-S906B via Tapatalk

Besides riding a motorcycle, diving was one of my favorite hobby. I did a lot of diving in the Red Sea, Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian ocean... Renting the tanks, filling the tanks, depending where you dive, can quickly become expensive. My "deep dives" are now behind me, and there are plenty of places where you don't need to go dark to enjoy the dives. If you like diving, I found this company, based in Australia, that proposes equipment that avoid the tanks; https://airbuddy.com/

The obvious difference is that an unskilled, unfocused diver may cause harm to himself only. An unskilled, unfocused driver may cause harm to himself and others.

In particular I need the mounting bracket. Item 2 on the drawing. I'll take the whole assembly as well.

other "air" in the tanks. rather than the usual nitrogen/oxygen/other mix, its a different concoction of gases to achieve certain things, like to avoid nitrogen narcosis at deep depths, or nitrox to allow for different dive times, etc.

Yeah, we will know soon enough. Bagnaia has his own history of making mistakes like that. But he has mostly learned his lesson, that is why he has two titles. But at the level they are riding at everyone makes at least some mistakes. You just can't go as fast as they do and not make at least the occasional mistake. The question this year likely will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes, more then who is the fastest. It should be fun to watch it unfold.

I do not disagree with your statement. He may have wanted to hammer in a statement to Bagnaia, he has had lots of experience when he was battling with Rossi, psychological warfare is unfortunately very important too, whether you think you are immune to it, or not. This is where the Valentino mentoring will help Francesco Bagnaia. While Bagnaia is possibly not as strong as Marquez in this department, he has the "Italian family" around him, which is something you have to live to understand. It is a bit patriarchal, but once you get it, you appreciate it. I lived for months with a Sicilian family, and felt adopted. Not anything I ever experienced with my own family. Anyway, Qatar is being built up in the same manner as the three first GPs, by putting Marquez at a disadvantage. He finished fourth last year, on a GP23 which was said to be really inferior to the GP24. We will know soon enough.

Go up there and ride it down. It's less than Melbourne to Brisbane.

@fastaussie I can do that, but they will have a bike attached to them.

Yes to both points. I'm not that big, neither vertically nor horizontally. About 175 cm, and about 65 kg. Duckdiving the first two metres or so is an effort, after that I'm more or less neutral. All the diving I did was in Port Phillip bay, Wilson's Promontory, and somewhere on the lower east coast of Australia. Water temperature between 16 and 18°c, so 7mm wet-suit, bouancy vest and weights. I can imagine that, even in tropical waters, maybe a 3mm suit would be good, although I heard from diving colleagues that one can dive the Great Barrier Reef in a lycra suit. Whatever, weights might help, maybe only one, and maybe a suit. I had a slightly nasty experience during a holiday on Sardinia. Diving without a snorkel but with fins, I went down, down a bit more, saw something interesting and down a bit more, then realised I needed to breathe soon. I had "forgotten" that I wasn't scuba diving, and went too deep. I only just made it back up before the urge to breathe became uncontrollable.

Good point. Though when staying submerged even in most tropical waters, the energy gets sapped fast to where i can get cold. But that’s where scuba diving, where slow and easy movements are name of the game, whereas with no weight belt with snuba I’ll bet the extra work to control buoyancy would keep the blood pumping more, and be warmer.

He absolutely did loose it by going over the curb on the inside. But that was because he couldn't keep his bike on the actual line. He ran wide out of the previous corner, being a "left, right, left sort of corner that means being wide out of the previous corner meant he was actually way too tight going in to the corner he crashed in. That put him way over the curbing on the inside. He had numerous slides and it was clear he was pushing hard. Running wide and offline like he did was simply what that led to. The racer that followed his brother around all race saving his tires and keeping his powder dry was not the racer we saw at COTA. He was trying to make a point. That sort of victory was not going to cut it at one of "his tracks".

I don’t want to derail activepops thread here, but to indulge just a little more…. where’d you find tire irons with the axle nut wrenches on the ends for the husky? great idea… two large-ish tools combined into one. love that idea. Update: quick google search reveals lots of options… imagine that. It’s now dark and rainy, so i’ll get out tomrrow and check those axle nut sizes. my 501 I use on road as well, connecting sections of off-road, or to get home on all tarmac after days of going 1 direction off road, so i haven’t gone down the tubliss path, though i was going to on my former “all dirt” bike. I’m toying with a handlebar mount tool bag now for the 501, and a frame mounted tube for tire irons. problem on the 501 is lack of rear subframe to attach that tool cylinder. I used the slime product for years in mexico on our ATV’s, and basically 3/4 of the time it was all that was needed. seems like more often on the off-road 2-wheelers the flats can be more problematic and not sufficed with slime, mostly because it tends to only work well with the tubeless setups.

Had my first ride of year on 2004 Ballabio after completing my 20 year (approx 25,000 km ) maintenance visit. With all the work done, new tires, all callipers & master cylinders rebuilt, new brake pads, all new engine sensors, complete “Decent Tune Up”, including plugs, air filter, etc., Roper Plate installed, drive shaft removed and greased, etc. it is just like it came out of the showroom in 2004. Good for another 20 yrs/ 25,000 km. Not sure I am! What a pleasure to ride.

I, too, have a wonderful wife who indulges my Mandello Syndrome. Don't want to mess that up by using the word "lust" here, but that sure fits my (continuing) yearning for a Rosso Corsa. I happened to be in an Atlanta dealer c. 2004 looking at one in their showroom window. As I drooled, a truck pulled up. loaded it, and took it to https://www.barbermuseum.org where, at least, I and others can look longingly at it. About the only "cheesecake" in my Moto Grappa is this ... I do, however, disagree, Andy, with your assessment about Moto Guzzi "soul" vis a' vis the V85. Aside from having, as do you, a saintly wife, I, too, own an "Oreo Guard." My V11, a Ballabio ... ... left my Moto Grappa, actually, even earlier, the Moto Grappa's beloved Atlanta predecessor, the GarageMahalo ... It makes me smile to think of it. With those Mistral cans, it made riding along water courses on backroads, inside tight, palisaded valley walls an absolute aural, and near-spiritual delight. It's why we ride motorcycles and Moto Guzzis, in particular. But, ah, the Guardia. When I first saw a V85, I found its "beak" and other Jurassic Park looks off-putting. I still am not at complete peace with that. Yet, overall -- after owning seven new Guzzis and ridden at least a dozen more from several Loops, two Nuovo Falcones, lots of Tontis, a Centauro, my own and others' Spines, and (ditto) Carcs, including several Spine LeMans variants, I think the V85 has 100% Mandello DNA, and ever bit as much of that elusive "soul" -- but, as did the SCOTUS justice, Potter Stewart, with pornography, we know when we see it. It is -- again, IMO, i.e., YMMV -- quirky beyond its gawky looks. Power? No, not the raw grunt of my Griso, or visceral joy of my Ballabio. Still, way enough for me; youngsters in years and personality may disagree. Comfort for long multi-day rides? Best of any motorcycle I've ever ridden. Better than my Norge -- minus weather protection. OK, wait; I did ride a 2003 Goldwing for some miles once. It wins. Go anywhere, even off-pavement? Except with my spunky little "Let's go!" Stornello, I am rarely on gravel, and never (Intentionally) with my EV or V85, on dirt, dual-track, or worse, but I get there more often than I want by following my GPS instead of tempering that with common sense. Handling? I find the V85 composed, willing, and certainly more capable than I am to take on the tight stuff at speed. I rode two V85's -- a '22 & a '25 -- in Corsica and Sardinia last fall. The pace was way faster than I like to ride on technical and unforgiving roads, but the V85's just said "Hang on!" and I did. Overall, it's Best in (My) Show ... [For C&W connoisseurs, in the second pic, that's Patsy Cline's first home on Back Creek Road near Gore, Virginia. ] Enough, with apologies for droning on, but I needed to help Andy understand that he was wrong. Seriously, how blessed we all are to ride this remarkable marque. Whichever Guzzi I am riding at the moment is my favorite. That is a great reminder that I need to get the V85 off of the lift ... ...and road ready for a jaunt to see the grands and then house- (and dog, cat, & gerbil!) sit in N.C. next month, followed by the Mutton Run to Kentucky and Catfish Crawl in the Ozarks. Retirement: best job I've ever had. Ciao! Bill

The Griso is a more acquired taste riding wise. Styling wise, it's a beauty, but it took me a while to "bond" with the bike, after doing the right ergonomic modifications, it became a wonderful fit. The Scura, straight out of the gate, both stylistically and ergonomically was perfect.