ferguzzi

Well at least next year should be interesting. let's see... A woman. not a bad thing, but that's probably what they said about Thatcher... A black man. Great idea, although I think he's one of the whiter black men I 've ever seen... An ex Fighter jock. From a professional point of view I'm all for that, but he'll be like 93 when he gets in office ,won't he? Please don't just vote in another Bush! pretty please...

Frankly, I don't care. I saw a koala last night. And the sun is shining. This oz place isn't so bad. Beer's shite, though.

It just takes a bit of judicious sawing. Easy to do. Looks alright, I originally got it to so the mrs. would have something to hang on to, but she can't actually get a good grip with a gloved hand. Still kept it on ,though. No photo's I'm afraid, I'm er, in Australia...dunno why, really.

Jeez, that sounds awful. You and the bike. I wonder if there's some mystical correlation between our health and that of our bikes? (cue philisophical comment from Belfast.....)!

It's right beside ducati dublin, in fact it's the same building, so you're in luck. And wait a minute, last I checked you were in Drogheda or Dundalk, or some other God forsaken, misplaced- from-civilisation, dunghole? Don't tell me you've joined us celubrious, urbanite, cosmopolitan Dublinese? (like a moca chocca latee with that?). Or maybe just a flake.

Bloody leftist kerrymen commie types......

I won't make it on the day I'm afraid,as I'll be on holidays down under. My God, 2 V11s in the same city! We could form a club!

There's an argument that this should be in the dealers section, but up to now, we Irish haven't had a dealer, so it's not a section we normally frequent. On The 10 March is the grand opening of Moto Guzzi Dublin. It's going to be run by the nice people at Ducati Dublin, on the long mile road. They were asked by Piaggio if they'd do a dedicated store for guzzi's, and Aprilias, and they agreed. I can't help feeling that the new bikes are just so good they feel they can really compete with the mainstreamers, ie ducati and bmw, and the fact that guzzi are selling their bikes in Ireland for the first time since before Noah was a boy has got to be a good thing. I was down there the other day, and they're still getting set up, but they had a few brevas,grisos and a norge, and 2 of the engineers are in Mandello as I speak, learning the ropes,(good luck!) so they'll be able to begin servicing in a few weeks. If the service in general is as good as it has been with the ducati side of things then we're in luck, because I've only heard good things about them. It's the first time I've seen some of those newer bikes in the flesh up close. That Griso is very cute, cooler then a ducati monster any day of the week. Even the norge looked good up close, but I think it'd have to be red. Or maybe black. Good times!

I've flown over it 3 times in daylight in the last month, bad timing I'm afraid as I won't be in that neck of the woodsfor another 2 months or so ,so I can't get a few photos. Mind you ,all you can see from 35000 ft at the moment is snow, snow,snow....

Jeez,I didn't even notice that!

Yo BFG! Is you a hip hop fan too? Small world!

I took the tenni out for a quick burn over Howth head and back. It took all of 30 minutes, and was my first spin on it for too long. I fell in love all over again.

A few people showed an interest in these things so thought I'd add a bit. They are typically made of Blackthorn, and about 18 inches long. The idea was they were easily concealable, as it was illegal for the irish(catholic) peasantry to carry a weapon while the penal laws were in force ie 17 and 18 century. there's about 4 different ways of spelling it because it's an english bastardation of the Irish words, SAIL EILLE. Sail means cudgel and eille means elyptical. (or so my Dad reckons, my Irish being nowhere near as good as his). Apart from beating up the odd English man, they would have been used in faction fighting, where a team from one landlord would try to beat the shit out of another's team. Who knows why, but I'd say they could do serious damage. There's actually a village in county Wicklow, on the east coast just south of Dublin, and it's named after it, called Shilellagh, and even they seem to be unsure whether there's 2or 3 "l"s in the spelling. They're easy enough to get hold of, any diddly eye tourist shop here would have a few, and I'd be amazed if you couldn't get one on the net. I think they even sell them in the duty frees at the airports. There endeth the lesson!

I think that's the first time an Irishman's ever been called puritanical! Didn't you know everyone on this island is a catholic. Yes,it's true, every sunday Me, BFG, BigJ and all the others toddle off to mass for altarboy service. BigJ looks particularly attractive. Not to labour the point Todd(God forbid!), It's not that I can avoid reading a thread on assault rifles, It's that it brings the tone and flavour of the website down to a level that I, and quite a few others, find objectionable! You obviusly didn't get that the first, or second time I said it. I'm guessing you might be a bit deaf from firing your RPG too close to your ear. Anyway, you're all boring me now, I'm off to LA to try and avoid being shot at by one of your patriotic compatriots.

I understand the point about mechanical efficiency of any kind, and a person's admiration for it, I just think a grenade is pushing it a bit far. Atom bombs are amazing pieces of kit, but I'd find it disconcerting to read here how wonderful they are. I've flown airliners now for almost 20 years, and a constant question in one of those silly pschosymetric tests we constantly get asked is" what would you prefer, a well oiled gun, or a well written poem?". Now, not to sound like a homicidal twit with a facination for weapons(because people like their pilots boringly sane), you might reply the poem. But I, and most of my colleagues would be lying because it's in our nature to enjoy something mechanical that works well, like a guzzi(?!), it doesn't matter what it's purpose. And of course it's the correct answer. This is a long way from boasting about your 9mm penile extension that is just the thing to survive suburban Iowa, or wherevever. This is infantile, I find it offensive, and like I said, I'm not the only one. I know there are more "Out there" websites then this, but I don't choose to visit them, so I don't like it when it visits this particular inner sanctum of mine. And yes, this is a wide and varied website, which I love, but no we don't talk about everything, and there are reasons for this. If I started talking about how how cute my twelve year old nephew looked having his bath today, I'd be taken apart in no time, and for good reason. It's in bad taste, and has no place on this website. Neither do assault rifles. A little less extreme, but if I started talking about how much I enjoy sucking c**k, How long before the complaints rained in? I know Jaap is dutch, but I don't think even he'd be that tolerant. And yet it's not illegal, people do it all the time, and we even have a thread on boobies here, but oddly enough there's been nary a complaint about that. The point is , it would be offensive to a lot of people, so it's one of those things that isn't mentioned at any length on this website. So, in my opinion, should be weapons of warfare. The facination with knives I don't really care about. I don't understand it, but it's not exactly in the same league as discussing the kill rate of a steyr aug. This thread started with Alex in a really crap situation with his neighbours. We've gone way off topic. Lastly, with regard to Beauphonium upcoming trip back to Irakistan, any of the USMC guys I've had the fortune to work with have been intelligent level headed people who took their jobs seriously, and I'm sure Beau's no exception. Make sure you get home safe to your family, and your guzzi, and if it means using every single weapon at your disposal to do so, there are few people better trained than you to do just that.

"Grenades are a thing of beauty". I'm a little lost for words. The crass stupidity/naiivity of this forum with regard to weapons is really starting to piss me off. As an ex army marksman, I'm fairly well aware of what most of the above weapons were designed for. They're not toys. If you think they are, then you've probably not seen the result of their main purpose up close. i.e. to Kill people. I use this website as a way of learning about my lovely motorcycle, getting a little humour, hearing opinions and listening to intelligent comments from people all over the world who generally,it seems, have cohesive and sometime controversial things to say about the most widespread of topics. But I draw the line about how beautiful a granade is. I don't care how useful one is in combat, so is a cluster bomb dropped from a tornado, but I'm not going to sing it's praises because I've seen what it does to flesh. These kind of comments, in my opinion, don't have a place on a forum like this, although I'm sure there are ones where they are approprate, I'm just not going to read them. I find such comments highly offensive, and I'm not the only one. This is a motorcycle forum. Not a weapons forum. Why don't some of you indulge us peacenik pinkos and take the gun conversations elsewhere. Otherwise I'll have to stop using this website, and I don't think that's fair, because I take a lot of enjoyment from my motorcyle, and those who feel the same way. Fergal.

The shitty thing is, if you do use one of those, the chances are you'll go down for a veeery long time. Plus, assholes always have friends with bigger knives/guns. Take care.

I was told once when it comes to helmet quality, it begins and ends with Arai, hence they tend to be the most expensive. Having said that, it's got to fit you comfortably, or it a waste of time.

Nil fhios agam, a Chara!

I ask -- in all seriousness, because I am an ingorant American and just don't know -- I don't think just because you're american makes you ignorant. That would be racist. Not sure what would define you as ingorant, though....... (sorry, couldn't resist)

Actually, I'm still trying to figure out what the topic is. The line between sarcasm and surrealism is getting a little blurred.

Now that is bizarre, I never noticed that. Funny the things you learn...

It looks a bit like Dubai, or one of the other UAE's. "Well, we've got loads of money, let's make an indoor snow slope in the desert. No, we've done that, ok ,lets build another road to ,ah,nowhere".

I always liked the st, and very nearly bought one, to replace my t bird. But I couldn't make up my mind with regard to the Duke st4s. Then I went to Florence for a dirty weekend and visited a Guzzi dealer. Well, guess what I got instead....

Better not tell my better half, then. How big is the pillion again?! Oh well, I'll be over in September for a couple of weeks. At least I'll be able to get the corvair out of hibernation then. Come to think of it, Helicopterjim, I think I'd have preferred a spin in your huey!