ferguzzi

Howdy all. The spring meet this year is at the South Pole inn, Annescaul, Co. Kerry and there might be a decent turnout. Lovely part of the world, decent roads, good pubs! Details are on the UK Guzzi club site, or just pm me. Cheers, Fergal.

yep, it makes sense, I think. Still not sure what the numbers after the star are, as I'm pretty sure now that they don't relate to the VIN. Or maybe they do??

Howdy all. I'm having issues trying to officially import my 1994 targa into the country from the UK. The local office tried to insist i should have a17 digit vin number, but my uk export certificate only has 2 letters and 5 numbers i.e. LT 12345. This is actually on the downtube of the bike, but then there is a "*", followed by 7 numbers. these 7 numbers aren't written anywhere on the paperwork, and when I contacted the UK licencing people, they insisted the only reference they had to the bike was the LT 12345 number. 2 questions come to mind. 1. when did guzzi start using 17 digits? 2. whats the relevence of the 7 numbers after the "*" ? ps, its always possible they started using the 17 digits in the US before elsewhere....

Talked to Bruno. €235 for me in the Emerald Isle, due VAT. Still a good deal I think. How difficult is it to paint carbon fibre?

V11 tenni '93 750 Targa '81 suzuki katana gsx1100 Probably a stelvio in my future, dunno after that. Maybe I'll stop....

God, my stable keeps getting bigger. It'll be a stelvio next.

Bugger. Fortunately I have a postal address in the states!

That's great work scud, well done. I've been trying to decide on an Xmas pressie for my self. I think we have a winner! I guess the price might be a little lower for delivery in Europe, I'll send an email to find out. And I like the idea of giving b and g some business, they seem to be good guys.

Finally got around to tinkering with the tenni , with the help of a mate, who's a fellow guzzisti, and an auto electrician. So firstly the non charging. Seems during the first starting failure I screwed around with the relays, and put them back incorrectly. It took 2 days, about 5 hours riding for the battery to die, it was just a coincidence it died 5 minutes after the second starter failure . Idiot me. The starter issue is a bit more of a mystery. We went through all the wires, relays and connectors and couldn't find any faults. However.....while the aa were fiddling with the relays to figure out why it wasn't charging, they noticed that one of the earths to the battery wasn't connected . At all. It was just floating in the ether. No idea how, the last time I'd touched it was to replace the battery about 2 years ago. The guys reckoned it could have been earthing off the frame. Who knows? It works fine now, so we'll see....think I'll replace some of the relays anyway.

Getting confused which bloody website knows about this, but if you're on or visiting the emerald isle in the next couple of weeks, the Irish guzzi club (we're not that big really), are having a get together in the beautiful northwest on 22/23 August at the beach bar in Aughris, just south of Sligo. Camping, b&b, beer and much nonsense will ensue. Should be fun! PM me if anyone needs more info..... Fergal.

I'm away at the moment( I travel for a living), so won't get to fiddle with the bike for a few weeks. I'll get back to you when I finally get around to it. I'd love to think just cleaning up a few bits and pieces would sort it out. I think replacing the relays (I've still got the originals) mightn't do any harm either

Ok, that's a few things to check. Bear with me , I'm not too electrically minded. After the first fix( the short circuit from the starter to the wire which I would then touch to the battery to start), nothing else was disconnected. The relays were still in and all fuses good. Yet in the 10 minute ride after that, the tacho didn't work, and then the battery died. Surely it would take more then 10 minutes of not charging for a battery to conk out? Also I forgot to mention that on the second failure, when the battery went, the aa guy noticed my earth wasn't connected to the battery at all. I have no idea how that could be. He reckoned it had only been working because it might have been touching the frame(maybe).

Went over to the uk for 4 days, meet some Guzzi people and go to an airshow. The tenni had other plans. In 1500 miles the aa were called 4 times, I missed most of the airshow, and am feeling not very benevolent towards my Guzzi. One call out was for a flat tire, not the bikes fault, but the other three were electrical, which has never been an issue before. Firstly, out of the blue, she wouldn't start. Battery ok, all indications good, all the correct noises etc, but press the starter and the indicator lights dim slightly, but bot a dicky bird from the starter itself. Ahh, I think, I've read about this. Wrestle off the tank, find those bullet connectors. But they looked healthy, so I turned the steering while pushing the starter, and a 15amp fuse blows. So the aa guy turns up, we replace the fuse(idiot me for not having spares), and up she starts after fiddling with some wires under the tank. Off I go, but I am worried about what caused the fuse to blow in the first place. 2 days later same thing happens. This time I replace the fuse, but no change. Aa man turns up, very sharp guy, he reckons a wire is damaged between the relay and the starter, so he rigs a short circuit direct from the starter to a wire, and when I touch the battery, it starts up. Excellent! It's messy and awkward but will get me home. I ride off, and the bike conks out a mile later. The battery's dead! Aa man comes again, same dude,(after a 3 hour wait), and he has a good look. This is where I get a bit out of my depth. Obviously the battery has not been charged, and it's too much of a coincidence to be unrelated to the starter issue. He reckons the charging circuit is compromised probably in the same wiring loom as the starter wire, so he does some clever wiring where one of the relays should be(he removed it), and now it charges. Very clever. It's a messy operation to start and shutdown, I have to remove the seat and fiddle with wires, but it gets me home. Now I only got home last night, and haven't taken the bike apart(nor will I , as my buddy's an auto electrician so I'll leave it to him), but has anyone else had issues with the wiring from the relays getting damaged? The aa guy reckon the relays themselves were working correctly. I get the impression there's a loom somewhere under the relay box that's maybe shorting, but won't know until my mate has a good look. Thoughts?

Good to here you back, Van. Keep thinking I'll see a tenni whizzing past whenever I visit the in-laws in Duncan, hasn't happened yet!

Session beer. Hmmmm.... I have had heavy nights on Guinness, and after 5,8,11 pints it does start to go down like water, but it can really hurt next day. Now I'm older and more sensible(!), I tend to stick to cider if I'm expecting a serious evening. Bulmers normally, called magners in the uk. Speaking of hangovers, I go to japan every few months, and the draft over there( doesn't matter which one) will absolutely kill you. For some reason, the bottled stuff's not so bad.

Howdy fellow tennisti. They all rattle in neutral, the single plate clutch of the tenni makes it a tad louder then the others. I've just noticed some paint coming off the final drive, I haven't done anything about it yet, the Harley paint is probably the way to go. Enjoy it! My wife's from Duncan, on the island, we go over about twice a year to eat some oyster burgers and take my 65 corvair out for a spin. I'll keep an eye out for you in September...

about time, I suppose.... Don't ask me why it's sideways.

Holy shit Jaap. Maybe it's time you bought a Harley....

Damn. I think that's my sister in law.

Jeez Jim, I'm waiting with baited breath for every new installment now. That makes me pathetic on any number of levels. Sigh.... I have been dead impressed with the microbrewery thing that's been going on in bc for as long as I've been a visitor , about 20 years.... It's nice to see the rest of North America has been catching up. It's not that long ago where the choice was bud, michelob, or anything else that tasted like bud. Yeuch. Barring Boston I suppose, but I just don't like Sam Adams, but that's just me. Vive la difference!

I second that!

DOCC, slainte means "good health", so yeah technically it's the same as gesundheit. You've got the irish pronunciation bang on, the Scots Gaelic version is pronounced a little differently, but it's close enough.(Irish and Scots Gaelic being 2 versions of the same language). We use slainte just like "cheers", but there's a much longer version that goes on and on, which can include"land without tax-talamh gan cios" or "death in ireland-bas in eireann" or a bit more tongue in cheek"to hell with John Bull,ie England-na hifreann Le Sean bui). That last one's more of a joke. I used it during the small irish portion of my wedding speech in vancouver years ago, there was a couple of retired British army generals and a RAF wing commander in the audience, so obviously I didn't translate. But my dad thought it was hilarious!

Well, lets see. Friday evening about 10 people turned at my place and were treated to Angela's chilli. Guzzis are a rare sight in these parts, and it was great to see more in one place then any other time in Ireland recently. 3v11s, a Cali, A 1000s and various other non guzzis. 2 from England, 3 from ulster, and the rest were from various parts of the country. Great fun sitting in the back garden listening for approaching bikes coming up my country lane, trying to recognise the bike. The funniest was ger, the 4 foot biker from cork who turned up on his immaculate Harley chopper after his 850 cafe racer failed him 20 miles from home. Retired to the pub and it all fades into a alcaholic haze. Bed by 2. Up the next day to a heart attack inducing hearty fry up, then off for a ride out, 7 bikes, touring the rugged west coast of Clare and Galway, 140 miles took 6 hours, including pee/ fag/ food breaks, some bumpy surfaces, fabulous scenery, nice roads. Weather even behaved. Back to the pub about 6. More guzzis turned up, norge, stelvio,750 breva. Back to my place for a barbie, 18 people in all. Then back to the pub, the craic was good! And repeat..... Bed at 3. Woke up a little jaded, headed down to the pub to see if anyone's still there, but no, all spread to the 4 winds. Good weekend, great to see some guzzis! From here we had stockport claret, Steve Waller,mo biker and the pilgrim. Everyone else had heard about it from the guzzi Gb site that they kindly let the irish guzzi squadron use. Hopefully next year we'll have more foreign types. Dunno about when as I've a busy year planned Taking a norge across the deep south of the United States in March and then taking my tenni across the US in September so not sure when to plan it. I'm writing this in a hotel room in Ghana, so can't download any photos, bear with me til I get home.

Yeah, we had a few, Martin. Just about recovered now. Already planning next year....

No sign of Martin. Wo bist du, meinen Freund? I still keep expecting the sound of a vtwin coming up the drive....