jihem

wow wow wow. over here, the most spectacular thing is man made (the Atomium). Altho we do have some nice places, it's nowhere as BIG...

it's interesting to see how it already cross overs to "mainstream" papers...

nice ! thanx ! Is that the MGS01 replica based on a Centauro ?

Hi all, just back from 4 marvellous days riding my Ghezzi Mutant (STW with race Eprom and exhausts) down to the South of France and back. Wonderbra (the STW) performed flawessly. She loves nothing more than mid speed curves, and would ride roads like that all day long...Actually, the seat is very confortable as 700 kms per day didn't hurt at all. Met JMM and Zebulon, the 4V Ghezzi, near Grenoble. We were laughing as when 2 ridden GB are together, it's not a rendez-vous anymore, it's 5 % of all the GB's in the world and an official meeting :-) it's actually funny how much the two bikes are different. Of course, JMM did lots of work on his 4V, but even tho the two bikes do look alike from a distance, some parts are very different, and so is the general option. Zebulon looks meanier and butchier, when Wonderbra seems more delicate. The two valves V11 engine is shorter and smaller, when the 4V just screams MOOOOORE space :-) I would say that Zebulon is more of a fighter and an interceptor when Wonderbra is a gentleman's bike. But there'z nothing gentlemen about it no more when you hit the 5000 rpm spot and let her make way... Here are some of the pics he took. Plus some from my friend Pierre C. We exchanged bikes for a few kms, and his 998S is a joy to ride but i prefer Wonderbra. With a Ducati, you have to look where you wanna go, with the Ghezzi, YOU JUST THINK where you wanna go and she takes you there. ride safe. hmm.

it looks very good, but widely overpriced imho...probably not for the parts it has and the work that' been gone thru, but on the market value i think it's at least 5.000 Euros too high

you will not have the two feet flat on the ground, but enough to be able to hold the V11 without any embarrassment and or fear of plunging down when it's windy... i'm fairly small too (1m64, Prince and I have that in common, also ) but found no problems riding the V11. Didn't even think about it: that shows how much it didn't impose itself as a problem. Stretching to the bars wasn't an issue either. take it from someone who was totally unable to ride a 1100 Sport cos it was toooooo long and tooooo stretched.

Vale already has his licence as Ferrai test driver and has been tested the car(s) a few times already and apparently he's not bad AT ALL i think he'll make the move, i think that's the thing to do, and he'll be very fast there too...

i can only praise the work that the TLM people did on my Ghezzi yesterday...Altho working on a GB for the first time, they did a great job, even went on to build a part that wasn't available in their stock ! goed gedaan ! jihem:)

the show is funny at times, but most of the times its humour is loud and expected. Jeremy Clarkson is known to provoke and his comments about beheading motorbikers have been preceed by equally very stupid prejudice and reactionnary views on gays and relentless assaults on people who don't fit what he sees as "the Lad".

amazing trip, Orson. thanx for sharing ! jihem

>As to driving on the wrong side of the road. i used to live in London for a while, i was actually a motorbike messenger there. Coming from the continent, I had to re-adjust often, especially when going tired after hours and hours in the saddle, rush in peak hours with ultra urgent whatever in the box, etc... so i used to mentally picture my home in London with cars passing by: that exact picture would immediately trig me if I was about to go wrong... do the same while travelling in Europe: picture yourself something with cars driving by the correct way, and that memory will serve you as instant reminder... (i know it's damn stupid, but it worked )

> I have seen at least one other 4 valve Ghezzi Brian at last year's V Twin rally in Shaftesbury. there was also one 4V engine waiting to be installed in a frame at the G&B workshop, early july. the soon-to-be on sale UK 4V is rather funny: it looks like it doesn't have the Ohlins shock at the back nor the Tubi exhausts while having the OZ wheels... another mutant I guess ;-) in any case, that classic STW line makes me go "wow" every time...

the plot thickens: the battery is fine and well charged... it seems like the handlebar switch is showing it has 23.000 kms tho...contacts were a bit dirty, i cleaned them..i wonder if the turn switch hasn't decided to work its own mind... as for the hiccups, well, it is strange as it went better today... surprisingly, i noticed the hiccups were more ...hiccupy when the weather was colder and wet this week..today, it was a fine weather again, and the bike seemed ok... mmmmh. i didn't know i was buying a Rubik cube

yes, those Lexus alarms are so damn sensitive ! If one citizen cannot fire its Tubi race cans in an underground parking without having three LS 300, a Voyager, a Renault Espace, a couple of Merco and the boss's 911 go crazy, what freedom is it left in the West ? thanx for the answers, but i guess my questions weren't too clear. 1/ i'm surprised the battery accepts to start the big engine when it doesn't want the indicators to lightened up. 2/ can a battery low in charge be responsible for hiccups when riding around town now, or is there something else showing its neck ? merci

Hi all, i currently have to commute on my bike, we're talking 30 kms all together, a mixture of urban streets, large roads, lights, etc... Obviously i can't really rev the bike too much and i cannot really stretch the legs of my bike (but stilll i arrive at work with a big grin and the same when i go back home, even if they asked me to stop park in the underground lot as the bike was starting the alarms of the high salaries' cars) except the occasionnal fast run on an empty boulevard. i was wondering about battery charge in quite short town uses like that as i recently discover my indicators don't seem to function properly under 3000 rpms now, but do catch up if i just had a quick, faster burst on the bike. Can the battery still be fine to light up the engine but be too low to drive the indicators at idle ? Can the battery being, maybe, too low in charge, also induce the engine to hiccup ? thanx :-)

well, it's understandable, he missed a brake marker going down the straight at 275 kmh... ;-) this said, i feel sorry for him, he's a very good rider but Vale is just above them all. A bit like in bicyclette (lance armstrong) where some riders will never or have never make it cos there 's one guy who is just a glimpse of perfection...

2003 Supertwin under 1958 Atomium. Brussels.

wow. I'm speechless. This take courage. TX, you're a visionnaire ;-) jm

well, when he tried to have a go at Colin, seconds after the Tornado passed him, his lines went amok and wouldn't lead him nowhere. I think Nick and Colin were just too fast for him yesterday and he probably didn't feel much like falling after Melandri was out... Laguna is a very strange circuit who doesn't allow mistakes...Most of the corners are deceptive in the way that they rarely finish how they started: a straight that goes up while curving up left , then down while turning even more on the left but the real entrance of the corner is waaaay later, a S (corkscrew) that's blind to start with, has a weird built-in camber in it, and if you gas too fast coming out of it, you miss the point of the next left, and this hairpin before the straight is, imho, very annoying cos there is no way you can smooth it up: it's a real stop and go corner. it's a wonderful track and knowing it is a definitive advantage: I wouldn't then bet too much its podium will repeat itself this season...

this may be a dumb question, but i was wondering how (hard) you guys can ride in the USA. I mean, we all have this preconception (?) of the USA being vastly controlled by cops in cars, waiting for their prey as soon as they pass 80 mph or so... i'm under the (stupid ?) idea it's very hard to find spots where you can really open up and gas it as we do have this popular image of the state sheriff waiting for the bike to pass, hidden behind a Marlboro billboard in the desert over here, that's the Belgian Ardennes, and with most sport bikes, week-end rides are very often done at totally illegal speeds and on specific roads some nutters do wait for other bikes to come by and "play", and we don't seem to have much cops around to stop us there (there are radars, but they're not in the twisties). ciao, jihem:)

well, i have ergonomics issues : i'm small (but beautiful ) so there really was an issue with the tank and the pegs... just like there was one with the beautiful 1100 Sport BLUE (yes, one of the very mysterious Blue 1100. i know it existed, i tried one ;-) when trying the 1100 sport, it was just far too long and i was totally extented to get to all the controls at the same time... Makes you wonder who they designed their bike for ? Wasn't there an issue like that with the old Laverda bikes, where they were far too big and high, even for the common mortal ?

i nearly bought a Centauro three years ago. there was a bunch of new ones, still unsold, at some Belgian dealer. Price was really low. I went to try one, and i loved the snapness, the brutality, the real agressivity of the 4 valves. I thought it was an exhilirating engine and yes, if you have a Centauro and compare it with a V11, the latter must indeed feel slugish and slow. why didn't i buy it ? The seating position. You're either on the tank, but your feet are right, or you feel ok on the seat but you're having your feet fwd. Something definitively wrong in the seating position for me... But that engine ...wow....

yes, this is exactly it. When you look at the credentials of the riders, there are just national champs, very good contenders or world champions, etc...it's totally amazing ! but what counts also is the equipment: look at some of the champs there and see how "badly" they do in the charts: look at Shakey Byrne (British SBK champion), riding the Proton: wouldn't he be among the top ten if he had a decent ride ? John Hopkins would be totally lethal if he was on a RCV... I think it's so competitive, the slightest amount of bad luck and/or not-right-there equipment multiply the bad performance and make one rider look like "passé" when in fact he's just "only" two seconds off the pace... re: Biaggi. He's an awesome rider but he's riding against E.T. Rossi is not from this world and it must be very painful to feel like you're beating yourself against some rock over and over again cos the guy does what he wants with his MR1 ( and he's also very good at psychology: rossi entertains the idea that the Yamaha is much slower when in fact he was only 2 mph slower than Max's) anyway, it's a great season to watch and it's one of the last one: from 2007 onwards, the new 800cc rule will just kill the show imho.

i feel kinda sorry for Capirex and Checa and Rolfo, but also to Troy Bayliss: the little red missile is a beast too wild to tam really. look at Capirex, gee this man must really have his brain on "OFF" and trust Dr Costa 100% to be able to ride that..that thing the way he does: cos it looks like the bike just doesn't want to be ridden at all none of the other bikes look that decomposed, ok, you can see some serious 150 mph headshake there, and Max had a few interesting moments, but none of the other MotoGP bikes shake and move around with the consistent dangerous intensity of the Ducati who looks like a wild bronco wanting to get rid of an unwanted weight :-) i loooooove Ducatis and i'm a total fan, but there's something just not quite right with that chassis...

thanx for the tip. the mechanic BMW i went to, round the corner, didn't have a flexible tube so we had to remove the wheel. Took us 15' max. i'm a bit concerned about the lifespan of the shaft. The STW's looks pristine. I know it says here and there that it has to be changed every 20.000 kms, especially if you're hammering the bike ;-). What do you people reckon ?