bbolesaz

Apparently that Piaggio database has some issues. Yesterday, I got wrong chassis number. This morning, it found my Scura just fine.

Wow, this just gets stranger and stranger. Just for fun, I tried to plug in my VIN into the website with ZGUKS instead of ZGUKR. Got the same error message. Just for more fun, I tried it again with the correct ZGUKR VIN code and what do you know, it pops up with "No recall campaigns are pending for this vehicle SCURA - MY2002" I think Luigi is having a laugh.

Now I'm curious what the VIN mfg code is for a 2002 LeMans or Sport (not Scura). My engraved plate has #599 on it. Absolutely no correlation to the VIN as far as I can tell.

Oooo, the plot thickens ! Typed the VIN into the link above and got "Wrong Chassis Number" Gonna hafta look when I get home. It sure looks like a Scura, with all of those keen Ohlins parts.

Thanks for the info !

I happened to be looking at the Guzzi parts catalogs on Moto International. Looked at the catalog for what should be my bike, '02 Scura. Noticed that the catalog had "chassis prefix" on the pages of "ZGUKS". Wait a minute, my bike VIN starts with "ZGUKR". The parts catalog for 1999-2001 V11 Sport/Mandello has that code on it. When the discussion came up about transmission mounting plates, I'm pretty sure (not near bike now) that it didn't have one and the frame looked like the picture in the 2001-2002 catalog. What gives? Is Luigi messing with me?

Where does one get that tidy?

It's like taking all of the good stuff from a Harley and putting it on a bike that is actually fun to ride. Last weekend, on AZ-87's climb to the pass for Mt. Ord, got to run up the hill WOT in 6th for most of the climb. That's some sweet visceral motorcycle riding right there. And yes, I know there's a 5th gear, but it sounded so much more badass in 6th.

While were on the subject of rear brakes, I spotted fluid under the Scura last night. It looked to be leaking from the left side of the battery tray. Thought I had a cracked battery at first, but the fluid was a light oil. Hmm. Removed the battery and the tray had a couple tablespoons of brake fluid in it. Looked at the reservoir and the cap was on and there wasn't any sign of brake fluid running down the side or down the hose. Odd. Took off the cap and the reservoir was empty and the diaphragm was sucked down to the bottom. Last ride was back from AZ Gathering of Eagles in Cottonwood. Rear brake seemed normal for the entirety of the ride, but I'm not a big rear brake user. Mostly just holding a stop and sometimes to scrub a little speed in a corner or the occasional total panic stop. Almost seems as if the fluid would have to have been pumped out from under the cap under pressure to end up where it did. Going to start by replacing the reservoir.

My all time favorite (sorry, no pix) was on the wall of a gas station bathroom stall in Marfa, Tx. "Stardate 5138.6, beamed down to take a $hit"

Hmm. So is that the burning plastic smell I smell when I finish up a ride?

Try Forking by Frank. If they don't have it in stock, they can custom make any fork tube from your specs. http://franksforks.com/

Now you're talking !

I didn't skype and don't know if anyone else did.

Sometimes when traveling, I see something that just strikes me funny. This example of advertising vandalism is at a Shell station in Mesilla, NM. Clever use of spray can foam insulation.

And finish the day off with a run over Mingus Mountain and back. BBQ for Saturday dinner Sunday, back through the mountains to Strawberry, Pine and Payson on the way home.

Took the Scura on a little weekend jaunt to the 6th annual AZ Gathering of Eagles held in Cottonwood, AZ. Wierd weather weekend. 108 Friday afternoon as I left the metro Phoenix area and 45 in the mountains on the way home Sunday morning. The mighty Scura after a hot run out of the city. We stayed at the View Motel. Sign of the "high" times. No smoking means that also. Saturday ride up towards Oak Creek Famous Bell Rock, south of Sedona. Next stop, Page Springs fish hatchery in Oak Creek canyon

1224 miles from Mesa AZ to Jasper. A bit outside of the range for a long weekend.

Sad about the special needs kids, there's a high occurrence of Down's syndrome amongst the LDS community.

Doc, question about your Veglia gauges. Is it normal for the tach needle to fade faster than the speedo? My speedo/tach needles look exactly like yours and it made me suspect that the speedo is a replacement and therefore not trustworthy as a gauge of the mileage of the bike.

Been on my list for a long time, but will probably have to wait until next year. BTW folks, that one picture is not a shelf full of scale models.

Yep, the Scura is still on the original clutch. The ODO shows 23K miles, but it's needle is not faded like the tach, so I suspect that the speedo is a replacement. Given that, not sure how many miles are actually on the beast. I think COTA has great general admission viewing. My favorite is just under the tower on the right side. You can see turns 1-6 and 17-18. We were bummed because they didn't power up the TV in T11. Cheap ass COTA.

Map of the track with notes - The Turn 11 crew hanging out Friday afternoon. Part of the Turn 11 crew. This is the flagging station. Practice session, note someone running wide. The free lunch on the crash barriers in the corner. Yours truly, flag boy. Mark and Leslie Dinner in the big tent. Gloomy skies Saturday morning. Flag boss Leslie. The on track crew. Crazy European Rossi fans. Turn 11 crew trying to stay warm Saturday afternoon. Moto America 1st race. Sunday morning MotoGP riders parade. Marques dressed like a bandit who is about to steal yet another COTA win. Henry (medical) and Leslie (flag chief). Turn 11 crew Sunday afternoon, just before the big show. You may be wondering why there aren't more pictures. Turns out Dorna is very protective of their copyrights which extend to all photographs taken within the fences of the track. So we were explicitly told no picture taking. Heard that some flash cards were confiscated from folks wearing GoPro's while they were working. The ones I have of bikes are Moto America.

We knew that a cold front was going to blow into town Saturday morning. Early in the morning, it was cloudy but still warm. Once the front hit the track about 9:00AM, the wind picked up and the temps dropped dramatically. Just then, I realized a flaw in my white wardrobe. I only had short sleeve polo style shirts. To make things worse, I forgot to grab my riding jacket from the bike when I parked. So, I called my friend and asked him to bring me a white sweatshirt. He came through later in the day with a nice warm off white hoodie that was perfect for the occasion. Saturday was practice and qualifying for MotoGP and Race 1 for Moto America. Qualifying is much like practice, just the stakes are higher and riders were closer to the edge. Saturday, flagging was welcome as it gave us a chance to warm up the blood somewhat. In between races, we tucked up against the crash walls looking for some shelter from the cold wet wind. Fortunately, the skies never opened up and the program went on schedule. It was a nightmare for the tire engineers. Nice Thursday, hot Friday, cold Saturday and nice again on Sunday. It was real easy to tell if the tire engineers had guessed wrong on the tires, the bikes would be sliding all over the track. Usually the first couple of sessions in the morning were very sketchy and they would have it dialed in by the afternoon. We had a lot of runoffs in Turn 11 but only 1 crash in a Moto3 qualifier. It is surprising when you see it up close, but even with traction controls, the bikes wiggle furiously under hard braking. When the tires were wrong, the rears of the bikes would wobble almost 6 inches side to side. Even with good tires, there would be a few inches of wiggle. If the front tire stepped out of its line, you knew that that bike was about to run off. So, once I got used to it, I would watch the bikes approach the corner watching the front tires for that little twitch that signaled too much braking. Sunday is finally the real deal day. I had to get up even earlier, as I had to pack my bike since the plan was to start for home immediately after the races. The officials checked us out even more carefully than usual and after a few practices and warm ups, it was time for the 3 main events. I got to work the radio for the Moto3 race. We had one crash off the track that I got to call in. Kept my cool and reported it just the way they said to. The Moto3 racing is fun because the bikes have small engines and on a big track like COTA, drafting is a big deal. So all of the racing takes place in a tight knit pack of bikes. The Moto2 race was mostly un-eventful for our corner, a few minor wide runs. In the big show, Pedrosa got the start with all of the players just behind. Vinales, lost the front end on I think T13 and ended his day and time as points leader. Marques hunted Pedrosa down and they had quite the battle before Pedrosa started to fade. Rossi then passed Pedrosa and started to points race after that. He let Marquez go, knowing he was the new points leader. Pedrosa hung on for third. Cal Crutchlow of Great Britain finished a respectable fourth, and Johann Zarco of France finished fifth, after running Rossi off of the track in T4. It was not a good day for Ducati or the new KTM team. We had one crash in T11, but the rider quickly remounted and went on his way. For all of the real races, the corner workers get to do what they call an international salute, where we all run out to the edge of the track, waving all of the flags at once. Some of the riders are nice and acknowledge the corner workers. The last race of the day was the Moto America race. And then it was over. We all went back to the big tent to turn in our flags and radios. We got to keep the tabbards we had on, got souvenir hats and T-shirts and said our goodbyes. I geared up, mounted up and started by long trek back to sunny Arizona. Was it interesting. Yes. Was it fun. Yes. Was it a lot of work. Yes. Would I do it again. Probably not. Next year the plan is to sit on the grass, with a tasty beverage and watch.

Friday morning, the alarm rings at 4:00AM and I make it to the track just after 5:00. When I sign in, I find out that I am working Turn 11. Turn 11 is one of the sharpest turns on the track, probably about a 160 degree turn almost doubling back on itself. Riders come in from Turn 9 and 10 quite quickly and have to brake heavily. Like most of the turns at COTA, it is designed to visually throw off your line reference, so if you are not precise, you will miss the optimal line. It does have a very large paved runoff area before the gravel trap. Blowing the turn and running off of the track is a VERY common occurrence, but with the huge runoff area, crashes are not so frequent. We don’t flag for runoffs, only crashes. The flag chief for Turn 11 is a nice lady from east Texas named Leslie. She is a track day regular, both riding and marshaling and has flagged at Moto GP at COTA several times before. We have 2 newbie flaggers, myself and Mark. We have anywhere from 4-6 track folks and 2-3 medic assistants and 1 EMT (they get moved around occasionally). Friday is all practice except for two Moto America qualifiers. Moto3 (250cc) runs first, then MotoGP, then Moto2 (600cc). We have to flag green for the first 2 minutes of each practice session. Then we flag yellow if something happens. We did wave whole course red flag once for a bad crash, not in our corner, that spilled fluids. One station near pit entrance waved the black flag and number board once. Some stations got some rain drops Saturday morning and flew the rain flag. The oil flag came out at a few stations, but not ours. The blue flag was never used, nor was the meatball flag. Turn 11 happened to be the location of the “practice start” line. Practice starts happen on the cool down lap of a practice session. The riders will, like it says, practice starting from that line. However, since the bikes stop at the line for the practice starts, Turn 11 has to flag double yellow (bike stopped on track) while practice starts are going on. This could be upwards of 5 minutes by the time the whole field finishes the practice start, so that was a real arm workout. Friday was a hotter than normal, humid Texas day. Lots of water and sunscreen consumed. By the end of the day I was hot and tired. I had dinner in the big tent. After dinner, we had 2 choices of “perks”, a pit lane walk or a track parade lap. Naturally, I went for the lap. I got queued up at the beginning of the line to go onto the track. I found out last year, that you don’t want to be near the end. If you are, the corners bunch up and you can’t take the corners nicely. They told us that since there weren’t too many bikes wanting on the track, we would get 2 laps around. Sweet. The pace riders at the front basically held between 60 and 70 MPH for the entirety of the lap. Kinda slow for the back straight but actually a good pace for the slow corners like 1, 11, 12, 15 and 20. Could almost touch a peg in those corners. Turn 1 has to be the most fun. Weird apex and no sight line until you are around and down the hill. Even though I had spent the entire day watching it, I still blew the entry into Turn 11 on my first lap around. I was in good company. On the second lap, my entry was spot on and my line was good. After rolling off of the track, my day was done and I rode back to my friend’s house for a welcome shower. Friday was my night to go see the Hand Built Motorcycle Show in downtown Austin. This event runs the same weekend as the GP. It is a custom bike show, but not like a typical take a Harley and throw $40,000 worth of chrome at it. Mostly café racers, street trackers and other oddities. Most of the bikes can be described as buy a used bike for a few thousand and do something interesting with it. And there is no shortage of imagination on display. It turned out that Ari Henning from Motorcyclist magazine was at the show. I asked him if he was there as a reporter and he wasn’t. He was just checking out the cool bikes like anyone else. Very nice guy, but even dorkier looking in person than in pictures in the magazine. Didn’t get to bed till after midnight Friday night, so Saturday morning was going to be tough.