p6x

I was aware of the difficulty after having trouble to understand phone conversations. Typically, we used to listen with a single ear at the time. For some reasons, I have the lower frequency spectrum damaged. 35 years in the oilfield, with a good 15 spent on rigs, before ear protection was enforced; it has taken a toll on me... now I am only able to tell if the Guzzi engine is on based on the vibrations.

For those of you who live in the US and check the weather reports, you are aware that the Southwest is under an extreme heat wave. Combined with the Texas humidity, it is suffocating. I think it is even worse than last year which I thought was the highest heat index I ever experienced. Riding a motorcycle in these conditions is very different.

@Joe I watched the 3 Superbike races... It is clear that Gagné has now a healthy competition in 2023. I would put my money on the BMW with Beaubier. I don't think the Ducati is as homogeneous. The BMW has the power and the handling and.... Beaubier! I enjoyed watching those races more than MotoGP.

Vanquish lady... on an eBike :-(

In the 70's, I remember watching movies where the bad guys rode motorcycles. Sometimes, iconic ones. The despicable killer of "Peur sur la ville" favored a Z1. I noticed that recently, female protagonist roles were often seen on motorcycles as a way to reinforce the strength of their character. Matrix, The courier, Vanquish... In Good Doctor the (female) chief of surgery rides a Ducati. What other show do you know with lead female characters riding motorbikes?

This is a common issue with recalls. Manufacturer (used to) establish a lump sum payment for the work to be performed. At times the lump sum is below the real cost and the dealer is left to absorb the difference. Manufacturer betting on the fact the dealer is the point of contact.

@PJPR01 Nice! Organized by the Moto Guzzi Club of Great Britain; They have a lot of personalized items and a marketplace on their website. I have not forgotten our Forum patch; theirs is using the same V11 picture that I picked also.

A lot of answers indicate we all have looked for solutions that match our requirements. Ear protection is important and recommended in multiple industries. For those who are not really convinced, take a check and find out how much of the low frequencies you already lost. There are some tests on YouTube. To make it interesting, do the test seating with a younger guy and find out what you can't hear that he can.... The new technologies are getting smart in filtering out the specific frequencies and the high volumes while letting those needed to pass-thru. I wish I had started to protect my hearing earlier, but I did not.

You beat me to it... I usually stop watching these kind of "mingle" "chatty" videos after 30 seconds. The information is drowned into a flow of words; on top of that, Lake Speed Jr. has a voice that scratch like sand paper....

@PJPR01 It seems the Slimbuds are no longer commercialized. I can't find them anywhere.

Don't laugh, but we have lots of this here in H'town!!! Apparently, the world's future temperature prediction will make it only harder for motorcyclists to wear safety gear. I seem to be immune to heat exhaustion, so far... I cross my fingers that it will stay this way.

Well, my choice of leaving my iPhone in the tail bag is based on Apple's decision to leave the display on, if you use step by step itinerary guidance. How arrogant of them to always second guess that everyone wants to look at a screen rather than on the road. Even if I turn the display off, it will automatically turn on, and stay on at the next step. There is no option to keep the display off, and to only follow spoken directions. That explains why I need to keep my phone in my tail bag, connected to a battery else, it would drain battery in four hours. Recently, I rented a car with a HUD, and directions superimposed in front of my eyes. This is safer but listening to spoken indications is perfect for me. When I grew up, and got my first car, an Innocenti Cooper 1300, my first investment was to install an after market cassette player, amplifier and additional speakers. Today, I no longer listen to music in my 911. Even if I got a good audio system. I feel that I enjoy the driving better by simply being only focused on it and the cars surrounding me. I make a mental note of looking for mistakes or potential threats. I know, it is kind of excessive. To my defense, I can say that I drove vehicles in places where a simple accident can result in being lynched on the spot. If I was completely true to myself, I would do what I used to, when going to rallies in the 60's and 70's. Study the map and memorize the itinerary. That's no longer an option though, because getting traffic in real time is something a map cannot control. In the autumnal part of my life, I am trying to go back to the simple and uncomplicated pleasures that we remember from before. Yeah.... back to earplugs! I like the Slimbuds excepted for the necessity to have additional controls. I removed the microphone arm from my "Shark Tooth", and the only controls I use is the On/Off button. The exhaustion part of riding without noise attenuation is just so incredible. When I rode to South Padre Island and back, I was completely knackered, but could not sleep because of the continuous whoosh in my ears. This is when I started my quest for alleviating the problem to the best I could. Yesterday we had these incredible torrential rains in my part of the city. I took the V11 out and enjoyed riding around the neighborhood. People in their cars were looking at me, probably with empathy. If they could have seen my face, they would have witnessed a grin. I came back soaked, but happy to have verified the Front Michelin Road 5 could take it. Also, the V11 got liquid cooled, and I could tell she liked it.....

Not so much hearing loss which is inevitable as we progress in our lives, but rather fatigue and tinnitus after a long ride at speed on the highway. Wearing earplugs makes a noticeable difference.

Thanks for providing these solutions. I would rule out the Slimbuds since I do want any microphone nor controls on my bars. What I like of my Shark, is they designed their own Bluetooth communication system that perfectly integrates with their helmet. Unfortunately, the "Shark tooth" is not as good as others in terms of performance. Decibuilz seems to be a possible solution, however the sound attenuation needs to be verified, cut off wind noise but let through other necessary sounds.

It sounds like you and I have both identical requirement with noise protection. I do not take calls nor listen to music while I ride, but I listen to GPS directions. Meaning my phone is in my tail bag, and I follow turn by turn directions. Because Apple controls the volume since they know better what is good or bad for my ears, I have difficulty hearing the directions at speed when wearing earplugs. The Alpine MotoSafe Pro black work well most of the time. The red are for track and attenuate a lot more. However, I have had trouble to extract the Alpine to the point of asking assistance from a gas station clerk. He had to use a plastic fork. As you can see in the picture, the large skirts of the Alpine oppose easy extraction, especially when temperatures are high, and you are sweaty. Because of its form, the Quies is already better because the little tab that is used for extraction is larger, and the force required for extraction is low. I still need to confirm after my next trip which will be around 1300 miles.

I have been looking for the best hearing protection to suit me on those long rides. My Shark Race-R Pro maybe fine to protect my head, but not so much in protecting from the wind noise. I looked for hearing protection adequate to be worn under a helmet, but not completely isolating you from the rest of the traffic. I had settled on the Alpine MotoSafePro until I found that Quies, a 100 years old company that specializes in hearing protection had a product specific to motorcyclists. One of the problem I experienced with the Alpine MotoSafe Pro, is extraction. As Quies explains it in their French narrative, the hear conduit is not straight but curved. Unfortunately, Quies is not distributed outside of EUR, but I managed to get a pair of their protection from a contact who went to France for the 4th of July. I got them yesterday, and a quick test just confirmed they are more ergonomically suited than the Alpine. They are extremely comfortable, and easy to remove because they are bent. Remains to put them through a trial by fire to get a final opinion. Note that other Alpine users have complained the MotoSafe hurt after a while. It is easy to understand why. The rubber skirts are a lot larger. Some have cut them, but if the cut is not properly circular, you defeat the purpose of having the sound only flowing via the center audio filter. I also have to point out the rubber material used by Quies seems to be a lot softer than that of the Alpine; Also Quies is an ISO 9001 certified company. Once I have put some serious miles on them, I will let you know.

I am investigating this other Colorado based one, courtesy of @activpop I am currently traveling but the owner gave me a few more details. Only provided one photo though, so I am trying to get him to send more. I like the Boise Idaho one, which I saw in person, but I figure that having all accessories installed, even those you don't need, can't do you too much wrong. My subjective question is: is this a 5K US$ motorcycle?

There are only to equivocal gear search issue with sequential gear boxes: 1) am I on the last gear? 2) is the neutral down or up? e.g. was I in second or in first? For 1, its easy. If you want to confirm you are in 6th in case you did not know for certain, just have an up feel; if its a hard stop, you are in 5th. If the shifter moves up, you are in 6th. For 2, its a bit more difficult. My method: -In normal circumstances I never go down to first gear. So my neutral should always be down since I stop in second gear. First gear is normally to start from a stand still. When I shift down I always know when I have reached the second gear, and that is as low as I go. I usually never have to look for the neutral. There is an exception though. In case of surprise, when I do not have time to shift down through the gears while in motion. Usually, after a bit of experience, everybody knows second, third, fourth and fifth. The 6th is a bit of an overdrive, but the speed versus the revs help to tell, or just the check hard or soft up feel. Now when you have several motorcycles, some of them with 5 speed gear boxes, it is a bit more complicated. Also, I blip the throttle to shift up and down.

I am tempted to agree to that reasoning; however Marc Marquez has shown that he still has it in him, his talent seems to be intact. Unfortunately, he no longer has the media to express it. As he tries to exceed the limits of his RCV, there is no longer any forgiveness. Not that there was any before, but you cannot go down 5 times in the same week-end and expect to come out unscathed. He still is the number one figure of the GP now that VR46 is no longer there. I believe people watch to see what he will do rather than the Ducati show that is taking place at every single race, short or long. Has he become "desperate"? watching him certainly seems to indicate it. He is going to be able to recover from his latest injuries during the summer break, with little hope that Honda will have found a solution to improve the bike. I sure hope we are not going to continue too long with a single brand preempting each race.

These have to be tried "in situ" to find out if they work. I am wondering about the poly-urethane parts though. The current heat index in Texas is simply out of the charts, and I doubt there is any viable solution to that kind of weather. These temperatures wear out your plastics since they were never conceived for that exposure. I have been around, in places deemed "hot"; I don't think I experienced this level of discomfort ever before. I am still able to ride, but I fear more for the bike than myself.

It is difficult to verify from a photo, but they seem to look the part. I found an alternative: https://guzzipower.com/store/Headguard.html (not OEM) Check these guys in The Netherlands: https://tlm.nl/contact-openingstijden/ they have used parts as well; I checked they do not have the cylinder head guards in their stock though. But they may know how to get them. If you have not, try these guys: https://harpermoto.com/pages/contact#form or https://www.mgcycle.com/ Send an email with the OEM part request.

I watched a debrief of the GP, and this point was actually looked down as negative; spoiling the spectacle because Aleix did not attempt the pass. The presenter reminded us that some of the most spectacular passes infringed rules that have newly been enacted. There have been so many of these last curve passes that remain in memory that we don't want them to go away. One example was Rossi's overtaking on Stoner at Laguna Seca. I feel the same. The races should happen on tracks, and not be decided by people watching it on monitors and deciding afterwards if a move is legal or not.

Marquez pulled out of the race. That's 2 in a row...

The odometer looks like an ITI... prone to failure (lol). On the photos, the bike looks low mileage, but that needs to be ascertained. Strange the guy says no test riding because of insurance. When I went to Boise to check the Quota 1100ES which I still think about every single day, I checked with my own insurance, and was informed that I am insured exactly the same way weather on my own or any other bike I ride. Isn't this the normal way? or do I have a special deal? Same thing when I rented a car from Turo; insurance exactly has if it was my own.

apparently, someone already snatched it.... post deleted...