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I was in the Army, in 76, and we had enhanced night vision googles in the battle tank. However, any kind of light would completely ruin the vision. So I agree with you on principle. Now I am pretty certain the technology has evolved, and flares no longer completely blind you.

Let's see what comes out of the terrible accident that happened last night between a CRJ700 flying on behalf of AA, and a Military Helicopter on a training flight. I watched a preliminary report from another youtuber akin to Pilot Debrief, and it seems incredible that cross traffic is allowed through the gliding path of aircrafts landing. Especially that TCAS does not work below 1000 feet.

I owned a Sportster in 1989. Probably the only Harley in Sicily. I really enjoyed riding it there. I kept it until I was transferred in 1992. I did not have a single issue with it. At that time, there was only one dealership in Italy, in Milano. "Numero Uno" owned by the well known Carlo Talamo. These guys sent me everything I needed for maintenance. The Sportster was the ideal bike to have in sunny Sicily!

The Italian media reported that Pedro Acosta participated to the races at the VR46 ranch, and that Valentino Rossi and Pedro had a meeting. Lots of speculation obviously. Lots of KTM employees have lost their jobs, many of them did not get paid. Having been in management at some point in my career, I am really surprised that all that KTM turmoil seemed to have happened all of a sudden. I was running my own base as if it was an isolated company, and each month, I would get all the analytics, and my managers would comb through all the numbers. Anything not in the green, and I would have to take cost cutting measures, sometimes those would even be taken for me. You don't get 2.1 Billions in the red overnight.

There were talks about that, but somewhat, KTM did not take the deal, that was before. From what I read this morning, KTM is all set to start the testing. Presentation of the motorcycles included. We will know more on February 25th, when the temporary admin gives a briefing. Until then, everything continues, or seems to be.

As the KTM situation appears to be more complicated, with the debt ceiling evaluated at 2.1 billions rather than the initially announced 1.8 billions, Dorna is said to be working on a plan B, in case KTM had to exit MotoGP ahead of the season, or during the season. This information comes from Motosprint.it; Dorna's intention is to salvage the four KTM pilots. The plan would be to incorporate them to the other teams. There is not much information about the how. What we can anticipate, is that Ducati would maybe be able to supply two additional GP24, one for Gresini, another for VR46. Yamaha and Honda may also be able to add one bike to Pramac and one to LCR. This is all speculation at this point, but it makes sense for Dorna to be working on a backup. More worrisome would be the future of the Tech3 team. The team manager, Hervé Poncharal, gave an interview before the debt ceiling was raised. He said that Tech3 had no possible alternative but to go along with KTM. Unless Ducati would provide the two unused GP24 to Tech3. We will know soon enough, since the shakedown will start on January 31st until February 2nd. The shakedown is only for test pilots and rookies, excepted for Honda and Yamaha because of their specific concessions. We can expect the bikes have shipped already to Sepang, so we would have already heard if KTM had skipped.

I was there for the very first Paris-Darkar (then). in front of the Eiffel Tower. The Trocadero gardens where accessible by cars. What was great about the few first editions, is that just about anybody could participate. Over the years, the amateurish riders that first did the Dakar evolved to be what it is today. There is a "classic" section now in the Dakar, where you can race with an older vehicle. But you still need a strong finance support to do it. Sadly, there is no classic motorcycle section, but maybe in the future?

Since we are having a tire discussion, I thought you might be interested, if you did not already know, how tires came about, and why Michelin got to be behind a lot of innovations. I am posting this video, that you can get autotranslated in your preferred language if you watch it on YouTube, because sadly, Michelin is shutting down more plants in France and in Europe, because of the competition from countries where labor is a lot cheaper. There is a lot of interesting facts in this video. For your information "Les Echos" is a financial newspaper.

Does she want to have a theme for that Quilt? or rather a patchwork of anything goes? I have some T-shirts (I had to google what a Tee was by the way!) which I have obtained along my expatriation, but It may be good to have the T-shirts related to something?

Visiting, yes. Hopefully, none of my two Guzzi are going to require hospital works for a long time.

According to the media, Stefan Pierer has resigned from the KTM CEO position, although he will remain involved with the restructuring of the company. The total debt is more than previously announced. It is above 2 Billions Euros, not 1.8 Billions as said before. KTM has confirmed their participation to the 2025 MotoGP, in spite of everything. The plan is to pay 30% of the debt to the creditors within two years; that plan will be voted on February 25th, and will pretty much determine the future of the KTM brand. As posted elsewhere, KTM won the 2025 Dakar with Daniel Sanders.

@PJPR01 MPH has closed down the Park Ten Avenue location... I went today, and they were finishing the packing. I spoke to Davey, he does not know yet when they are going to be up and running at the new place. I am sad to have lost the convenience to have a garage working on Moto Guzzi 10 minutes from home. According to Mike, business will be unaffected, and I understand why. His customers get their bikes delivered by transporters, they don't really ride them. So it does not matter where.

I got confused because you used miles instead of km as the unit of distance... unless of course The Netherlands have replaced the metric system with the Imperial one since I left Europe?

Is it too much? I am not sure what you imply... In Texas, 70 miles is like next door...

Which name?

You know how much they wanted to charge me for a paint job on the 911? 50k!!! The guy said because it is very challenging on a convertible...

@PJPR01 I am certain you can A.I. this as well as I do, but just in case: Downsides to vinyl wrapping your car Wraps look great and can bring a quick pop of color or a unique pattern to your car, but they’re not always the best choice. You’ll need to consider the downsides of a vinyl wrap, which can be significant, depending on where you live and how you use your vehicle. Vinyl requires attention and care, and you can’t park for too long in direct sun or extremely hot areas. You’ll need to clean the surface regularly, especially if you see bird droppings, bugs, or salt/sand — but automatic or touchless car washes are a big no-no, and you can’t use a harsh abrasive cleaner. While wraps look and feel like regular paint, you should treat them like a sticker, which they are. The hassle might outweigh any benefits you get.

Why has it got to be wrap? Can it be powder coating of some sort? is wrap reliable long term? is it not going to start peeling like we see on some cars? I am told the peeling on cars is due to what manufacturers used to put on top of the paint job, to protect it, but it turns out like a snake sheding. Also, given the Texas weather and hamering sun, wouldn't the wrap be susceptible to degrade very fast?

You are more certainly correct. My experience with snow tires is a bit dated now. When I was in France, I was going to the ski stations for the winter hollidays, but also every other week-end. Before we got the fast trains. I always installed winter tires on my cars, and drove to Les Alpes. My winter tires would wear out very quickly when driving on the dry highways. Today's compounds are obviously a lot better than those in the 70's.

As long as you are aware of their limitations, if you use them all year round.

Also, remember that my native language was not English, and I am in the winter part of my life. I learned English in UK, during summer vacations; I always took it as a punishment since I was the only kid spending two months in miserable weather while all my friends were at the seashore in France. In my school days, we did not have English classes. My father always thought that in future, speaking English would be important. He was my Jules Verne... lol... he was in WWII, so I am guessing he had had to deal with multiple languages. Actually he spoke fluent Russian and German, strangely, no English. However, I discovered that learning UK English with British or Scottish accent did not prepare me well for working mainly with people from Louisiana or Texas, who I had a very hard time to understand. I remember that on my first job, on a rig named "The Texas Star", the company representative was from deep Louisiana, I asked what language he was speaking to me... If you combine the misinterpretation that always occur when you type, because you know what you mean, but you need to pass it on to the reader, and if your reader comes from a different world, he may not get the subtleties. So, Quiproquo...