p6x

If I can, I will get myself a Citroën Méhari. This is the perfect car for Texas. 2 cylinders air cooled, 602 cc. Comes under the 25 years import law.

All the "old" cars that I used to drive back in Europe never gave me any concern. Probably because there was so little sophistication built into them. So crude, that if anything would go wrong, you could fix it yourself. Having a car requiring an ECU re-programming because of a failed battery was a discovery for me.

Why not? My motorcycle is my first mean of transportation, and I only take my car out because I have to. And I have a fun car to drive, but nothing can match the V11 feel!

This is a lot better than the matter of fact "we are sorry" that I got from Ford.... inconveniences happen all the time, even on so-called luxury brand cars. What makes the difference is how the brand own up to their issues. I seemed to have less major problems with my vintage cars which I purchased for pennies. I like the Bronco.

Agreed. It is already miraculous that he still has the will to come back. Even if people are going to give him some leniency, because he is Marc Marquez, they will still expect him to be back at the front in very little time. I hope that he will not let his environment put pressure on him.

I purchased a Ford Transit Connect short chassis with the lift rear gate. December 2016. I chose the turbo charged engine instead of the 1.8 Atmospheric. This is as ugly as it can be, has been nicked named "Toaster" because it looks like one. I had too many issues with it. Starting with a battery failure that crashed the ECU, necessitating a complete re-installation of the firmware. This happened just outside of the warranty coverage. But my worse issue was a Y connection, plastic, part of the cabin heating system, that failed. Lost the coolant and had to get the car towed to Ford. I thought that Ford would have a commercial gesture as this part is not supposed to wear out. It is just a piece of plastic. How could it even break? the service manager said that it may have been a bad part which failed after the temperature up and down excursions. As it is now the norm, they could not only replace the failed part, because it comes with all the hoses and connections as a module, and costed a little fortune. I still keep the car because it is very practical. I had a Subaru previous to the Ford, never had a single issue with it.

Honda seems to be hinting that Marc Marquez will be back before the season ends. I don't know how reliable the information is. Without Marc Marquez, Honda is just looking like Yamaha without Fabio Quartararo.

Zarco was really struggling for breath after the race. They introduced the sneaky camera to listen to what the riders say before the awards ceremony, and Miller telling Zarco that he did not look too good!!!!

After fixing my broken tag support, I decided to make up for the lost trip to South Padre Island by going to Gladewater Tx. Stops #9, 16, 17, 18 setting me 15/50 a return trip of 440.5 miles (709 km). As many places in the USA, Texas is under extreme heat, compounded by the elevated humidity in the State. Because of these conditions, we experience torrential, tropical storm likes; I went through one yesterday on the 259. The temperature during the ride was 104 degF (40 degC). When I got back at 7:00 pm 96 degF (35.5 degC). The sudden tropical storm I went through concerned me. I saw the lightning from afar, but did not hear any thunder; I assumed I was safe. The storm hit between Kilgore and Henderson while in the forest. Visibility null. I got behind a truck, and stayed there. I did not want to stop. I got completely soaked, but I was dry when I got home, excepted for the socks and the seat side of my riding jeans. The Michelin Road 5 did pretty well under those diluvian conditions. No hydroplaning and I maintained confidence. But I cannot ignore that riding in such conditions is unsafe, and should be avoided. There was no place for me to stop, and my tail light was probably invisible given the curtain of water falling. This is why I stayed close to the truck in front of me. His lights could be seen better. I kept at a safe distance although we were going about 45/50 mph. The rain did not subside until Nacogdoches. My hands were completely black from the gloves. Difficult to remove too.... Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the outing which basically served no other purpose but to ride the Guzzi. The V11 did pretty well in the heat, considering how much of it, and did not mind the water either. The only issue is the oil seepage which seemed to have resumed. I don't want to immobilize the Le Mans any longer. I will add oil as required. This is the temperature at my first stop in Kilgore Tx. The #8 stop in Kilgore Tx. Under the blistering heat! The former drilling derricks close to Kilgore downtown. Texas has plenty of them. Initially, the derrick would stay all through the life of the well, and would be used for the required workovers. Nowadays, if you own a well, you call a drilling or workover company for the intervention. Note that those structures were only good for shallow wells, as it was back the beginning of the black gold. The oil was a few hundreds feet under the surface. Today, the easy oil has been already found, and you need a better structure to drill and work deeper. The 16, 17, 18 stops in Gladewater Tx. Almost identical stop for stop to last year's. Not as much fun when repeating stops in places you have already been. At least, I did not need to look to find the locations... Here's the trip details, beginning on 10:38 and ending on 19:12. There were only two major stops to refuel. The reported mileage is not accurate since the App computes the distances arbitrarily, not according to the route used. But it is good enough for my own personal tracking. Fuel consumption was always above 40 mpg, which is basically what I expect to achieve on the road, never exceeding 5000 rpm. If I break that barrier, then it deeps pretty quickly. Here's the temperature taken upon arrival at 19:12 yesterday. Now I need to clean the bike and think about my next venture. I am running out of day ride stops though. The South Padre Island trip is postponed for the time being.

My most pressing objective is to be able to ride. I am hopeful that with that welded reinforcement beam, I have some miles ahead of the same problem happening again. Since I dropped the bike, the maimed mud guard was evidence the cracks may have also been incident induced. One small step for me, many more miles for the Le Mans before the next issue....

German GP.... another "see you later" from Fabio Quartararo; another DNF from Bagnaia, another 2nd place for Zarco... I would vote Zarco to replace Miller at Ducati factory's. This is the guy that would exerts the least pressure on Francesco's Bagnaia. He is pretty solid if not sensational. It seems to me something went wrong with Bagnaia, the way he lost the rear was strange, even Bagnaia seemed surprised. Viñales' Aprilia's issue was a shame... Well, it certainly looks like Fabio Quartararo is en route for another championship.

I have so many questions I'd wish to ask him! one day, one day....

How easy/difficult is it to get to those four lamps in the dashboard? If you do not leave an incandescent lamp for the low fuel light, do you need to install a resistor to keep the system working as intended? besides, there is some water trapped behind the orange reflector. I need to get to it, drain and seal.

@docc I still have a question: is the front light of the V11 sport and V11 Le Mans the same in terms of reflector and internal space? The lamps are the same, so I suppose they should be identical, but I would rather confirm.

I reply to my own query:

I noticed the parking light is always on when I turn on the ignition, coupled with low beam. I would have thought this light would only be useful as a "parking light", so lighting on its own. My 911 has a parking light position, if you are parked at night you can leave them on so the car stands out. Maybe Guzzi has something similar?

Here's the support bracket installed again. I replaced the zip ties by two 8mm CHC screws with lock nuts. I replaced the two cruciform fasteners with two 6mm hexagonal head stainless steel screws with conventional nuts. I need slightly longer screws, those are 15mm long; I need 20mm and lock nuts. I had to replace the 1157 Bulb; only the brake light worked. I saw a large selection of led lights to replace the incandescent ones, I did not know which to pick (I read on a forum that some of those are really poor quality). I will check if we already have a topic about this.

One aspect of the oil which he has not touched upon is the infamous additives. They were not the point of focus of this test. Noticed that a many of the top performers in the "extreme protection" list are oiled aimed at V Twin engines.

I looked at the plots more than the narrative.

I found a better way to get the mudguard attached to the assembly. But I am going to need different fasteners. Another trip to the nut place then.... I am going to be able to use longer 6mm screws instead of that zip tie. The difficult part will be to reconnect the wires while holding the tail light & turn indicators piece. There is not much play in the wiring. Obviously, after everything is installed and tightened up, that will be the time when I find out that the rear left and right turn indicators are inverted....

How do we differentiate a V11 engine with a Norton Commando one? The article is interesting in presenting tests and results and providing the data. I don't think we can infer what is good to a V11 from what's good for a Norton Commando though.

The welding shop called me at 1:30. They thought it was more important to do my repair rather than work on that BOP. Nice! Here it is with a reinforcement before painting. If it breaks again, it will not be at the same place. Tomorrow I will put everything back together and get ready to go. The heat is indescribable. I went to the welding shop with the 911 opened, 104 degF on the thermometer...

I was lucky? young enough? to see him race on MV Agusta bikes. He is still attending all the events he gets invited to.