p6x

Well, I was lucky that it did not happen while I was traveling. I am going to do a bit of engineering on that support, to make sure it does not happen again.

I agree with you. #7 has been shortened. The modification and the reduction of fasteners has properly made the support failure prone. Once I manage to find a welding shop I will check if we can add some support beams so I don't experience that same issue again. I am so bummed to be immobilized again. I was looking forward to that South Padre Island excursion. I also have to listen to people telling me I should purchase a bike that works...

Just the plastic zip tie. I don't think the tail assembly is original. The entire assembly is supported by the bracket that broke. I did see some unused holes when I took it apart. I think I am missing item 7, number plate holder.

The mud guard is broken too. The right side may have happened when I dropped the bike last year. The left side, I had never noticed it before.

You can see the plate broke close to the welds on both sides. All the weight and the vibrations are concentrated there. You can see that when the plate is bolted on the chassis, you got that cantilever part holding the tail light and turn indicators, and it is only supported by what, 1.5 cm of steel.

Perhaps; but the place where it broke makes perfect sense. This is just close to the two welds, where the heat weakened the carbon steel. The mount plate was solidly screwed to the frame, leaving the tail end free to vibrate. All the weight of the tail end is there. I will take a picture of the other side tomorrow; you will understand right away why it broke where it did. I am going to go to a welding ship tomorrow. We need to grind the weld out on the other side, make a chamfer and weld it again. I was lucky this incident happened at home while maneuvering by hand. If this had happened while on the road....

I have just finished to remove it. It broke at both corners. I am still going to get it welded.

As I got the Le Mans out to start my South Padre Island trip early this morning, the tail light turn indicators number plate assembly fell off.... The bracket holding the assembly broke. The culprit seems to be item 11. I looked at the Guzzi spare parts catalog, I don't know if I am going to be able to find one of these number plate support. Also, the assembly was held by a plastic tie, so this looks like the entire mudguard was chopped off at some point. I am looking for suggestions, ideas before I decide what to do. The entire tail assy held by this flimsy bracket and happily vibrating produced the obvious result. I am not sure the top part of the bracket is not integral of that support which I am indicating with the arrow. This part is not shown on the Guzzi catalog.

I have been under circumstances when you have to drive and start working immediately, then drive back. But driving a car is not as demanding as driving a motorbike, even if back then, we did not have AC. But I will not compromise with safety. If I start feeling uncomfortable for any reason, either sore back side or anything else, I will stop.

Thanks Docc.... I must tell you that I have been exposed to extreme heat a long time before I got in Texas. It started in Libya, and ended in Chad. On my ride to Kingsville in extreme heat, I did not experience any discomfort. I remain reasonable. I have never felt any heat exhaustion so far, however I know that I am no longer in my prime. Problem with heat exhaustion, is that when it happens, it goes very fast, and you lose consciousness. Let's hope I will be here to talk about it later on.... :-)

Next Monday, I should do my longest single ride trip yet. Houston to South Padre Island and back. The total ride is 811 miles, anticipated to last 12+ hours. Does not include stops to refuel. I am not certain I am going to manage to ride 12 hours. I have done a rehearsal up to Kingsville, but this one is considerably longer.

I used the "visit store" option, typed "V11" in the search window and returned some V11 spares; specifies free shipping from Italy but ship everywhere in the world and accepts offers. It is one of this scavenging companies, that purchases wrecked bikes and sell them as parts.

Note that the two compounds choice versus three is a collegial approved measure. On most grand-prix, the choices gravitate around two anyways. This was not decided unilaterally by Michelin although they seem to be blamed a lot for the performance discrepancies from one bike to the other. The difference between the various M1 is mind boggling. Quartararo seems to be the only one able to get it to perform. I would have also liked Jack Miller to go to Aprilia, but there weren't any factory bike available. Such as Oliveira who turned down the offer to reintegrate Tech3 to stay on KTM, he felt it was a demotion. Difficult to anticipate how Jack will feel on the KTM. It is however good that he gets another two years contract on a factory bike.

Here's their 2022 catalogue. They are not distributed outside of Europe. They propose some interesting solutions for extreme heat, this is why they caught my attention. I got in touch with them, and I am going to purchase some of their items conceived for extreme heat, such as what we are seing here in Texas, and not only in Texas. They also have some padded under garments in the form of boxer shorts, which they say alleviate the backside sores we all experience on long rides. The gear looks top notch to me, I am willing to pay a few dollars more and check if their gear works as well as they say it does.

It's official: Jack Miller goes to KTM Factory Team, to replace Oliveira. Pundits expect Oliveira to move to Ducati Gresini in replacement of Bastianini. Miller stayed 5 years in Ducati; 16 podiums and two victories. I think KTM needs Jack Miller's experience on the Ducati to help to confirm and validate some of the efforts. This 2022 season does not look as promising as Pit Beirer would like it to be.

@guzzler have you considered the healing power of a V11? it is probably the best remedy available to any kind of "under the weather" symptom. Being honest, I have not yet tried it with the Le Mans, however I remember that in the 70's a good ride would remove any reminiscing symptoms of a cold. Maybe our bodies produce special anticorps when we ride those bikes? but this is something I observed may times. Starting the ride with a bit of something, and coming back and feeling a lot better. Try it, and let us know.

The bill approved by the European parliament does not mention two wheeled vehicles. The plan is to be carbon neutral by 2055, and to reduce current emissions to 55% of the levels of 1990 by 2030. I doubt I will still be alive to witness the change, and in any case, it is just Europe, taking measures no other countries has done; at least so far. While I was travelling to Kingsville, I noticed that Buc-ee's has Testla chargers installed at their Wharton location. While I could probably accept to use an electric car, I would rather not ride a motorbike if it was not powered by internal combustion engine. MotoGP has committed to start using mixtures with 40% synthetic fuels from 2024 to reach 100% in 2027. Maybe eFuels are the future for Motorcycles? currently around $5.00 for one liter, it is not cheap. I have been musing with the idea to get rid of my Porsche 911, to replace by an Smart EV. Now that I am using my Le Mans for everything that requires a vehicle, it is just gathering dust. That is, if you want to get rid of the fun factor. Driving a Porsche 911 with a mechanical gear box is still pleasing. Any of you tried an electric motorcycle?

Zarco saw him zip past, and was a witness of the crash. Fabio and Aleix were already ahead. Zarco said there was absolutely no way he would have made the turn. He was too fast. Jorge Martin felt the same. If you remember, this track has seen a lot of incidents on departure. The one I remember is Sete Gibernau' strike...

Race direction's rationale was they looked at the telemetry, and Takagami started to brake at the same time the others did. They did not give him a penalty because he had not attempted to brake too late. Rins has a broken wrist. Rins has a point when he says that stewards are possibly out of touch with the reality of the sport today. Normally, you try to keep up by continuous learning, but I doubt any of the stewards has tried one of the recent MotoGP, to even get an idea of what it is.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt, because the Catalunya circuit has a tower showing the number of laps remaining. He saw 0, and thought "complete"; zero in this case means it is the last lap. I know that in the USA, on oval race tracks, you have these towers for lap count down. Is there a lap 0? or does Lap 1 means next finish line is the end?

@FuelCooler I see that you park you V11 on oak floor, while the rest of us use concrete. You are a true gentleman then....

No rush... I should still be here tomorrow, god willing....

I know what you mean.... you must be feeling so bad that it took you 12 years to finally realize what the answer was.... we are waiting for the photos with bated breath!

Reading Motocicismo, there was a review of some technical undergarments for extreme heat. Lately, I have been wearing the dryfit sports gear I used when I was doing Inline skating. Anyway, the brand is SIXS, but writen SIX2, the 2 standing for an inverted S https://www.six2.com/gb/products/438-2934-ts1l.html#/11-colour-black/34-size-xl_xxl They don't seem to be shipping to the USA; you can find SIX2/SIXS on Amazon, but I would not trust anything not sold directly by the brand.