audiomick

I saw Herb Alpert in Munich in the late '90s. I don't really remember exactly what I was doing. We put the sound system in, for sure, and I was probably looking after the front-of-house desk, preparing it for the bloke who mixed the show. Anyway, the band was fairly big, lots of brass of course, and about 6 percussionists. A really good show, if one likes that sort of music (I do, but not so much that I would buy all his records...). Unfortunately, the room, the old Gasteig in Munich, a large concert hall built for orchestra concerts, isn't good for loud music. Even the drummer for Oscar Peterson who I saw in there a couple of times was almost too much for the room, with his big cymbals and "cymbal heavy" style. So Herb Alpert fires up, and people started leaving. Too loud for them. At one point an entire row stood up and left all at once. A pity, really, because it was a good show otherwise.

I gather the package, motor, suspension, brakes, is very good, even verging on excellent. The few times I've seen one in the flesh, my reaction ranged all the way from "what the fark is that?" to "hmm, actually not bad". But if I had one, it would have to be modified. A German company made a thing that they named "Scandalo". A Centauro with (I think) a Sport 1100 tank and a seat and tailpiece that they made themselves. Looks a lot like the photo that @Lucky Phil posted further up. If I had one, it would have to go a long way in that direction to make me happy, but of course with clip-ons instead of that silly chook-chaser handlebar. Here, a picture of a Scandalo stolen out of the internet

I don't expect there will be many takers for this here, but I've just written something on the subject somewhere else, and I thought I might as well put it here too. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I have a V35 Imola. About the only thing that annoyed me about it was that the clutch was so heavy. In the German forum that I am active in, a couple of bright sparks figured out that the clutch from a V85 will fit in any of the small block models. The only restriction is that the V35 and V50 have a different input shaft on the gearbox to the V65 and later models, including the V85. This means that the clutch plate for the V85 clutch wont fit on those early models. However, the V85 produces close to 80 PS, the V50 only 49, and the V35 a bit more than 30, maybe. So it is a safe bet to just use the smaller clutch plate in the newer clutch. Long story short: I bought a brand new clutch in e-Bay for about 150 Euros (price for a new V85 clutch from a dealer about 250 Euro). It turned out to be a V9 clutch, but is obviously effectively the same as the one in the V85. The original clutch in the V35 required a full hand, and a lot of effort. Now I can operate it with one finger. Need I say more? And.... the newer clutch is lighter than the old one, so blipping the throttle at the traffic light is much more effective. So... if anyone has a small-block Guzzi and a bit of spare cash, and a bit of time, think seriously about doing the mod. It is worth the effort. If anyone is interested and needs more details, let me know and I will elaborate.

Funny how good workmanship and good equipment tends to be expensive, isn't it.

Incidently that points to why I prefer GIMP. It is not from Microsoft, and accordingly works properly and delivers what it promises.

I don't. For many applications that I had as a sound engineer, it was a right royal pain in arse.

As far as I understand it, things like mobile phones register metadata about how the phone was being held when the photo was taken, and rotate the photo on the basis of that so that it looks the right way up when you look at it on the same device. Some photo viewers on computers can read that metadata, and show the photo "the right way up". Some programs can't, and therefore show the photo upside down, or sideways, as it was actually taken.. The forum software can't read the metadata, probably. The solution is to open the photos in a program like GIMP, which shows you the photo without correction, and has a function to rotate it to the right way up. And is free, and can scale the file size of the picture, and lots and lots of other stuff, most of which I don't know how to do. https://www.gimp.org/ Edit: @Pressureangle do you like this picture better? Rotating it took about three minutes, because GIMP takes a while to start on this fairly old laptop.

So would I. As far as I know, those protectors are always after-market accessories, so it is more or less pot luck to find a match to the set you have. Also, the ones you have will look a bit weathered, and the replacement brand new. And yes, have a really good look for hidden damage. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that there isn't any.

I second that. There is not quite enough fairing on that for a Le Mans.

There are "sports" sunglasses available that stay on (for the most part...) during that sort of funny buggers.

speaking of good carpenters, this turned up a couple of years ago on the geman forum. I don't know if it has been here yet. If not, it should have.

And now for something completely different... Someone showed me this earlier this evening. I thought it might be useful information towards solving the problem of how to play Rachmaninov if your hands are too small. It seems it is easy: all you need is a good carpenter and a capable assistant.

Thanks for the info. I've got the plate here, might get around to installing it one day, but I wouldn't have thought of those details.

Thanks for that @Joe . I wasn't aware of that concert, but it seems there is a fair bit of it in the Tube. And the sound quality is fairly good for the time.

Don't know why I thought of this just now...

Where do they occur?

Yes. Without getting into "sag" and "over 60 years old", I reckon I can get my garage "flat-mate" to help me have a look at how much the suspension on the bike sags when I sit on it.

A quick check with an armful of gear on the bathroom scales confirms that this is about right. So about 165 pounds with all the gear.

So about 86 kg in proper units. I'm around 65 kg without the gear, so maybe 75 kg all kitted up. Do you reckon I'd be right with the standard springs, assuming they are still ok? I'm inclined to think I would be. The front end felt alright the last time I rode it. I had put the pre-load back to the "default" settings from the user's manual.

Pinning it will keep you going for a while, but I reckon, looking at the photos, that the levers are just knackered and need replacing. Patch it up, and start looking for a replacement.

That's a good trick. Probably won't save you if the battery is really knackered, or if the charging system is faulty, but will protect you from you own stupidity if you're prone to forgetting to turn off the lights when you park the bike.

Me too, actually. Not the motor, I knew I'd love that. A flatmate had a Le Mans III in the late '80's, and I really liked it, and I was convinced that a more modern version of the motor must be good. It is, perhaps even more than I expected. But the styling... I still can't really come at a V11 without the Le Mans fairing. And even the Le Mans took a couple of months to grow on me. Riding it helped convince me, of course.

No. This place https://öhlins-gera.de/de which is here https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/208123602#map=18/50.880637/12.166849 Not really close to New Jersey... It's become a bit difficult here. There were two places with a good reputation. I had my rear shock done at one of them, but they have closed down. At the other place, the owner apparently has health issues and can't say when (or if...) he will be back to normal operations. I turned up Motoradtke myself, but so far haven't had any comments back in the various forums about the quality of the work. I assume, though, if he can stay as official Öhlins partner, then he probably is at least competent.

Not quite on topic, but related: mine has a blown fork seal. Not just a drip, it lost (apparently) the entire contents of the left fork leg on the ground overnight after the last time I rode it. It has, according to the speedo, about 70,000 km on the clock. I'm still tossing up about what to do. On the one hand, there is a place about 80 km away from here that is a "fork specialist", specifically Öhlins, but I gather he'll do any forks. On the other hand, the workshop that I use as needed has no doubt done forks, and can no doubt do a servicable job. I was more or less happy with the fork's performance. As far as the "too soft" springs go, I currently weigh 65 kg, so I don't need particualrly hard forks. So what should I do? Go to the effort to take the forks to the specialist, or just have them done by my "tame" mechanic? I do like to have things perfect, but on the other hand, I'm not going to be racing it or anything demanding like that. I could have a go at it myself, but I don't think I'll find the time (it's already 6 months since the seal went), and I don't have the experience to evaluate the wear on the internal parts as to whether anything needs replacing. I'd be interested in a "vote", what is the sensible thing to do, weighing cost and effort against advantages.

My brother in law, unfortunately passed away due to a heart attack, had a theory. In his opinion, everyone should have to be obliged to ride a motorcyle for a at least a year before getting a driver's license to drive a car. That way, the really stupid ones would get sorted out by natural attrition, and the roads would become a safer place for all.