audiomick

Interesting question. I'd reckon it shouldn't be too hard to scale down the developments in the newer V7 850 engine to a 500 or so, since the V7 850 engine derives from the old V50. Still, I'm not a motor engineer. Maybe it would be harder than I think. A relevant question is, I think, what is available from other brands in the Piaggio group? Not in terms of whether there is an engine somewhere that could be re-badged as a Guzzi, but rather in terms of watering down the brand image. Piaggio seems to be doing "this brand for this, that brand for the other". Have they got a bike somewhere in the 450 range that is doing well, and do they want to tempt buyers away from that brand with a competing Guzzi?

Way off topic, I know, but.... I heard some years ago that about 60% of the literature in the entire world about tax laws deals with German tax laws. There have been some attempts to simplifiy the tax laws, but there is a profession called "Steuerberater" (tax advisor) which is very well organised, and doesn't want the laws to get simpler.

Getting back to the video, why is a place with "Vintage Motorcycles" written in big letters on the wall selling new bikes? Just asking.... Apart from that, I've read any number of posts from owners of various V85 models. all of whom where and are very happy with their bikes. I reckon they must be good. If you like chook chasers, which I don't. I'd like to see that motor in a "retro sport" chassis, including clip-ons and a bikini fairing.

Good question, and quite possible. Your comparison with the "rise" of Japanese vehicles is very appropriate, I reckon. I see two factors that may well influence further developements, in my opinion. One the one hand is China's authoritarian government, effectively a dictatorship. If that government decides that their motorcycle industry needs to dominate the world, the will just shovel in resources until the goal is achieved. On the other hand is the slowing of economic growth that has been apparent in China for the last several years. The economy was able to grow very rapidly for a couple of decades, because the starting point was way behind the rest of the world. In the meantime, a lot of catching up has been done. It remains to be seen how much more growth potential is there, and how long the government can keep forcing things through without taking economic and finacial realities into consideration.

Quite apart from the fact that I find the Imola very pretty, and the riding position is pretty much perfect for me: I rode a Suzuki GSX 250 E, similar to this but silver and red, during my L and P plate times (for non-Australians: Learner and Probationary. At the time, a 250 was the largest capacity bike those licence categories was allowed to ride) By Mark247nz at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Off2riorob using CommonsHelper., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6916719 A good little bike, but as an up-and-coming motorcycle legend, one always wishes for more. The Imola has quite similar power and weight figures to the GSX 250, but is just better. The motor has more character, the handling is tighter, and so on. It is, more or less, the bike I was wishing the GSX were. After I got off my P plates, I bought a Z 900. These days, as an established and experienced motorcycle legend who has been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and has nothing more to prove, the Imola is just really good fun.

No mate, get a bigger garage.

I hope you find something, but it might be easier to have the existing seat re-covered.

That'd be it, I reckon. From what I have read here, I have the impression that US registration laws record the year of manufacture. I don't know how the UK handles that. Here in Germany, the date of first registration is recorded. That means, if the vehicle sat in the showroom for two years, it may have been manufactured in 2003, but will have 2005 in the papers. Anyway, nice that it all seems to be falling into place.

Yeah, I'd have one of those in a pinch.

You mean how many wires need to be re-connected when the battery was out, don't you? I assume the original state is only one (fat) wire to each terminal, like most vehicles. The thing is, one never knows, on a bike one isn't familiar with, what may have been added to or altered in the wiring loom. For instance, my Breva 750 has only one additional wire to +, the modification to get battery plus direct to the starter solenoid. From memory, my V11 has 2 wires on minus and 3 on plus, but the wiring loom has obviously been modified, so that is nothing to go by. It looks like it was only the two fat ones originally. My V35 Imola is the clear winner: 3 (or 4?) on minus, and 4 (or 5?) on plus. It also originally only had the two, I believe. However, it has acquired a mount for the navigation device, a different alternator and electronic ignition, all of which brought additional connectors to the battery with them. I really should build some sort of "connector busbar" so there are only the two wires on the battery. PS: I've gotten into the habit of binding the connectors from each pole together when I disconnect them. Experience shows that is too easy to miss one out when reconnecting if I don't do that.

Finally found the "proper" Fat Bottomed Girls photo. I think it is an ad for the item, so the link might break at some point... https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/1213/09/queens-album-jazz-1978-fat-bottomed_1_1bf9954ed9f478f2a6381cf6da0f5cc1.jpg

Yes.

It's not my fault, Davey started it Great to hear that the old girl is up and running again.

I mentioned further up that I got to ride a TZ 350, a pure race bike on slicks. That was on a closed circuit, of course, and I had done a number of laps on my Z900 before I rode the Yamaha. That was here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/11692249#map=17/-37.216168/145.083636 The first time round going down the longer straight, I braked for the right-hander at the end of the straight where I had been braking on the Kawasaki, and actually accelerated again to get up to the curve. Even then, the bike could have no doubt got through the curve a good bit faster than I was able to ride it.

From the ad: I wonder where that came from...

I want one. Not the only reason I like the XJS, but one of the reasons, is the TWR car that competed in the Australian Touring Cars races for a couple of years. The thing went really well... Incidentally, this is the circuit shown in the video. https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/172987017#map=15/-33.44861/149.55710 It has been used as a race track for ages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Panorama_Circuit Apart from race meetings, it is public roads, and I have driven around it. When you drive around it with the pictures of the race broadcasts in your head, you think they must all be completely insane. Really steep, and really tight, and then that really long straight. The bit on the long straight labelled "the chase" was put in in the '80s to slow them down a bit. One too many cars got airborne over the humps. EDIT: just watched the video again. "The Chase" was apparently not yet implemented at the time of the video. The "in-car" camera towards the end shows how it was: the steep and tight descent down the mountain, and then this really long straight with a couple of humps in it.

Yes, but you don't need to get it from Amazon. There are reputable suppliers who sell it too...

Don't care, mate. The XJS was, and remains, a thing of beauty. And I got to drive an XJ40 once with the V12 in it. Sensational. Given that a V11 is absolutely reliable, with no maintenance issues or recurring problems, I can see why you might be concerned about the reliability of another vehicle. I try not to worry too much about that. If I like it, I like it.

So you've apparently jury-rigged a battery to try and get it started. Are you absolutely sure you connected all the cables that need to be connected to the battery? "Stupid" question, I know. Just for the sake of completeness.

No. A number of Guzzi models, including the V11 series, were (are) prone to becoming reluctant to start with time. Some of them (not the V11, I believe, later models) had a function in the engine management that prevented starting if the system thought the voltage was too low. Others (including the V11 and my Breva 750) just don't get enough volts to the starter solenoid to pull it in properly and activate the starter motor. The solution for the V11 and my Breva is to provide power, switched by a relay, directly from the battery to the starter solenoid (with an in-line fuse). Easy on the Breva, but on the V11 it requires an additional relay. Never mind that for now, though. Going by your description, that is not your problem, or at least not your first problem. That is a topic that you can get into later, I reckon.

Charlie, thank you. Given a choice of Jag, I'd have an XJS. But only if I couldn't get a Triumph Stag. Or both....

I read on the german forum that they have filed for insolvency. That is no doubt what he meant with "legal restructing proceeding with self admistration". They've filed insolvency, but are not being put in the hands of an administrator to sort it out. I guess we'll see how they come out of it. Incidentally, crappy video, and really bad suits.

Yeah, me too.

Indeed. I only owned one, a Honda MVX 250. Sad story, actually: I helped my girlfriend at the time in choosing it. She only rode it for a couple of months before she had a really nasty accident. Someone turned across in front of here, and she suffered multiple fractures in the right leg, and a ruptured knee in the left, pretty much all of the ligaments on the knee. Anyway, I got the bike, got a new frame for it, and rode it for a while. Nice, actually. What I would have really like to have had was a Kawasaki KR 250 S, but never could afford one. I also rode an NS 400 R a couple of times, an RD 250 (it made the rounds in my circle of friends, and proved indestructable), a brief ride on a Suzuki RGV 250, and one time a TZ 350 race bike on a track. The TZ was simply amazing. So two-strokes have their charm, but are most likely a thing of the past. As far as four-stroke motors go, obviously I like the Guzzi V-Twins, both the big-block and the small-block versions. Visceral, invigorating maschines. Lovely. But, I still do like inline-four motors. I had a long and in-depth relationship with a 1976 Z 900 whilst I was still in Melbourne, and about 10 years of GTR 1000 here. Before that, 6 or 7 years with a Honda CBX 650 E that someone gave to me as a birthday present. A fundamentally boring motorcycle, actually, but the motor was really quite nice. The Guzzi motors offer something that no-one else does (not even Ducati, despite the similarites...), but a Japanese in-line four can also be good. At least, if it is a Kawasaki. I've ridden some pretty boring Honda and Yamaha in-line fours too.... PS: I once rode a Triumph 750 Triple that a mate in Melbourne had for a while. One of the old ones that were created by adding a third cylinder to the Triumph vertical twin 500 motor. I think it was, essentially, a boat anchor, but it was really good fun to ride for that brief ride. A motor that really let you know it was there, even if it wasn't actually producing a great deal of useful power. I think that has something in common with the Guzzi motors. These days, they are not really anywhere near the ball game as far as power output goes. But the way they do that what they do is entrancing.

It worked well for about 10 years for me.