audiomick

Mine arrived here (Germany) today. Many thanks once again.

On the German market, that would be an absolute bargain. I'd imagine the market in Finnland is fairly similar. I would certainly buy it. As far as the spring goes, if it breaks it wont take you all summer to fix it, I gather. Get in a replacement as soon as you get the bike, preferably one of the ones that were developed here, and change it at your leisure. As I said, if the bike is really as you describe it, I would buy it for sure, and worry about details later. You're not likely to find another one too quickly that is showing such a low mileage (assuming it is genuine...).

According to several people here, and information I have seen elsewhere, the tenth digit of the number is the year it was built, so that bike was built in 2002. The number you quoted in your post is identical to the number on my V11 Le Mans , except for the last three digits. Yours ends with 195, mine with 456, otherwise all the same. My V11 Le Mans was delivered and first registered in Germany in May, 2003.

Give it heaps, mate.

Errmmmm, that statement could easily provide the basis for a discussion that could go on all night and need several cases of beer to lubricate it. Without launching into that discussion now, I don't agree. I think most blues musicians wouldn't, either, just to name one example. On the contrary, most pop music isn't "real", even if the artists in question think they are making art. Most of it is just product.

Did you have to leave town?

Docc, you're a very naughty boy.

Better that than a good shiraz.

Ok, so he noticed the qualities of the bike, and gave it a good report. Mostly. The bashing continues: he says at the start that he never was interested in adventure bikes, but for the test he miracuolasly has a retro enduro helmet to wear. Further: as in the last video, brand new spiffy clothing appropriate to the bike in question, and meticulously aged boots. And he is constanly striking poses. I'm pleased that he liked the bike, but I still reckon he is a bit of a twat. And Monica is a shit camera operator.

Ok, so good luck for the ongoing search. I hope you find one soon.

Hmmm.... Very ambitious prices, then, I would say.

I also reckon that's probably too much. Sure, it is a fine pitch thread, but still.

Another thought: I'm not all that rapt about the tyres in the photos. The profile looks good, but... This is them: https://www.bridgestonemotorcycletires.com/en-us/product-results/spitfire-s11# The blurb seems to be biased towards "cool" more than performance. And H-rated. Top speed 210 km/h according to here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_code#Speed_rating and the bike can allegedly do about 220 km/h according to here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBX and here https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_cbx1000_79.html Ok, you're not going to be hammering something like a CBX at top speed all the time, but still, the tyres are slightly underrated for the bike. It would be interesting to know if the load-rating is appropriate, particularly in respect to the hot conditions you have in Texas.

Ok, so maybe 10k is not too unreasonable, and maybe you can talk him down a bit For what it is worth, I just had a look here on one of the bigger platforms. There were some CBXs on offer. The ones that I might consider start at around €10,000. The highest was a low-mileage, original, very clean from a dealer in Holland for a bit over €22,000

Seems a lot for a bike that is a bit ratty. Have you looked at the prices that are being asked for a good CBX, assuming there are any at all on offer?

Ok, it looks like a Vespa, so it's almost a Guzzi.

My experience with the CBX 1000: a bloke I shared a house with in the early nineties had one. It was in pretty good nick, and I was able to ride it a number of times. My bike at the time was a 1976 Kawasaki Z900, so as you know what I was comparing to, but I rode a lot of different bikes belonging to various friends at the time, so I wasn't "one-eyed". Incidently, the bloke with the CBX also had a Le Mans 850 III, and it is predominantly his fault (for letting me ride that as well) that I now own Guzzis. Anyway, the CBX is big and heavy, and has a late 70's japanese frame. 'nuff said. And it is an enormous amount of fun. That motor is absolutely fantastic. Although the motor looks enormous, it actually isn't any wider than the Z900 motor. I know this for certain. I measured them. The one in the photos: I reckon you're right about the "buying it as a project". Either he's done a "pimp my ride" on it to turn it over, or he started in on renovating, and has given up for some reason. The photos indicate that he got into the carbs and brakes, not purely cosmetic things, so maybe he really intended to finish it off. If I had the readies to get it finished, I would buy it. I reckon a CBX in good nick must be like hen's teeth, and if you do find one, it is likely to be astronomically priced. I'd be inclined to take the risk. When it is finished, you know what you've got. The risk is that there is something in there that needs doing and might break the bank. But then you might not, and at the end of the day you would have a brilliant bike. EDIT: if you buy it, throw away those stupid handlebars immediately, and put something useful on there. The ones in the photo would undoubtably turn a reasonably sporty bike, according to the standards of the time, into a heavy pig.

Es sieht auf jedem Fall stark danach aus. Willkommen zurück hier. Ich habe mich hier mittlerweile ziemlich eingenistet.

It is possible to get diving masks with prescription lenses. May be a bit too much for one trip, though.

No, not quite. The only way to not have wind noise is to effectively protect the microphone from the wind. It doesn't matter if the mic is built in to the camera, a seperate mic connected to the camera with a cable, or a mic connected to a seperate recorder. You have to isolate it from the wind. That isn't even all that hard. A couple of layers of rubber foam taped over the built-in mic on a camera should do it. If you want to really pay attention to sound quality, the foam or whatever can get expensive, but if you are using something with a built-in mic, don't worry about it. As I said, it isn't all that difficult, actually. All it takes is a bit of common sense, a few minutes of thinking sensibly about the problem, and the awareness that one has to stop wind getting in without damping the pressure waves (sound waves) too much in the process. The wind protectors that look like a fluffy gerbil work quite well, incidently. As far as the camera person goes, towards the end where the bloke is talking after his ride: 1) the camera follows him to the bike where he talks for a minute or two, and the bike's mirror is in front of his face most of the time. 2) he sits at the table and talks for several minutes. During that time the bike in the background is in focus. Ok. But he is not. Not OK. Just to mention a couple of points.... Yes, I'm picky, and nit-picking is easy. But getting it right isn't that difficult either.

Well, the bike is pretty. The film is mediocre. The camera person is an amateur, and they don't really have the audio sorted. Wind noise should not ever happen. And the bloke corresponds almost perfectly to the classic stereotype of a public school twat. Ok, that is not really fair, and perhaps says something about my personal predjudices, but still... But the bike really is pretty. Pity I don't like parallel twins.

The first thing that occurs to me is that all the teams will be able to see at all times where all of the bikes are on the track. And be able to calculate speed information out of that. Not entirely useless information, I would say.

Yeah, that's not so much the problem, although they do get a bit flat in the middle. It's more the front tyres. Not so much that the profile dissapears, but that you (can) get very uneven wear happening. In particular, what is known as "Sägezahnbildung" in German, i.e. "saw-tooth developement" more or less. That thing where the tread blocks wear more on the leading edges, and you get steps developing from one to the next. I've had front tyres that still had enough profile to be legal, but were really not good for the handling on the bike. Tyre pressure is critical. Too little pressure accelerates the process dramatically.

I beg to differ. If you are constrained to the consevative 110 km/h that is allowed in Australia, yes. If you are really on an Autobahn, it depends entirely on how fast you are prepared to ride. My normal cruising speed on the GTR 1000 was about 150 - 160 km/h (average, mind you. Peak around 180 km/h. More than that, and I start getting nervous on public roads...). That, particularly on that heavy bike, is not exactly conducive to long tyre life, front or rear. And smooth B roads are only the norm in southern / western Germany. Here in the region around Leipzig, and in fact all of what was the DDR prior to 1989, you get everything from freshly made roads through "patches on the patches" to cobblestones. Makes a trip across country through unknown territory quite interesting. EDIT: having said that, even around Heilbronn, where I lived previous to Leipzig, there were some pretty shitful roads. That is in Baden-Württemberg, which is a pretty well-off state, but some of the back roads are still pretty ordinary.

That might explain the black seat. Look at the photos here. The site is not 100% reliable, but when the included photos are of the right bike, they are apparently mostly catalogue photos. The ones in this article confirm what I thought, i.e. that the Tenni should have a brown seat. https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_v11_le_mans_tenni 02.htm EDIT: I see in the ad that the original brown seat is included. I wonder what condition it is in...