audiomick

Did you get the T-shirt? Only if it is a cheap Prosecco, please. Good bubbly doesn't deserve to be desecrated.

How could you.

And moving to Germany, there is this: http://www.cafe36-online.de/ A cafe/restaurant with a grill kiosk in front of it, it is at the north end of this stretch. https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3736190#map=12/51.3963/11.0639 Actually not that pleasant on summer weekends. Too many people with too loud motorcycles, all trying to prove they are at least as fast as Valentino Rossi. But on a week day when the weather is good, a good stop.

Mate, we're all grown-ups here. Put it out there, and assume the rest of us are capable of making responsible decisions. I don't see any need to apologise. Great idea for a thread. I went to a couple of pubs in the course of a ride with mates in Australia, but can only definitely place this one. https://www.flowerdalehotel.com.au/ It is here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/-37.320049/145.287041 Follow the road initially south, then across to Kinglake and down to Hurstbrige, and you're heading for where @Lucky Phil lives. I'd put money on him having been out that way more than a couple of times. This picture from their website speaks volumes, I reckon.

I believe there isn't. I reckon you just have to think about where you park it. Very carefully... EDIT: one does get used to it, though. That was an issue with the Kawasaki GTR 1000. 290 kg or so with the luggage empty, and relatively long and high. One really does "plan the entries and exits", but it becomes half automatic.

And this, of course.

Has anyone put this up yet? If not, it's about time. If they have, it's about time it came up again.

@docc the picture in your post was called MGX-21 Flying Fortress here, or at least something very like the picture. It looked like this, I believe. I've never seen one https://www.1000ps.de/testbericht-3002519-moto-guzzi-mgx-21-flying-fortress-test-2016-mit-video The "Audace" tag went on this one. I know someone from the German forum who has one. It is a fat bike, but that is appropriate for the rider.... Was the thing with the "Batman" Fairing called "Audace" in the USA, or was there an error in translation? @p6x I reckon you're right there, and I personally would love to see that happen.

Indeed. I'm sure, if it ever became reality, it would be a lovely toy.

That is something imagined. It is a study from Oberdan Bezzi that I have seen a number of times elsewhere, and maybe here as well. Look here: https://oberdanbezzi.artstation.com/albums/1117762 He turns out dozens, maybe hundreds, of design studies. I don't know if he has ever actually been paid by a manufacturer for a design. Maybe he has, I just don't know. Anyway, he has been pumping out design studies based on the V100 ever since it came out. Some of them are quite pretty, but it is anyone's guess whether Piaggio will ever do anything that even remotely resembles one of Bezzi's proposals. PS: where it to actually be released, and should I be in a position to consider buying such a thing, I would be very tempted.

Unfortunately, I didn't see this myself, but anyway... When I was a kid, probably about 12, my dad bought himself a Yamaha AG 100. I, as a kid, thought it was really big. What he used before that around the paddock was a Honda CT 90. Dad was pretty chuffed with the Yamaha, and even bought a helmet and got a license, so he could ride it the 7 or so km. into town. (that didn't last long...). So he's ridden the bike into town to the Cobram Agricultural Show, where the Victoria Police trick motorcycle riding squad was present. He got into a conversation with one of them. This is the Cobram Showgrounds https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=Cobram%2C Victoria%2C Australia#map=18/-35.920689/145.653144 The building in the top left corner is, or at least used to be, the scout hall, and there was a tree trunk lying on the ground in front of it. Maybe 3 feet high, maybe only 2 1/2, but a serious tree trunk. I can envision the situation; my dad (no idea about motorcycles, actually) with his new toy engaging the professional rider in conversation about motorbikes and such. The end of the story: the police rider got on the Yamaha AG 100 and rode it over the tree trunk. To this day, I am still impressed by that.

I'm reminded of an anecdote from a bloke in the Kawasai Z owner's club in my Z900 days. The man had a Z1000 in the police version with foot-boards. He lived near this bit of road https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1314554571#map=13/-37.60777/145.61863 His story was how he went up there one day, followed by two young blokes on the then new Kawasaki ZXR 750s. At the top end, there was (and probably still is) a pub. He pulled in, and the young blokes did too. They were absolutely astonished at how fast and relaxed he rode up there on that bike. It's the man, not the machine.

I believe that might be the case. In one direction, I saw some videos from a German bloke (and his mates) from the black forest region. There are some really great roads there. Their theme seemed to be "safe" lines, i.e. staying in the middle of the lane, and getting as much lean angle as possible. Wankers, in my opinion. I'm more interested in a clean line from one corner to the next, and positioning my body weight so that the bike "hangs" in the corner. I developed the habit of hanging off a bit, firstly, in the eighties and early nineties, when, amongst others, a certain K. Schwantz was riding a two-stroke Suzuki with the number 34 on the front. If one watches him for a while, it is obvious that your bum has to be anywhere but on the seat to get throught the corners "properly". Secondly, I was doing it on a 1976 Z 900. That thing really did benefit from getting the rider's weight down beside the bike a bit. Middle '70s japanese frames and suspension where, shall we say, sub-optimal, and creating a "counterweight" was a good idea. On top of that, my vision. I think I mentioned here recently that I don't have 3D vision. Over the last several years, I have come to the conclusion that I personally can "see the line" better if I am looking past the handlebares into the corner a bit from the side. Parallax, or something. I lost the habit of moving in the seat through not riding for about 10 years, then a Honda CBX 650 E soft-chopper, followed by two full-dress Kawasaki GTR 1000s. I'm currently working on getting back into the habit, and have established that, for me, it is better when I hang off a bit. Doesn't have to work for everyone, though. And yes, the Police are fast. They are professionals, what do you expect.

Clutch bleeder extender: I put the original Guzzi part (from the Griso) in my 2002 Le Mans. That took me about 15 minutes, maybe a half an hour. Doesn't matter, nothing. Now, bleeding the clutch lookes like this: comfortably standing upright, and able to operate the clutch lever and the spanners to open and close the bleed valve at the same time. I don't see any arguments against adding the part. The weight is, for a road bike, in my opinion absolutely insignificant.

Enjoy it.

Yes, but I know. I also don't really like clothes made out of "plastic". It's all in my head. As far as old duffers go, who sit bolt upright in the saddle: in the last house I lived in in Melbourne ( @Lucky Phil in Dwyer St., Macleod) the neighbour across the road was middle 60's year old. He had a certain amount of track experience behind him, sat bolt upright, and was disturbingly fast. I'm currently practising getting back into the groove of moving around on the seat (lost the knack over the years), but Wally (the neighbour) planted a doubt whether that is really absolutely necessary. I dunno. I'll keep at it, because it's fun.

Indeed. I don't really expect Moto Guzzi to bring out any "serious" sport models in the foreseeable future. Aprilia is the designated Marque for that in the Piaggio concern. The best we can hope for is a "sport classic" or "retro sport" like the Paul Smart Ducati model a while back. Still, I would be happy to see that, even if I probably couldn't afford to buy one.

About the video: if the man can't sort out his audio so that it is not distorted, I'm out of the game. Can't take him seriously, even if he really does know what he is talking about. As far as fuses go, you don't need a "nano-ohm" meter. If your 10 dollar multi-meter shows no continuity through the fuse, it is no good. Full-stop.

@Lucky Phil I don't have a leather seat on any of my bikes, but... I made a seat cover for a mate of mine for his Z1R out of kangaroo leather. It was beautiful, but he didn't look after it, and it didn't last very long. So I'll give you points on that. On the other hand, there is no way I will ever wear bicycle pants under my leathers. Nappies is just not a good look. Ok on a push-bike with a Brooks saddle, but not under the leathers on a Muddabike.

For instance, from here. https://guzzitek.org/ no doubt not entirely in accordance with various copyright laws, but it is all there. Navigaiting the site takes a bit of getting used to, but it is not that hard as to be impossible.

A good exercise for me was to "extract" the starter circuit myself. Helped me understand what is happening there a lot.

A couple of years back, before I bought the V11 Le Mans and the Breva 750, I was tossing up about my motorcycle situation, and whether it made sense to keep the Kawasaki 1000 GTR. One of the things I did was a back to back comparison of the GTR with the V35 Imola over the same stretch of country road. I came to the conclusion that, while it was nice to have the possibility of using the 98 hp that the GTR had, I wasn't actually using more than the 30-odd (on a good day) hp that the Imola has. Ok, the Imola weighs a bit over half of what the GTR weighs, and that is to be taken into account. Even so, the little 350 Guzzi motor is really a lot of fun. 3 times the horsepower is also fun, but you don't need it to have fun. Having said that, I wouldn't have an Enfield. Don't like parallel twins. Never did, never will.

I had to go looking for what you meant. When I saw it, the first thought was "Dalek".

The question is, how bad are the potholes? Of course it is possible that you need to look at your suspension. The bike is not exactly new. On the other hand, suspension can only cope with so much. If the road is shitty beyond reason, it might be just too much.