audiomick

I reckon the bloke who parked his Airbus on the Hudson a few years back was one of the "have both" category. I rather hope that there is one of those in the cockpit when I am on a commercial flight.

Yeah. The one my Dad had went alright, but it had problems with the exhaust manifold, and the solution was a set of headers, probably simply because they were cheaper than the original manifold. I think that helped. As far as rust goes, my HK Monaro was full of it. The previous owner, who bought it new, lived somewhere down the bay in Melbourne, so it spent its life in salty air. That didn't do it any good.

Yes, I know what you mean, and I will likely never own an automatic car or bike. I rode a scooter around the parking lot at La Trobe once, and decided that it was just dangerous. Not interested. The electric driveline in the Tesla was a different beast altogether. I didn't get to cane it in the curves, but I think getting the most out of it would be not unlike finding the groove on a bike with an internal combustion engine and manual transmission. Anyone can ride fairly fast on a modern bike, but finding the groove is still an art. I reckon finding the groove with an electric drivetrain is probably just as much of an art and a joy. My dad owned a late '70s Falcon with a 4.1 motor for a while, an XC, I think. I was young and reckless, and loved driving it at about 140 km/h on the dirt roads around the family home near Cobram. The "made" dirt roads were bluestone, and the big, fat Falcon would dance a bit on those roads at that speed. Or the feeling that the bike is just starting to slide a bit. Getting that right with an internal combustion engine is an art. Getting it right with an electric drivetrain is likely to be a bit different, but undoubtably an art in its own right. I'd love to be able to experiment. Edit: this looks like the Falcon in quesition, for those who are not familiar with Australian cars. The car in the picture is a Fairmont, which was the "luxury" model, but it is the same colour, at least, and the body shape was the same for the series XA to XC, Falon or Fairmont. By Jeremy from Sydney, Australia - Ford Fairmont XC, CC BY 2.0,

Outright acceleration is not quite the point. You're right, more than 100 hp in a bike is pointless on the road. The point is the way it gets up and goes from zero. Plant the foot, and it happens. No internal combustion engine can do what an electric motor can do. Maximum torque at zero revs. That has its attraction, and I would like to have a bike that does that.

What is that? It is entirely possible to make an attractive motorcycle with a good seating postion from a small block Guzzi. See, for instance, the V50 Monza und V35 Imola. Beautiful, perfect riding position. The bike in that picture is just wrong. EDIT: for those who aren't familiar with the small block models, this is the V35 Imola. I've got one, and I am very fond of it. Bugger all power, but very pretty and loads of fun: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_v35_imola 79.htm The bike in the picture looks like it might have started out as one of these: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_v65c.htm Spectacularly ugly from the factory, but the "costum bobber" in the picture is no improvement. Annuveredit: you can tell it is a small block by the rocker covers. Unmistakeable.

Phil, I was allowed to take a Tesla for a short spin. If I had a motorcycle that went like that thing did, I wouldn't give a shit how it sounded. The best V-Twin sound I ever heard was a Montjuich. A shop in Preston (I think) owned it, and a mate of mine got a ride on it. He rode it straight to my place to show me. I heard him coming on Kingsbury Drive, and I was inside on Dwyer Street. Sounded amazing, but too loud. I like the sound of my Guzzis too, but quiet is also good.

Ok, so only a little bit salty. But nevertheless, I hope she washed the bike down thourougly afterwards.

I wouldn't have thought that Kiwis would have any knuckles to drag.

Whilst I understand what you are getting at, and agree, I must say that I don't like boxing as an example. I consider boxing to be an anachronism, an activity that should have died out some time ago. Two blokes getting paid to beat the shit out of each other just doesn't work for me, and several hundred watching and getting excited about it, even less.

The nail has a very sore head.

I do. Not frivolously, but per defintion: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/fun Riding is dangerous (which sometimes adds to the kick), requires a lot of concentration, and is definitely not to be taken lightly. But I find it pleasant and enjoyable, and it makes me feel happy, particularly when I get it right and everything flows.

I hope that is a lake, and not the ocean... EDIT: she seems to have a trend with motorcycles...

Do you happen to know how long that takes on average? I have no idea. What I saw in the excerpts in that video didn't exactly inspire confidence in her skills. I'm doing my best to resist writing a sentence with the word "blonde" in it.

That's probably a girl, but definitely not a Guzzi.

Yep. One could wonder how she got the license in the first place.

or should that have been in "what are you listening to"?

And another thing. I haven't had the problem yet, but when I bought my Le Mans I was advised by a very, very well informed acquaintance to get in, amongst other things, a spare timing cover gasket. In his opinion, which I trust implicitly, the gasket is prone to developing a leak. I haven't actually seen anything to that effect here, but perhaps other members could comment. As far as localising the leak goes, clean everything up impeccably. Go for a bit of a ride, and then dust the suspect areas with talcum powder (scented or not doesn't make a difference...). That tends to make a frightful mess, but shows up even very small leaks very well, and helps a lot in seeing where the oil is really coming from.

Apart from anything else that it might be, be aware of the breather hose that runs from the frame behind the steering head to the top of the motor just in front of the gearbox. This is the hose part #18 on the parts diagramm https://wendelmotorraeder.de/oelpumpe-v11-nakedle-manns-01-02-ex-30_3006_300602_30060202_3006020230_300602023003.html The hose gets old and hard, and cracks. The cracks seem to generally happen at the first bend away from the ends. When the front goes, it can look like a leak from the front of the motor somewhere. When the back goes, it can look like the rear main seal is gone, i.e. the seal around the output shaft to the clutch. If you have just bought the bike, it is a good idea to have a look at that hose as part of the "getting to know the bike" ritual, even if it isn't the cause of your current leak. It is a part that has to be replaced periodically.

I expect you'll find out sooner or later. But I can't imagine a helmet producer not having thought about that. I expect that the mechanism is more or less water tight. If you really want to know, put the helmet on, and go under the shower.

Different strokes, and all that. I have the audio on my navigation device switched off all the time, in the car and on the bike. I absorb information much better visually than aurally, and having to try and figure out what the machine is telling me is far more distracting that a quick glance at the screen. Unfortunately, tinnitus is not only caused by exposure to loud noise. Mine is most likely to an extent due to noise exposure, but probably not entirely. As far as I know, it is not really understood what all the causes could be, but I believe stress could be a factor, as well as who knows what else. Fortunately I mostly don't notice mine unless I actively think about it, but when I do, it is really loud.

I started writing an answer to that, and then realised that it is probably too late at night for me to formulate my thoughts coherently. Nevertheless, in the course of thinking about it I found this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold_vacuum and realised that I had a "turned around" view of what the throttle does. One tends to think that opening the throttle is "urging on" the motor. As the article points out, in fact opening the throttle is more like "releasing the beast". Closing the throttle is not "turning down the fuel", but rather "cutting off the air supply". Without the throttle, the motor (disregarding load) would run at maximun air intake and maxium revs all the time. Introducing the throttle into the equation provides the possibility to choke off the air supply, and keep the motor at idle, or lower than maximum revs. So "intake vacuum" is kind of an indication of how much the motor is being held back by the throttle, and "manifold pressure" is the actual air (or gas, or air/fuel mixture) pressure in the manifold at any given state of throttle opening. I think.

It seems logical to me to state the pressure relative to 0 Bar, as is the norm for pressure measurements generally. You are quite right that the manifold pressure in a normally aspirated engine will be lower than the current ambient atmospheric pressure. However, ambient amtmospheric pressure is far from constant. I am also fairly convinced that the difference in pressure in the manifold compared to ambient atmospheric pressure would vary depending on what the ambient atmospheric pressure currently actually is. Therefore, stating the manifold pressure in relation to the ambient atmospheric pressure would be likely to be rather complicated, and require an accompanying statement of the current atmospheric pressure.

I never doubted that. And being a nerd is not entirely a bad thing, as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

Very interesting. But the bloke is a bit of a nerd, isn't he.

I could live with the polished aluminium. Brushed might be better. Chrome would not work at all. But the original red was very good.