audiomick

In Melbourne before the move, I had the Z900, and two Kawasaki 2-Stroke triples. One almost complete, but buggered, and the other a basket case. And everything else that one accumulates over the course of 15 years or so. I made the move with a backpack, and one carton of stuff that I sent ahead. And AUD2.000. Fresh start, more or less. I dread to think of what it would mean to move back. That is not impossible, but... Currently 4 motorcycles, the car, the household goods. Anyway, we were talking about the advantages of high quality leathers here.

No mate. I moved to Germany in 1996. I bought the jacket when I was in Melbourne over Christmas and New Year 2005 / 2006. That was a kind of "10 year anniversary" visit. The receipt came home to Germany with me in the luggage. I'm pretty sure I wore the jacket during the trip back, because it would have made the luggage too heavy.

I must have got a good one. You got me thinking, and I went looking and found the receipt. Looks like the jacket is just short of 18 years old. I did the sums: AUD 570.- purchase plus around AUD 130.- for the repairs after the accident means I'm coming in at just under $40.- a year for the jacket, and getting cheaper every year. In an attempt to get back to the original post: @LaGrasta, I hope you are able to enjoy your new jacket for at least as long as I have mine.

Without knowing exactly which screws they were, I've noticed at times whilst looking for parts in the lists at, for instance, Stein-Dinse or Wendel Motoraeder in Berlin, that the screws are sometimes available, and sometimes not. If you want "Guzzi original", go looking at one of the above mentioned, or an equivalent in your country. NML in the Netherlands occurs to me as well. However, if you get the screws from a Guzzi dealer, be prepared for some interesting prices. For instance from Wendel €5.60 for one of the tank cap screws, presumably the longer one. https://wendelmotorraeder.de/tcei-schraube_gu98690230-p-1037361.html?ref=expl My opinion : they're just screws. For anything that is not a critical application, I go looking for a screw with a head that I find attractive in the place in question. My tank has a Hepco-Becker tank ring on it, and the screws holding it came from here and cost about €0.90 each, if I recall correctly. https://www.fedorgross.de/ From there not because they are cheap, but because the shop is about 10 minutes walk from where I live, and I can go in there and have them show me various different options. I've had occasions where I went in, talked to them for nearly fifteen minutes, and came out with a couple of M4 screws for fifty cents in total, and they are quite ok with that. Anyway, the point is, I reckon you would be paying a premium price for "original Guzzi" to no particular advantage. As I said, the ones you have circled are just screws, they don't hold the wheels on. The pretty screw heads for the three holding the dash might be harder to source, but not impossible. Take out one of each type, measure them, and go looking. If you don't have a shop within reach, there are any number of screw suppliers in the internet. PS: As I indicated further up, the tank cap screws are in two different lengths, three of each, alternating long-short-long-short around the ring. That surprised me, but is obviously original. Another PS: the screws holding the dash screw into "silent blocks" that are screwed into the carrier. When you take them out, pay attention to what is really coming loose, the screw or the silent block.

To make that sort of decision, you have to know who is breathing down your neck. Those blokes don't have mirrors. My limited experience with driving in circles, not even races, just "training sessions", tells me you don't pay that much attention to who exactly it is behind you. You're only interested in staying in front of them.

Isn't it? In those days, the Tankerville was a Jazz locale. I was in there for a Vince Jones show. A fellow student at the uni. used to play guitar for him.

Yeah, this one is the second for me too. The first one got pinched here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tote_Hotel during the time I worked there in the late '80s. I actually saw it again a couple of months later here https://www.facebook.com/p/Tankerville-Arms-Hotel-100063457777673/ just over a kilometre up the street, but wasn't able to reclaim it. It took me close to 20 years to get the second and current one. I'm quite sure it will see me out. It has survived an accident with bravour, and just keeps on going on.

Nice. I like the asymmetrical zip too. I have one from Mars Leathers in Melbourne. They've changed the design a little, but it is more or less this model: https://marsleathers.com.au/collections/mens-jackets-leather/products/mars-brando however, I had it "custom fitted" and cancelled the epaulettes and the collar. Mine has a chinese collar with a press-stud flap to close it, and what they used to offer under the name "action back". That means there is a sort of pleat on both sides at the back to ease movement. The jacket weighs a ton; full-thickness cowhide, but I love it. And it is really cool. PS: black of course, but leather in that red is good.

The 15M ECU can, as far as I know, not take an input from a Lambda sensor. If anyone knows different, please say so. That means, to have any benefit from the Lambda sensor, you would have to change to the 15RC ECU from the later models. EDIT: no, wait, there is one possible benefit. If you were to want to start modifying your map, the ability to mount a Lambda sensor would make it possible to use a Lambda mapper to see what effect any changes have had.

Why? I know what the Wiki is and how reliable it is as source. For a quick look it is good enough for most things.

I really don't have a problem with the idea of an electric motorcycle. I was able to have a short drive of a Tesla some years ago. The experience confirmed what I had read about the characteristics of an electric motor, i.e. the go from zero without any hesitation. Fantastic. That in a motorcycle would be heaps of fun. As far as the sound goes, I can live without loud exhausts. In fact I'm hoping the "electro revolution" proceeds fast enough that I will get to experience city traffic that isn't loud.

None of them. Too blonde, even the ones with dark hair.

I'd be up for one of those (if I could afford it... )

I had never heard of him, so I looked up the Wiki article about him to get a rough idea of who he was.

That is what worries me. I expect the systems all work all well as can be expected from the state of the art. But they are not up to "completely autonomous" yet, and I see the danger of people relying on them as if they were. Aphorisms: "Don't ride faster than your gaurdian angel can fly".

I'm reminded of a job I had in 2017 or 2018. It was the internal presentation of the then new version of the Mercedes Benz Actros truck range. Things like cameras instead of mirrors, lane-holding assistant, automatic braking when something pops up in front of the truck. Lots of assistents, always with the comment "within the limits of the system". Also things like a sensor that should be able to tell if someone is holding the wheel, and a sensor that should be able to tell if someone is actually sitting on the driver's seat, required by law to be able to sell those assistents here. I can see the advantage of those assistents, particularly for truck drivers. But I wasn't happy about it. Watching the presentations, I could see ways to (possibly) trick the system into believing that a human was monitoring the situation (a brick on the seat, and rubber bands on the steering wheel, to put it simply...), and the temptation for the driver to believe that the truck has it all under control, and he doesn't need to concentrate on his job. The way it was being marketed tended more to foster that way of thinking than to foster caution and awareness of the limits of the system. A real , mostly infallible and reliable autopilot will come along some day. I reckon we're still quite a long way from it. Although I am fully aware that when such things are really available I might desperately need them because I possibly wont be able to drive myself anymore, I don't like them. I notice myself that even the function of the cruise control in my car that sets a maximum speed (not hold a speed, but rather sets an upper limit) reduces my concentration on driving. Autonomous vehicles will become the norm, but they just aren't here yet, and drivers need to remain aware of this.

I've been finished with them since the late '80s. I rode from Melbourne to Queensland on my Z900. On the way back, it might have been about here https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=11/-30.1327/151.6851 I noticed that the bike was a bit weird in a curve. I could see a small town in the distance, so I kept going and stopped there. The weirdness was a flat rear tyre. I knocked on a door, and was directed to a bloke up the rode who drove trucks. He had a workshop, and fixed the flat for me. The problem was a loose spoke (ok, I should have checked them, perhaps...). I was extremely lucky. It was heading towards evening, and in the middle of nowhere. It that bloke hadn't been there, I would have been right royally up the proberbial creek without a paddle in sight. On top of that, spoked wheels are a pain in the arse to clean.

Ahhh, that's where that topic is. I thought it must be here somewhere.

Your taste buds are obviously broken.

I "extracted" the starter circuit from the wiring diagramme, and have already posted it here a couple of times. Mine is a 2002 model. As far as I have been able to tell, the circuitry stayed pretty much the same from mine onwards.

Ah, ok. This: https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/moto guzzi/moto_guzzi_california_special 98.htm Even so, I can't quite come to grips with "California" and "Sport" in any kind of correlation.

The petrol stations here (mostly...) have E5, i.e. 5% Ethanol and generally just called "Benzin" (Petrol, Gasoline) and E10, i.e. between 5 and 10% Ethanol and always designated as "E10". Here are some Wiki links. Use deepL.com to translate if you're interested: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol-Kraftstoff https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/E10_(Kraftstoff) Here, it seems to be based on an EU directive https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richtlinie_2009/28/EG_(Erneuerbare-Energien-Richtlinie)

Looks like a clean bike, but I have to say, I have never heard of a California "Special Sport" before. Can anyone identify from the photos what it really is?

That Prouty is amazing. Never heard of him before, but his ability to ignore logical and plausible scientific opinion is astonshing.