velofish

I'm thinking of sending my tach off to Palo Alto speedos for a repair. I have heard that it may just break again anyway. If you had yours repaired, did it last? Thanks, fish

Well, my dimensions are about the same but I have 20 pounds on you. (I'm not boasting here, it ain't muscle). I am comfortable enough on my 2000 V11 sport for about 400 miles. My legs do get cramped, but I stretch them while I ride. I have swan neck bars on mine in the lowest position-- no back or neck aches. Oh yeah, I'm 44 years old and none too flexible. The sport is no touring rig, but can cover fair sized distances on the back roads with reasonable comfort. fish

Thanks, gents. Looks like I may have to start a small collection. That is, if I can find the good stuff around here. fish

Fond of whiskey, but rather unschooled. 1 st generation Irish-American so gravitate towards the Irish, naturally. Can't stand Bushmills, like Jamesons. Have tried Glenlivet, didn't like it, but liked Glennfiddich. Have been told that neither is very good, though. Will try to banish from my mind the vision of Scots standing above open vats of single malt in kilts and stirring away. (I know some of them must pee when they cough.) What's a good beginners entrance into the murky world of single-malt scotch? Oh, I'm half German, too, that makes me a very precise drunk. fish

I like it. Not ecstatic over the paint pattern on the tank, but would have to see it in person to make a solid judgement. I admire the balls it takes to modify the Goose like this. I tend to think of my bike as more or less finished from the factory. Enzo thinks of it as raw material, both in performance and appearance. Gotta love that. fish

Thanks, guys. I guess I'll stick with the Pilot Roads. I hope to make time to tour up to Nova Scotia this year and they sound like good touring tires. I plan to ride next weekend with some aggressive riders-- we'll see how they do then in the twisties. Have to be better than the BT 50 that a lousy shop put on the back last time-- it was slicker than snot. They tried to charge me for the BT 20 that I ordered, too.. Antonio-- I always buy my tires from the shop-- I just figure they need to make money, too. And I'm not too bright. I was reasonably happy with the BT 20's. Just wanted to see if anything better was out there. fish Oh nogbad, I love Buells. Hope to have one in the shed sometime.

Oh bugger. I ordered a set of Michelin Pilot Roads for my 2000 V11 sport. After ordering, I did a search here and didn't see anyone using them. Did I make a mistake? Is the Pilot Road a bad choice for the V11? I ride medium aggresive through the curves, lots o' curves here in West Virginia, but usually still manage to flatten out the rear because I use the bike for touring and inevitably end up on the slab at some point. Thanks for the input. The shop had a set of Dunlop 208s in stock, but I had the order the Michelins because I knew nothing about the 208's. Is the Dunlop a better choice? fish

I just went through this about a month or so ago. Advised by this board to go with the stock MG bag. I got mine from MPH in Houston and it's great. Expandable, plenty of storage, well-made, and it stays in place. The Havens at MPH got the bag to me unbelievably quickly. $169 total price included shipping. Oh, I put electrical tape on the tank to protect the paint. Seems to be working great. I tried a different bag-- moved around too damn much. fish

I think that you are out of luck. Closest would probably be Hunchy, at Westmoreland Cycle sales in Greensburg to the west, or Feracci in Philly to the east. fish

Good points, guys. I don't mind the "hole in the wall" shop. My favorite type of shop is the old building, old parts hanging on the walls, old coffee pot perking away, old patrons sitting around/bullshitting. The obligatory saturday morning donut box always has grease on it from the fat mechanics' frantic scramble to bogart the few jelly-filleds. In my little fantasy world, Guzzi would be more appreciated by the folks in the street in the Mother country. Basically, I want hot Italian women to throw themselves at my feet when they learn that I ride a Goose. And while we're at it, the adjectives "balding", "aging", "paunchy" and "hung like a chipmunk" would be aphrodisiacs. A boy can dream, can't he? fish

I must admit that I am a bit disappointed, too. I enjoy the iconoclast nature of the Guzzi in this country, but I kinda thought that going to Italy as a Guzzisti would entail being surrounded by people who actually "get it" for a change. And Italians on BMW's? Oh my stars and garters. fish

congratulations on a great looking machine. I'm curious-- have you noticed any difference with the longer wheelbase on the billabio as compared to your 2000? Thanks, fish

As I recall, yes, an unspecified percentage goes to the widow Dunlop. I like the helmet, but I am a huge fan of Joey. Even so, too expensive for me. A weird thing, people actually sell used helmets on e-bay. One seller even stated that the helmet had been dropped during a move. With the abundance of good, cheap, new helmets, who the hell is buying used ones? Especially ones that have been dropped. fish

Woohoo! The tank bag got here today. I ordered it on saturday morning from MPH in Houston, and it showed up at the shop in West Virginia on Monday Morning. The Havens must've thrown it on a bike and rode for two straight days to get it here so fast. Hell, Mike and Todd, you could've stopped in for a cup of coffee. Fantastic service, great dealer. The bag looks like a really good piece of kit. too. Thanks to everyone for your input. fish

Was shopping for a new helmet and, as always, looked for a Joey Dunlop replica. The Good news-- Arai is making a new run of thier Corsair helmets in Joeys' signature pattern. The bad news-- It's a limited run of 500 worldwide. A little too rich for my blood. www.TheVisorShop.com $873 USD Anybody wanna buy a kidney? fish

Steve: I'll keep that in mind, but I really love that old bag. Wish they still made them. Looks perfect on the old airhead. I did see one on e-bay not too long ago. If I run across another one, I' ll let you know. Aerostich has a couple bags from ortleib and Wolfman that look to be made in the same spirit-- tough and simple. Hard to beat the name "elefantenboy", though fish.

I used the mesh from Home Depot. I think they sell it to line tool box drawers or something. Just glued it to the bottom of the bag with 3M spray glue 77. The stuff you're talking about sounds a little more heavy duty, though. I'll keep an eye out. Thanks. I love that site. Funny, I'll buy the cheap mac and cheese at the grocery store, but will think nothing of dropping $ on new bike farkles. The mesh worked pretty good for me. it kept the bag from moving so much, and seems to be doing a great job of protecting the paint, too. I just saw that in the new stich catalog. Looks great. I think I am at about 4 or 5 tank bags now. The Eldo came with an ancient Tourmaster. Still have my 20+ year old Harro Elefantenboy on the BMW. Have some sort of weird Japanese magnetic bag that I bought from Aerostich, plus the one currently on the V11, plus this new one. I may be the Imelda Marcos of tank bags. Come to think of it, I have about half a dozen riding jackets around, 4 or 5 helmets, and a mess of gloves. You know, just when you start feeling down... something like this comes along and lets you know you have a place in the universe, after all. I am the mayor of the island of misfit riding gear. fish

I think I will hold out for the factory bag. Teo Lamers has two. Agostini seems to have them, but not accessible on the english language site, only the italian version. I tried calling MPH, but those lazy texans aren't in yet. Forgot about FBF. I'll call them in a moment. Thanks. fish

Thanks guys. i see that the Baglux guys have a tank cover for sale in the UK. Black/apple colored. That may be my fall back. I found a Marsee bag with the Guzzi logo on it at Arizona superbikes (I think) but it doesn't quite look like the factory type. I was really impressed with the factory type, so I will keep looking for a bit. Mike: I have the same problem with the bag sliding around, so I spray glued some rubber mesh to the bottom of the bag. That helped quite a bit. fish

I have been searching for the Guzzi tank bag with no success. I have a Chase Harper bag now that does not work very well with the pad on the gas tank. Any other suggestions for a bag that fits well and does not move around much? Or, anyone know where I can find a Guzzi bag. Thanks. fish

Oh, didn't mean to imply that the Givis were better than RKA etc. Just don't remember seeing the others. fish

I have the Givi Arrow bags. Excellent stuff, and if you use some rbber mesh underneath they stayt in place and don't scrape the paint up. However, after checking out some set-ups at rallys, my rating would be-- 1Tekno with the mounts like Martin 2 Cortech like Dr Gil 3 Givi Arrows Oh well, live and learn fish

I follow the General George Patton school of defensive driving-- The best defense is a good offense, so I offend as many other road users as I can. fish

Former Saab owner here-- 1985 900 turbo SPG. I loved that car. Bought it used with about 150k miles and it ran great until the GF wrecked it. A fast little tank. Deben, I agree with you entirely. My favorite all-time car was a 1968 Mercedes 250S sedan. The windshield fluid button was a little pump on the floor that stuck up through the pedal that actuated the wipers. Push the pedal down far enough to hit the fluid button and voila! Like a big squirt gun. Now that was technology that even I could understand-- kinda guzzi-like. fish